Most artificial intelligence advances in technology add minor improvements to our lives in very specific areas. They might help you take a better photo, avoid traffic or predict what you might want to buy.
However, if you haven’t heard of the latest in artificial intelligence technology, GPT-3, then you’re in for a shock as there’s a strong chance it will soon impact your future. GPT-3 has the potential to change the world and will soon change the online landscape as we know it today.

So, what is GPT-3 exactly?

GPT-3 is a powerful autoregressive language model, which is a fancy name for an automatic content generation tool.
It was built by feeding gigabytes of quality content into a machine learning model, which ended up creating over 175 billion internal connections between words to mimic natural human language. These connections build up a digital representation of a brain that can then predict or create content based on just a few prompts.
Surpassing previous attempts at similar technology – and nearly succeeding the famous Turing Test already – GPT-3 has divided opinion, with people’s reactions to what GPT-3 can do ranging from “amazing” and “humbling” to, on the flip-side, “unsafe” and even “ugly“.
Originally created by the Open AI team, GPT-3 has recently been acquired by Microsoft who have full control over the tool and the data that drives it. However, governments are also making similar content tools, with China’s Wu Dao 2.0 boasting over 10 times the number of parameters than GPT-3 – certainly one to watch in the near future.

What can GPT-3 do?

Basically, GPT-3 can create content to fit any purpose or any narrative, in mere seconds, at a very low cost. After a little initial guidance on what to write, GPT-3 will keep a conversation going, based on what it’s learned previously.
Despite only being created in 2020, the number of potential use cases of GTP-3 has been staggering with many projects bearing fruit already:

  • Chatbots
  • Mimicking people (dead or alive)
  • Financial advice
  • Recipe generator
  • Joke generator
  • Regex maker
  • Sports commentator
  • Code in several languages
  • Fiction writing
  • Blog content

And wait – there’s even more! Impressively, the list continues:

  • Graph generation
  • Social media posts
  • Dynamic computer game dialogue
  • Essay writing
  • Meme generation
  • Graphic design
  • Front-end development
  • Artistic evaluation
  • Interactive voice calls
  • CV writing
  • Quiz maker

With the examples above, just imagine what ideas lay ahead for tools such as GPT-3…

The dangers of tools like GPT-3

The trouble with an automated tool as powerful as GPT-3 is that it can be used for many evil purposes, such as:

  • Essay writing – this has already been used by students and it bypasses current plagiarism checking tools
  • Content spam – whole websites can be made with automated content around a topic for black hat SEO
  • Social engineering – individuals can be hit with convincing, ultra-targeted content on platforms such as social media to condition them
  • Job replacement – certain jobs may be super-seeded with auto-generated code/content/creatives/etc.
  • Non-PC content – since the data behind GPT-3 might be based on people’s biases, this can easily be mirrored into outputs
  • Hacking – attacks on government systems or country infrastructure may easily be hacked by a creative, non-stop hacking bot
  • Impersonation – with the right data, you can easily mimic an individual’s way of communicating and pretend to be them online

Overview

GPT-3 presents an exciting future for whoever can wield its power – for good. In fact, if you fancy giving it a try, you can sign up here for free limited access whilst you can.
With content output getting more sophisticated and with some, including us at Hallam, exploring the potential adventures and challenges that AI-written content brings, one thing’s for sure – we’re not quite at a place where we, as humans, can fully step away from its output just yet. Not sure what I mean? I’ll leave you with a Christmas poem written by GPT-3 (thanks to our very own Oliver Fokerd):
Input:
Here’s a song I wrote about Christmas
Output:
Here’s a song I wrote about Christmas:
Christmas time, misteltoe and wine,
A time to be jolly, a time for giving,
A time to be with family and friends.
But I’m alone, and I’m all alone,
And I don’t have any friends.
I’m so sad, and I’m all sad.