I finally got a chance — free trial subscription — to try out ChatGPT, and I am impressed, with serious reservations.
I started by asking who is winning the war against Ukraine, and AI said it doesn’t have contemporary information, that details are incomplete, that the battle is political and economical, in addition to military. A pretty good answer. For a nonanswer, I mean.
Then I asked it for five paragraphs on Stu Bykofsky.
This was the response:
———
Stu Bykofsky is a prominent journalist, writer, and political commentator in Philadelphia. He has been a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News since 1987 and is known for his direct and opinionated writing style. Bykofsky has been recognized for his work with numerous awards, including the National Headliner Award for column writing in 2005 and the Woodrow Wilson Award for public service in 2012.
In his columns, Bykofsky often tackles controversial issues, such as gun control, immigration, and abortion. He is not afraid to take a strong stance and argue passionately for his position. Bykofsky has also been praised for his work in exposing government corruption and holding public officials accountable for their actions.
In addition to his work as a journalist, Bykofsky has also written several books, including “The Killer Within,” which explores the mind of a mass murderer, and “The Best of Stu Bykofsky,” a collection of his most popular columns from over the years. Bykofsky is also a regular guest on local talk radio shows, where he offers his opinions on current events and political issues.
Despite his controversial opinions, Bykofsky has developed a strong following in Philadelphia over the years. Many readers appreciate his willingness to take a stand on issues that are important to them. Bykofsky is also respected for his investigative journalism and his dedication to uncovering the truth.
In summary, Stu Bykofsky is a well-respected journalist and writer who is known for his direct and opinionated writing style. He has won numerous awards for his work and is a regular guest on local talk radio shows. Bykofsky is a passionate advocate for his beliefs and has developed a strong following in Philadelphia over the years.
——
Not bad, but it gets an F for factual errors, highlighted by underscore.
But first, I asked for five paragraphs. AI cheated with a fifth paragraph that was a summary of the first four. Surely, in my 47-year history with the Daily News (and the unmentioned three years with the inquirer) it could have found references to my age, background, education, and habits.
I have no quarrel with my writing style being called direct and opinionated. Columnists are supposed to be opinionated, and my style often is more meat ax than scalpel. I don’t know where AI got that description of my style. It is not in my Wikipedia entry. AI scours the internet for the material it will organize and regurgitate. It took about 30 seconds for it to come up with mine.
I have no idea where it got the idea I had received the Woodrow Wilson Award for public service in 2012. I won one or two prizes for public service, but never that one. That is a serious error.
The next paragraph says I tackled controversial subjects, such as gun control, immigration and abortion. Give AI two out of three. I seldom wrote about abortion. Another controversial topic that I did write about were bicycles and bicycle lanes, as well as covering Philly’s animal shelter for almost two decades.
The third paragraph goes completely off the rails.
I never wrote a book called “The Killer Within,” and can’t imagine where AI scraped that up. I did write “Stu Bykofsky’s Little Black Book,” the humorous “Cats are Supermodels,” and the fictional “Press Card,” none of which were mentioned. (The last two are still available. Ask me at stubyko@gmail.com) Crediting me with a book I did not write is a serious error. And it happened twice. There is no book called “The Best of Stu Bykofsky.”
The next paragraph is so flattering it seems like I wrote it myself. I did not. I seldom engage in gratuitous back patting.)
At some point, I will do a necessarily serious column about AI. This was just putting my toe in the water.
AI is amazing, but factually unreliable . . . Now.
I love technology, but AI scares me quite a bit. Maybe I’ve watched The Terminator too many times. 🙂
Ssh. Skynet is listening.
The AI report sure puts the “art” in “artificial” – closer to “artful”. Well, you get what you pay for . Be careful about putting your toe(s) in the AI water. You never know what lurks below – or maybe you do by now.
As I said, it ain’t there… Yet. But it is moving fast.
AI will catch up, but it’s not there yet, which is why I’m staying away. I only deal with proven commodities. Scary though, is how much disinformation and how many falsehoods people will buy into as we approach the 2024 Presidential election. Now that’s a frightening thought.
I agree. The video deep fakes are alarming.
At least we have guys like Stu On The Job keeping a rather watchful eye on this for us.
Not as alarming as seeing you posing with those 2 politicians. That photo has really shook my faith in you. Ha Ha
Not all politicians are enemies. At the time this happened, Kenney was still normal. He went progressive later.
“I don’t care what you say about me, just spell my name right.” — [several putative authors]
“The Best of Stu Bykofsky” might not exist, but it should.
I thought about that once, even the design. Half the book (starting from the front cover) would be positive columns, half the book (starting from the rear) would be negative columns.
At the time, I could have gotten the Inky to give me permission (for a cut of the profits).
The problem was, publishers said collections don’t sell. Unless you are maybe Pete Hamill or such.
Who the eff is AI, Allen Iverson? 😊
This is fascinating. I think the scary part of it is, despite the fact that its sentence construction makes you think once or twice that it is a ‘bot, it comes off as authoritative as a Wikipedia entry. We all know what that is worth, but we also know it is the baseline for knowledge for most people. Those factual errors you highlight will become the gospel. In our conspiracy-obsessed culture, this has real potential to get dangerous fast.
You are behind the times on Wiki. It’s accuracy has greatly improved and has value, at least, as a secondary source.
Loved the logical way you took on the Bicycle Coalition and the other Vision Zero/Complete Streets Scandinavian-socialist zealots. That had to be some of your best writing and especially courageous since the Inky writes as if they are on the payroll at the Bicycle Coalition and will never publish anything against it. Bill Greenlee’s publicist told me, “The Inquirer hates Councilman Greenlee.” That’s how lacking their objectivity is when it comes to bicycles and pedestrian safety issues, and I’m sure Greenlee’s sensible views versus the bike zealots was the prime reason she said that. I think he liked his job and cared about Philadelphians, but stopped running and retired because he got tired of the leftist political activity in the city. I’m just glad the LiberalInquirer had a more sensible voice for some time!
Greenlee was a sensible, centrist Democrat. We also were allies on trying to fix the animal shelter.
“AI scours the internet for the material it will organize and regurgitate.”
That is not accurate. ChatGPT is a Large Language Model. What this basically means is, it is fed a lot of material and builds responses based on a word association algorithm, i.e. patterns. It doesn’t actually “know” anything nor does it do real time research. That is what it meant by this answer: “AI said it doesn’t have contemporary information”.
It only can build responses based on the cutoff date of its “feeding”. So, as in the case of ChatGPT v3.5 (the free version), the cutoff date is September 2021.