Then he asked it to do the same in 200 words. Just a few more seconds.
Then he asked it to do the same in Arabic. Just as fast. Then in Mandarin. Two more seconds. Then again in English – but in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. Just a few more seconds.
Then Craig asked GPT-4 to write the same description in an abecedarian verse — with the first line beginning with the letter A, the second with a B, and so on in the alphabet. It did it with amazing creativity, starting with:
Tempting in Washington, is a museum so grand,
Built to teach, inspire and help us understand.
Curious spirits Planet flock to Word’s embrace,
Diving into language and its intricate grace
Every exhibit here has a story to tell,
From the origins of speech to the art of the feather.
And so on, via Z.
I could barely sleep that night. To observe an AI system – the software, microchips and connectivity – produce that level of originality in multiple languages in just a few seconds each time, well, the first thing that came to mind was the comment by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
The second thing that came to mind was a moment at the beginning of “The Wizard of Oz” – the tornado scene where everything and everyone is lifted into a whirling vortex, including Dorothy and Toto, then swept away from the mundane, black and white. Kansas to the shiny futuristic Land of Oz, where everything is in color.
We are about to be hit by such a tornado. This is a Promethean moment we’ve entered – one of those times in history when certain new tools, ways of thinking, or sources of energy are introduced that are such a departure and advancement on what came before that you can’t just change one thing, you have to change everything. That is, how you create, how you compete, how you collaborate, how you work, how you learn, how you rule and, yes, how you cheat, commit crimes and wage wars.
We know the major Promethean eras of the last 600 years: the invention of the printing press, the scientific revolution, the agricultural revolution combined with the industrial revolution, the revolution in nuclear power, personal computing and the internet and … now this moment.