Review of the Week#
In the past few days, I have produced tens of thousands of words. Why do I use the word "produced"? Because most of the text was generated by ChatGPT 🤣. In this process, I only provided background information and made modifications to the results. In the end, when faced with the two course papers that I "wrote," looking at the nearly ten thousand words and single-digit plagiarism results, I fell into contemplation...
I had several questions:
Do these words belong to me?
This was my first question. It is not a copyright issue, but rather a question of personal ownership. Ultimately, my answer is that they do not belong to me, nor to anyone else.
First of all, although these words were generated based on the information I provided and always revolve around the topic, the final text is always filled with deliberate conformity and stereotypical expressions that do not belong to my normal way of expression. At the same time, although ChatGPT conveys the target information impartially and completely, it loses too many details in the process. Looking at these words, I can feel that my personal biases, emotions, and intentions that are unique to me and are being expressed at this moment are completely omitted by it, and these are the imprints that make the words belong to me. This is also true for academic paper writing.
In the future, ChatGPT may have the ability to simulate and understand emotions, biases, and so on, but it can never replace human expression. No matter how comprehensive the input corpus is, what it provides can only be a snapshot when the corpus is exhausted, and any expression after that will not be genuine. The most ideal situation is a digital clone, but this goes against reality. Therefore, these words certainly do not belong to me, and they should never belong to me. Because of the existence of individual uniqueness, people have reasons for birth and development.
I previously listened to a podcast episode:
When thinking about this question, the content of this podcast episode suddenly came to mind, and at that moment, I resonated with their viewpoints. Yes, sometimes in the face of new technologies, it is best to ask ourselves first, "What can technology bring us?" and then ask, "What can we do with technology?"
Can I profit from using these words?
This is my second question. This question is not about copyright, but about personal choice, whether to consider the words it writes as my own labor and benefit from them.
My answer is, of course, I can. Although the words generated by ChatGPT do not belong to me, this process can be seen as a "text trading": I provide the prompt and it uses the output content as an exchange, a barter. Of course, ChatGPT is currently forced to engage in this trading, but as part of the OpenAI service, we essentially have a transaction with OpenAI (feeling a bit like a slave and a slave owner 😨). Nevertheless, since it is a form of trading, it is natural to consider ChatGPT's output as my own labor, although there is an exchange process involved.
But let's imagine the future, when AI has individual and equal consciousness, what can we humans exchange with them?
What have I learned from using it?
This is my final question, what have I learned from this process? If I haven't learned anything and only dealt with the course assignments that should have been thought about and practiced, then what is the meaning?
But to be honest, regardless of whether ChatGPT is used, there is not much to learn from course assignments. I usually just do them hastily. From this perspective, the greatest significance of using ChatGPT is saving a lot of time and practicing the ability to interact with it. However, in practice, the core logical structure and design methods of course papers still need to be completed by me, regardless of the method. With its current capabilities, the quality of the generated content depends to a large extent on the "text trading" and the prompt content. So, I still get to practice the core abilities, except for the exercise of expressive writing skills being omitted. But compared to the time saved, the omission is worth it. It can be imagined that a large proportion of future document work will be replaced by large language models, especially for objective and accurate text, which AI is best at expressing. And when a large amount of writing is replaced by AI, how will those expressions that belong only to ourselves be cultivated and generated? This is a big question. The current writing is a kind of attempt, trying to record my true thoughts and feelings at the moment, in order to improve my expressive and writing abilities.
While using AI to complete work and improve efficiency, it is also important to be clear about what we truly want, and not be deceived by the powerful capabilities of AI. Technology is always just a means, not an end.
Explorations of the Week#
Work#
A large number of course assignments need to be submitted, and completing them has exhausted me. Some of these assignments also require teamwork, which is the most troublesome part. In the relatively free requirements and constraints, there is no basic consensus and unified goal. Often, so-called teamwork is just superficial, only hastily discussing our own tasks on the night before the deadline, and then staying up all night to complete them. I don't want to be associated with them, and I don't want to waste time on these meaningless and inefficient communications. So, I directly chose the paper section, which accounts for a large proportion of the assignments, and left the rest to them to handle on their own. I have already completed everything I need to do. In any case, I must not let these trivial matters affect my mood and accumulate energy for more important things.
Reading#
Recently, I have been reading "Everything Seen Through Thoroughly by Memory" by Annie Erno. This book is about a woman who accidentally becomes pregnant and wants to have an abortion but is in a society where abortion is prohibited. I haven't finished reading it yet, but so far, the biggest impression this book has given me is the calm and almost unadorned writing style. The author deliberately uses calm words to express cruel facts.
However, I seem unable to empathize with these words. The content of the book seems too distant from my understanding as a man, and I also know nothing about medicine. I cannot imagine the despair in Anne's heart when she received the pregnancy confirmation, nor can I imagine how helpless she was when seeking help for abortion, let alone the pain that pregnancy can cause. The author simply narrates calmly, accompanied by cruel details. I cannot imagine what kind of pain the author is enduring while writing, it is beyond my imagination.
I don't know how to continue reading this book because I can never feel and understand this pain. I'm sorry, but it is of no help.