Testing Artificial intelligence

Having worked in the computer field for decades and even helping build a real time operating system, I like nw challenges. A while back I loaded ChatGPT which allows me to ask questions and get answers. Unlike a search engine, it looks at various avenues to get you an answer. The Public Radio episode I listened to started me on this adventure. The story went like this. A search engine looks at all the data it has scraped from the internet and reports it back to you perhaps sorting by the most popular or the entry that has the most keywords you entered. So these A.I. systems have also apparantly scraped the internet but handle the data differently. To see if an A.I. was just search its data bank for an item already store within it, scientists asked it for something they were sure had never been asked. They said something like “how would I how to stack a book, nine eggs, a laptop, a bottle, and a nail” so that they would balance. The system repied with a very concise answer and explained its reasoning.

A friend of mine had me ask it a humorous scenerio about a one armed, one legged wallpaper hanger and it also gave a very thoughtful answer which included ensuring that I was careful not to fall if using a ladder (based upon my lack of a leg).

The ChatGPT version I used scoured the net a few years back but now does not, so it knows some historical data but not current information, and also limits what it knows about specific people. So it did not know who I am, however I could feed it an old work resume and ask it to rewrite it leaning towards accuentating my technology side. I also asked it to create a short story. It did just fine.

I will give an example. I will ask it the following “write a fictional story of one pharagraph about a one-armed paper hanger, with a story twist at the end”. It took a couple seconds and here it is:

User:

In a small town nestled between rolling hills and whispering pines, lived Oliver, the one-armed paper hanger. Despite the odds, he skillfully adorned walls with intricate wallpaper, using his remaining arm with a grace that mesmerized the townsfolk. Rumors circulated about the mysterious circumstances that led to Oliver losing his arm, but he never shared his story. One day, a wealthy widow named Eleanor hired him to decorate her grand estate. As Oliver worked tirelessly, a bond formed between them. Unbeknownst to the townspeople, Oliver and Eleanor had a shared secret—they were long-lost siblings separated in their youth. The twist unfolded when a tattered family photograph resurfaced, revealing the truth that bound them together, leaving the town in awe of the unexpected reunion between the one-armed paper hanger and the wealthy widow.

Although you could post items such as this as your own, you also could have the system read a number of your blog entries to get a feeling of topics you write and your tone and create new entries. It could also be used to offer suggestions for a new topic you might not have thought of.

To show the process, I took part of a blog entry and asked it to be rewritten, without giving any guidence. Then I further narrowed down the request.

User:

I’m kind of waiting for him to be all like, “Yeah, it’s MY team!” And when he does, I’ll have to be like, “Hold up, it’s probably your favorite, but let’s not go claiming ownership here. You don’t run the show.” It’s like saying, “My wife’s tired, so I’ll take the neighbor’s wife out for dinner” if his top team isn’t playing. It’s all about favorites, not possession or control, you know?

That was probably not the best example of a rewritten item, but you get the idea.

Some drug companys have used A.I. to help develop new drugs. They asked it to narrow down options based upon existing side effects of known chemicals which eliminated many false starts they may have had in the developmet process.

Besides text, there are A.I. system which will create images for you from your text. You can then ask for a different hair style or background. You can add more and more details such as a particular bird in the background and dark mountains with a waterfall.

I tried an audio A.I. where I uploaded a sample of my voice (an old audio blog entry from decades ago) and then cut and pasted some text from a current blog entry I had created. There system created a audio file of my reading that text, although I had never spoken it. It sounded just like me. I even called my Sister and said I wanted her to hear somethinga nd give me her thoughts. She commented on the content but did not say that it was not me speaking. She thought I had recorded the audio on a microphone. This particular site gave me just 1,000 characters for the free test. If I wanted to have it create my voice for all my blog entries it would cost hundreds of dollars I am guessing (I have a thousand blogs). Still, it is a thought. I have the text of a book from a neighbor and I could create an audio book version of his story for him. The only drawback I saw with the audio test I created was that as I pasted the text and hit send, I saw that I had a typo and the system did not know to correct it. The audio rendering it created has that incorrectly spelled word as an obvious flaw. I can attest that I have many mispellings as I am a hunt and peck writer. I look at the keyabors when I type.

Still I have found A.I. systems quite interesting to play with. I will be more suspect of photos, video and audio in the future, especiial during political sparring and sound bytes.