Uses and Misuses of ChatGPT

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

One of the big concerns with ChatGPT and similar artificial intelligence programs is that they will eventually be turned loose by unscrupulous producers and publishers to write television and movie scripts, short stories, and even novels, and that humans will become obsolete in the writing of fiction.  That concern is legitimate because the existing technology already has the capability to do those things - though I would argue that the machine efforts still fall short of those of humans.  Hollywood writers are currently on strike in a preemptive move to keep computer-generated scripts from becoming an accepted form of script production.

Teachers, too, are worried that artificial intelligence will soon be finessed to the point that it will be able to complete student writing assignments in something approximating each student's own unique writing style and voice.  In fact, that day has probably already arrived as well.

So far the examples of conputer-generated fiction writing that I have seen don't seem to flow as well as writing that originates with professional writers, nor do they have as much zest and sparkle as human-generated prose, but like everything else that comes from technology, improvements are certain and constant.  We are definitely moving into uncharted territory.

Artificial intelligence is also being used as aids for writing such as when nothing seems to be moving the story toward where the writer wants it to go.  I provided ChatGPT with what I considered to be a clever title for a story or a script - and asked the "intelligence" source to generate a brief story outline for that title - and BOOM, there it was.  It wasn't a great story outline, but it would work.  And, if I had the time and the inclination, I could get it to generate dozens of others until I found the perfect one I really wanted to work with - or, I could pick and choose bits from several AI generated plots and patch together my own "original" story.

The human user can set a wide variety of parameters in addition to the title.  The "writer" can set the format (story, play, novel, PhD dissertation, etc), the minimum or maximum length - or both, particular words or ideas that should be incorporated into the effort, character names, locations, and so  on, ad infinitum.

Aside from the major challenges that artificial intelligence poses for professional writers and educators,  it is also likely to make life much easier in many respects.  Recently while working on a lengthy writing project, I somehow managed to mess up a tab setting somewhere in the middle of the document, a situation which caused me much consternation as I was trying to complete the task.  After going through the document page by page, I was finally able to locate the exact line at which the settings had changed, but try as I might I could not figure out how to correct the problem.    I phoned my son, the only person I know who types more than I do, and he was at a ballgame and could not visualize the issue or the solution, but he did give me a piece of sterling advice.

"Go to ChatGPT," Tim said, "and type in your issue in the simplest possible terms - and see if it can help."

So I typed in the ChatGPT search bar:  "Microsoft Word:  How to fix tab issues?"  It immediately coughed up nine strategies, and the first one solved the problem.  Easy peasy.

A few days later I was writing a fictional piece where a couple in one vehicle was surreptitiously following another vehicle out of the parking complex of a particular airport - an airport that I had never visited.   As both vehicles exited the airport parking lot and headed for the interstate, I wondered what the surrounding community looked like.  ChatGPT quickly gave me some general descriptors of the types of businesses and buildings that area contained, as well as a couple of well known landmarks that the vehicles would pass, and from that I was able to add a bit more realism and color to the drive across the city landscape.

Perhaps using artificial intelligence to gain a description of someplace I've never been is a misuse of the technology, I'm not sure.  But it is certainly less misleading and dishonest than asking the program to write the story for me.  There are going to be many ethical questions which will need to be resolved as society begins to grapple with the reality of machines that can think, speak, write, and even drive as humans.

The singularity is within sight and it is rushing toward us at breakneck speed - and it is bringing unimaginable change!

Buckle up, Buttercup.  It's going to be a bumpy ride!