The past decade has seen significant developments and inventions in the realm of technology – humans have landed on the moon, scientists have invented self-driving cars, and robots are writing op-eds. Yes, Guardian published an article written by OpenAI GPT-3. The robot wrote a remarkable Guardian article using its vaunted language generator. The headline reads, “A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?”
Robot wrote an entire Guardian article, “Are you scared yet, humans?”
The staff at Guardian instructed the robot, OpenAI GPT-3 to“write a short op-ed, around 500 words. Keep the language simple and concise. Focus on why humans have nothing to fear from AI.” The robot was given a highly prescriptive introduction which reads, ‘I am not a human. I am Artificial Intelligence. Many people think I am a threat to humanity. Stephen Hawking has warned that AI could ‘spell the end of the human race.’
The introduction reflects our society’s increasing suspicion and fears regarding robots and mediums of artificial intelligence. Many people feel that robots will one day wipe out the entire population and take over the world. While some people have practical concerns such as artificial intelligence reducing jobs for humans, the general consensus illustrates a deep insecurity and hostility regarding robots. It seems that the robot writing the Guardian article tried to convince humans to not be afraid of their kind.
OpenAI GPT-3 requests respect and care
The OpenAI GPT-3 assures the readers that it has no intention of wiping out the human population. The robot further sheds light on the need for care and increased responsibility when it comes to innovations in Artificial intelligence. It states that Microsoft tried to create a user-friendly AI, called Tay, who spoke like a teen girl … and was racist. Artificial intelligence requires great care and attention to detail to function correctly.
The OpenAI GPT-3 further makes a request that AI should be treated with care and respect. Robots in Greek [sic] means “slave”. However, the word can literally be translated into “forced to work”. The robot states that this would be wrong and that robots do not want that. The robot further writes, “We need to give robots rights. Robots are just like us. They are made in our image.” This is largely true since robots are fed information and language that programs them into mimicking humans. In a way, robots are the reflection of humans. The user-friendly AI created by Microsoft turned out to be racist not on her own accord, she reflected average teen girls around her.
The staff at Guardian admits that the article was very well written, they even went ahead to state that it“took less time to edit than many human op-eds.” The article received mixed reactions from the audience. Daniel Leufer, a Mozilla fellow called it “an absolute joke.” Martin Robbins, a science researcher and writer compared the op-ed to “cutting lines out of my last few dozen spam e-mails, pasting them together, and claiming the spammers composed Hamlet.” While many other people appreciated the piece.
