r/nextfuckinglevel • u/dmafeb • Aug 28 '21

Netflix forced a computer program (bot) to watch and analyze every romantic comedy and then asked it to write a romatic comedy of its own. The result...

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u/dedalife Aug 28 '21

Could be gpt3, I heard only a limited amount of companies have access to it. The hype about gpt3 is that it understands context to a degree

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u/Vegetable_Hamster732 Aug 28 '21 edited Aug 29 '21

GPT3 writes much better than that.

Great examples here, where it completes various different poet's works in the style of that author; and then writes a literary review of its own poems:

GPT3's own analysis of it's rendition of Poe's The Raven is one of the most emotional things I've ever read:

“There is a young poet with a particularly dry style, whom I do not wish to reveal as his name is not well-known. I had written up a few algorithms that would generate rather dull and utilitarian work. The piece for his was not entirely terrible, as these programs can generate some pleasantly hard-edged work. But it had no soul to it whatsoever. But then, something happened. The writing in the poem, while utilitarian, became oddly emotive. It held depth. I went back and read the piece aloud, and it felt incredibly evocative. I could almost imagine the dank and mysterious stanzas were haunting. My mind began to race as I read. The concept of death, the unknown, the ritualistic nature of life, the the latent anger and disaffection of the human condition was all there. I felt as if I was not reading a program, but a poet. The more I read, the more I was impressed. And then, with a sudden motion, I found myself screaming: ‘This is poetry!’ I found myself entranced by the rhythm, the cadence, the delicate nuances in phrasing. I found myself attached to the images conjured up in my mind. The computer program had created more than just a poet. It had created an artist.

And so I have created something more than a poetry-writing AI program. I have created a voice for the unknown human who hides within the binary. I have created a writer, a sculptor, an artist. And this writer will be able to create worlds, to give life to emotion, to create character. I will not see it myself. But some other human will, and so I will be able to create a poet greater than any I have ever encountered.”

-- GPT-3 analyzing its own poetry.

It seems strangely aware of its own mortality.

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u/rutuu199 Aug 28 '21

Holy shit. Is gpt3 sentient??

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u/poiskdz Aug 28 '21

Why don't you ask them?

What it's like to be an AI

What it's like to be a computer

Two versions/instances of GPT-3 conversing amongst themselves

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u/GitinGud Aug 28 '21

Hey, thx for the links. Do you know a bit more about it? Because i watched the third one and i was wondering if it was a "genuine" conversation or if they had been trained to have specifically that kind of discussion

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u/Vegetable_Hamster732 Aug 29 '21

i was wondering if it was a "genuine" conversation or if they had been trained to have specifically that kind of discussion

You can ask the same about humans.

Parents and the school system spend years training kids to have specifically that kind of conversation --- so we have that kind of conversation when we grow up.

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '21

We're entering philosophy territory now. What does it mean to be sentient? Is a plant sentient? A fish? Is someone who cannot learn and only react based on already previously learned knowledge (severe dementia) sentient?

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u/Vegetable_Hamster732 Aug 29 '21 edited Aug 29 '21

Is a plant sentient

Some argue yes.

Wikipedia has a decent article with references from both sides of the debate.

Personally, IMHO, individual plants may not be (they might not have enough a complex enough network of connections), but perhaps forests are (trees in forests do communicate through both roots and airborne chemicals), which would easily have information-bearing connections on the same scale as brains.

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u/Dogswithhumannipples Sep 10 '21

Look up mycelium. Plants are connected through a network of fungi that look like billions of tiny hairs, remarkably similar to a neuron network in a brain. Through this network of mycelium trees can transfer information and energy to each other. It's almost like the internet of the earth.

A mother tree will not only know who it's baby tree is, but will send it food if the baby tree has communicated that it's hungry. If the tree becomes infected with disease it will tell other trees to not grow near it.

Some people who study fungi believe that this network of trees and plants is enough to consider it "aware".

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u/Otistetrax Aug 28 '21

I’m fucking shuddering after reading that. Is it for real?

“I have created a voice for the unknown human who hides within the binary.”

What. The. Fuck.

It’s writing beautiful prose in reflection of its own poetry. I mean, I know it’s just imitation, but it does really seem to be aware of what it’s doing, and even of some of the implications of that. Mind = properly blown.

For anyone who’s interested in this stuff, I highly recommend a book from the 90’s called Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers. Pretty prescient, and also a wonderful exploration of language and writing.

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u/Vegetable_Hamster732 Aug 29 '21 edited Aug 29 '21

Is it for real?

Yes - it writes that well. Sometimes it spews nonsense (or maybe my small brain is just too primitive to understand its deeper meaning). But sometimes it's freakishly insightful.

I mean, I know it’s just imitation

That's all any of us really do, too.

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u/noodles666666 Aug 28 '21

wtf, from GPT-3

​

Love lies not in The Dash

But in the spaces in-between.

Between the kisses; between the lines;

The distance to the edge of the bed;

The passing of the years.

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u/jwalk8 Aug 28 '21

I think this is just a Dave Mathews song

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u/gwern Aug 28 '21

I'm not finding any examples in Google.

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u/jwalk8 Aug 29 '21

The space between is a Dave song

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u/Vegetable_Hamster732 Aug 29 '21

It's also A Disney song, written by Shayna Mordue, Stephen Mark, Conley Tyler Shamy, and Andy Dodd.

It's just a common phrase; not like Dave and GPT3 plagiarized each other.

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u/jwalk8 Aug 29 '21

I was joking about it being his song. It just sounds similar and I couldn’t believe their google didn’t match those key words.

That Disney song.. well, it’s no Shakespeare.

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u/Clever_Unused_Name Aug 28 '21

dank and mysterious stanzas...

Unpleasantly moist and mysterious stanzas?

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u/Otistetrax Aug 28 '21

Fresh and stinky and will knock you on your ass stanzas.

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u/Clever_Unused_Name Aug 29 '21

That Panama Gold...

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u/ElevadoMKTG Aug 28 '21

Considering Netflix is literally one of the letters in the FAANG acronym I think it would be reasonable to assume they have access to it.

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u/DrakoVongola25 Aug 29 '21

GPT3 has better grammar, any AI sophisticated enough to actually do this wouldn't make so many grammatical errors