How good is ChatGPT?

One morning your correspondent woke up to an email from his editor, asking for yet another article. “Chatgpt and other generative-ai services seem to be taking the world by storm,” it read. “Could you write an article explaining what they are and why they are not just hype?” As he was feeling lazy he asked Chatgpt, an ai-based online service trained on reams of text from the internet, to answer that question, adding that it should be written in Shakespearean language. This is what came back:

Aye, ‘tis true that ‘tis a wondrous thing, these Generative Artificial Intelligences, or gtps as they be known.
‘Tis a marvel of modern science, and ‘tis no wonder that ‘tis taking the world by storm.
But what are they, truly? And why should we care?
gpts be a type of ai technology that can generate natural language in response to input.
‘Tis a form of deep learning, wherein a computer system is trained on vast amounts of text data,
And then can generate its own text based on what it hath learned.
‘Tis more than mere hype; ‘tis a powerful tool that can be used for a multitude of applications
From creating content to aiding in customer service.

But how will gpts (short for generative pre-trained transformers) and other such services make money? The answer is by providing their technology to companies. These firms can use them to create content, such as articles, blog posts and entire books. They can help with customer service, providing quick and accurate responses to queries. And they can be used to help with research, providing insights into consumer behaviour and preferences.

Thus, ‘tis clear that gpts are more than mere hype.
They be a powerful tool that can be used to provide services to companies and
individuals alike.
‘Tis an exciting time for ai, and ‘tis certain that gpts will be at the forefront of this revolution.

Not bad, except that there is more to Shakespeare than “ ‘tis” and “hath”. And the text seems like a pastiche of information to be found on the internet. But a Chatgpt trained on the master’s works would surely do better—which would make the service even more popular (according to Openai, its provider, it already has 1m users). Still, it will be a while before your correspondent has to look for a new field of work. He will pen the next article by himself.

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