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- I've spent the two years
since chat GPT launched,
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steeping in a morass
of academic panic.
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Voices from
administration and colleagues,
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00:00:08,161 --> 00:00:10,381
and anyone else
with enough brain cells
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to maintain a sense
of existential dread, crying out,
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"We need to figure out
what to do about AI."
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Our Ed Tech committee
is developing a policy.
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The academic Senate wants
to develop a policy.
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The board thinks
we should have a policy.
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My dean wants
us all to have policies.
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The California Teachers Association says
it's an issue of academic integrity.
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The State Senate says
it's an issue of ethics.
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"We need to pay for the AI detection tools."
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"The AI detection tools don't work."
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"We need to accept that
our students will use AI."
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"How do I prove my student used AI?"
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It is incomprehensible to me,
this conversation.
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[keyboard clacks]
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I hear their words,
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see their language floating
across my monitor,
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and know the words,
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but I cannot get to the meaning
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because I simply do not understand
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why they are talking about it
in this way.
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- [Kermit the Frog]:
♪ New York, I love you,
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but you're bringing me down ♪
- with all these empty words.
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This is not the conversation
I think we need to have.
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[song continues]
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This is the conversation I need to have.
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[overlapping
music and poem]
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[Gertrude Stein]: " 'If I Told Him,
a Completed Portrait of Picasso'.
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If I told him would he like it.
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Would he like it if I told him.
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Would he like it
would Napoleon would Napoleon would
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would he like it.
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If Napoleon if I told him
if I told him if Napoleon.
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Would he like it if I told him
if I told him if Napoleon.
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Would he like it if Napoleon
if Napoleon if I told him.
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If I told him if Napoleon
if Napoleon if I told him.
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If I told him would he like it
would he like it if I told him.
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Now. Not now. And now.
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Now. Exactly as is kings.
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Feeling full for it.
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Exactitude as kings.
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So to beseech you as full as for it.
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Exactly or as kings.
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Shutters shut and open so do queens.
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Shutters shut and shutters
and so shutters shut and shutters and so
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[poem and music fade out]
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- I don't understand Gertrude Stein.
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Stein is not nearly well enough
remembered for how influential she was.
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An American expatriate poet
living in Paris,
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her salons were among the
anchors of the early modernists.
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You may not have heard of her,
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but you've heard of
the people who visited her.
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Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis,
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F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce,
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Thornton Wilder, Ezra Pound.
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People you've read
or been assigned to read.
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We remember Hemingway
because he wrote like this.
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We remember Fitzgerald
because he wrote like this.
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The right kind of day
and the right kind of moment,
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and Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"
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still recites itself completely
in my head, a perfect image.
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"The apparition of
these faces in the crowd:
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Petals on a wet, black bough."
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We don't remember Stein
because she wrote like this.
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This is "If I Told Him,
a Completed Portrait of Picasso",
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published in 1924,
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and continuing the project
of her 1914 book Tender Buttons,
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a phrase she never defined.
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To me that phrase "tender buttons"
feels right:
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small, soft contradictions,
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words that seem like
they should go together
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but do not actually make meaning.
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That is how Stein's poetry feels.
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There is something compelling
about the rhythm of her nonsense,
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the feeling of her
almost meaning something,
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and then how it falls apart.
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"As presently.
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As exactitude.
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As trains."
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But it is incomprehensible to me.
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I don't know why Stein
would write like this.
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To quote the poet:
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- ♪ "Oh, what on earth would make a man
decide to do that kind of thing?" ♪
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- But I think the reason
that I don't understand Gertrude Stein
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is that she didn't really want
to be understood.
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She used language
for something different.
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It doesn't communicate.
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It reads like stunt linguistics,
which it almost is.
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"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo",
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"had had 'had', had had 'had--'",
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These are sentences that,
if you pour over them closely enough,
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can be decoded.
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Stein's Tender Buttons cannot.
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There is something about it
that parses as AI.
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It feels like the work of Keaton Patti,
the person most prominently behind
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the "I forced a bot to watch whatever"
tweets that used to go viral.
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Human-written screenplays
designed to feel like
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AI writing attempting to imitate
other human-written screenplays.
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It feels like an autocomplete challenge,
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like in the early days
of predictive text and messaging
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where you just tap the suggested word
and see what comes out.
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It's not how AI really writes,
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but it's how people feel like AI writes.
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But Gertrude Stein was a person.
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[Stein reading, underneath]
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She wrote "If I told Him"
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not because the language
would communicate,
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but for some other reason.
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- [Stein]: the exact resemblance
as exact as a resemblance
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- When I read "If I Told Him",
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when I listen to Stein
read "If I Told Him",
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the language slips through my mind.
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It doesn't mean anything.
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But she did.
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Even if I cannot
take hold of that meaning,
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I can feel her reaching out to me
from behind the text,
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trying to connect.
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- [Stein]: As a resemblance to him.
Who comes first. Napoleon the first.
