Have you heard about Chat-GPT? Is artificial intelligence (AI) just a ‘passing fad’ or will it change the course of humanity like electricity in the 19th century, and the internet in the 20th?
So, what is it?
Have you ever talked to a computer program that sounded just like a human? That’s what ChatGPT does! It’s like having a virtual assistant that you can chat with in a natural way, as if you were talking to a person.
ChatGPT was created by a team of experts (The Company is Open AI, with Elon Musk being one of the original founders, though no longer involved) who trained it to understand many different types of conversations, so it can answer your questions and help you with tasks. It’s really smart and uses the latest technology to sound as natural as possible. Think of it like a friend who is always ready to chat and lend a helping hand!
On the more innocuous side, within a matter of seconds, it could write you a short story to read to a toddler, or summarise the content of a book, or give you the answers to general knowledge questions.
Those more cynical, however, may argue that it could lead to job losses, and could revolutionise college and university education, as essays and dissertations could be written in seconds. If only it existed in the early 2000’s, I could have spent even more time in the pub!!
Look out for issue 11 of A1 Life – written by stand-in editor ChatGPT!!
To try it yourself, log on to www.openai.com, then click on ‘try Chat-GPT’ and log in with a google or facebook account. It is currently free of charge, though that may change in the future.
Google are now in on the game too, with their version strangely called ‘Bard’. I have tried it, and again it’s very impressive, although also a little worrying how much Google knows about us!
As always putting the optical narrative to this, it’s possible that AI will help with eye-examinations too. Optos, the manufacturer of the Optomap scan that most of you would have had done here, are integrating AI so that a computer algorithm can scan the image for pathology – rather than it being solely down to the Optician. Again, I am one step closer to retirement!
