The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

by Ray Kurzweil

In November 2022, OpenAI launched an interface called ChatGPT, which allowed the general public for the first time to easily interact with an LLM—a model known as GPT-3.5.[116] Within two months, 100 million people had tried it, likely including you.[117] Because the system could generate many fresh and varied answers to a given question, it became a big disruptor in education as students used ChatGPT to write their essays, while teachers lacked a reliable way to detect cheating (though some promising tools exist).[118] Then, in March of 2023, GPT-4 was rolled out for public testing via ChatGPT. This model achieved outstanding performance on a wide range of academic tests such as the SAT, the LSAT, AP tests, and the bar exam.[119] But its most important advance was its ability to reason organically about hypothetical situations by understanding the relationships between objects and actions—a capability known as world modeling.