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The rise of ChatGPT | How far are we willing to go?
When asked what industries ChatGPT could disrupt, David Nguyen, the Edson W. Spencer Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the U of M said, “Possibly all.”
MINNEAPOLIS — We’ve seen the movie before — artificial intelligence sounds and acts like a human but has superhuman capabilities.
Suddenly, this sci-fi, tech tipping point is here…at least the prototype.
In November, San Francisco-based OpenAI launched its latest version of the chatbot called ChatGPT (the GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer). Within two months, the program had 30 million users, according to The New York Times. By contrast, it took Instagram about a year to get 10 million users.
This chatbot can converse like a human. It can write original poetry, essays, computer code and much more, all as if it were human. Not only can it handle mundane questions like Siri or Alexa, but it also computes deeply thoughtful answers to complex questions, which has impressed literary scholars.
When asked what industries this type of AI could disrupt, David Nguyen, the Edson W. Spencer Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota, replied, “I don’t know. Possibly all.”
ChatGPT is not alive. It doesn’t feel or think. Coding experts say it’s pattern matching. When you give it a prompt, the app scrubs through all the data and literature it’s been given, weighing the most appropriate answer word by word, and mimics the way a human would write it.
Not too different from the way your smartphone guesses the next word you want to write in a text, but on a much higher computational level.
“When you think about chatbots like, ‘Hey Chris, how’s it going? You want to do this?’ We text back and forth. But with ChatGPT, you can ask it things like, ‘Write me a 600-word essay on the nature of life,’ and it will do it,” said Nguyen.
In recent months, media company CNET revealed it used AI to write a bunch of financial news articles, but they were plagued with errors and plagiarism that needed heavy human editing, according to the company.
Buzzfeed announced its intent to use AI for personalized quizzes and other content.
At the same time, all public schools in New York City banned ChatGPT from school devices and Wi-Fi networks.
But instead of shunning it at the University of Minnesota, law school professors put it to the test. They gave ChatGPT four law exams comprising 95 multiple-choice questions and 12 essays, and then they blindly graded the tests.
It made mistakes, the professors said, but passed all four exams, with a C+ average.
“There were no typos, perfect grammar, a solid organization,” said John Choi, an assistant professor at the U of M Law School. “What did it do poorly on? Generally, what we think of as core legal skills. So, the ability to spot potential legal problems. The ability to do deep analysis. Those kinds of things ChatGPT really struggled with.”
Across the river at the U’s school of journalism, professor Scott Libin started making assignments more specific. There’s talk among faculty of even bringing back handwritten assignments because of ChatGPT, he said.
“[Students] are talking about it; not so much to me,” said Libin. “In teaching, I think part of the response has to be to craft assignments with a little bit more sophistication.”
“What’s ChatGPT really capable of?” Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, asked in a tweet. “ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness. It’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now.”
Artificial intelligence like ChatGPT appears to be able to answer almost any question you throw at it, but the real question moving forward is: How far are we willing to let it go?
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On the eve of a big holiday event in downtown Northfield, someone cut down a tree in the center of town. It wasn’t down for long.
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — On the morning of the annual Winter Walk event in downtown Northfield, the brightly colored Christmas tree at the center of it all was in shambles.
“I got a text from one of the city streets guys saying the Grinch has been downtown and took out a tree,” said Jane Bartho, president of the Northfield Chamber of Commerce and Tourism. “I’m like, are you sure the wind didn’t take it out?”
After seeing a photo of the tree, Bartho had a definitive answer to her question.
Jane Bartho: “Yeah, clearly it was not the wind. It looked like a chainsaw took it off. You could see a path where somebody dragged the tree across the street.”
Kent Erdahl: “So you see the path and then you think, ‘Okay, it is the Grinch.’
Bartho: “It was the Grinch because who else? Who else would do it? I just can’t imagine. I cannot imagine who… who would have done that.”
