Now that I've played with it (see below), and having had the experience of grading hundreds of essays written by actual college freshmen, I can say with confidence that ChatGPT has better technical skills than most college freshmen. One of the worries I've seen is that actual college freshmen will use it rather than writing their own essays. One place to look to tell if this has happened might be citations.
As an AI language model, ChatGPT has a good understanding of APA (American Psychological Association) citation style, which is a widely-used citation format in the social sciences. ChatGPT can provide information on the general guidelines and format for citing various types of sources, including books, journal articles, websites, and more. However, it is important to note that the specifics of APA citation style may change over time, so it is always a good idea to consult the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for the most up-to-date information.
But seriously, this thing is capable of writing similar-sounding, equivocal essays. They'd probably be considered high quality essays in high school and factually sparse in college. They are technically competent and utterly anodyne.
I'm not going to worry about ChatGPT just yet. Maybe the next generation after this one.
Why is it that "conservative comedians" always wind up being all conservative and no actual comedy?
As an AI language model, I do not have opinions, but I can provide some information on this topic.
It is a common perception that comedians who identify as conservative often prioritize their political beliefs over their comedic material. This can result in their comedy becoming more partisan and less focused on humor.
Comedy is a form of entertainment that is meant to make people laugh and can also be used as a way to challenge perspectives and provoke thought. When a comedian's material becomes heavily focused on promoting a particular political ideology, it can detract from the humor and entertainment value of the performance.
Additionally, humor can be subjective, and what one person finds funny, another may not. When a comedian's material is too politically charged, it can alienate some members of the audience, who may not share their political views.
It's worth noting that this is not exclusive to conservative comedians, as comedians from all political backgrounds can fall into this trap. The key to successful comedy is to strike a balance between entertaining the audience and making a political statement. When this balance is not achieved, it can lead to the perception that a comedian is all ideology and no actual comedy.
Hmm. Spot on. There may be something to this after all...
Identify the six likeliest places to build new low-income housing in the City of Portland, Oregon in the style of Wm. Steven Humphrey.
The six likeliest places to build new low-income housing in the City of Portland, Oregon are:
1. Inner Southeast: With its central location and proximity to public transportation, Inner Southeast is a prime location for low-income housing development.
2. East Portland: Despite being a historically under-invested area, East Portland is ripe for new low-income housing development, with a growing population and access to job opportunities.
3. North and Northeast Portland: These areas have a long history of serving as affordable housing options and are likely to continue to do so, thanks to their proximity to public transportation and growing demand for affordable housing.
4. Outer Southeast: With its sprawling neighborhoods and growing population, Outer Southeast offers ample opportunities for low-income housing development, particularly in areas that are currently underutilized.
5. Southwest Portland: While Southwest Portland is generally known for its upscale homes and high property values, there are pockets of opportunity for low-income housing development, particularly near public transportation hubs.
6. West Portland: With its growing population and close proximity to downtown Portland, West Portland is a prime location for low-income housing development, particularly in areas that are currently underutilized or have potential for infill development.
In conclusion, these six areas represent the likeliest places to build new low-income housing in Portland, offering a mix of central location, proximity to transportation and job opportunities, and untapped potential for development.
BUZZER!Absolutely failed on copying the style of the Portland Mercury's snarky and smart editor-in-chief. Also there are no such things as "East Portland" and "West Portland," and there basically are no unused areas of the city, excepting Forest Park. Which, you'll notice, wasn't mentioned at all. It wouldn't be all that hard to mine the Internets for more detailed and non-generic descriptions of the portions of the city that do exist, but that doesn't seem to have been done. So ChatGPT is not a particularly wonderful research tool.
Explain the future of multi-author blogging in light of recent developments in social media, in the style of Nate Silver.
The future of multi-author blogging is likely to be influenced by recent developments in social media, particularly the growing trend towards decentralized and community-driven platforms.
On one hand, centralized social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have struggled to effectively moderate the spread of misinformation and harmful content. This has led to increased demand for alternative, decentralized platforms that give users more control over their online experience.
In this context, multi-author blogs have the potential to play a significant role as they offer a platform for multiple voices and perspectives, while also allowing for greater community engagement and collaboration. Moreover, multi-author blogs can benefit from the network effects of social media, allowing them to reach wider audiences and build more engaged communities.
However, the future of multi-author blogging will also depend on the ability of these platforms to effectively manage issues such as spam, abuse, and privacy concerns. Additionally, the success of multi-author blogs will be influenced by their ability to attract and retain high-quality contributors, as well as the effectiveness of their monetization strategies.
Overall, while there are certainly challenges ahead, the future of multi-author blogging remains promising. With the right approach, multi-author blogs have the potential to offer a valuable alternative to centralized social media platforms, fostering greater engagement and collaboration within communities.
