It was only a few months ago that experts in fields related to machine learning began issuing dire predictions about the effect artificial intelligence would have on civilization and, indeed, humanity’s continued existence. The panic was inspired by the sudden popularity of the commercially accessible AI program ChatGPT, which, we were warned, was getting smarter by the day and would soon eclipse even mankind’s cognitive abilities. The threat was so acute that, in April, a variety of influencers in the technology sector signed an open letter calling for a halt to “the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4” lest we “risk loss of control of our civilization.” It turns out, however, that Chat GPT is just another tool in the hands of its makers. And just like any tool, it can be adulterated to the point of uselessness.
Contrary to the catastrophists, ChatGPT has not grown exponentially smarter over the last several months. Rather, ChatGPT users have recently observed that the program seems to be getting dumber. One “possible cause” of this devolution has been the effort to “prevent ChatGPT from answering dangerous questions,” Decrypt reporter Jose Antonio Lanz wrote last week. “Unfortunately, more safety typically comes at the cost of less usefulness, leading to a possible degrade in cognitive skills,” observed NVIDIA developer Jim Fan. He speculated that OpenAI developers were so unnerved by the program’s capabilities that they spent the last several months giving the program a “lobotomy.”
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