Honey, I unnerved the AI

The author

Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.

There is currently a lot of talk about the chat software ChatGTP, which in turn is capable of speaking on all sorts of topics and can write texts about anything in a matter of seconds. It is a creation of the software company Open AI, in which Elon Musk also has a stake.

The software has been fed with knowledge and texts from all over the world. It is already being discussed whose job could be taken over by the program in the future. Because anything you can type on a keyboard, ChatGTP types faster and better. There is no question that it will soon be able to replace columnists.

I wanted to try this program, I would at least like to know who is snatching my job away from me. So I typed into the chat line: “Write a column in the style of Tillmann Prüfer”. After a few seconds, ChatGTP presented me with a text:

“As humans, we have always been fascinated by the concept of time. We measure it, we try to control it, and we often feel like it’s slipping away from us. But what actually is time? Is it just a human construct or is there more to it? In the words of the great physicist Albert Einstein, ‘Time is what clocks measure’. This may seem like a simple statement, but it contains a deep truth. Time is not an absolute, immutable quantity.”

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That was certainly correct. But was that a column in my style? I wondered how the AI ​​came up with this, and I typed, “What do you know about Tillmann Prüfer?” The program informed me that it was a language model, didn’t have the ability to search the web, and therefore nothing about Tillmann Prüfer could say he was sorry. That almost sounded a bit goofy.

Read more columns by Tillmann Prüfer here:

Well, I think being able to do research on the internet would be helpful if you want to write columns. I asked the language model how it came about ‘writing a text about time when it was asked about Tillmann Prüfer’.

The AI ​​replied: “In this case, I was asked to write a column in the style of Tillmann Prüfer, but I have no information about Tillmann Prüfer or his writing style. So, with my general knowledge and the language style I had acquired, I generated a column on the subject of ‘time’. I apologize if the resulting text does not match Tillmann Prüfer’s writing style.”

That sounded a bit passive-aggressive, a lot annoyed. I asked a few more questions, but the program responded with error messages or the message that it was too busy at the moment and that I should try again later. It really turned me off. Apparently it didn’t want to write any more columns in the style of Tillmann Prüfer. I think I just saved my job.

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