This is absolutely a college freshman level essay. It takes hundreds of words to say next to nothing, but it does have quite good syntax. I absolutely do not see the "...in the style of Nate Silver" as there is no reference to any sort of quantified data. (So maybe ChatGPT got it right, har-de-har-har.) Going to try again, on a more local note with a humorous columnist....
My point here is that things that are different turn out to not be alike, even if they have one or more similar traits. Therefore, responding to those things uniformly may be suboptimal.
Alas. The world is complex, people are generally morally ambiguous, morality itself is subject to profound and eternal debate, and there is no simple ideological key to discerning between different facets of different activities which are all different shades of gray. If only it were simple. But it isn't.
Also, how DARE you open up the post with music by Eric Clapton! Don't you know what he's said and done on race, immigration, and vaccines? Find someone with more moral purity next time!
A publicly-traded corporation's board of directors has a shared fiduciary duty to the shareholders to maximize shareholder ROI.
This can be done either through payment of dividends or increases in stock price. Getting there might involve maximizing sales of product. But there are plenty of One Weird Tricks that can get there other ways, too., in our era of complex financial transactions.
Oh, and the duty is discharged if the corporation winds up doing something that plausibly might maximize shareholder ROI, even if in practice it doesn't work out that way. So one thing that Exxon's board might claim is "We're selling less oil today to a) keep our proven reserves available for the future when oil is scarcer and thus higher-margin, and b) investing in other ways to provide energy to match a changing market." These seem like plausible business justifications to sell less oil.
...or a bell pepper, which isn’t really a vegetable but gets lumped in with them like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and a lot of the things I immediately think of when I think of vegetables but aren’t.
If we're understanding sexbots as more akin to sophisticated sex toys than they are akin to substitutes for human sex partners, then of course there will be a significant market for women.
To judge what I read from fellow solo and small firm lawyers via our e-mail exchanges, this prospect absolutely terrifies some of my colleagues. Probably some of yours too. But I agree, a lot of professional services are really little more than complex algorithms.
The real trick in my field will be if/when AI can figure out that a person is likely lying (as opposed to just nervous).
You know, I stepped out for lunch today and overheard a couple of fellows at the diner spinning conspiracy theories at one another. One guy's was initially plausible on the level of "The C.I.A. got ISIS started," but then devolved into "...and they were only ever mercenaries we paid to fight us." The other guy's were more along the lines of Lizard People Theory (IIRC it was something about the government controlling Navajo Skinwalkers to assassinate various inconvenient people).
I really, really wanted to bomb into the conversation with Hanlon's Razor. But telling people who think the government is "House of Cards" when it's really "Veep" that most of the world is quite adequately explained by "Famous, powerful people are often just as big of fuckups as your less-competent friends" isn't any fun, and these guys seemed like they were having a good time.
So I just paid my tab and went back to the office.
You have one of two reactions to this scene, and it depends on whether you believe that there is something autonomous and self-aware in K's and Joi's programmed minds the same way that there's something autonomous and self-aware in our biological minds. Or, if you prefer, something that the more faithful among us call a "soul."
If you think these are autonomous, sentient entities the same way we are, this is a lovely vignette of a man giving his partner something she's always wanted, something that will let her transcend her limitations and open up a vast new world for her. It's hard to imagine a more loving sort of gift. The rules that society puts in place for the creation of these entities becomes hugely problematic at that point, but governing and incorporating them into the rest of society becomes a question of recognizing their personhood, and the events of their existences can be evaluated and understood the same way the events of a natural person's.
That's the easier way to process this movie, and this scene in particular. The harder way is if you think they are programmed and lack the "soul" unique to humanity. The ways the events of the scene become problematic is perhaps to long to comfortably list here, and eventually elevates to an understanding that we're watching a portrayal of a fiction (the fiction of K's humanity) interacting with a different kind of portrayal of a fiction (the fiction of Joi's humanity) within a still different kind of portrayal of a fiction (we're watching a movie, after all).
Lawyerbots will be programmed to desire and seek out billing opportunities. Accountantbots will be programmed to desire and seek out accounts collectible opportunities. Investmentbankerbots will be programmed to desire and seek out arbitrage opportunities.
Perhaps ChatGPT will simulate outside interests on their resumes, like playing the piano or breeding carnivorous reptiles. As long as we don't need to see AI generated fingers and hands on the bio pictures, maybe we won't even notice the difference.
Has he been seen out on the Corn Dog Circuit, working county fairs in Iowa the way Governors and Senators of so many other states-that-are-not-Iowa seem to enjoy doing?
