wp-plugin-hostgator domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114ol-scrapes domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/04\/17\/hi-mom-it-is-me-an-ai\/<\/a><\/br> Over the weekend, we started a cult. It was one of those things that happen when you decide to stop drinking for a few weeks. It\u2019s an avocado-oriented octopus cult called Octo-guacamolians. But that\u2019s not important right now. What is<\/em> important is that we fed the parameters of the cult into GPT-4, and it came up with a number of remarkably coherent and reasonable rites, rituals and, well, all other aspects of cultiness. Later the same weekend, I was reflecting on what I\u2019ve done for much of my life and started to wonder whether I was a proto-AI for a while.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tA publisher saw the post and asked if I wanted to write a book about macro photography. I said yes, then had to learn how actually to do macro photography.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n \t<\/span><\/p>\n You see, I found myself in an interesting situation for a while there. I wrote a stack of books about photography, starting with one on macro photography<\/a>, followed by a bunch of others. Portraiture, travel photography, etc. In the weird times before we settled on \u201cmirrorless\u201d for the current slew of image-capturing devices, there was a hot moment when nobody really knew what to call them, so we were referring to them as Compact System Cameras (CoSyCa) and so on \u2014 and I brilliantly thought I would name the entire genre EVIL \u2014 electronic viewfinder, interchangeable lens. The publisher agreed, and we even ended up publishing a book called EVIL photography<\/a>. Those were the days of experimentation, a brave, brand new world where nobody really knew what was what, where was where, and whether anything really mattered anyway.<\/p>\n The story of my macro photography book was particularly interesting; back in 2005, I built a macro lens out of a Pringles can (really, it was just a convenient tube to reverse a 50mm lens, but\u2026 it worked<\/a>!), which ended up on slashdot, digg and all of those pre-Reddit-era link aggregation sites. In the process, I racked up a ton of traffic and got to learn the hard way why we use AWS and such these days \u2014 back in the mid-naughties, we ran our own servers, which meant that my host was very grumpy that there was suddenly a ton of traffic to this one particular page, and threatened to unplug the server because it was taking up too many resources. Ah, the heady days of the early internet.<\/p>\n In any case, a publisher saw the post, and asked if I wanted to write a book about macro photography. I said yes, then had to learn how to actually do macro photography. The great thing about book publishing is that it takes a long time. So I bought a new camera, wrote a letter to Canon saying that I was writing a book about macro photography, asking if they wouldn\u2019t pretty please send me a few macro lenses, and went to my local bookstore and bought a bunch of books and magazines about macro. I spent the next four months looking at porn (that was my day job \u2014 long story) and taking macro photos, teaching myself and taking notes as I went along. In the end, I distilled all my notes and learnings into my first book.<\/p>\n All the subsequent books were, essentially, the same thing: I learned everything I could about a subject, distilled it and wrote it up, illustrating it with photos I took along the way. Are they the best macro\/travel\/portrait photos you\u2019ve ever seen? Probably not. But my publishers would tell me that was okay; I had a rare gift of being able to learn the thing, do the thing, then teach the thing, and string sentences together that mostly made sense in a way that book-buying audiences seemed to enjoy.<\/p>\n In addition to writing my own books, I\u2019ve ghost-written a bunch of books as well (most of which I can\u2019t say anything about because NDAs and contracts, ssssh), but they were the same thing but in a different way. I would soak up as much information as I can, then distill it into a coherent form, matching my style as far as possible to something that the other person would have plausibly written. I\u2019ve written books about venture capital, photography and some far more esoteric topics.<\/p>\n When I started learning more about how the AIs work \u2014 how they can emulate the forms of other artists and even the writing styles of other writers \u2014 I found myself having an existential crisis. This thing I had been doing for 20+ years could now be done by computers.<\/p>\n As a university student, I had a number of internet friends who were word-playing dilletantes, crafting the most obtuse prose we could, in the styles of Franz Kafka, Werner Herzog and the OMG! EXCITING! KAWAII! styles that were meandering across the internet. It was fun and educational, as a writer, to get a sense of how much flex there is, stylistically and creatively, in the writing of words.<\/p>\n I have to admit, I was scared to ask GPT-4 to try out some of the writing prompts I remember from back in the day.