“Singular: Possible Futures of the Singularity”, 2020-08-20 (; backlinks; similar):
[Fiction writing exercise by James Yu, using OpenAI GPT-3 via Sudowrite as a coauthor and interlocutor, to write a SF story about AIs and the Singularity. Rather than edit GPT-3 output, Yu writes most passages and alternates with GPT-3 completions. Particularly striking for the use of meta-fictional discussion, presented in sidenotes, where Yu and GPT-3 debate the events of the story: “I allowed GPT-3 to write crucial passages, and each time, I chatted with it ‘in character’, prompting it to role-play.”]
In each of these stories, colored text indicates a passage written by GPT-3. I used the Sudowrite app to generate a set of possibilities, primed with the story’s premise and a few paragraphs.
I chatted with GPT-3 about the passage, prompting it to roleplay as the superintelligent AI character in each story. I question the AI’s intent, leading to a meta-exchange where we both discover and create the fictional narrative in parallel. This kind of interaction—where an author can spontaneously talk to their characters—can be an effective tool for creative writing. And at times, it can be quite unsettling.
Can GPT-3 hold beliefs? Probably not, since it is simply a pile of word vectors. However, these transcripts could easily fool me into believing that it does.