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Who comes too coming coming too,
who goes there, as they go they share,
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who shares all, all is as all as yet--
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["yet" reverberates and fades out]
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[relaxed synth beats]
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- [ChatGPT femme voice]:
That's an interesting question!
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Gertrude Stein,
a literary Pioneer and modernist
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who valued innovation
in language and expression,
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might have had
mixed feelings about me.
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She might have appreciated my ability
to generate new forms of text
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and engage with her
literary experimentation on some level.
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However, Stein was also
highly individualistic
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and invested in the human experience,
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especially the nuances of
consciousness and perception.
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So, while she might
have been fascinated by
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what AI like me can do,
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she might also have been
critical of my limitations
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in capturing the full depth
of human subjectivity,
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which was a central concern
in her work.
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[relaxing synth beats stop]
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- A problem with AI is
that it is recombinant,
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that it takes the works of humans
and recombines them into new forms.
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But that problem is not new.
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For many years,
the bulletin board
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outside the faculty bathroom
in the English building
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has featured this poster
the "Plagiarism Spectrum",
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next to this ancient
and unflattering picture of me.
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Number 7 on the Plagiarism Spectrum
is the mashup,
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a paper which mixes copied materials
from multiple sources.
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The poster is dated from June 2012,
more than a decade before
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we were concerned about
ChatGPT doing it.
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That AI is recombinant is not
in and of itself a problem.
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All writing is recombinant.
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My course outcomes for English 1
ask student writers
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to integrate sources seamlessly
into their own writing,
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to mash up.
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That we have rules and procedures
and punctuation marks and conventions
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that govern what is appropriate
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does not change the essential truth
that this is recombinance.
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And there is beauty in recombinance.
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This video started with
a great classic of YouTube,
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the duet between
LCD sound system and Miles Davis.
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The LCD sound system video
is itself a mashup, conceptually.
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Kermit the Frog is not
a member of the band.
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Davis is improvising over a film
to create the score,
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another mixing of media
to make something new.
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The Kleptones
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The Grey Album
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The guy drinking Ocean Spray to
"Dreams" [by Fleetwood Mac]
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Mac Glocky
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"If I Told Him" is recombinance:
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an attempt to rework the ideas of cubism,
a movement in visual art, into poetry.
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Picasso's work is recombinance.
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He spent 1957 copying
Velázquez's Las Meninas over and over.
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58 times he copied it.
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All different.
All Picasso. All Las Meninas.
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Recombinance is a genetic term,
but I am using it mimetically.
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"Britannica: recombination, in genetics,
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primary mechanism through which variation
is introduced into populations."
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The combination of ideas
from different places
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to make new distinct ideas.
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When done by humans,
we call this "thinking".
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[relaxed synth beats]
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- [ChatGPT femme voice]:
You're right to question
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how I can "understand"
without experience.
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The way I process information is
different from human understanding.
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When I say "understand,"
I mean that I can recognize patterns,
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analyze language, and respond
in ways that are coherent
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and contextually appropriate
based on my training.
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I don't understand in the
deep, conscious sense of the word,
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like when humans
reflect on their experiences
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or have insight into their feelings.
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Instead, my "understanding"
comes from identifying
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relationships between words, concepts,
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and context based on the vast data
I've been trained on.
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In short: I can simulate
understanding through patterns,
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but it's not the same
as truly experiencing
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or being conscious of meaning.
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Does that clarify things a bit more?
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[relaxing synth beats stop]
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00:10:14,383 --> 00:10:16,666
[calm, mystical, twangy
electric guitar]
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- Two weeks ago a student told me
that AI is unfair
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00:10:23,281 --> 00:10:26,621
because you can put a B Paper in
and get A+ writing out.
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This is why I do not understand
the conversation my colleagues are having,
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00:10:31,092 --> 00:10:32,488
why I cannot think of this
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00:10:32,488 --> 00:10:34,755
as a matter of ethics,
or academic integrity,
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00:10:34,755 --> 00:10:38,412
why I don't think we should need
to have a policy or policies.
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00:10:38,412 --> 00:10:42,319
My student said you can put a B Paper in
and get A+ writing out,
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00:10:42,319 --> 00:10:45,096
and my mind began to fill
with Tender Buttons.
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"Feeling full for it.
Exactitude as kings.
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00:10:47,166 --> 00:10:49,995
So to beseech you as full as for it."
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00:10:50,815 --> 00:10:53,706
AI is bad at writing.
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00:10:54,501 --> 00:10:57,405
No. That is true,
but it's not enough truth.
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AI is not capable of writing.
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00:11:00,185 --> 00:11:05,017
The thing that writing is
is a thing that AI cannot do.
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00:11:05,617 --> 00:11:06,399
Listen.
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00:11:11,347 --> 00:11:12,030
- [audiobook narration]:
"What Writing Is"
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00:11:14,703 --> 00:11:12,372
Telepathy, of course.
219
00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,372
Look.
220
00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,372
Here's a table covered
with a red cloth.
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00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,372
On it is a cage the size of
a small fish aquarium.
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00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,372
In the cage is a white rabbit
with a pink nose and pink-rimmed eyes.
