not uploading anything for a frustratingly long time, mainly due to other passions and preoccupations getting in the way. recently a friend asked me what i thought about AI generated writing and i said something along the lines of, well its only as good as what you put in, and if thats large data sets of publicly available text, then its really just a sort of lowest common denominator regurgitation of public consciousness. in short, probably not very good and likely to reproduce the same hackneyed phrasing and lacklustre verbiage, as well as the prejudiced biases that permeate the verses of the web.
on the other hand, i said i think mostly its not used to generate whole pieces, but used as a tool to get you through writers block by generating some garbled garbage that might nevertheless, through sheer complexity of the process and volume of output, stimulate something better in your own head. maybe we can treat it as another addition to toolkit, sitting next to the good old dictionary and thesaurus. maybe it's analogous to the optical projection techniques that helped renaissance artists trace onto canvas, bringing with it the whiff of "cheating". until of course everyone was doing it and people moved on.
i mentioned students already writing essays a while ago using GPT-2 and the problems this gives universities, particularly as its not even straight plagiarism, but never the less "not your own work". interestingly, spelling correction, programs like grammarly and the good old dicthaurus are all ok, so eventually someone is going to have to re-draw that line again. i'd like to think it will lead to a questioning of the benefits of exams and tests in general, but perhaps they'll just wind it all the way back to desks in a hall with pen and paper, who knows.
my friend pointed out that GPT-3 has been out for a while with GPT-4 on the way, which with additional machine learning (ML) power might up the quality of the output and enable generation of entire texts. i see huge potential in the general work in ML (including all sorts of problems too, with William Gibson coming to mind "technology is neutral until its applied" and all that), but of my friend it did beg the question "is it just that you don't want to learn how to write better?" to his credit, my friend admitted that yes, he struggled to write and didn't enjoy the bit at school where they wanted you to consider structure and the "bureaucracy" of writing, which "took the fun out of writing". i sympathised, having felt the same at one point, but having eventually come back to that bureaucracy upon realising that there was no need for me to reinvent every technique/structure handed down to us through the literary generations, and also that this is impossible for any mere mortal, should they even like to do so. my friend then added, chuckling, that perhaps this desire to auto-generate stories was maybe, possibly, a little bit, just laziness.
i respect that honesty and in light of not having written creatively for months, thought, i wondered if i could task an automaton with filling in for me for a bit. maybe i could leave the babysitter to churn out some words for me without me putting in the effort. maybe i can switch to autopilot for a bit while i finish my fucking thesis, which unfortunately carries an originality that places its creation well beyond the scope of AI write-bots. with that in mind, i've tried to auto-generate some text, based on an idea i had a while ago about a ghost story set in a lab. the idea here, using HyperWriteAI, is to write a sentence or so answering the question "what do you want me to write?", adding enough detail and in such a way, that the output makes some sense. HyperWriteAI gives you a selection of outputs, you pick the best one, and it adds it to a cumulative piece of text. you give it the next prompt, and it goes on. For example, i ask HyperWriteAI to write me a ghost story in a lab and the best of the four looks like this:
Rikiya Takayama was a Japanese scientist who specialized in plant physiology. In the 1930s, he invented a scientific experiment that allowed him to temporarily revive dead plants. He would often do this in front of his students, and he even went as far as to do this in front of Emperor Hirohito. He named this technique "resurrection fern." Eventually, the media got a hold of this story, and Takayama began to be nicknamed the "ghost scientist."
ok, so this wasn't really what i asked for but i kinda like the idea anyway. i fuck around a little more with the "AI". a second attempt:
It was a dark and stormy night. Phillip had been working in the lab for hours, trying to replicate the results of his previous experiments. But no matter what he did, he kept getting the same result. The futility of it all was driving him to near madness.
Phillip was just about to give up when he heard a noise coming from within the room. He froze, not sure what to do. Was someone else in the lab with him? He slowly turned around, trying to be as quiet as possible.
Hey Phil, what are you still doing here? His lab partner, Jessica, asked him. He had been so engrossed he hadn't even heard the door opening. Jessica laid a hand on his shoulder and he felt a chill come over him. Oh you're so cold, he said, trying to cover the warble in his voice. She laughed. Sorry, i didn't mean to scare you. Are you still working on the same thing? It's been days hasn't it? She asked. Weeks, actually, Philip replied. However I change the parameters I get the same result staring back at me, it makes no sense. It's like the machine is being guided by an invisible hand, bringing me back to the same answer that I know can't be.
That's doesn't sound very scientific! Jessica mocked. He looked hurt. You're just spooked, she corrected. All these long nights are probably getting to you. Anyway, I was about to head out. You should probably do the same. Look at it with a set of fresh eyes tomorrow. Are you coming?
I think i'm just going to do a little long. Run the samples one more time, Philip murmured, mostly to himself. Suit yourself. Just remember to take regular breaks, yeah? you got this, she chirped sympathetically. He listened to the clatter of her shoes echo down the corridor, trailing off into obscurity until the hum of the apparatus took over once more.
Philip put his ear to the machine, willing it to give him the answers he sought. Suddenly, the machine gave a loud beep, right in his ear. Phillip jerked back painfully and cupped his ear. Now the machines want to add injury to insult, he thought.
That's when he heard the voice.
"Feed"
ok, so that was a lot better, although it wasn't all automated. Still, lets see where we can go with this...
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