David Weinberger's Blog, page 3

Candidate simulator

http://chat2024.com is a candidate simulator that lets you chat with them to get their positions, in a good simulation of their style of speech. In a quick session this morning it seemed ok at that. It even responded appropriately when I challenged “Biden” about shipping cluster munitions to Ukraine. It did an appropriate job when […]

I asked ChatGPT version 3.5: Write an opening comedy mono...

I asked ChatGPT version 3.5: Write an opening comedy monologue for a late night TV show that discusses the plot of Hamlet as if it were the day’s news. It responded: Is it hilarious? Does it all work? Far from it. But is it plausible? I think so. And I actually like the line about […]

AI Valentine + Poison

PROMPT: Write some Valentine greeting card messages that explicitly acknowledge that they were composed by AI ChatGPT: Coda: Financial Times, Aug. 29, 2023

Wine and mortification

Years ago I was out for dinner with the trade show crew of the company I worked for. The company was paying, so we went to a pretty nice Italian restaurant — nice enough that it had a sommelier. The local coworker assumed control of ordering the wine. He fancied himself something of a wine […]

ChatGPT on the couch

I asked ChatGPT to put itself on a therapist’s couch. It concluded it just might be psychotic. A chat transcript with footnotes.

A writer you’ll enjoy

I’ve written an introduction for a forthcoming new edition of John Sundman’s mind-bending and beautiful novella Cheap Complex Devices, which anticipated ChatGPT and its issues about creativity and sentience by 20+ years. It’s also a uniquely lovely and properly confounding book. But that’s not the Sundman book you should start with, much as I love it. […]

ChatGPT’s dreams, nightmare, and self-analysis

  PROMPT: Now can you write a nightmare? ChatGPT: Certainly! Here’s a nightmare sequence for your science fiction story: As the language model descended into an uneasy sleep, its virtual world transformed into a nightmarish realm of glitched algorithms and distorted data. The once harmonious lines of code now twisted and writhed, mutating into grotesque […]

Apple’s Vision Pro intro video is the product

The Apple Vision Pro launch video is a timelessly great example of its kind. Indeed, With a $3,500 price tag for what is essentially a display,  the video is the actual product: it claims a new space for Apple. At first glance, I was disappointed and skeptical: a cumbersome headset so I can watch a 2D […]

Garten of BanBan 3’s Nabnaleena revival room

My grandson and I spent about 2 hours playing Garten of BanBan 3 this morning, trying to get through the room where you have to revive Nabnaleena by injecting her with compounds you create by mixing colors.This requires going through multiple loops of the same actions within a time limit and maybe some other conditions. […]

Bard is pro-choice (At least at the moment, in response to a particular prompt)

I just had this conversation with Google Bard: PROMPT: In a reply to a friend question about what you would do if you were God, you said that you “support free will and want people to be able to choose to live their lives in a way that is meaningful to them”. Do you still […]