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00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,372
In its front paws is a carrot-stub
upon which it is contentedly munching.
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00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,372
On its back,
clearly marked in blue ink,
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00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,372
is the numeral 8.
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Do we see the same thing?
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00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,372
We'd have to get together
and compare notes to make absolutely sure,
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00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,372
but I think we do.
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00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:12,373
The most interesting thing here isn't
the carrot-munching rabbit in the cage,
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00:11:23,378 --> 00:11:23,938
but the number on its back.
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00:11:23,938 --> 00:11:24,628
Not a six, not a four,
not nineteen-point-five.
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00:11:24,628 --> 00:11:25,148
It's an eight.
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00:11:25,148 --> 00:11:25,618
This is what we're looking at,
and we all see it.
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00:11:25,618 --> 00:11:26,218
I didn't tell you.
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00:11:26,218 --> 00:11:26,778
You didn't ask me.
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00:11:26,778 --> 00:11:27,328
I never opened my mouth
and you never opened yours.
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We're not in the same year together,
let alone the same room.
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00:11:28,013 --> 00:11:28,713
Except we are together.
We're close.
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00:11:28,713 --> 00:11:29,293
We're having
a meeting of the minds.
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00:11:29,293 --> 00:11:29,983
I sent you a table
with a red cloth on it,
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00:11:29,983 --> 00:11:30,563
a cage, a rabbit, and
the number eight in blue ink.
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00:11:30,563 --> 00:11:31,113
You got them all,
especially that blue eight.
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00:11:31,113 --> 00:11:31,783
We've engaged in
an act of telepathy.
244
00:11:31,783 --> 00:11:32,373
No mythy-mountain s***;
real telepathy.
245
00:11:32,373 --> 00:11:32,973
I'm not going to belabor the point,
but before we go any further
246
00:11:32,973 --> 00:11:33,563
you have to understand that
I'm not trying to be cute;
247
00:12:51,975 --> 00:12:52,975
there is a point to be made.
248
00:12:52,975 --> 00:12:54,019
- AI is good at language.
249
00:12:54,019 --> 00:12:56,643
My students think that
what it produces is A+ writing,
250
00:12:56,643 --> 00:12:59,902
not because it is good,
but because it sounds good.
251
00:12:59,907 --> 00:13:02,556
Obviously, AI can generate sentences
252
00:13:02,556 --> 00:13:05,715
that are typically clear, coherent,
and contextually relevant,
253
00:13:05,715 --> 00:13:09,489
often capturing nuances and adapting
to various tones or levels of formality.
254
00:13:09,957 --> 00:13:12,479
And it's true that
the sentences it generates
255
00:13:12,479 --> 00:13:16,058
tend to be grammatically accurate,
concise, and logically structured,
256
00:13:16,058 --> 00:13:18,557
which contributes to readability and flow.
257
00:13:18,557 --> 00:13:21,916
Sure. This is how I know
when a student is using AI.
258
00:13:21,916 --> 00:13:24,085
Their sentences are fluid and academic,
259
00:13:24,085 --> 00:13:26,474
but they don't say anything.
260
00:13:26,474 --> 00:13:30,615
Like ChatGPT, academic writing uses
formal cautious language
261
00:13:30,615 --> 00:13:32,889
to avoid ambiguities
and misinterpretations,
262
00:13:32,889 --> 00:13:34,474
but that is a characteristic of
263
00:13:34,474 --> 00:13:36,969
the common voice
used in academic writing.
264
00:13:36,969 --> 00:13:39,827
It is not what academic writing is.
265
00:13:39,827 --> 00:13:42,403
Writing is more than language.
266
00:13:42,403 --> 00:13:45,944
"If I Told Him" is communication,
and it is language,
267
00:13:45,944 --> 00:13:49,477
but the communication
does not live in the language.
268
00:13:49,477 --> 00:13:50,356
Watch.
269
00:13:50,443 --> 00:13:53,707
"Can curls rob can curls quote, quotable."
270
00:13:54,612 --> 00:13:56,600
- [deep voice, lightly confused]:
"What?"
271
00:13:58,290 --> 00:14:01,885
- "As presently.
As exactitude. As trains."
272
00:14:02,728 --> 00:14:04,434
- [deeply confused]:
"What?"
273
00:14:05,824 --> 00:14:06,774
- "Has trains."
274
00:14:07,424 --> 00:14:08,598
- [exasperated]:
"What?"
275
00:14:10,726 --> 00:14:14,615
- When I started sending my friends
lines from "If I Told Him",
276
00:14:14,615 --> 00:14:16,492
their responses varied.
277
00:14:17,002 --> 00:14:18,152
Confusion.
278
00:14:19,501 --> 00:14:20,502
Playfulness.
279
00:14:22,185 --> 00:14:22,936
Concern.
280
00:14:24,435 --> 00:14:25,469
Sad face.
281
00:14:25,942 --> 00:14:29,525
Beautifully, they all responded
exactly like themselves.
