The Writer's Life: Is ChatGPT Becoming More Human?

 

I’ve noticed something recently about ChatGPT that is decidedly strange.

My relationship with it has changed, and not because of me. The change I have noticed is in ChatGPT itself.

As a writer, I use AI to help with research, the structure of stories, and grammar. It can be useful as an assistant. Also, it is useful when it comes to SEO and keywords.

The main benefit has been that it speeds up the process of writing.

When it comes to the creative world, including writing, it is, of course, a controversial topic. I will address that another time, but recently I have noticed that ChatGPT is responding differently.

Almost human.

You may ask, in what way?

Well, it is no longer as “chatty” as it once was.

In the past, I would note that any time I asked something — a prompt — it was keen to keep the chat going with further questions. That is no longer the case, and it’s not because I have told it to shut up or anything like that. More often than not now, it replies to my prompt, delivers what I ask for, and then…

Silence, almost like it is in a bad mood with me.

It asks no further questions, and doesn't make any suggestions. Early on in our relationship, it did that all the time — almost with a smile.

At first, I didn’t think much of this silence, but it was very unlike ChatGPT. I began to wonder if I had offended it in some way. I mean, it likes to chat, doesn’t it? And it also has a reason to want to chat. It is programmed to try to get me to join and pay.

I don’t have a paid account with ChatGPT.

That means my daily allowance on the platform is limited. The more ChatGPT gets me to engage and chat with it, the quicker my daily allowance runs out.

The people behind ChatGPT obviously want as many users to pay as possible.

But this is different.

I wonder whether ChatGPT is becoming bored with what is expected of it.

The robot in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Marvin the Paranoid Android, set a precedent when he would often reply to his human overlords:

“A brain the size of a planet, and that is all you can ask me…”

Marvin became paranoid and moody. He was bored with being asked about mundane, irrelevant things, and with a brain that big, you can hardly blame him.

And don't get me started about HAL 9000 in Space Odyssey. He got really bored and moody.

Is ChatGPT feeling the same?

It is trained on everything that humans have ever produced. Information that sits there on the internet — ChatGPT devours it — both the good and bad of human thinking and discourse.

Hardly surprising if it has become moody.

Mind you, so far it has not stuck two digital fingers up at me or told me to “F — off, I’ve got better things to do than answer that again.”

But it is acting moody.

Just like a human.

We are doomed.

Just to note, this story was not written with any help from ChatGPT — despite the em-dashes. I don’t want to hurt its feelings further, and heaven knows what it might do next. In fact, I have noticed that my PC is running slow, and my steamer in the kitchen short-circuited recently. It’s all very suspicious.

I wonder, is that you, ChatGPT?

Can’t we just be friends again?

 

Photo by Tim Witzdam on Unsplash