2023-07-28

With ChatGPT, computers can now, pretty reliably, tell us about ourselves, at least on a statistical level. This is a meaningful extension of the pseudo-godlike powers that computers currently have. Take Google. Many people I know, treat Google as the primary, and usually sole, authority on “what is true about the world.” If Google tells them something, they will usually believe it, even to the point of making large decisions in their personal life on the basis of that information. I don’t think this is bad, just noting that Google is functionally a God for many people in many domains. But Google is not really a God of what people believe about themselves. Google doesn’t tell us if we are being an asshole in a conversation, or if we are too nice in some other circumstance, etc. ChatGPT has the ability to cross this chasm of capabilities. You would have to give it sufficient data. But then it would be able to answer that category of questions Google mostly doesn’t tackle: stuff about ourselves, as individuals. Being trained on the output of all people would give a ChatGPT-like system sufficient authoritative weight in personal questions. It really would know, on close to an objective level, who you are as a person. That seems big to me.

July 28, 2023