In November 2022, OpenAI released a free research preview of ChatGPT, a large language model that identifies patterns in a vast collection of data to teach itself how to generate human-like responses to user prompts—a prediction machine for language.
The prediction power of artificial intelligence has already helped people map protein structures and coordinate planetary defence. It outperforms humans in the analysis of medical imaging. The efficiency and purported objectivity of algorithms also mean AI will be increasingly relied upon to prop up overburdened social systems and institutions facing a crisis of legitimacy (hence the dystopian horror of “predictive policing”). AI’s potential impact on humanity has been compared to that of electricity. Now, it is creating images, stories, and poems on an unprecedented scale.
