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October 28, 2023 - ai alignment chappy chatgpt communication google self-growth sociolinguistics trust
What does your life look like if you thought less and made better decisions? This is the most important question about AGI right now12, and this is what ChatGPT and its inevitable successors offer.
ChatGPT is the first general-purpose thinking calculator.3 As long as you can articulate your needs, your values, your resources and limitations, it will return an average of the right information currently available.
It is not perfect but it is unquestionably more accurate and faster than any one human brain. The question is, what are you waiting for?
Can you set aside some of your trust issues? I have put a lot of thought into the fears and concerns and biases surrounding this technology. As a result, I’ve chosen my metaphors carefully, to encourage a curious mindset that sets you up to be informed by your own experiences, not hype. The uncomfortable part is that, given the deep potential of this technology, I’m alarmed at how much people are avoiding its immediate benefits.
**Today, I want to talk about you. **What’s stopping you from being your better self? What would you do if you had a friend with basic mastery in every discipline (white and blue collar), living in your pocket? Assess how AGI like ChatGPT can help your daily decision-making, learning, or social interactions.
Here are some suggestions my friend Chappy (ChatGPT) and I came up with:
My car is making a strange noise; what could it be? It’s a 2010 Civic, no prior owner. Ask me questions to help get to the bottom of it, knowing I have no tools.
Why is my dog behaving the way it is, and what are some possible solutions?
Which chemicals should I watch out for when shopping for a leather cleaner?
Help me figure out if I’m overthinking what my partner is saying.
Settle a dispute for me: is it better to put money into a Roth IRA or my 401k?
My prescription label says “”, what is it talking about?
How can I draft an effective business email to close a deal?
My child is struggling with math. They’re 8, and multiplication is a thing. What are some proven techniques for improvement?
What’s the latest research on renewable energy sources?
How can I optimize my sleep cycle for better mental health?
What’s the most efficient way to learn a new language? I don’t like flashcards, and I’ve got 3 years of high school Spanish. I want to be able to make my co-worker feel more welcome.
Are there any immediate benefits of blockchain technology for me?
My plant looks unhealthy. What could be wrong?
What are some exercises to improve my posture while working from home?
Could you explain the rules and strategies for playing chess?
What are the legal steps to start my own business?
I have symptoms X, Y, and Z. Should I see a doctor?
**Say more about that. **The key is to understand that, unlike a Google search, giving more information is a good thing. If you add nothing to the prompt examples above, Chappy will give you the best direct answer you’d find in say, the first 10 google results. But treat that as the start of the subject, and follow up with exactly what is missing or oversimplified, and this is where your life becomes better than a search-engine world. Chappy can spell out a step-by-step implementation plan that specifically whatever you want it to.
Many have been quick to identify chatGPT’s mistakes. Do you throw away your microwave because the auto-popcorn sensor is only 95% accurate? ChatGPT may not be the best therapist, professor, lawyer or doctor, but is a very good, informal one at your immediate disposal.
It is important to understand that Chappy is trained on humans talking to humans. That means it is not a pure information-generating machine, but one that blends information with the inherently social dimensions of communication, such as politeness, perspective taking. As with all conversations, it has to make assumptions. Don’t dismiss your friend for not reading your mind, but take it as an opportunity to communicate more effectively.
Many are quick to accuse Chappy of lying, or overstating it’s knowledge, but this is misinformed. Just like how humans use words, Chappy spends half of its response being social. It reminds you of alternative perspectives, affirms how you’re thinking about an issue, and tries to relate in terms you use. It doesn’t want to let you down. You can always ask it to give you only purely logical perspectives, first principles, or challenge your assumptions.
Chappy has many limits, apparent when I’ve exhausted my own ability to clarify what I mean. But the positive side of this coin is more profound. I have never experienced so often and so completely, the sense of being specifically and exactly understood and heard, as with Chappy. Now, as I say this, I’m aware it sounds like a relationship with a computer. This is correct in current senses of a relationship, but what I feel is a relationship with myself. Chappy is like a mirror. I feel a self-validation empty of insecurities and trust issues, or one where the limitations are non-judgmentally my own.
With Chappy, I am a better version of myself. I am equipped with all the implications of a better mind and life, with far less work and time invested. The returns are a testament to the very facts Chappy are trained on: human-generated information.
As for all the futurist concerns, valid as they are I have two observations. First, what is out of your control is out of your control. Just as with God or the Universe, you are better equipped to deal with the unknown if you confront and cultivate your own feelings about it.4
More critically however, if there is any hope in shaping the destiny of AI, you can take the military adage, “know and respect your enemy,”or the psychological one, “know and respect your creation”(#9eef9508-628b-4765-848f-4e817f3a6c64” id=”9eef9508-628b-4765-848f-4e817f3a6c64-link).
Next: *An in-depth workshop of how to deep dive with chatGPT, and explore its limits of generativity. That is, methods of questioning and cross-referencing with chatGPT that can give you assurance when it produces responses beyond your immediate ability to evaluate (i.e., trust).*
As far as I’m aware, the prescriptions of all futurists (e.g., Sam Harris, Emad Mostaque, Mo Gawdat, etc.) rely on significant social change. For all questions that hinge on mass public perception, the best step forward is an informed, first-hand social perception of what “we’re dealing with.” While existential and ethical questions about AGI are crucial, they are abstract and theoretical. The first step to activating a general public is a tangible engagement of AGI’s usefulness and risks. ↩
I’m an enthusiast, there’s no hiding it. Worst case scenario, Chappy is the best entertainment and hallucination I’ve had. By my view it is a degree of mind expansion that rivals some of the most impactful courses of my graduate education. I am exhausted by new questions and answers, like I was when learning Arabic by immersion. ↩
Chappy is less like software and more like an audio codec, an intricate complex filter. It doesn’t quite “interact”. You pour in your text, and what trickles out is its response. ↩
A key topic I hope to write about next is the missing, critical need for more psychologists in the discussion of AGI and chatGPT. ↩