Pat Stuart

There’s a new kid in town. It’s gender neutral, is known as ChatGPT and hit the streets two months ago, released by its progenitors in Microsoft’s Open AI unit. Already, the kid is kicking butt and making a name for itself. Already, too, it’s found a circle of best friends — just about any student essay writer with access to the internet.  

While still a youngster (still in its infancy, really) it’s put the world on notice. If you deal in words, it’s coming for you! Like who? Well, like all those people who write copy for ads, who write treatments for films, who do resumes and summaries and prospectuses and annual reports and columns and ... yes, fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

Poetic justice, you say? Those intellectuals joining the ranks of computer victims? Couldn’t happen to nicer people.

But, I can also sense a lot of you still wondering: “What the heck is ChatGPT?”

You’ve probably guessed that it’s some kind of Artificial Intelligence. Beyond that? I asked the kid to define itself. Here’s what it said: “ChatGPT is a language generation model developed by OpenAI that uses deep learning algorithms to produce human-like responses to text-based inputs.”

In practical terms, type a question at a prompt, and, based on the algorithms intensive review of millions of documents, it will immediately kick out a response. 

Here’s an example. Thinking of my last column and food insecurity, I asked it to provide a 500-word essay on food insecurity in a national emergency. The result would have won at least a “B” from my high school English teachers. It was grammatically correct and well-structured with a very fine introductory sentence, as follows:

“Food insecurity refers to the lack of access to enough food to meet basic dietary needs, leading to malnutrition and hunger. In the event of a national crisis, such as a natural disaster, war or economic downturn, food insecurity can become even more widespread and severe.”

The essay required no particular knowledge of either food insecurity or national emergencies. It was a long way from brilliant. Which isn’t the point. Within a few seconds a computer — A MACHINE — spat out 500 grammatically correct words in a format that had a beginning, a middle and an end, exhibiting the mental acuity and educational accomplishments of a smart teenager.  

ChatGPT can do some great parlor tricks, too. Here’s what it produced when asked to write about food insecurity in the manner of Shakespeare:

“Oh cruel fate, that dost afflict the poor, 

And cause such want in life's abundant store! 

Why must they suffer, hungry and forlorn, 

While others feast and revel with such glee?

In fields so rich, where grain doth grow apace, 

And orchards burst with fruit of every taste, 

Why must the needy go without a crumb, 

Their bellies empty, their children's cries unsung?

This took less than a second to begin scrolling out. I stopped it after the fourth couplet. Enough! Next, I asked for a summary of President Theodore Roosevelt’s accomplishments. It gave me a tidy list which included a statement of Roosevelt’s record as a trust buster ... which he was not.  

The folks at OpenAI are well aware of the kid’s tendency to err from time to time, not to mention being prone to a list of other deficiencies. Mostly, its problems spring from the bane of all computers: “Garbage in/garbage out.”  

But, as I said, the kid is just a kid, if that. It’s learning. It’s AI, and there’s no limit to its potential growth. Even the little playing around I did with it probably contributed, which is the point of its being free on the internet. Every user who logs in adds just a little bit more to what it knows and what it can do.

The bottom line? Educators chimed in first, worried that students would no longer have to learn to write essays and how to tell if an essay is computer- or student-generated and what it might mean to young brains. Those are legitimate concerns, certainly. I would add they are only the first of many. There’s no doubt in my mind that this kid and its lookalikes is going to be kicking butt everywhere you find the written word.