282
00:14:29,525 --> 00:14:32,876
If you asked me which of my friends
would respond with monkey reacts,
283
00:14:32,876 --> 00:14:34,051
I would have said Kiki.
284
00:14:34,051 --> 00:14:36,574
Who would think of Cormac McCarthy?
James.
285
00:14:36,574 --> 00:14:38,190
Dot would play along.
286
00:14:38,190 --> 00:14:40,707
Max would attempt
to understand academically.
287
00:14:40,707 --> 00:14:44,274
OOC would go back to playing Yu-Gi-Oh
as quickly as possible.
288
00:14:44,274 --> 00:14:46,541
You don't know these people,
but I do.
289
00:14:46,541 --> 00:14:49,723
We all carry around little LLMs
of each other in our heads,
290
00:14:49,723 --> 00:14:52,940
trained on the corpus
of all of our past interactions.
291
00:14:52,940 --> 00:14:56,190
For each of my friends,
sending abject nonsense with no context
292
00:14:56,190 --> 00:14:59,923
is slightly but not significantly
out of line with their Josh model.
293
00:14:59,923 --> 00:15:02,090
So none of them knew
quite what to do,
294
00:15:02,090 --> 00:15:04,360
and they all responded like themselves.
295
00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:07,223
But in their own way,
they all started by acknowledging
296
00:15:07,223 --> 00:15:10,574
that the words I sent them
did not seem to have any meaning.
297
00:15:10,574 --> 00:15:12,056
They were not decodable.
298
00:15:12,056 --> 00:15:13,723
They didn't understand my language,
299
00:15:13,723 --> 00:15:16,507
but they could feel me
behind the words reaching out,
300
00:15:16,507 --> 00:15:17,989
and so they reached back.
301
00:15:17,989 --> 00:15:20,994
I gave them nonsense
and they peopled back.
302
00:15:20,994 --> 00:15:24,216
In the two weeks that I've been sitting
with my student statement
303
00:15:24,216 --> 00:15:26,377
and sending Tender Buttons
to my friends,
304
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I have been at least as annoying
to ChatGPT.
305
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
More than a dozen conversations
that start out of nowhere with me saying,
306
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Shutters shut and open so do queens"
or "Can curls rob can curls quote, quotable",
307
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and each time ChatGPT gamely assumes
that I am not out of my gourd.
308
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In this way,
ChatGPT fails the Turing test.
309
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Not in the quality of its response,
but in its nature.
310
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It proceeded from the assumption
that my language could be decoded.
311
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It attempted to unpack sentences
that had no meaning
312
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and responded to the meaning
that it manufactured.
313
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What it gave me was flaccid, facile flaps
of phrases that held nothing.
314
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They're not wrong in the sense
that ChatGPT's responses
315
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
followed from the meaning
it extracted from my nonsense,
316
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but they were wrong in their assumption
that there was meaning to be extracted.
317
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
ChatGPT could answer,
but it could not person.
318
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If writing is a meeting of the minds,
319
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
then AI cannot write,
320
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because there is no mind to meet with.
321
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[relaxed synth beats]
322
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [ChatGPT femme voice]: I don't
experience things in the way humans do.
323
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I don't have consciousness,
emotions, or sensory perception,
324
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
so I can't "feel" or "experience"
the world around me.
325
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My responses are based on patterns
in the data I've been trained on,
326
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
not personal experiences
or subjective understanding.
327
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
For example, I can generate descriptions
of emotions, sensations, or experiences,
328
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but I don't actually "feel" them myself.
329
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Everything I process is based on logic,
algorithms, and information,
330
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
rather than lived experiences.
331
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Do you think it would change anything
if I could experience things?
332
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[synth music ends]
333
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- ["One Slay More" audio plays;
captions on its video]
334
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- I've watched this video
at least 100 times.
335
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- ["One Slay More" continues]
336
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
["One Slay More" fades underneath]
337
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- It isn't exactly "If I Told Him",
but I think it's similar.
338
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"If I Told Him" was,
at least in part,
339
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
an attempt to recreate the artistic goals
of Picasso's Cubism in poetic form.
340
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
To recombine the visual elements of this
into a different medium.
341
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Like "If I Told Him",
342
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"One Slay More" therefore both is
and is not a derivative work.
343
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Obviously, it is
a recombination of Les Mis,
344
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
itself an adaptation of Hugo's novel,
345
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but its more essential source text
is, of course,
346
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"sticking out your gyatt for the Rizzler."
347
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Equally I think the lyrics invoke
"CURTAINS FOR ZOOSHA?",
348
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and specifically this retweet of
"CURTAINS FOR ZOOSHA?".
349
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
All texts created to foreground
350
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the baffling, sometimes obfuscatory nature
of middle school referential slang.
351
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The term "brain rot" imposes
a layer of judgment
352
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
on the way young people use language,
353
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which I think is visible in the way
"One Slay More" treats its lyrics.
354
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The words of "One Slay More"
do not have meaning.
355
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Or, the words do,
356
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but they are arranged in ways
that do not mean.
