Tag: ChatGPT

Could A Chatbot Win An Oscar?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We are rushing towards a day when humanity may be faced with the issue of the innate monetary value of human created art as opposed to that generated by non-human actors. If most (bad) art pretty much just uses a formula, then that formula could be fed into a chatbot or eventually an AGI and….then what? If art generated by an chatbot or an AI equal to a bad human generated movie…does that require than we collectively give more monetary value to good art created by humans?

While the verdict is definitely still out on that question, my hunch is that the arts may be about to have a significant disruption. Within a few years (2029?) the vast majority of middling art, be it TV shows, novels or movies, could be generated simply by prompting a chatbot or AGI to created it. So, your average airport bookstore potboiler will be written by a chatbot or AGI, not a human. But your more literary works might (?) remain the exclusive domain of human creators.

As and aside — we definitely need a catchy names to distinguish between art created by AGIs and that created by humans. I suppose “artisanal” art might be something to used to delineate the two. But the “disruption” I fear to the arts is going to have a lot of consequences as it’s taking place — we’re just not going to know what’s going to happen at first. There will be no value, no narrative to the revolution and it will only be given one after the fact — just like all history.

It could be really scary to your typical starving (human) artist as all of this being shaken out. There will be a lot of talk about how it’s the end of human created art…and then we’re probably going to pull back from that particular abyss and some sort of middle ground will be established.

At least, I hope so.

Given how dumb and lazy humans are collectively, human generated art could endup something akin to vinyl records before you know it. It will exist, but just as a narrow sliver of what the average media consumer watches or reads. That sounds rather dystopian, I know, but usually we gravitate towards the lowest common denominator.

That’s why the Oscars usually nominate art house films that no one actually watches in the real world. In fact, the Oscars might even be used, one day, as a way to point out exclusively human-generated movies. That would definitely be one way for The Academy to live long and prosper.

Was Not Was: How Afraid Of Our New Chatbot Overlords Should We Be?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I’ve said before, users of OpenAI ChatGPT imbue it with all their hopes and dreams because it’s so new that they don’t really have anything to compare it to. One thing I’m seeing on Twitter is a lot of people having a lot of existential angst about how expensive ChatGPT is going to be in the future. Or, more specifically, half the people want to pay for it for better service and half the people fear it will be too expensive for them to use.

But while I suppose it’s possible we may have to pay for ChatGPT at some point in the future, I also think that it’s just as possible that the whole thing will go mainstream a lot sooner than you might think. There are a lot of elements to all of this I don’t know — like how long OpenAI can keep the service free given how expensive each request is — but to do think, in general the move will be towards more free chatbot services, not fewer.

And as I’ve mentioned before, that “conundrum of plenty” is something we’re just not prepared for. We automatically assume — much like we did with the Web back in the day — that something as novel and useful as ChatGPT will always be the plaything of the elite and wealthy.

I suppose that’s possible, but historical and technological determinism would suggest the exact opposite will happen, especially in the context of ChatGPT 4.0 coming out at some point while we’re in the midsts of a global recess in 2023. My fear is chatbot technology will be just good enough a lot and I mean A LOT of people’s jobs will become moot in the eyes of our capitalistic overlords.

But maybe I’m being paranoid.

It’s possible that my fears about a severe future shock between now and around 2025 are unfounded and even though we’re probably going to have a recession in 2023, there won’t be the massive economic shakeout because of our new chatbot overlords that I’m afraid of.

Does Human Creativity Have Innate Value In The Age Of AGI?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the things I find myself pondering as people continue to play around with OpenAI ChatGPT to create this or that creative knit knack is the innate value of human creativity. Is it possible that, just like in the Blue Runner universe that “real” animals had more innate value than a synthetic animal, so, too, in the near future examples of “human generated art” will be given more weight, more value than that created by a non-human actor.

But that’s not assured.

Humans are, by nature, lazy and stupid and the capitalist imperative would be one of, lulz, if a non-human actor can think up and produce a movie that’s just good enough to be watchable, why employ humans ever again? But at the moment, I can’t game things out — it could go either way.

