Ask HN: Is it possible that ChatGPT is not creative at all 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. |
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.
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.
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. :-)
Sure it may output never-seen-before shades of gray, b/w polka dots & interesting dithering patterns. Does it paint yellow, purple, IR or UV, blow glass art, sculpture clay or spray graffiti on concrete? Doubtful.
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.