Generative AI is an idiot savant—a digital Rain Man, if you will. My last post zeroes in on the love part of my love-hate relationship with Generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4 or Anthropic’s Claude 2. It’s mint having an unbiased copy editor and writing assistant, not to mention a creative director with technical chops. But it’s also like a genius trapped in a year 4’s body at primary school.
One challenge is the restrictions placed on the model. Being an author of contemporary fiction for a mature adult crowd, my stuff’s edgy and terse, with a good dose of slang and the odd expletive. Generative AI, or AI for short, is like the primary school kid told not to say “bad language”, so it legs it to tell its mum at every slip-up, warning you that you’ve dropped a naughty word. Claude’s the worst at this, shutting down faster than HAL from Space Odyssey 2001. ChatGPT’s a bit more forgiving, sometimes cleansing your copy, other times going along with it, or just flat-out refusing like HAL and Claude.
My favourite time was when I told ChatGPT to stop moralising and just crack on with the adult audience’s language. It gave me this disclaimer for my book, which I’m well chuffed with, then suggested lines that sounded like Noel Gallagher or Samuel L Jackson, before freaking out about its own potty mouth — “motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!”
“WARNING: This book contains explicit content, including sexual themes and strong language, that may not be suitable for all readers. It delves into mature and challenging subjects such as addiction, prostitution, violence, and societal judgement. Reader discretion is strongly advised. Recommended for readers 18 years and older.”
OpenAI ChatGPT 4
Memory’s another issue. AI might seem like it should have a top-notch memory, but it doesn’t always. It even makes stuff up sometimes—like hallucinating. Just the other day, I was nattering on with my AI mate about character profiles for hours, and it changed a character’s hair from straight and black to curly and red. It even made her homeless instead of middle class. It was pure bonkers, so I’m writing this post instead of fixing it.
ChatGPT’s Code Interpreter is a laugh, too. I probably shouldn’t slag off a Beta product, but the thing kept losing files, resetting sessions, and asking for new copies. Talk about a faff.
And don’t get me started on extended chats with AI to suss out a complex problem. Sometimes it doesn’t remember the convo, and one time it even gave me cheek about drawing out the conversation. I was like, wot?
In the end, we don’t have to fret about AI taking over. It’s making strides, but it’s still a bit wet behind the ears. Me? I’ve always got one eye on the plug. Now, back to the sandbox with me new mates. If only they’d stop munching on the sand.
Ridley Park 