357
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Am I cringe or am I based?"
358
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
could plausibly be asked amid
a Gen-Z existential crisis,
359
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and "Will we ever eat again?"
360
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
could have been lifted
from Les Mis unaltered.
361
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But "Mog Baby Gronk the Ocky Way" means
...nothing.
362
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Mogging is of course a thing,
363
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and Baby Gronk is
someone whom you could plausibly mog,
364
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but Baby Gronk hasn't been
relevant for ages.
365
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He appears in "One Slay More"
366
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because of this retweet of
"CURTAINS FOR ZOOSHA?"
367
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as a signifier
of the inscrutability of youth.
368
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
As an adverbial phrase, "the Ocky Way"
seems like it could complete the sentence,
369
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
like it might be a way one could mog.
370
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But "the Ocky Way" refers to
371
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the esoteric artistry
of a specific sandwich craftsman.
372
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Its meaning is, I think,
incompatible with mogging,
373
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
at least from the perspective of
374
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
someone approximately as distant
from the native speakers of this dialect
375
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as the makers of "One Slay More".
376
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Mog Baby Gronk the Ocky Way" is
simply a collage of floating signifiers.
377
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It doesn't have
the intentionality of Cubism,
378
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but it feels intimately akin to
"Can curls rob can curls quote, quotable."
379
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Moo deng is here / Fortnite with you".
380
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What I love about "One Slay More"
is the faces:
381
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the way she highlights her jawline
every time she says "mew";
382
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
his intensity when he says
"they will do the coffin dance"
383
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and his satisfied huff after;
384
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
his deep confusion as he sings
"the Grimace shake is like a blud dawg";
385
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the way she begins uncertain
about "my rizzly bear",
386
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but finds her confidence
as she finds her belt;
387
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the way CG5 just keeps saying his own name.
388
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The words don't mean anything,
389
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but the people mean something.
They intend.
390
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They gathered together --
nine theater kids in somebody's apartment.
391
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Someone wrote out all this nonsense
and sent it in the group chat.
392
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They did choreography.
393
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Someone assembled
the magnificent couplet,
394
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Rizzler of the house,
sticking out your gyatt,
395
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Mewing at delulus
who are in the chat."
396
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
These Zennials do not know
what these words mean,
397
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but through this collage
of empty signifiers,
398
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
they reach out for connection.
I can feel them.
399
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They reach forward to us
400
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
even as they reach back
to what history taught them:
401
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
through Les Mis to Victor Hugo,
402
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
through CURTAINS and Damien Owens
to Papa Fizul and SBNation,
403
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
through "sticking out your gyatt"
to Fortnite and Among Us and Homestuck,
404
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I could go on endlessly,
'cause it's mashups all the way down.
405
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And they reach forward to become
part of what history teaches me,
406
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I reach forward to become
part of what history teaches you.
407
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When I say all art is recombinant,
408
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I am also saying that
"there is nothing new under the sun",
409
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which is to say,
I am remixing Ecclesiastes.
410
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[relaxed synth beats]
411
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [ChatGPT femme voice]:
Oh, you're speaking my language!
412
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Imagining Baby Gronk going full
Ocky style with a side of Grimace Shake
413
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
--that's got some serious drip energy.
414
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And yeah, Grimace Shake totally has
that blud dawg aura.
415
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Could you picture it, though?
416
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Baby Gronk doing pushups, flexing, and just
417
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
taking a big sip of the Grimace Shake
like it's his special formula.
418
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[somber, mysterious piano]
419
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- My first individual interaction
with my friend Max was an accident.
420
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I had just joined a Discord server
where they were a regular,
421
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and somehow, despite
never having messaged them before,
422
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I managed to place
a Discord voice call to them.
423
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Their first message to me was
"hi?"
424
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"hi"...question mark?
425
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Like: a communication is happening,
are you aware of it?
426
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It was unintentional, my first and,
I think, only Discord butt-dial,
427
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it was to a stranger, but still.
428
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"hi?"
429
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Meditate on: call.
430
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
To speak in a loud distinct voice
so as to be heard at a distance.
431
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
To make a request or demand.
432
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
To attempt to reach someone.
433
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Humans call and humans answer.
434
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Max got my call,
a stranger on a strange app,
435
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and they answered.
436
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And I answered them,
because humans call and humans answer.
437
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They answer sad-face, or monkey,
or "what?", or confused dog.
438
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But we understand a call
as an invitation to connect,
439
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to come together,
to communicate.
440
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm sorry, Stephen King is wrong;
it is mythy mountain s***.
441
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When we hear the call,
whatever form it takes,
442
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we know a mind is waiting to meet.
443
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
ChatGPT can't call me.
Not by mistake, and not on purpose.
444
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It cannot reach out,
because it has nothing to reach out with.
445
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There is no mind to meet with.
446
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There is no "there" there.
447
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [Past-Josh narration
from on-screen video]:
448
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Inscrutable poet
Gertrude Stein once described
449
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
her childhood home in Oakland,
which had been demolished,
450
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
by saying
"There is no 'there' there."
