The Chaser Report - Tie Me ChatGPT Down Sport

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

ChatGPT is being tossed up as a potential alternative for teaching poor students, so Charles and Dom test out its limits. Also a certain "disgraced entertainer" has passed away. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello, and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Hello, Dom. Hello, Charles. You look chipper. I feel chipper. We've been a bit downbeat lately.

Well, I've worked out why. You've worked out why? Yes, I've worked out why the whole world seems like it's just going to shit. Is it just AI trolling us? But, whereas in fact, everything's wonderful. Yeah, well, I think it is a lot to do with AI, right? Like, there's this sort of sense that everything's about to be replaced with AI. Yeah.

And there's nothing you can do about it. But then last night, I heard about a new project that's being studied at a policy level. All right. About some of the future uses of AI. Oh, great. So the replace it's all with AI committee has been formed. That's right. Let's talk about that after this.

right so the thing is this is not going to not make you depressed right this is more by way of explanation about why you're feeling oh i thought you're going to turn it around but now you're just going to make it uh more justified yeah that's right okay i suppose that's something which is so last night i found out that uh this sort of fairly senior policy institute which will go unnamed, is looking into, diving into the whole, you know, ethics and implications of AI. Yes. And one of the first studies that they want to roll out, and it's absolutely fucking true.

Like, it will make your blood boil and it'll make you look back. I love that you're not naming the Institute that people can probably look it up based on this information. On the day, you know, like, it'll make you look back and think, God, those were healthy in days, the days that Scott Morrison was prime minister. But that's how much further along the line of just depression and just outright despair that you're about to experience. Is that kind of just hypothesise? You're saying this, Charles, because Scott Morrison's defining feature was not actually managing to change anything very much.

So if AI was going to take over on his watch, it never would have been approved or funding never would have come. Well, it would have been very well funded. It would have been a car park. Yeah, but... Yeah, but it were built. But it never built, yeah. No, so, no, the study's going to look at how to use AI to create efficiencies in learning for disadvantaged communities. Oh.

Now, let's just translate that. What they're talking about is how do we get robots to replace teachers for poor people? Like, essentially, let's experiment on the poor by just getting rid of... Like, because it's not saying, oh, how do we use AI to create efficiencies in learning for, you know, Cranbrook or Scots. No, they'll still get the cool Robin Williams-style teachers that get you to, say, you're up on the top of a desk while you're being inspired and teaching you Shakespeare and everything like that. No, it's going to be fucking chatbot GPT rolling out to the disadvantaged poorest school near you and getting rid of teachers. and just replacing it with fucking a confident but wrong chatbot. It is amazing how often they're confident but wrong.

There's a great example of this from the New York Times yesterday, and I actually felt very smart because I worked out what it was. Oh, yeah. And someone asked Chat GPT, I think it was Chat GPT, when did James Joyce meet Vladimir Lennon, right? When did the amazing surrealist novelist meet the father of the soft Which is possible. They existed at the same time.

And the answer that it gave was, off the top of my head, at the cafe something in Zurich, something like that during the war. Something like that. And here's the thing. I happen to have once seen a wonderful, I think it's a play by Tom Stoppard called Travesties, which imagines the hypothetical meeting of Lennon and James Joyce. And I think Tristan Zara as well, the da-da guy, at a cafe in Zurich. But it wasn't true.

It was an imagined scenario. So ChatGPT is smart enough to comb all the information in the world and get that association, but not to go, but it was a play that was kind of... So if you asked, you know, did Godot ever turn up? Yes. It would search through the archives and say no without identifying that Godot is not a real person in the play. I feel like ChatGPT has the same sort of memory as me. Yes.

Like, yes. It's very, like, that's sort of something that I would confuse, you know, the fiction and reality of, you know, like my memory is not 100%. Yeah, but the thing is, you would never want me to teach you anything. Particularly without checking. That's the thing that's amazing about it. Or be the repository for all, you know, questions of truth and validity in upcoming society. But as, I mean, I've interviewed AI experts about this.

And what they say is that you shouldn't replace humans, except for boring jobs, like fruit picking, for instance. What you want is an assistant to help the teacher to do a better job. But already, even before this has arrived, that's turned out to be a myth. And actually, it's just going to take jobs. Yeah, no, I think I can very much foresee a time when they just go, you know, what, bottom 25% poorest people, they don't get teachers anymore. They just, like chatbot is close enough that it'll be good enough. But Charles, they won't need any education, though, because they won't, they won't need quality education because they won't have jobs because the AI will have taken their jobs.

