ChatGPT

I've heard a lot about OpenAI's ChatGPT, how students use it to help do their assignments and homework, companies and employees leverage on its power to get their projects and work done, and even writers depend on it to overcome their mental blocks.

So is ChatGPT the magic bullet or pill that will solve whatever problem that is being thrown at it? I'm not so certain about that, though I would probably give it a try with at least one task I'm not good at——giving names to the characters in my story. Heck, why not?

As a first cut, I signed in and posted my first question:

Me: Can you suggest a name for a young Jewish prodigy for a sci-fi novel I'm writing?

ChatGPT: David Friedman

Well, I know the name David is Jewish. but Friedman? I'm Chinese and I like my fried rice. But Friedman sounds kinda weird, so I did a Google and here's what I found:

Milton Friedman

An American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy.

After some digging around Wikipedia, I found that his parents were immigrant Jews from Beregszász. OK, so Friedman seems legitimate for a Jewish family name. I can accept that.

Me: What do you call an AI with a personality and exhibits self-consciousness and empathy?

ChatGPT: 

An AI with a personality and exhibits self-consciousness and empathy can be referred to as an artificial general intelligence (AGI) or a sentient AI. This type of AI is capable of not only processing information and completing tasks, but also of experiencing emotions and exhibiting human-like behavior. AGI is still largely a theoretical concept, and while progress has been made in developing AI with some degree of empathy and self-awareness, achieving true AGI remains a significant challenge in the field of AI research.

Not bad at all. ChatGPT gave me what I need to know so that's a promising start to my story writing. Somehow, at the back of my mind, I sensed an inadequacy in me to embark on a novel that include these fascinating yet foreign elements. Perhaps ChatGPT will help fill my lack and get me up to speed. We'll see.

I'm beginning to sympathize with Lorrie Moore:

But that inadequacy, or feeling of inadequacy, never really goes away. You just have to trudge ahead in the rain, regardless.