Systems like ChatGPT are enormously entertaining and even mind-bogglingly human-sounding, but they are also unreliable and could create an avalanche of misinformation
Something incredible is happening in artificial intelligence right now—but it’s not entirely good. Everybody is talking about systems like ChatGPT, which generates text that seems remarkably human. This makes it fun to play with, but there is a dark side, too. Because they are so good at imitating human styles, there is risk that such chatbots could be used to mass-produce misinformation.
To get a sense of what it does best at its best, consider this example generated by ChatGPT, sent to me over e-mail by Henry Minsky (son of Marvin Minsky, one of AI’s foundational researchers). He asked ChatGPT to “describe losing your sock in the dryer in the style of the declaration of independence”:
When in the course of household events, it becomes necessary for one to dissolve the bonds that have connected a sock to its mate, and to assume among the powers of the laundry room, the separate and equal station to which the laws of physics and of household maintenance entitle it, a decent respect to the opinions of socks requires that it should declare the causes which impel it to go missing.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all socks are created equal, and are endowed by their manufacturer with certain unalienable rights….
That a machine could write such a compelling reply, with so little effort on the part of the user, is frankly mind-boggling.