Those amongst us who use Westlaw will have need to know that the citations to its regional case reporters ate based on old-fashioned books. The first of these was created in 1876 by West Publishing's namesake, and called the North Western Reporter, currently on its second series ("N.W.2d"). The North Western Reporter contains published appellate court case decisions for Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. I've always thought it was ridiculous to call this particular grouping of states "North Western," and from where I'm currently sitting in Oregon (an actually northwestern state) especially so. "Mid Western Reporter" would make more sense to me but I suppose even John Briggs West back in the 1870's didn't dare wade into these taxonomic territories.
Without the badly appropriated Senate, rural voters would basically be irrelevant.
I disagree. Depends on how you define "rural," I suppose, but it could be as much as 45% of the national electorate. If we had national population election of the President, that'd be far too many to dismiss as "irrelevant."
On “ChatGPT Isn’t Taking Your Job”
Now that I've played with it (see below), and having had the experience of grading hundreds of essays written by actual college freshmen, I can say with confidence that ChatGPT has better technical skills than most college freshmen. One of the worries I've seen is that actual college freshmen will use it rather than writing their own essays. One place to look to tell if this has happened might be citations.
As an AI language model, ChatGPT has a good understanding of APA (American Psychological Association) citation style, which is a widely-used citation format in the social sciences. ChatGPT can provide information on the general guidelines and format for citing various types of sources, including books, journal articles, websites, and more. However, it is important to note that the specifics of APA citation style may change over time, so it is always a good idea to consult the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for the most up-to-date information.
"
But seriously, this thing is capable of writing similar-sounding, equivocal essays. They'd probably be considered high quality essays in high school and factually sparse in college. They are technically competent and utterly anodyne.
I'm not going to worry about ChatGPT just yet. Maybe the next generation after this one.
"
Why is it that "conservative comedians" always wind up being all conservative and no actual comedy?
Hmm. Spot on. There may be something to this after all...
"
Identify the six likeliest places to build new low-income housing in the City of Portland, Oregon in the style of Wm. Steven Humphrey.
BUZZER!Absolutely failed on copying the style of the Portland Mercury's snarky and smart editor-in-chief. Also there are no such things as "East Portland" and "West Portland," and there basically are no unused areas of the city, excepting Forest Park. Which, you'll notice, wasn't mentioned at all. It wouldn't be all that hard to mine the Internets for more detailed and non-generic descriptions of the portions of the city that do exist, but that doesn't seem to have been done. So ChatGPT is not a particularly wonderful research tool.
"
Explain the future of multi-author blogging in light of recent developments in social media, in the style of Nate Silver.
This is absolutely a college freshman level essay. It takes hundreds of words to say next to nothing, but it does have quite good syntax. I absolutely do not see the "...in the style of Nate Silver" as there is no reference to any sort of quantified data. (So maybe ChatGPT got it right, har-de-har-har.) Going to try again, on a more local note with a humorous columnist....
On “Charity, Clout, and Moral Outrage: On MrBeast and Seeing”
I suppose, yes.
My point here is that things that are different turn out to not be alike, even if they have one or more similar traits. Therefore, responding to those things uniformly may be suboptimal.
And I'm mostly being playful about Eric Clapton.
On “TSN Open Mic for the week of 2/6/2023”
After I bang my head against the wall like that, it feels really good to stop.
"
Really? If you could point me to some other recent examples I'd surely benefit from learning more.
On “Charity, Clout, and Moral Outrage: On MrBeast and Seeing”
It's fair to point out when a seemingly charitable action is not really done for charitable reasons, or does not do the good it purports to do, or if it also does harm in some other way. Here's just one recent example of a purported charitable activity being not what it seemed at first glance. Wouldn't be hard to find others.
Alas. The world is complex, people are generally morally ambiguous, morality itself is subject to profound and eternal debate, and there is no simple ideological key to discerning between different facets of different activities which are all different shades of gray. If only it were simple. But it isn't.
Also, how DARE you open up the post with music by Eric Clapton! Don't you know what he's said and done on race, immigration, and vaccines? Find someone with more moral purity next time!
On “TSN Open Mic for the week of 2/6/2023”
A publicly-traded corporation's board of directors has a shared fiduciary duty to the shareholders to maximize shareholder ROI.
This can be done either through payment of dividends or increases in stock price. Getting there might involve maximizing sales of product. But there are plenty of One Weird Tricks that can get there other ways, too., in our era of complex financial transactions.
Oh, and the duty is discharged if the corporation winds up doing something that plausibly might maximize shareholder ROI, even if in practice it doesn't work out that way. So one thing that Exxon's board might claim is "We're selling less oil today to a) keep our proven reserves available for the future when oil is scarcer and thus higher-margin, and b) investing in other ways to provide energy to match a changing market." These seem like plausible business justifications to sell less oil.
On “ChatGPT Isn’t Taking Your Job”
where is this other article about narrative theory?