But dwelling in ‘who?’ville wasn’t an option for Bartho, not with a event just hours away, which would draw thousands of people into downtown.
“Honestly, most of my focus yesterday was about the event,” she said.
Though the city crew was able to trim the base of the tree and get it upright again, the decorations were in disrepair.
“I mean, even the lights were cut,” Bartho said.
“Yeah, they cut the lights,” said Zandra Bornhauser, who was part of the team with Home Town Credit Union who sponsored the tree and had decorated it. “So we had to redecorate it fully, pretty much.”
“We were just shocked,” said Kurt Halverson, who helped with the tree repair. “It was just hard to understand who would take the effort on such a cold night to come down here in such a public space and cut down something that’s just meant to be a symbol of good and cheer.”
Thanks to their quick work, the team of helpers made sure that Grinch didn’t rob anyone of that cheer. The tree was back shining bright by the time the festival began Thursday night.
“It was magical,” Bartho said.
“It was so inspiring to see how everybody rallied around to wish us good luck in re-setting up the tree,” Halverson said. “It really did bring the community closer together on such a cold evening.”
As for the cold-hearted grinch, Bartho says they’re still checking security cameras and asking around.
“To see if anybody was looking out,” she said. “If anybody saw anything.”
And if they are eventually identified?
Bartho: “Maybe the punishment would have to be to decorate the tree every year in this frigid weather.”
Erdahl: “If you’re going to keep with the theme, you’ve got to invite them down and sing with them, right? You’ve got to warm that cold heart.”
Bartho: “At the end, yeah, his heart was warmed by the people in his life, so maybe the punishment would be to come down and have hot chocolate, feel the Christmas spirit and never do that again.”
Almost 80 percent reported that they have less than a year before they face financial distress.
MINNESOTA, USA — Despite Give to the Max Day breaking donation records, nonprofits tell us they still need help to keep up the demand for their services.
According to a recent survey by the Council of Nonprofits, 73 percent of Minnesota organizations reported they have grown programs and services to meet the demands of Minnesotans.
Almost 80 percent reported that they have less than a year before they face financial distress.
Open Arms is a nonprofit that delivers food to critically ill people. It said December is a crucial month for donations, because they will make decisions on their programs and services for the next year.
“Wages and the cost of ingredients have gone up 30% since the end of COVID or the end of the COVID years, and so that is really, really hard on all nonprofits,” said CEO Leah Hébert Welles. “And then the second thing, government funds have dried up.”
“It’s almost kind of like the way that the tide works and a big body of water where there is still significant need, but that wave of resources from 2020 has backed up, and the need for nonprofits is still right there,” said Jake Blumberg, the executive director of GiveMN, the organization in charge of Give to the Max Day.
Blumberg says 30% of donations for nonprofits happen in the last six weeks of the year.
“We have to make really hard decisions about what we can do next year, how many more people we can help, how many more staff we can hire,” said Welles,
To consider donation or volunteering to Open Arms of Minensota, click here.
To explore more nonprofits, visit GiveMN.org.
According to the report, the BPPD said Andre Lane has been missing since 11 a.m. this morning.
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — The Brooklyn Park Police Department is asking for the public to help find a missing man who has Alzheimer’s.
According to the alert, the BPPD said 57-year-old Andre Lane has been missing since 2 p.m. this afternoon.
He stands at 5’9″ and weighs roughly 250 pounds. Lane suffers from Alzheimer’s and dementia and may not be able to take care of himself, said the BPPD.
Lane was last seen wearing grayish-blue Levi’s jacket, black hat, black sweatpants, a gray long sleeve t-shirt and black Jordan shoes, according to the report.
Officials believe Lane left his residence, near the 6600 block of Tessman Terrace, on foot. The BPPD is asking people who live near Tessman Farm Road/85th Avenue North to check yards and properties.
Anyone who sees Lane is asked to contact the Brooklyn Park Police Department at 763-493-8222.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
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