ChatGPT

In November 2022, ChatGPT was introduced to the world, proving that you can write what you don’t know. It’s taken us all by storm. The original chatbots that would digest a couple of words and humbly give you options - including the much wanted possibility of talking with a real human - have entered into adulthood.

Suddenly you have a machine capable of processing massive amounts of information and writing (semi)-coherent texts about any topic under the sun. There is no underlying knowledge other than what it is fed, and what it is fed is the combined contributions of millions of people. Which is not to say ChatGPT writes the factual truth - it is plagued by the law of large numbers (which in this case translates to ‘whatever is most popular’) and reflects our own biases.

ChatGPT is immune to self-doubt, to imposter’s syndrome, to writer’s block. It doesn’t know what it doesn’t know and writes with a confidence that is in equal parts awe-inducing and terrifying. As much as it is a predictor of automation to come, it is also a (limited) portrayer of what there is today, not of what there could be tomorrow.

In a context where popularity is the measure of AI knowledge, scientists have an uphill battle ahead. Art - and artists - have an increased responsibility to base their work on truth. Truth is not a curse word, it is not the boring cousin of creativity, truth is where fantasy begins.