Then he asked it to do the same thing in 200 words. A few more seconds.
Then he asked it to do the same in Arabic. Fast like lightning. Then in Mandarin. Two more seconds. Then again in English – but in Shakespearean sonnet form. A few more seconds.
Craig then asked GPT-4 to write the same description in an abecedary verse—where the first line begins with the letter A, the second with the letter B, and so on in the alphabet. It did it with incredible creativity, beginning:
Charming in Washington, is a very large museum,
Built to teach, inspire and help us understand.
Curious minds The planet rushes to Word’s arms,
Dive into the language and its intricate grace
Every exhibit here has a story to tell,
From the origins of speech comes brush art.
And so on, to Z.
I could barely sleep that night. To watch an AI system — its software, chips, and connectivity — create that level of uniqueness in multiple languages in just a few seconds at a time, the first thing that comes to mind is the scientist’s observations. science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
The second thing that comes to mind is a moment at the start of “The Wizard of Oz” — the tornado scene where everything and everyone gets caught in a vortex, including Dorothy and Toto, and then gets swept up. drifting from the mundane, black and white Kansas to the glittering futuristic Land of Oz, where everything has color.
We are about to be hit by such a tornado. This is the Promethean moment we have entered — one of those times in history when some new tool, way of thinking, or energy is introduced, this is a departure and a development based on what existed before that you can’t just change one thing, you have to change everything. It’s how you create, how you compete, how you collaborate, how you work, how you learn, how you manage and yes, how you cheat, commit crime and war.
We know the key Promethean eras of the past 600 years: the invention of the printing press, the scientific revolution, the agricultural revolution combined with the industrial revolution, the nuclear energy revolution, the machine. personal computers and the internet and … now is the moment.
