HELP! GPT has programmed me!
Well it's not really like that, but many are read and in any case there is a grain of truth, as we will see, perhaps there is.
For children the magic show is real, for adults experience teaches that there is a trick, for those who work behind the scenes there is evidence of the facts. (The problem arises when magic is taken as true by those who can make political choices that condition the life and future of others).
It all began a few years ago, in 2017, eight researchers working for Google, with an eleven-page publication, with the seemingly singular title "Attention Is All You Need" illustrate the trick behind GPT: Transformer is the magic word. A system whereby if you enter AB and then D it will respond with E. Simple huh? yes, but if applied starting from a large amount of information, it becomes powerful.
Science fiction has rooted in the imagination the idea of a mathematical, superior Artificial Intelligence, but GPT, if
we want to believe in the illusion, is very human, it makes mistakes, it is approximate, to obtain reliable practical results, a considerable amount of traditional programming work is necessary, integrated with humanistic skills, to be able to interact with the linguistic aspect of the Transformer,.
Is GPT smart?
Magicians know that magic is in the eyes and naivety of those who watch; if you are not aware of the existence of the trick, it is magic. So? Like a toaster, it does its job but is less dangerous.
However, the wave is large and is coming with the speed of the tide, which as they say in Brittany, has the speed and strength of 40 galloping horses, it overwhelms everything.
Google (or rather its researchers) gave the cue, but without believing it too much and with many reservations, is now trying to catch up; Elon Musk and associates try to trip up to
delay it and buy time while they prepare their GPT; META (Facebook) is trying to get out of the quagmire of the Metaverse; Amazon will do something; Apple thinks about glasses.
OpenAI, on the other hand, has bet everything and with the help of Microsoft is (for the moment) winning. It has the great merit of having extracted Moses from the block of marble and given him a voice.
We are facing a leap in AI development for which very few were prepared, which marks a new starting line: the road is open and incredibly this technology can be the prerogative not only of the big players.
Every revolution brings advantages, opportunities, and dangers, but most of those that are feared, I think, should be relegated to the books and science fiction movies from which they come.
Often, in fact, information about GPT is the result of very personal experiences, most of the time distorted by prejudices. To contribute, as XPLAB, we have decided to make a software (https://github.com/ POWER-KI/GPT/tree/main/DEMO-02) available for free, with which the user can try GPT starting from their own documents. By
experimenting with information that one has full knowledge of, the advantages and limitations become much clearer.
Only by starting from an in-depth knowledge of the state of the art can we initiate an analysis of possible risks, from which, if necessary, a regulation can be derived. However, if we refer to GPT, at the moment I do not see any need for it. On the contrary, its use and understanding of its mechanisms should be promoted, especially among the younger generation (the only danger is that they might have their homework done for them). Knowing the trick protects against deception. As for AI products in general, their use and dissemination, the discussion is broad and certainly needs to be addressed.
But you will be curious about the title, well, the mechanism of the Transformer is so simple and elegant that it seems impossible that evolution has not somehow implemented it. Surprised?