As a non-expert, ChatGPT appears to me to be a compression of the internet with interesting mash ups. Am I wrong? Creativity to me is about going outside a given search space, about disruptive, non-linear change. ChatGPT is about a constrained search space that is unbelievably large. I would love to hear the reasoning for why my thinking is incorrect so I can better understand the creative potential and limitations of ChatGPT.
Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
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Re: Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
#2Assuming the definition of creative as being "related to original ideas", of course ChatGPT isn't creative. It is quite literally a mechanism to rehash previously expressed words, and thus ideas.
Now, ChatGPT is able to rehash previously expressed words - and possibly combine those with other previously expressed words, so as to create combinations it has been prompted to create - at a velocity and with broader sources that were not previously imaginable.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
#3Assuming the definition of creative as being "related to original ideas", of course ChatGPT isn't creative. It is quite literally a mechanism to rehash previously expressed words, and thus ideas. Now, ChatGPT is able to rehash previously expressed words - and possibly combine those with other previously expressed words, so as to create combinations it has been prompted to create - at a velocity and with broader sourc…
Under that definition, I wonder if anybody is `creative`. We would need to assess how many of what we call `original ideas` are not rehashes of other ideas.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
#4Have you tried it?
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
#5Have you tried it?
If you are asking me. Of course, I've spent many hours on it. I have not seen anything that I would consider original. I am very impressed by the quality of responses and how well context impacts the content. It's seems most amazing at summarization and categorization.
I am very surprised by the results of "Let's play Dungeon and Dragons where you are the Dungeon Master" or Write new song lyrics or Complete the following poem or even write the following essay or chapter of a book.
I am surprised by the quality of the response in terms of flow. It sounds very much like a college undergraduate to my eyes. At the same time, it sounds like a well-read, undergraduate who doesn't fully understanding topics beyond the fundamentals. On the fundamentals, ChatGPT is surprisingly strong.
That's a summary of response based on my many hours of using it.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
#6Assuming the definition of creative as being "related to original ideas", of course ChatGPT isn't creative. It is quite literally a mechanism to rehash previously expressed words, and thus ideas. Now, ChatGPT is able to rehash previously expressed words - and possibly combine those with other previously expressed words, so as to create combinations it has been prompted to create - at a velocity and with broader sourc…
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Re: Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
#7Assuming the definition of creative as being "related to original ideas", of course ChatGPT isn't creative. It is quite literally a mechanism to rehash previously expressed words, and thus ideas. Now, ChatGPT is able to rehash previously expressed words - and possibly combine those with other previously expressed words, so as to create combinations it has been prompted to create - at a velocity and with broader sourc…
Under that definition, I wonder if anybody is `creative`. We would need to assess how many of what we call `original ideas` are not rehashes of other ideas.
No, it's been discussed to death and back with "everything is a remix" since 2012. Even the combination of previous ideas into a new one is an original thought. Doing it at the right time even more. Look at history, the invention of the bike, the airplane or the telephone. The technology needed for all of them existed for decades it just wasn't combined in the right way.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Under that definition, I wonder if anybody is `creative`. We would need to assess how many of what we call `original ideas` are not rehashes of other ideas.
No, it's been discussed to death and back with "everything is a remix" since 2012. Even the combination of previous ideas into a new one is an original thought. Doing it at the right time even more. Look at history, the invention of the bike, the airplane or the telephone. The technology needed for all of them existed for decades it just wasn't combined in the right way.
Glad you brought up "everything is a remix". As an artist, I have learned to remix, but at least put my own spin on it so it's not a complete rip. Then I can live with myself and I'm not some plagiarist.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
#9It's a very interesting question. I'm not sure I think that there is a "creative" / "not creative" binary dichotomy though. Seems more like a continuum to me. In which case, I think I'd say ChatGPT (and its ilk) are creative... to some degree. Quantifying that would be tough though.
This whole thing does though, as we see in other threads here already, lead to some interesting questions around "what even is creativity" and "how creative are we humans", etc. One might also fairly ask to what extent creativity is truly a desirable thing at all! I'm sure we've all sat in meetings where a co-worker presented a truly "creative" approach to a problem, where said solution was as mind-numblingly stupid as it was creative. :-)
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all
#10Does it matter to you how you got there, or do you only care about the result? If the former - chatGPT is not creative (but maybe we aren't either) - if the latter - ChatGPT is (but so can be a very simple dumb code if it runs for long enough).
I could write a program that will generate all possible programs of given size one by one and run that program till the internal memory state starts repeating. I start with programs with memory size N, let's say 10 bytes, generate and run all of them, then go to N+1 and so on.
Given enough time and memory - that program will write every possible batch computer program smaller than K and solve every possible problem of Kolmogorov complexity ~K.
Assume we have a computer fast enough for this to be practical. Is my program creative? It just bruteforces programming. But eventually it will get the result you want.
Creativity isn't well defined without specifying the hardware, time and memory constraints.