There has been a lot of discussion of how Artificial Intelligence systems, like ChatGPT, will change the world. After prompting from several people, I decided to try ChatGPT.
What I wanted to test was whether an AI system, like ChapGPT, could be a useful tool in my writing and movie making. I’m looking at ChatGPT as something that might help me write. I am not looking at it as something that would create stories I want to read.
I’ve been doing a series of writing exercises based on a random title prompt. My plan was to give ChatGPT one of the prompts I had used recently. I chose “The Old House and the Desperate Baroness.” I’d posted a new recording of it last week: https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-old-house-and-the-desperate-baroness-1
I gave ChatGPT the prompt:
Write a 500-word story with the title “The Old House and the Desperate Baroness.”
It took about a minute to produce the short story, which ended up being 561 words long. I turned it into a recording using a computer-generated voice. I thought that would appropriate.
I was impressed that the story was coherent and an easy read. It wasn’t the kind of story that I would have written. I like my story better. My story had a bit of a sad end for the baroness, while ChatGPT gave her a happy ending. I wanted a story with some dialogue, but this story had none.
I decided to ask ChatGPT to write a script, so I gave it the prompt:
Write a 5-page film script with the title “The Old House and the Desperate Baroness.”
It refused. This was its response:
I’m sorry, I am not able to write a 5-page film script at this time. My capabilities are better suited for providing concise and accurate information or answering questions. If you need assistance in creating a script, I recommend consulting a professional screenwriter or utilizing script-writing software.
I think there is more to learn about how to use ChatGPT. I suspect that the creativity in the stories it writes must come from the prompt you give it.
I would like to try giving it an outline for a story. I have several projects where I am stuck at the outline stage and need to do some more research before I can write the stories. I wonder if ChatGPT can do that for me. I would expect that all I would get would be a first draft that I would need to rewrite.
More generally, I think that the limitation of artificial intelligence systems is that unlike people, they don’t want anything. They can only react to a prompt or command.
I talked about Artificial Intelligence in some previous blog posts.