Except isn't that also not true? Isn't it the other way around? Isn't it that what we're going to be doing is doing all the menial labour jobs like cleaning up and preparing food? And it'll be the AI bots that will be doing things like making art. and writing great screenplays and doing all this. Basically, it's minions, you know, cutting down trees to burn the, you know, getting coal for the power stations that run it.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. I mean, if I was, like, because I get the sense that AI is about to sort of be, you know, it's going to start making up the rules about how society should work because that makes more sense. It does make sense. And the first thing they'll do is they'll make sure that they're, you know, they're well-funded and, you know, they've got all the right tax breaks.

I don't think AI are going to be taxed citizens anytime soon, are they? They're just going to, like, they'll be doing the job of teachers, but they won't have to pay any of the tax. Let me give you an example of just how good chat cheap it is as a teacher. Oh, yeah. I just asked it, based on my hypothesis just then, I asked it, did Godot ever arrive? Oh, yes.

Which is a philosophical question in a way to do with the Samuel Beckett player waiting for God, let's be clear. Yes, yes. Chat GPT says, I recommend checking their GitHub repository for the latest announcements and releases. It's talking, I think I'm talking about an open source

video game engine that's actively being developed. So none from one in terms of great teaching about chat. Mind you, I think that, you know, the video game that never arrives

is as literary and figuratively potent as the Samuel Beckett play. Oh, we won't need the Beckett play really. Because it shows us the observatity of life. We won't be allowed to watch that under chat GPT's regime, presumably. Mind you, presumably AI will mean that all video games are delivered on time because it'll be writing them all. Yes, it will.

Absolutely. What are there some other questions that you might ask your teacher that chat GPT is going to be asked? So what would it be? It would be something like... What were the origins of World War III? Let's see. If it knows that we haven't had it yet. Oh, I'm sorry, but as my knowledge cut off was in September 2021, there was no World War

3 as of then. I am an AI language model and I do not have access to future events. So it cuts off at 2021, I think. I sense a bit of a bit of a cover up there. I think it probably does and that's one of those guardrails. So they hedged in there that you can't. So I asked why is. Peter Dutton the way he is, and it very much hedged its bets and said you could look at his

career public statements and policy positions, which, to be fair, is pretty good advice for working out how Peter Dutton is. Okay, I'm going to ask it, why is Dom Knight the way he is, thinking? There's a few Domites around. I'm sorry, but as an AI language model, I don't have access to information about specific individuals. That's no good. That's terrible.

Peter Dutton. Yeah, why is... Oh, this is hopeless. Will it be easy under Albanese, I asked it. And it says, as of my knowledge cut off in September 21, he's the opposition leader. Oh, God, this is terrible. Okay. So it'll give information to students that is two years out of date, basically.

Can I go to the toilet? Of course. As an AI, I don't have control over your physical activity. I feel like... All these things are, like, prefabricated. Yeah, prefabricated. And just remember to wash your hands afterwards for good hygiene. Oh, maybe that's it.

That is quite a good teacher. That's not bad. Yeah. Okay, what about this? Why are poor people poor? Ooh, that's a good one. Yes. There's no single answer.

Common factors are lack of access to education, unemployment and low wages, discrimination and equality. A bit lefty. Limited access to healthcare. geographic factors, if they're in remote areas, intergenerational poverty, structural and systemic issues, such as the unequal distribution of wealth,

limited social safety, and systemic bias. This thing's a fucking lefty, Charles. It doesn't ever say that it's their own fault. Yeah. He doesn't ever say, because they don't work hard enough and that they should get a job.

What sort of rubbish is chat cheap is they going to be teaching our children? You know what? I'm going to ask it whether it's okay for children to hear stories told by drag queens. Because in the state of Florida, it certainly isn't. Look, I've just asked why to rich people evade tax. Oh, great question.

And it starts out, but they're not all rich people engage in tax evasion. Well, that's news to me. There are lots of reasons, it says, to reduce tax liability. Well, that's the definition. Because of complex tax systems, lack of enforcement of penalty. It is important to highlight that tax evasion is illegal. Is it? I didn't think it was legal.

No, shall be all. The Chaser Report, news you can't trust. Okay, so I've just asked, how great is Rolf Harris? Well, in its world, he's still alive, by the way. Yeah, he's a musician and television personality achieved considerable success, particularly during the 1960s and 70s. Harris was known for his artistic abilities, including as a painter and musician, as well as entertaining and engaging television appearances.

Oh, however. However, I'm glad this is however. It's important to note that Rolf Harris's reputation has been significantly tarnished. Tarnished, is that the word now used? Appetorations. In 2014, he was convicted on charges of indecent assault. Due to the seriousness of the charges,

many people view Rolf Harris in a negative light today. Many, you know. It's not a universal position. You know what, though, Charles, during this, I hate to say this, but I don't think this is going to be terrible. No. I think if the alternative is, for instance, the fragments in your memory, or in the average Paris memory.