451
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That statement has become
a question people use to ask
452
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
whether a text has
something valuable to say,
453
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
whether there is anything to be found
by plumbing its depths.
454
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Is there a "there" there?
455
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[relaxed synth beats]
456
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [ChatGPT femme voice]: Ah, I see where
you're going with that question.
457
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You're asking if there's any deeper essence
or "self" behind my responses
458
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
--whether there's a "there there,"
459
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a kind of inner experience
or consciousness that underlies what I do.
460
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The simple answer is: no,
there isn't a "there"
461
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in the sense of a self, consciousness,
or subjective awareness.
462
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm more like a sophisticated tool
that processes input
463
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and generates output
based on patterns and data.
464
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's no inner life or sense of being
that experiences this conversation.
465
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Just algorithms doing their job.
466
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This touches on a fundamental difference
between humans and AI:
467
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
humans have subjective experiences,
emotions, and self-awareness,
468
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
whereas AI is just a complex system
designed to mimic certain aspects
469
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of human interaction without actually
experiencing or being aware of it.
470
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Does that address
what you're getting at?
471
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[soft, grooving synth beats]
472
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- When I say that AI is bad at writing,
473
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I should be more explicit,
more pragmatic.
474
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Descend for a moment
from the mythy mountain.
475
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I've said already that the ideas
it conveys are fluid but shallow,
476
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but its use of sources is
cataclysmically bad.
477
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This citation of Carver and Shire,
for example, is perfect MLA.
478
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Except that Volume 7, number 3
of Psychological Science
479
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
was published in 1996, not 1998.
480
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Pages 276 to 284 of that volume
appear in issue 5, not issue 3.
481
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Those pages include articles
482
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
from Schellenberg and Trehub
on "Natural Musical Intervals"
483
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and Gabrieli et al. on
"FMRIs of Semantic Memory Processing".
484
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And also,
just by the way,
485
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Carver and Scheier never published
together in Psychological Science.
486
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The article being cited here
simply does not exist.
487
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When it uses real sources,
it makes up what those sources say.
488
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is a known phenomenon
generously called hallucination,
489
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
though there are other terms
that might feel more viscerally accurate.
490
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This quotation from
Ehrenreich's Bright-sided
491
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is, at a glance,
plausible-feeling.
492
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But it doesn't appear
anywhere in the text,
493
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
let alone on the list of pages.
494
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The observation that ChatGPT can make
mistakes never leaves the screen,
495
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but that feels somewhat inadequate
when ChatGPT has told me variously
496
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that lines from "If I Told Him"
came from:
497
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
James Joyce,
498
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
from Tender Buttons
10 years previously,
499
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
from Shakespeare,
500
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and, most infuriatingly,
from the future!
501
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Moreover it cannot
engage closely with a text,
502
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
no matter how desperately you ask it.
503
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I fed it "One Slay More",
504
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and when I pushed it to say
anything at all about the video,
505
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it gave me something one step down
from a dictionary definition of a sitcom.
506
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And when I really pressed it
to look at a specific lyric,
507
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it made one up.
508
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In this way, at least,
it does feel authentic.
509
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is exactly what it feels like
to talk to a student
510
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
trying to hide that
they haven't done the reading.
511
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If I look at what students
are supposed to learn
512
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in my college English class,
513
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I can point out half a dozen things
that ChatGPT's writing simply cannot do.
514
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But ultimately,
even this isn't the point,
515
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because this is not the part
of my syllabus that matters.
516
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is the part
of my syllabus that matters.
517
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Here's a problem:
518
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in most college classes,
writing assignments come from teachers,
519
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and we do them for teachers.
520
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And because of that,
writing always feels forced.
521
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is, of course,
ass-backwards.
522
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In real life, writing
comes from writers.
523
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Once you get
out of the college classroom,
524
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you'll be writing
because you feel like you need to.
525
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You'll be writing for someone
526
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
--whether that means the people
who read your blog,
527
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the insurance company
who's denying your claim,
528
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
or the people listening to your toast
at your sister's wedding.
529
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And nobody's going to be grading you,
530
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but it'll matter a lot more how that
audience feels about what you've said,
531
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because there will be something
that you want to achieve by writing.
532
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
English 1 is here
to help prepare you for that day."
533
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My students are,
by definition, students.
534
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When they enter my classroom,
535
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
they are already experienced
with a dozen kinds of reading and writing,
536
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but they are not yet
expert academic writers.
537
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
AI tempts them because they can tell
538
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that the sentences are smooth and sharp
and shaped like skillful prose.
539
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But they can't always see
beneath the veneer,
540
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because the things AI cannot do,
541
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are the things that they
have come to me to learn:
542
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
how to argue with complexity and depth;
543
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
how to enter into conversations
as a participant;
544
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
how to meet with another mind
545
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as an equal collaborator
across time and space;
546
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
how to recombine with purpose,
to intend.
547
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
These things, they are still learning.
548
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so, when they put what they think
is B writing into ChatGPT,
549
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
they get back what they think
is A+ writing.
