The emotional appeal of chatGPT and why that matters

Background?

Yesterday, I was invited to speak at 英国伦敦大学 - 伦敦国王学院 about #AI and #chatgpt from an educational standpoint.?

I take a progressive stance to AI / LLMs / Generative AI and value its potential for inclusion in education - especially considering my own experiences?

Unlike my traditional audiences at the #universityofoxford, this group was led by the Arts and Humanities Faculty -??which also extended to the sciences.?

Hence, the event spanned a wider repertoire of speakers. Christoffer Noring and I were the two external speakers.

In my talk and panel discussion, I touched on a number of themes

I am trying to unite them here under the idea of “the emotional appeal of chatGPT and why that matters”

The event was fun, insightful and interdisciplinary. I learnt a lot!

The emotional appeal of chatGPT and why that matters

AI experts, sceptical of chatGPT, miss a key point.?

chatGPT’s emotional appeal to the masses can only be a good thing for all of us as an industry. Nothing else in AI has come close to it - and the genie is out of the bottle - with no turning back.

Here are some of the ideas I proposed (or heard of) at this event on the reasons for the emotional appeal of chatGPT and why that matters

a)? Creativity: chatGPT appeals to the masses because of the creative instinct inherent in all of us i.e. people enjoy creating new things?

b)? GPT is empowering: GPT empowers people in many ways - for example in learning to code.?

c)? Creating their own space: A special, virtual space of our own is appealing to us - even as children. The metaverse? promised us a virtual space of our own - but that appears far from being fulfilled. GPT-4, with its multimodal features, could help us create our own narratives.?

Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/children-childhood-lost-sea-orphan-7286772/?

d)? unpredictable rewards: I see experts warning us about hallucination and charGPT but the unpredictable responses of chatGPT could be actually appealing for people due to unpredictable rewards.???

e)? Play: ?we are learning and experimenting by playing. That also has an emotional appeal

f) ? Inclusion: I believe GPT / co-pilot and other related technologies will empower domain experts and will be inclusive.?They could also overcome the ageism barriers we see in tech.

g)? Culture : Culture - preservation and impact of - are key important themes which are often overlooked. I mentioned the work of Michael running wolf - who we hope to have on our next Oxford course. There was also a discussion on personhood for AI on the lines precedents in the Maori culture in New Zealand for personhood for mountains

In 2014, legal personality as granted to Te Urewera – the mountainous region bordering Hawkes Bay and the Bay of Plenty . In March 2017, the Whanganui River received the status of a legal person and then later in 2017, Taranaki iwi signed a Record of Understanding to state their shared intention that legal personality will be granted to Taranaki Maunga (Mount Taranaki) as well .

I also mentioned my favourite book (Amusing ourselves to death) and a debate on Orwell v.s. Huxley. I also mentioned the work on Alan Lomax in preserving the oral culture of the delta blues and what that means for the future of AI through GPT-4

Culture matters - something we technologists often forget. In the words of Peter Drucker (who my late father used to read and recommend)

All in all - a fun and insightful afternoon

If you want to study themes like GPT with us please see our course

https://lnkd.in/efKkYEpD

Also, if you want to stay in touch with me re launch of the Erdos institute and other work please join my substack https://lnkd.in/e4-hAzPT

Some more images from the day

Thanks Prof. Fay Bound Alberti FRHistS for the invite

Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/family-newborn-baby-child-infant-2610205/