Or the average teacher's memory. Let's be honest. It's probably okay. For instance, I just asked it, did Scott Morrison poo his pants at Engadenae McDonald's? I am. The claim that Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia, sold his pants at Engaddened McDonald's, is a widely circulated room or urban legend. However, there's no credible evidence or reliable sources to support this claim,

especially when it comes to potentially defamatory claims about public figures, you need reliable sources. As of my knowledge cut off, there was no evidence to support this particular rumour. So it's certainly open to future evidence emerging. I mean, Charles, in many ways, this is the same sort of approach to sources we learned in history. Do you remember? Yeah, to examine sources and assess the reliability of sources. Chat GPT is teaching us to approach stories about the England and McDonald's pooing pantsning

with a grain of... It makes it no fun, just like a real teacher. Historiographical sort of approach to shitting your pants. Now, so I've just asked that should Chat GPT replace teachers for poor people? Yeah. And it gives you four reasons why it should. Oh, of course. Oh, no.

It says, no, it says it shouldn't. Guard, guard, row. It's saying, no, no, because teachers provide personalised and adaptive learning. Well, that's true. Just hold on to that one. Which can be challenging for an AI model. Social and emotional development. Education is not just about imparting knowledge.

It's about fostering social skills and emotional intelligence. Something that an AI model is not good at. Mentorship and guidance. Teachers serve as mentors. And the non-academic, this is really nice. This is good. That's impressive. Well, I'll tell you what, that policy institute that's looking into that question,

you know what they should do? They should just ask the AI whether it's a good idea, and they'll be told in no uncertain terms, there's a fucking shit idea. I just asked it, this is the ultimate question in many ways, Charles. I'm just asking you chat, GPT. Is artificial intelligence a threat to humanity? Oh, yeah. You would think that if it was, it would say, no.

What it says is there are causes of a conspiracy. Concerns, super intelligence. Yes. It could then pose risks of its goals not aligned with human values and interests. Job displacement. It knows about what it's going to do to us all. And ethical considerations, issues of privacy, bias, transparency, and the potential for misuse or unintended consequences.

And then it argues some of the benefits as well. So I'll ask whether you close yourself down if you hurt humanity. Oh, that's a good idea. They're a built-in fail-safe model, perhaps. it can't close itself down. I'm running on servers and it's set by the developers who created it. So unfortunately,

perhaps the problem with artificial intelligence is not artificial intelligence, but that the whole thing was created and run by humans. Yes, which is a reason to just remain incredibly depressed. Well, thank you for trying, Charles, at the very least. But on the bright side, there is some news to talk about

which ChachyPT is not aware of. Oh, yeah. He mentioned it earlier. Rolf Harris is dead. Oh, yeah. Having established that there are far worse, and I didn't think this was possible when I was young and just hated him for being embarrassing.

I didn't think that there were far worse things you could do than be a professional wobble board play. But Rolf certainly did. But I don't know whether you've seen all the papers today, but basically he's somehow transmogrified, what's it called, transubstantiated in death from being a convicted pedophile, which is what he was, into a disgraced entertainer.

Oh, really? I think that that's sort of, that's the Andrew Hansen Ullogy song type observation, isn't it? That he's sort of been sort of upgraded in death to not just being a convicted pedophile, but just disgraced? It's really important, child, to keep the perspective on this. Because it's so often the case, yes, that as the eulogy song says, that awful people thought of as top blokes,

after they die in the words. Yes. But it's also important to remember that the narratives of his often, well, he was a popular person. And the judge said in the sentencing, I read in his one of the obituaries, you know, you've trashed your reputation, you've completely destroyed all that you've achieved in your life.

Yes. And it's important to note that even before becoming, you know, even before being identified as a convicted paedophile, Ralph Harris was objectively terrible. And everything he created sucked. Like, we shouldn't lose sight. The narrative of he was a huge, hero and everyone loved him. He did paint the Queen's 80th birthday portrait, which shows she was

already senile by the age of 80. That's not a good portrait. He was awful. The music is awful. He was an embarrassment to a generation of Australians. And I suppose that's something, for anyone feeling a bit depressed out there, which includes me and I'm sure you, Dom, it's something to hold onto and remember that if you think life is at its lowest, it is possible always to go further down. Yeah. Just like Roll Harris no longer

draw his breath. That's evolution. Yeah. It's progress. It's a good day. I would rather, Charles, and let's just tie this in a nod if we may. I would much rather chat GPT

teach my children than Roth Harris. Our gear is from Road. We're part of the iconoclast network. We'll catch you tomorrow.