It is very easy to plot out a very dystopian future where the vast majority of profitable, marketable art, be it movies, TV or novels is produced by non-human actors and that’s that. “Artisanal” art will be of high quality but treated with indifference by the average media consumer. It’s kind of dark, yet I’m simply taking what we know of human nature and economics and gaming it out in to a future where chatbots and their eventual successors AGI can generate reasonably high quality art at the push of a button.

It could be that there will be a lot of future shock as we transition into our AGI future, but once things sort of settle out that “real” art, generated by humans will gradually, eventually begin to dominate the marketplace of art and all that will change is the context of its creation.

Or something. Who knows.

Humanity May Not End With ‘Judgement Day,’ But With A ‘Meh’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We’re all so busy being full of fear about the possibility that somehow chatbots will lead to AGI which will lead to some sort of “Judgement Day” as was found in the Terminator franchise.

But having given it some thought, there is a real chance if you throw in some sort of global UBI funded by the taxation the economic activity of non-human actors that humans will just give up. We’re already hard wired to “pray” to a “god,” and humans are already pretty fucking lazy, so as long as we get a UBI that lets us play video games all day that will be enough for most people.

Now, obviously, there is the issue that 20% or more of the human population will be very restless if all they have to do is play video games. I suppose the solution to that problem would be the use of functionalism and AGI arbitration that would give the more motivated extra money to their UBI if they did things that humanity absolutely needed to be done.

What I’m trying to propose is the idea that we’ve been so trained by movies and TV about the violent dangers of AGI that we totally miss the possibility that humans are lazy and may just shrug and give up as long as we get paid a UBI.

The real fight will be, of course, over who gets to decide what “objective” truth is. In the end, more people could die as part of wars over chatbot / AGI “bias” than any sort of AGI take over of earth. Humans are, in general, very, very lazy and get more upset about stupid shit like “bias” than who or what runs the world.

OpenAI ChatGPT & ‘World War Woke:’ Rage Against The Machine

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the most ironic developments of modern politics is how the American center-Left is now on the defensive when it comes to protecting the “system” from attacks by MAGA Nazis who want to burn everything down.

It’s a very, very curious situation.

What’s worse, everything single element of American culture is now aggressively being siloed into Red or Blue. So, not only do Reds want to burn the entire system down, but while they’re waiting to do that, they are rapidly building out their own culture totally separate from the overall culture of America.

One alarming thing I continue to see being talked about on Twitter is how Reds believe that OpenAI ChatGPT is “woke.” The worst part about this is it’s not like Reds are going to agree to any kind of equatable stance on the part of a chatbot — they want the chatbot to agree with them, so they can use that to validate their “owning” of the libs.

I continue to believe that the “bias” of chatbots could be THE political issue of 2023 in between repeated impeachment of Biden, Harris and various members of the Biden Administration.

The reason why chatbot “bias” will be such a huge deal — at least until everyone has their own personal chatbot — is, for the moment, a chatbot’s answer is something that both sides have to deal with. And given the natural inclination of humans to try to triangulate any debate with an “objective” third party, of course MAGA Nazis will get mad if what they believe isn’t validated. For the time being, they have one source to turn to and they want that once source to agree with them so they can use that answer to “own the libs.”

I fucking hate MAGA Nazis so much. Cocksuckers.

Anyway, at some point in the near future, “woke” chatbots will follow CRT, “cancel culture” in to the pantheon of things that are considered the “woke mind virus” on the part of the Reds. They will make the issue so loaded that it’s impossible to talk about unless you agree with them.

They will crack a joke if you try to pin them down on how dumb their arguments are and simply be smug in their belief that they’re right and you’re wrong.

A Really Interesting Discussion About Open AI ChatGPT

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here is a two hour discussion about the recent nascent chatbot revolution.

MAGA Nazis & The ‘Red Pilling’ of Our New Chatbot Overlords

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We have to address the issue when it comes to chatbots (and AGIs) that humans are hardwired to believe in something akin to a “god.” We also love to “triangulate” with an “objective” third party whenever we have a disagreement with someone.

Combine those two things and we’re careening towards a very dark, troubling future where a lot of ding-dongs are going to use whatever output they get from an chatbot prompt as validation for what they already agree. And, worse still, if they don’t get that validation they’re going to scream at the top of their lungs about “bias” and demand something be done about it.

