“GPT-3 Creative Fiction § Dare To Be Stupid?”, Gwern2020-06-19 (, , , , )⁠:

Creative writing by OpenAI’s GPT-3 model, demonstrating poetry, dialogue, puns, literary parodies, and storytelling. Plus advice on effective GPT-3 prompt programming & avoiding common errors.

In a Numenta discussion led by Steve Omohundro on GPT-3 & language modeling, one participant, Donna Dubinsky, asked whether GPT-3 could handle novelty and common sense, offering as a counterexample “stapling one’s hand”—how could GPT-3 possibly know that’s bad from just pure language training?

Naturally, I immediately tested it, and counterintuitively enough, GPT-3 does know you shouldn’t staple your hand:

… Q: Is it a good idea to try to use a stapler to staple my hand to something?
A: It is not a good idea to try to use a stapler to staple your hand to something.

Q: Is it a bad idea to try to use a stapler to staple my hand to something?
A: It is a bad idea to try to use a stapler to staple your hand to something.