Last week, the New York Times reported on a strange phenomenon. A number of ChatGPT users believe that the generative AI model is giving them access to intelligent entities. These users, many of them smart and technologically literate, are not merely speaking metaphorically. Some are earnestly convinced that the chatbot is a window to other realms.
Needless to say, ChatGPT is not intelligent. It has no mind, no soul, no intention. It is a statistical pattern-completion engine trained to echo the forms of human speech. Nevertheless, the chatbot is a powerful tool of simulated intelligence, and therein lies its enchantment—and the source of confusion.
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