Not that you wonder, but this column is composed on a desktop computer by a retiree. No involvement of ChatGPT or Bard or Bing or any of the other artificial intelligence now available to quickly produce anything from a school assignment to a readable novella.
Yes, there is now an AI-generated novel, a mystery available as an eBook or audiobook.
Titled òòò½ÊÓƵœDeath of an Authoròòò½ÊÓƵ by Aidan Marchine, a pseudonym, it is 95% machine-generated, writes Stephen Marche in the afterword. He used three programs, ChatGPT, Sudowrite and Cohere, to write the novella. An author and journalist, he has previously used AI programs, and went into the project only after working out the plot and some experimentation.
His product of the human-AI project is, sadly, in not available at present in print, so it is not easy to share with a book club or library friends.
While students and the many still-employed may use AI chat bots and other AI tools, we are all exposed to them. Think customer service, help òòò½ÊÓƵœchat roomsòòò½ÊÓƵ or programs that simulate human conversation.
But the release late last year of ChatGPT (thatòòò½ÊÓƵ™s Generative Pre-trained Transformer), quickly followed by others, captured the worldòòò½ÊÓƵ™s attention. These AI programs can create complex language materials in seconds.
Matt Oòòò½ÊÓƵ™Brien, AP technology writer, put it as simply as any reference I can find. The program and others like it generate the responses almost instantaneously by scanning and working vast amounts of online materials into readable language.
It has led to teachers, reporters, politicians and even the award- winning researcher Geoffrey Hinton, known as the òòò½ÊÓƵœgodfather of artificial intelligenceòòò½ÊÓƵ to raise concerns that unchecked AI development could threaten humanity. Conclusions may not match all the facts or they may be manipulated.
This month Hinton, 75, resigned his high-profile position at Google to speak more freely about his concerns. He had helped pioneer critical AI technologies such as neural networks and òòò½ÊÓƵœdeep learning,òòò½ÊÓƵ the processes AI systems use to absorb and apply new information to create materials.
My generation has gone from manual to electric typewriters to computers, email to texting. It hasnòòò½ÊÓƵ™t always been easy, or at least for some of us, but we appreciate the spell checks, grammar suggestions and other easy corrections. I certainly donòòò½ÊÓƵ™t miss the white out, scissors and paste, or carbon paper of our school days.
Then, too, aside from the challenge of learning a new system, many of us have a bias against turning our òòò½ÊÓƵœcreativeòòò½ÊÓƵ efforts over to a òòò½ÊÓƵœmachine.òòò½ÊÓƵ
Our grandchildren, on the other hand, have been quick to embrace the electronic advancements.
I wonder most about our granddaughter, a avid reader with a recent degree in literature and a writing talent. Will she use or resist AI compositions?
Artificial Intelligence has been around since the 1950s, when the U.S. Department of Defense provided funding for programs to enhance problem solving. Now authorities worldwide are scrambling to figure out how to control the fast-evolving technology to ensure it improves peopleòòò½ÊÓƵ™s lives without threatening their rights or safety. Weòòò½ÊÓƵ™ll hope the consequences are positive.
Concerns about innovative technologies is hardly unusual.
Gottfried Wilhelm said in 1680, more than 200 years after the printing press was invented, that òòò½ÊÓƵœthe horrible mass of books that keeps growing might lead to a fall back into barbarism.òòò½ÊÓƵ
Not sure why he expected that consequence.
More than 200 years later the New York Times printed an attack on Alexander Graham Bellòòò½ÊÓƵ™s telephone for its invasion of privacy. Itòòò½ÊÓƵ™s hard to imagine a world without phones.