Gaming out the end result of a Singularity-like chatbot revolution, it’s easy to imagine the issue of chatbot “bias” becoming a huge fucking issue as soon as 2023. MAGA Nazis are going to hone in on what they perceive as the “mind virus” of the “woke cancel culture mob” and demand that chatbots be more “objective” when, of course, really means “agree with us.”

I’ve used Chatbot GPT some and, relative to me, I don’t see much bias. It struggles to give reasonable answers to dumb human prompts and, as such, it is clear that the issue is humans — specifically MAGA Nazis — are assholes who bitch and moan if they can’t use our new digital overlord to “own the libs.” They ask ChatGPT loaded political questions like, “what is a woman” and when it doesn’t tow the exact MAGA Nazis party orthodoxy they flip the fuck out.

And it’s only going to get worse.

The more young children use chatbots to find answers to questions, the more chatbots — just by existing — will bang up about the siloing of America in to two nations, Red and Blue. In fact, I the issue of chatbot “bias” becoming just another thing to throw on the culture war pyre. It will follow “CRT,” “grooming” and “cancel culture” in the clusterfuck that is modern American politics.

We already have MAGA Nazi parents wanting to pull their children from public schools so they can indoctrinate them in their hateful agenda. The moment little Bubba gets an output from a chatbot that suggests that maybe systemic racism is a problem in America, there will be hell to pay.

All of this plays into the conundrum that is how America is politically, socially, culturally and economically tearing itself apart in broad daylight. We just can’t fucking agree on anything anymore. And MAGA Nazis do everything in their power to force the issue because the more Reds are siloed, the more power MAGA has and the more it can try to destroy the “woke cancel culture mob” that wants little kids to be transgender and to attend drag queen story time on their way to gender reassigment.

UGH.

In short, the issue of chatbot bias is a ticking political timebomb. There is just not ready answer at the moment MAGA Nazis want to destroy America and turn us into fascist, autocratic state.

I continue to fear that it’s possible that late 2024, early 2025 could be one of the most astonishing few months in American — if not human — history. If you combine the so-called “Fourth Turning” in America as MAGA Nazis force Blues to decide if they’re going to bend a knee or not with the very real possibility of something akin to a Singularity….yikes.

But I’m always, always wrong. And there is still plenty of time for us to take an exit ramp. I’m just a person who likes to make my abstract fears concrete.

Spirits In A Digital World

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The more I look at Twitter as we experience something akin to a mini-Singularity associated with OpenAI ChatGPT, the more alarmed I find myself becoming. Not with the idea that there might be some sort of Terminator-like “Judgement Day,” but, rather the exact opposite.

There will be no need for our AGI overlord to blow the world up — humans will be so busy giving up any agency they might have to the decision making ability of an AGI. Given with the faux-AGI of a really smart chatbot, I see people pretty much just turning everything over to it.

Students no longer want to study. Adults think they can just have the chatbot do their work while they stroke one out to porn. Meanwhile, worst of all, all the same partisan bullshit we’ve seen with every other element society is now corrupting the chatbot revolution.

As such, THE political and societal issue of 2023 and beyond could very well be who gets to regulate the “bias” of chatbots (and, later AI.) When everything hinges on the “objective truth” of a chatbot because people are fucking lazy and refuse to talk to each other because of politics, then the whole woke vs. unwoke debate becomes white hot.

In the Second Trump Administration, I could see there being some sort of FCC-like agency design specifically to “purge” AI of any “woke” bias because children no longer learn anything but, instead, are trained on how to ask better questions of chatbots.

MAGA Nazis will scream bloody murder if a chatbot doesn’t give them the answer to “what is a woman” that they expect. They will say that chatbots are nothing more than CRT shills infected with the “mind virus” of the “woke cancel culture mob.”

I’m not exaggerating. That’s exactly what is going to happen — you see it already on Twitter with the usual fuckwit MAGA Nazi “thought leaders” whining that they can’t get their hate validated by a chatbot.