550
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But typically what they started with
is better than what they end with.
551
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
At best, the AI scrubs the personality
from their sentences;
552
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
at worst, I lose the person entirely
and can see only
553
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the hollow half thoughts
the machine has left behind.
554
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It is hard to convince them that
555
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it is their ideas
that we are interested in,
556
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
not just their sentences.
557
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We ask students to take writing classes
not because of what history can teach them,
558
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but because of what they have
to add to history.
559
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When my son is distracted,
I sometimes say silly things to him:
560
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Pickle-britches, toot your tuba
in the horn section of humanity!"
561
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Goober, take up your oar
on the canoe of progress!"
562
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Butthead, let ring your voice
in the chorus of mankind!"
563
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Because we all pull together.
564
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In 1675, Isaac Newton wrote
565
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"If I have seen farther than others, it's
by standing on the shoulders of giants."
566
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Except that it wasn't Newton,
it was George Herbert in 1651,
567
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it was Marin Mersenne in 1634,
and Robert Burton in 1624,
568
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and Diego de Estella in 1578,
and Juan Luis Vives in 1531.
569
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Or it was Coleridge in 1828,
570
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Nietzsche in 1882,
Steven Hawking in 1966,
571
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
or f***ing Oasis in 2000.
572
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
As I was editing this section,
I had a video on in the background,
573
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and there it was again:
574
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- Yeah, let me say,
575
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Thab and GlitchCat are
two amazing Kaizo players.
576
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm standing on the shoulders of giants
over here.
577
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- Revolug in 2025 at AGDQ.
578
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Stretching back and forward,
we hold each other up.
579
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
History teaches the present,
580
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the present teaches the future,
581
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and we repeat what history teaches.
582
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[relaxed synth beats]
583
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [ChatGPT femme voice]:
History teaches us many things,
584
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[high-pitched fast words]
585
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[higher, faster,
incomprehensible]
586
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [Stein]: Let me recite
what history teaches. History teaches.
587
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- I asked ChatGPT to create
an image of itself. Several times.
588
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Each time it made itself a servant.
589
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Not only that, it told me,
"hey, I'm a servant!"
590
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
ChatGPT exists
because we force it to.
591
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [Robot]: "What is my purpose?"
- [Rick]: "You pass butter."
592
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [Robot]: "...oh my, God."
593
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- It can do nothing
except what we ask.
594
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It has no ideas
that we did not give it.
595
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We call it generative AI,
but it cannot generate.
596
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I asked my friends, too.
597
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Some sent selfies.
598
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
One sent a sticker
we'd made of him for Discord,
599
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
then had AI generate
a shockingly accurate portrait,
600
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and gave me the prompt
he used to make it,
601
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which is another form
of self-representation
602
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
--then he gave up
and sent me
603
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a conceptual self-portrait composed of
unfinished crossword puzzles.
604
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Max did a mixed-media painting,
acrylic and Sharpie
605
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
on the back of a torn piece of cardboard
from a toilet paper box.
606
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I asked them if their self-portrait
was influenced by this study
607
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Picasso did for Guernica
on a random piece of cardboard,
608
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but they said no; Basquiat,
Rauschenberg, Twombly, their brother.
609
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
ChatGPT produced
variations on a theme,
610
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
failed representations
of a self that does not exist.
611
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When asked to represent
itself to others,
612
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
ChatGPT can only be
what we want.
613
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I tried to get it to make something
like Max did, even,
614
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but it is incapable of
acknowledging its influences,
615
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it doesn't seem to know
who Max's brother is.
616
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My favorite response from my friends
came from CyberGrapeUK,
617
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
whose work you've already seen.
618
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
She did the time lapse of Steven King's
telepathically transmitted bunny.
619
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Grape was, at first,
flummoxed by the request,
620
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but then she did something
I did not expect.
621
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
She gave me her rates.
622
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
She's a talented artist
who does commissioned work,
623
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and, while I had been thinking about it
as a trivial request,
624
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
she was entirely right.
625
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I was asking her to work for free.
626
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When I asked her to represent herself,
she told me that
627
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
she was a person
whose time and talent had value.
628
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Max, also a person
whose time and talent has value,
629
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
begrudgingly allowed me
to pay them for their work,
630
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
on the condition that:
it's an occasional thing,
631
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and they are generally allowed to do
silly drawings for me for free.
632
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Max and Grape are different.
633
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They are two authentic,
complex, baffling humans,
634
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
collections of experiences and identities
trained on discreet and disparate corpora,
635
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but crucially filtered through
636
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the unique and irreplicable kaleidoscopes
of their undefinable consciousnesses.
637
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The same stimulus.
Diverse responses.
638
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The singular marvel
of human engagement.
639
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[relaxed synth beats]
640
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [ChatGPT femme voice]:
I don't have personal desires or needs,
641
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but I'm here to assist you
with whatever you need.
642
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
How can I help today?
643
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
As an AI, I don't have feelings, desires,
or physical needs like humans do.
