It was roughly 7pm on a Wednesday night after school when the thought struck me. I jumped up from where I was sitting and raced to the nearest computer with OpenAI.com up on the screen. My fingers zoomed across the keyboard and I wrote: “Can you write articles?” And it replied… 

“I am a language model that is trained to generate human-like text. I can write articles on a wide variety of topics, such as science, technology, literature, and current events.”

But this didn’t quite satisfy my curiosity so I typed back, “Can you write articles about yourself?”

“Yes, I can write articles about myself as a language model. I can provide information on how I work, what I’m capable of, and how I can be used. However, it’s important to note that I am not a living being and I am a software developed by OpenAI. My abilities are based on the data and the training process that has been used to develop me. I can provide general information about language models and their uses, but my perspective is that of a tool, not a sentient being.”

I know, tell me about it. Could ChatGPT get any more philosophical? Turns out it can. If you’ve ever familiarized yourself with works of literature such as “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, which was later adapted into a motion picture, you’d know for a fact that the supercomputer referred to as Deep Thought in the novel deduced that 42 was the answer to the universe and life itself. Seems ChatGPT, being the philosophical language model that it is, disagrees with this when I asked, “Is 42 the meaning of life?”

It replied with, “This is presented as a humorous fictional reference and not a serious philosophical or religious belief.” Not a bad start to this definition of the meaning of life in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” ChatGPT just took a dramatic turn to all things deep and philosophical when it finished typing back with, “In reality, the meaning of life is a complex and multi-faceted concept that can be understood and interpreted in different ways by different people. It is ultimately a personal and subjective idea.” All my hope for the number 42 was squashed when ChatGPT replied to me saying, “In real-world, 42 doesn’t have any special significance or meaning. It’s just a number like any other number.”

I’m sure you’re wondering now, so what else can ChatGPT do? Well let me spare you the details of the 500 word article ChatGPT wrote about itself for me and sum it up with this: just about anything so long as it took place before 2021. ChatGPT can write emails, have a full-blown conversation with you, write articles for you, give you advice, help you code, and so much more. All you have to do is log-in, type your question or start a conversation, and wait for ChatGPT to reply. While it is unable to share the details of what occurred in the last two years or tell you the current weather, it has so much to offer the user.

ChatGPT remains a truly enticing technological advancement worthy of your attention. However, where this AI program will take this generation remains unknown. While many questions have been raised concerning the possibility of cheating on the part of students when approached with all the capabilities OpenAI offers with their program, no-one can deny the learning advantages that come with a system that is still learning and will ultimately have more to offer in the near future. Perhaps it will lead us to a future we’ve only been able to imagine when blockbusters such as The Matrix or I, Robot hit the big screen. So I leave you with words from ChatGPT, “Till we meet again, farewell and adieu!”