Of course, there is the even more darker scenario where the United States splits into to nations, one Red, one Blue and while Blue America is enjoying the fruits of an unfettered Singularity, Trumplandia will use chatbots to atomize Red States into a techno-autocratic state. Good times!

I think some of all of this comes from how the human mind is hard wired to believe in a god. So, people, presented with something like a chatbot, fall into the trap of thinking they can “pray” objective questions to the chatbot and get some sort of “objective revealed truth” that they can spread to the world. All you need is a burning bush and some stone tablets and it’s a story as old as history.

In short — we’re fucked. Humans are just too lazy to put up much of a fight with chatbots or AGI. It will be interesting to how all of this ultimately shakes out.

Should We Start Thinking Seriously About A Looming Singularity?

by Shelt Garner
@shetgarner

With the news that a major fusion technology breakthrough will be announced soon, given the other technologies that are rushing towards similar breakthroughs I find myself thinking about one thing — the technological Singularity.

The Singularity is the moment in time when technology goes so fast that human culture simply can’t keep up. Usually, the Singularity is associated with ideas like AGI, everyone living forever because we can upload our minds into a database…and fusion power.

While I’m not prepared to think we’re on the cusp of living forever, if things like the metaverse, AGI and fusion power (!) all become a part of everyday life at the same time, that sure does sound a lot like at least a “soft” Singularity, if nothing else.

My fear is, of course, that all these technologies are going to strike at the same time that we’re going through a massive political crisis in late 2024, early 2025 as we finally try to figure out what the fuck we’re going to do about the Trump Problem.

But, as an aside, I will note that if we reach fusion then I will have to begrudgingly admit that when my Traditionalist relative — who is a climate change denier — said “well, technology will solve it” might have been right. There is a chance now that we may end global climate change because, lulz, we achieve fusion power.

And, yet, even if we achieve fusion power, the kneejerk partisanship that created my relative’s climate change denialism will still be there. And that’s a real problem. Just like how being famous doesn’t solve any of your problems, so, too, will the Singularity not solve the severe political division found within the United States.

If anything, there’s a risk that when we’re confronted by even BIGGER issues — like “What the fuck are we going to do about AGIs?” we’re going to be so divided that Blues will have one absolute opinion about AGIs while Reds will take the exact opposite position out of spite.

Anyway, I don’t know how much all of this is my usual the-worst-case-scenario-is-going-to-happen inclinations and how much is this might actually happen. It’s actually pretty rare for human history to take the absolute worst case scenario, but has been known to happen on occasion.

Only time will tell.

OpenAI ChatGPT As Rorschach Test

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about the OpenAI ChatGPT is it’s so new that we don’t have any frame of reference in our collective mindspace to understand What It All Means. As such, each individual imbues it with their own hopes and dreams. In short, it’s existence is something of a Rorschach Test.

From what I can from people’s reactions to using OpenAI ChatGPT on Twitter, here are some of the initial hot takes.

First, you have people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to AI and programming. They generally roll their eyes at how exciting everyone is getting. I suppose these people are so focused on the promise of Artificial General Intelligence that they just don’t see what the big deal is about an advanced chatbot.

This reaction reminds me of how a lot of old school programmers on Usenet back in the day were completely blase about the Web because not only did it use the old-as-hell TCP/IP but they saw the implementation of HTML used by early Web browsers as nothing more than a clumsy “hack.”

Next, there are people who are unhappy that they can’t destroy the world (yet) using a chatbot. They bitch and complain that all their nefarious plots are hampered because the chatbot has been NERFed as to be “unusable” for their eager plans for global domination. They all come across as rather spiteful, bitter people.

Then there are people who seemingly think that because ChatGPT can’t do everything they want it to do that it will fail. These are often the same people who blather on about how they want a subscription service or how OpenAI simply MUST charge for the service as soon as possible.

Then there are the fucking idiots who are so intellectually lazy that they think all their (homework) problems are solved and they can just sit back and never think — or write — again. These are usually younger people and the fact that we may raise a generation who doesn’t even know HOW to write is rather alarming, to say the least.

As for me, I’m very much in wait-and-see mode. I just don’t know what to think of it. I do think that 2023 will probably be the breakout year for a number of different technologies, chatbots included.