<\/p>\n I asked it to \u201cWrite 100 words about the joy of kittens in the style of Werner Herzog\u201d:<\/p>\n The joy of kittens is a fleeting, visceral experience, a mere glimpse into the chaos of existence. As they frolic, we are reminded of our own primal desire to play, to explore the unfathomable cosmos. These tiny creatures embody the fragility of life, their innocence bearing the weight of the relentless march of time. Yet, in their eyes lies an indomitable spirit, a force that defies the entropic nature of the universe. It is in these ephemeral moments that we are granted a reprieve from the crushing indifference of the cosmos, our hearts swelling with warmth, as we are engulfed by the rapture of their presence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I asked it to \u201cWrite 100 words about the joy of kittens in the style of Franz Kafka\u201d:<\/p>\n Within the shadowy corners of existence, one might find solace in the unassuming presence of kittens. Their delicate purrs, woven into the fabric of reality like an intricate tapestry, are an enigmatic paradox of innocence and primal nature. The joy they evoke, a fleeting moment of respite from the existential weight we carry, is an elusive treasure that eludes our grasp like a whisper in the wind. The dance of feline innocence, reflected in their vibrant eyes, a window into the depths of their souls, fills the void of human longing with a warm, ephemeral glow, rendering the unbearable burden of existence momentarily bearable.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And my heart broke a little.<\/p>\n God, this is good.<\/p>\n This unassuming little AI was able to do, seemingly effortlessly, what my compatriots and I had been slaving over for hours. The ramifications of that are terrifying on so many levels. Fake news, fake reviews, fake everything, can now be cranked out on an industrial scale, and all good enough to be just-about-plausible.<\/p>\n It is often said that humans will do jobs until machines can come along and do it well enough for cheaper. That\u2019s true for most of the field of robotics \u2014 it is possible<\/em> (maybe) to build a car by hand, but robots have taken over much of manufacturing, for good reason.<\/p>\n In being asked to write books on various topics, I\u2019m reflecting on how similar my instructions were to the kinds of prompts I give to GPT now. \u201cHey Haje, could you write a book on travel photography? Same kind of style as your portraiture book<\/a>, but focused on lighter gear and taking photos on the go?\u201d Well. Yes, sir, I can<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAnd in the midst of all of this, I\u2019m reminded of the time I received a copy of a book that had my name on the cover but that I didn\u2019t write.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n \t<\/span><\/p>\n And in the midst of all of this, I\u2019m reminded of the time I received a copy of a book that had my name on the cover but that I didn\u2019t write. My book publisher had re-purposed most of the copy I wrote for a book that flopped, had an editor re-write parts of it and then re-published it with a completely different title and angle. Somehow, that also happened while the publisher was being acquired, or sold, or went through a management change of some sort, which resulted in nobody actually telling me this was happening. The first time I knew this book existed was when a FedEx box with five copies of it turned up at my doorstep, followed (a few days later) by (ironically) my advance check. Legally, they were in the clear \u2014 I had signed away the rights to my book, and they were able to turn it into cartoons or bobbleheads or movies or dance performances. At least, that\u2019s how I read \u201cany media,\u201d \u2014 but it turns out that \u201cany media\u201d could also mean \u201canother book.\u201d Silly me.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s world of generative AI, all of the above doesn\u2019t sound completely outrageous. But I\u2019d be lying if I said I didn\u2019t have a huge, Texas-sized helping of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as I\u2019m watching AI unfold in front of our eyes.<\/p>\n What I\u2019m left with is the question of whether humans are still better than our robot overlords. And that\u2019s the thing that truly scares me. A generative AI with full access to the internet can out-research, out-write and out-post any human. It can emulate any writing style, and can even throw typos into the mix to throw you off its scent, should it decide it needs to. There are still some supposed tell-tale signs of AI-generated text, but as a writer, I have to admit I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m looking for, and I\u2019m as likely to be fooled as anybody else at this point.<\/p>\n The truly scary thing is how we got to GPT-4 so quickly, and that there\u2019s a lot of numbers left before we hit infinity. In other words: The shortcomings of GPT-4 will be shredded by whatever comes next, and as a writer, I feel like I have every reason to worry.<\/p>\n Oh, that cult we formed? We co-created it over a delicious meal of pallet wine (yes, really \u2014 wine bought by the pallet, which I did not partake in, as per my earlier comment about not drinking) and Mexican food. I introduce you to The Octo-guacamolians: A group dedicated to the worship of an eight-armed avocado god named Guacamoctopus. They hold weekly rituals that involve the creation of intricate guacamole mandalas and underwater dance performances.<\/p>\n I mean. If it didn\u2019t exist before, it exists now.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n
\nWas I an AI all along?<\/br>
\n2023-04-17 21:38:11<\/br><\/p>\n\n
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