There’s a whole genre that’s emerged recently that is basically “Look what ChatGPT” said.
Rather than fight it, here’s my contribution.
I asked ChatGPT: “Do you know the novelist Erik Hanberg?”
And it did! So that’s either great or terrifying, depending on how you view language models/AI chatbots these days.
It wrote, among other things:
He has written several books, including both fiction and non-fiction works… Hanberg is also the founder of a publishing company called Swan Tower, which helps independent authors publish and market their work.
It starts well, but then… Swan Tower? Huh? What the heck is that? I have never heard of this company. I asked for more information:
Swan Tower is an independent publishing company founded by Erik Hanberg. The company provides a range of services to independent authors who want to publish their work, including editing, design, formatting, and marketing. Swan Tower also offers a publishing platform that allows authors to publish and distribute their work in both print and digital formats.
That’s all just bullshit. Pure bullshit. And yet… it also sounds like something I might attempt?
It’s important to remind myself here that ChatGPT is just making up words that are closely based on public information about me on the internet. Probably Amazon and my own website. And then it comes up with new words and ideas that are adjacent to those.
But also, There’s a weird fortune-telling quality to these comments that I haven’t experienced before in a long time. It reminds me of reading horoscopes. Except these feel more like incredibly personal horoscopes.
I also asked what other books I’d written. It named four titles. Three of the four were correct. But two of the three had incorrect plot descriptions.
But one was just totally made up. Here’s the book ChatGPT thought I’d written:
“Be the Gateway”: A non-fiction book that explores the principles of marketing and promotion for creative professionals, providing practical guidance on how to connect with audiences and build a loyal following.
I mean, I probably have something to say about that topic! And there’s that tingle again. Maybe I should write it? In fact, maybe I should start Swan Tower and write a book called “Be the Gateway.”
ChatGPT’s plot description of “The Lead Cloak” was incorrect, so I asked for more information. It gave me an extensive plot description, but here’s the gist:
The story follows a group of scientists who have discovered a way to travel to parallel universes. The protagonist of the novel is Dr. Hildegarde Stanhope, a brilliant physicist who is leading the research team.
Again, it’s all bullshit. But I will say that “Hildegarde Stanhope” is just [chef’s kiss].
I asked ChatGPT if there was a sequel to the book and it said no, which is news to me, since I spent years on “The Iron Harvest” and “The Tin Whistle.”
What is a writer to make of all this?
On the one hand, ChatGPT is great with names. Swan Tower would be a lovely destination in a fantasy novel. “Hildegarde Stanhope” could be a character in that world. (The name reads as too outlandish for a contemporary novel, but might work in historical fiction.)
And if I can feel the pull of the fortune teller in these algorithm-picked words, I’m guessing I’m not alone. Creating Swan Tower publishing and helping authors sounds fun! It’s close to something I might do. Does that mean I should do it? A novel about a team exploring parallel universes sounds intriguing. If I ever write it, a character named Hildy will lead it.
Will people start trying to catch up to the errors that ChatGPT writes about them?
But also, what do we do about the fact that these facts are flat-out false? I lucked out that its facts weren’t more problematic.
For example, ChatGPT named a professor in a sexual harassment scandal that didn’t exist. From the Washington Post:
The chatbot, created by OpenAI, said Turley had made sexually suggestive comments and attempted to touch a student while on a class trip to Alaska, citing a March 2018 article in The Washington Post as the source of the information. The problem: No such article existed. There had never been a class trip to Alaska. And Turley said he’d never been accused of harassing a student.
That is really bad!
While writing this post, out of curiosity, I upgraded to the paid subscription for ChatGPT 4.0 (rather than the free 3.5 version) and asked it again if it knew the writer Erik Hanberg.
It did better than the first time, though mentioned a nonprofit that I’ve been loosely affiliated with and ChatGPT said I co-founded it. (Not even close.) But ChatGPT did know that “The Lead Cloak” had sequels.
It thought the sequels were The Iron Harvest, and … The Carbon Test.
The Carbon Test? Huh. It actually fits the naming scheme of the series…
[Pause as Erik searches Google and Amazon for the title The Carbon Test and discovers that there is no book called The Carbon Test].
Well, ChatGPT, that’s a damn fine title. Maybe I should start writing it.
Photo by Candace McDaniel on StockSnap