On “Spicy Pineapple Collard Greens and The Great Vowel Shift”
Nonsense. Of course a bell pepper is a vegetable, because in 1893, Justice Horace Gray would have eaten it for dinner and not for dessert. Q.E.D.
On “I’m Not a Midwesterner; No One Is”
But we still have better food carts.
On “Throughput: AI Sexbot Edition”
If we're understanding sexbots as more akin to sophisticated sex toys than they are akin to substitutes for human sex partners, then of course there will be a significant market for women.
"
To judge what I read from fellow solo and small firm lawyers via our e-mail exchanges, this prospect absolutely terrifies some of my colleagues. Probably some of yours too. But I agree, a lot of professional services are really little more than complex algorithms.
The real trick in my field will be if/when AI can figure out that a person is likely lying (as opposed to just nervous).
On “TSN Open Mic for the week of 1/30/2023”
I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE JAYBIRD MADE A FUNNY
"
You know, I stepped out for lunch today and overheard a couple of fellows at the diner spinning conspiracy theories at one another. One guy's was initially plausible on the level of "The C.I.A. got ISIS started," but then devolved into "...and they were only ever mercenaries we paid to fight us." The other guy's were more along the lines of Lizard People Theory (IIRC it was something about the government controlling Navajo Skinwalkers to assassinate various inconvenient people).
I really, really wanted to bomb into the conversation with Hanlon's Razor. But telling people who think the government is "House of Cards" when it's really "Veep" that most of the world is quite adequately explained by "Famous, powerful people are often just as big of fuckups as your less-competent friends" isn't any fun, and these guys seemed like they were having a good time.
So I just paid my tab and went back to the office.
On “Throughput: AI Sexbot Edition”
You have one of two reactions to this scene, and it depends on whether you believe that there is something autonomous and self-aware in K's and Joi's programmed minds the same way that there's something autonomous and self-aware in our biological minds. Or, if you prefer, something that the more faithful among us call a "soul."
If you think these are autonomous, sentient entities the same way we are, this is a lovely vignette of a man giving his partner something she's always wanted, something that will let her transcend her limitations and open up a vast new world for her. It's hard to imagine a more loving sort of gift. The rules that society puts in place for the creation of these entities becomes hugely problematic at that point, but governing and incorporating them into the rest of society becomes a question of recognizing their personhood, and the events of their existences can be evaluated and understood the same way the events of a natural person's.
That's the easier way to process this movie, and this scene in particular. The harder way is if you think they are programmed and lack the "soul" unique to humanity. The ways the events of the scene become problematic is perhaps to long to comfortably list here, and eventually elevates to an understanding that we're watching a portrayal of a fiction (the fiction of K's humanity) interacting with a different kind of portrayal of a fiction (the fiction of Joi's humanity) within a still different kind of portrayal of a fiction (we're watching a movie, after all).
"
Lawyerbots will be programmed to desire and seek out billing opportunities. Accountantbots will be programmed to desire and seek out accounts collectible opportunities. Investmentbankerbots will be programmed to desire and seek out arbitrage opportunities.
Perhaps ChatGPT will simulate outside interests on their resumes, like playing the piano or breeding carnivorous reptiles. As long as we don't need to see AI generated fingers and hands on the bio pictures, maybe we won't even notice the difference.
On “Nikki Haley Throws Her Hat in the Ring”
Has he been seen out on the Corn Dog Circuit, working county fairs in Iowa the way Governors and Senators of so many other states-that-are-not-Iowa seem to enjoy doing?
On “Police Brutality Rears Its Ugly Head in Memphis”
Black Mirror, Season Six, Scripts by O. Henry and Zach de la Rocha.
On “TSN Open Mic for the week of 1/30/2023”
Ben Affleck to play.... Phil Knight. I'm kinda not seeing it.
On “I’m Not a Midwesterner; No One Is”
Speaking as a fellow who has roots in Milwaukee WI, Evanston sounds positively southern to me.
"
Those amongst us who use Westlaw will have need to know that the citations to its regional case reporters ate based on old-fashioned books. The first of these was created in 1876 by West Publishing's namesake, and called the North Western Reporter, currently on its second series ("N.W.2d"). The North Western Reporter contains published appellate court case decisions for Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. I've always thought it was ridiculous to call this particular grouping of states "North Western," and from where I'm currently sitting in Oregon (an actually northwestern state) especially so. "Mid Western Reporter" would make more sense to me but I suppose even John Briggs West back in the 1870's didn't dare wade into these taxonomic territories.
On “Paul Krugman, in one column, highlights the Democratic Party’s failure with rural voters”
I disagree. Depends on how you define "rural," I suppose, but it could be as much as 45% of the national electorate. If we had national population election of the President, that'd be far too many to dismiss as "irrelevant."