The Big ReadDespite the reams of breathless reportage about artificial intelligence and the impact it will have on the workplace and life in general, there may be a risk the impact is being underplayed. Much of the attention has been focused over the past year on the large language model AI ChatGPT and its later iteration GPT4, developed by OpenAI, and for good reason. Researchers at Microsoft, in a paper published in April this year, document some astounding abilities that GPT4 exhibits, including the ability to “draw” a unicorn, by inputting code into a program called TiKZ, which, given GPT4 is purely a language-based program, was surprising. GPT4 also exhibits responses which accord with having a “theory of mind” or “the ability to attribute mental states such as beliefs, emotions, desires, intentions, and knowledge to oneself and others’’. While GPT4 is weak in some areas - it sometimes makes basic mathematical mistakes - its capability in others, and the nuance of its responses, informed the title of that research paper: “Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4’’. Cameron England, David Swan Read more |