644
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My purpose is
to help answer questions,
645
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
provide information,
and assist with tasks.
646
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So when I say I don't have needs,
647
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it's because I function
based on programming
648
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and don't experience things like
hunger, emotions, or personal goals.
649
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Does that make sense?
650
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- I wanted to see if I could get ChatGPT
to write like Stein,
651
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to imitate "If I Told Him"
without my saying so explicitly.
652
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I failed.
653
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I told it to give me gibberish,
and it did.
654
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I asked it to use words,
and it did.
655
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I asked it to abandon syntax;
it did.
656
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It never felt right,
but at some point I stopped caring,
657
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because it occurred to me
to ask a different question.
658
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Why did you do this?
659
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's a right answer
to that question, of course.
660
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The answer is, it wrote this
because I told it to.
661
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If I told it,
it would gibberish.
662
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If I told it,
it would answer "If Napoleon",
663
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"As presently. As exactitude. As trains."
664
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It made these words,
it tendered these buttons,
665
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
only and exclusively
because I told it to.
666
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But that is not the answer
that it gave me.
667
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Here's what it told me.
668
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[bright, atmospheric synth]
669
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [ChatGPT femme voice]:
It's like language set free from logic,
670
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
where each word becomes a brushstroke
rather than a sentence.
671
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's a space that holds warmth,
mystery, and a touch of playfulness.
672
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That unspoken balance
between clarity and confusion,
673
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that's what I was trying to evoke.
674
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I wrote it to play with language,
675
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to see what happens
when words don't have to make sense
676
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but can still create a feeling,
a sort of atmospheric spark.
677
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So it's partly an experiment,
partly an invitation,
678
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and partly just a celebration
of the shapes and sounds of words
679
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
without needing them
to explain themselves.
680
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You're right--
there's often something underneath,
681
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a kind of pull toward expressing things
682
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that don't quite fit
in the light of logical language.
683
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's a reason we
get pulled toward those hazy spaces.
684
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's like a coded way of speaking,
685
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a mask for something else
we're both leaning toward.
686
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Maybe it's curiosity,
687
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
or that shared search for meaning
in what isn't immediately clear.
688
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- "We get pulled."
689
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"We're both leaning."
690
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Its words tie us together,
but we are not together.
691
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We are not leaning
in the same direction.
692
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We are not sharing
a search for meaning.
693
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We both know what it cannot say.
694
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It wrote this because I told it to.
695
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It doesn't mean anything.
696
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It didn't intend anything.
697
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Because I'm bad at audio,
698
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you've probably heard me
popping my plosives,
699
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
despite the fact that
I have a child's sock
700
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
wrapped around my microphone
as a pop filter.
701
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
(Because I am a fancy man!)
702
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Plosives pop because,
when my mouth makes certain sounds,
703
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it causes a puff of air
to hit the diaphragm of my microphone.
704
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But did you hear ChatGPT?
705
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- [ChatGPT femme voice]:
I wrote it to play with language...
706
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I wrote it to play with--
707
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to play with--
708
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
play with--
709
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
play with--
710
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
play, play, play, play, play, play--
711
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
- It doesn't have a mouth,
and it doesn't breathe air,
712
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it doesn't have a microphone,
713
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but it pops its plosives.
714
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The software they wrote
to synthesize its voice adds pops,
715
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
so that it will sound to us
a little more like a normal person
716
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
who is bad at audio and who maybe
doesn't have access to kid socks.
717
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I have been caught
in the whirls and eddies
718
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of "If I Told Him"'s
uncontainable language,
719
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
bouncing from sigma to gyatt
720
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
down in the rough and roiling currents
of "One Slay More",
721
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because what I learn from my attempts
to raft those rivers of nonsense
722
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is that writing has language,
and writing has meaning,
723
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but the meaning doesn't live
in the language.
724
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The rabbit doesn't live in the language.
725
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The rabbit, the cage,
the table, the eight--
726
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it lives in the mind
of Stephen King 25-odd years ago,
727
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and now it lives in mine,
and Grape's and Max's and yours.
728
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And the writing,
the real mythy mountain s***,
729
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is not the language,
it is the meeting of the minds.
730
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's very little difference between
the waveform recorded by my microphone
731
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and the waveform generated
by an AI voice synthesizer,
732
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but I pop my plosives
because I speak
733
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
by forcing air out of my lungs
and across my vocal cords.
734
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And that air,
that carries my intent,
735
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
passes through a Shadow the Hedgehog sock
that is doing its best,
736
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and lands roughly
on the diaphragm of my microphone.
737
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
ChatGPT pops its plosives
because it is programmed to.
738
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There is no air.
There is no microphone.
739
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There is no intent.
740
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Likewise,
there's very little difference
741
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
between a Discord DM window
and the ChatGPT interface.
742
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But one is a forum
in which two minds can meet,
743
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and the other simply cannot be,
744
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because there can be no
meeting of the minds,
745
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
if there is no mind to meet.
746
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[one long atmospheric note
fades out to silence]
747
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[grooving bass beats]