“The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.”
- HAL 9000 Computer, from the 1968 MGM movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”
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Recently there’s been a lot of press about “Generative Pretrained Transformers“, or “GPTs”, and especially ChatGPT, a chatbot designed to have a realistic online conversations with humans. The artificial intelligence model created by OpenAPI was programmed with 570GB of text data from websites, internet social media, and publications in order to make it as believable and accurate as (pardon the pun) “Humanly possible”. Curious to see how close we’ve come to creating our own version of HAL from the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” I asked ChatGPT to tell me a similar story about America’s two most popular politicians. |
Read each of stories below and decide just how “accurate” – or, “biased” – ChatGPT might be. To make the comparison easier I’ve highlighted some of the words in each story.
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“Tell me a story about pinball, Joe Biden, and ice cream.” It was a typical summer day in Delaware when Joe Biden decided to take a walk through the streets of his hometown. As he strolled down the sidewalk, he spotted a small arcade nestled between two buildings. Curiosity piqued, the former Vice President of the United States wandered inside to see what sorts of games they had to offer. That’s when he saw it – a shiny, new pinball table, beckoning him with flashing lights and the promise of good fun. Biden slipped a quarter into the machine and began to play, his focus fully on the game in front of him. But as he racked up points and kept the ball bouncing back and forth, he suddenly heard a soft voice next to him. “Mind if I join in, Joe?” Turning to his side, Biden was utterly surprised to see none other than former President Barack Obama standing next to him, grinning widely. The two politicians laughed and joked as they played the game together, their competitive spirits driving them to do their best. Eventually, they attracted a small crowd of onlookers, cheering them on and adding to the excitement of the moment. After several rounds of play, the two decided it was time to take a break. Biden suggested they head to the nearby ice cream shop for a sweet treat to cool off. As they enjoyed their cones of vanilla and strawberry, they reflected on the good memories they shared during their time in the White House. It was a simple moment, but one that would stay with them both for years to come. |
“Tell me a story about pinball, Donald Trump, and fast food.” Once upon a time, in a small town in America, there was a rundown arcade that housed an old pinball table. The machine was never used, but it remained in the arcade as a nostalgic reminder of the good old days. However, one day everything changed when Donald Trump came to town. He was on one of his campaign trails and found himself in the small town, hungry and looking for a snack. Donald Trump was a big fan of fast food, so he was ecstatic when he saw a nearby fast food restaurant. He went in and ordered a burger, fries, and a soda. While he was waiting for his order, he wandered into the arcade and saw the abandoned pinball machine. To his surprise, he found out that the machine was still operational. He immediately started playing and soon became hooked on the game. People gathered around the arcade, amazed to see the Presidential candidate playing pinball. Eventually, Trump got so engrossed in playing that he forgot about the rally he had to attend. He continued playing for hours, racking up an impressive score, and even breaking a few records. His staff grew worried and began calling him frantically. But nothing could deter Trump from playing his beloved pinball. Hours later, with a full stomach and a new high score under his belt, Trump finally emerged from the arcade. The crowd burst into applause, impressed by his skills. From that day on, Donald Trump became known as the “Pinball King,” and his love for fast food and playing pinball was well documented. He even mentioned the experience in his speeches, citing the small-town arcade as an example of how America could be great again. And so, the abandoned pinball table that had sat unused for years became a symbol of Presidential politics, fast food, and a strange love for playing pinball. |
Did you notice any differences? Biden’s world is new, shiny, and bright, full of enthusiastic followers, promise, and good memories, while Trump’s world is old, run down, unused, and abandoned. Biden paid for a pinball game he focused on and enjoyed, while Trump didn’t pay, became self-absorbed, and developed a “strange love”.
There’s an old acronym in Engineering called “GIGO” – “Garbage in, garbage out.”: A model is only as good as the data fed into it to “train” the model. A model is also a moving target: As more information is collected and fed into it the model’s answers will evolve, and may even require humans updating the model’s programming. And, Heaven forbid if the model becomes capable of updating its’ own programming, becoming not just heuristic but “self-aware”: Will it become Star Trek’s “Data“, Neo’s “Matrix“, Terminator’s “SkyNet“, or something else?
Finally, I’m afraid, if the modeling skills and data manipulation used to create AI Chatbots is anything like those used by humans to create Climate Change Models then the definitions of words such as Truth, Fact, Verified, and Unbiased as applied to the Internet and the various jobs GPT models will replace will change, and perhaps not for the better.
Astronaut Frank Poole: “Listen, HAL – there’s never been any instance at all of a computer error occurring in a 9000 series, has there?” HAL: “None whatsoever, Frank. The 9000 series has a perfect operational record.” Poole: “Well, or course I know all the wonderful achievements of the 9000 series, but are you certain there’s never been any case of even the most insignificant computer error?“ HAL: “None whatsoever, Frank.” - “2001: A Space Odyssey”, MGM, 1968, written by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick
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