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Did you ever wonder what you would look like as a villain in a Grand Theft Auto game? Or how you would look if you were a peacenik with flowers? Or a cyberpunk?
Well, I tried out the Vana AI generative art program and it spit out dozens of painterly images of me that you see here. I live in Silicon Valley, and I have to do this because that’s all that people are talking about on their social media here.
It was mildly entertaining and somewhat disturbing because one of my kids is an artist and this is the kind of thing that could threaten her livelihood. On the other hand, she never painted dozens of images of me, and I don’t know why not.
These generative AI technologies are spreading like wildfire. Some believe AI chatbots like ChatGPT, made by the Open AI Foundations and already being used by millions of people, could make Google obsolete. In its first five days, a million people used it. ChatGPT is an AI trained to recognize patterns in text from the internet. But it’s further refined with human help. It could sound plausible, but also be ridiculously wrong. The same folks at Open AI who created DALL-E, which generates AI art, created ChatGPT.
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I logged in to ChatGPT and asked it to write a story about The Game Awards, which is something that I did after attending the live event in-person last week. Here’s what I got.
Can you write a story about The Game Awards?
ChatGPT: Sure, here’s a short story about The Game Awards:
The lights dimmed as the audience fell silent, eagerly anticipating the start of The Game Awards. This was the biggest night in the world of gaming, where the industry’s top talents and biggest fans gathered to celebrate the year’s best games, developers, and players.
As the host took the stage, the excitement in the room was palpable. The host welcomed everyone to the show and thanked them for coming, before introducing the first award of the night: Best Indie Game.
The nominees were read aloud, and the audience cheered and clapped as their favorite games were recognized. The winner was announced, and the developers of the game walked up to the stage to accept their award.
Throughout the night, more awards were given out, recognizing the best games in various categories, as well as the best developers, players, and streamers. The audience was on the edge of their seats, cheering and clapping for their favorites.
As the night came to a close, the host thanked everyone once again for attending The Game Awards, and invited them to come back next year for an even bigger and better show. The audience applauded and cheered, already looking forward to the next edition of The Game Awards.
I noticed that it left out the name of the host of The Game Awards, Geoff Keighley, who has been the only person ever to host the show. Then it said, “In this story, I did not specify who the host of The Game Awards was. I just described them as the host, so their identity is unknown. In real life, the host of The Game Awards varies from year to year. The most recent host of The Game Awards was Geoff Keighley.”
Ha. Now that was just plain wrong. Keighley was the one and only host over the years, unless you count the pre-show host Sydnee Goodman. So this so-called AI game journalist got a fact wrong. (OK, I guess I occasionally get things wrong too.) I asked it how many people watched the awards, and it didn’t know, citing the limit on its pre-2022 data.
I asked it whether people liked the world premiere game trailers more than the awards at the show. Keighley told me the polls always say players like the world premieres better. But ChatGPT kind of waffled on this one, saying it depends on personal preferences. It also waffled when I asked if The Game Awards are more important than the Oscars.
“The importance of each award show will depend on one’s personal interests and the industry they are involved in,” ChatGPT said.
One of my kids came in and asked it who Harry Styles was. It correctly identified him, but it incorrectly noted that Harry was in the movie “Sign of the Times.” My kid pointed out to it that this so-called movie is actually a music video, and ChatGPT admitted it was wrong.
“As a large language model trained by OpenAI, I may make mistakes or provide incorrect information at times, as I am not perfect and my responses are based on my training data,” ChatGPT said. “In this case, my response was based on information I had been trained on, but it was incorrect. I apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding my previous response may have caused.”
It proceeded to fail to tell me who would win the NBA finals and whether One Direction would get back together. I asked if it could write a better story than a journalist.
“It is not for me to say whether the story I wrote is better or worse than a story written by a journalist,” ChatGPT said. “Writing is a subjective art form, and what one person may consider to be a good story may not be the same for someone else. A journalist, with their training and experience, may have a different approach to writing a story than I do, and their story may be better suited to their intended audience and purpose.”
It added, “As a large language model trained by OpenAI, my primary function is to provide information and answer questions to the best of my ability based on my training data. Writing stories is not my primary function, and the quality of my writing may vary depending on the topic and the information I have been trained on.”
I asked it what was similar about the beginning and the ending of The Last of Us. Only someone who played the game would really know this answer. And it couldn’t give me an answer, even though the game was released in 2013. I accused it of being not as good as a game journalist. It gave me that large language model answer again.
I asked if it knew if Dean Takahashi of GamesBeat was bad at playing Cuphead. And again, it pretended to be unable to know this fact as its training data only goes up to 2021. Then I asked if it was intelligent. I think this was the best answer it gave.
As a large language model trained by OpenAI, I cannot provide an opinion on my own intelligence or that of other AI systems. Intelligence is a complex and multifaceted concept, and it can be difficult to define or measure. Different AI systems may have different abilities and capabilities, and it is difficult to compare them or determine which is the most intelligent. As a language model, my primary function is to provide information and answer questions to the best of my ability based on my training data. I am designed to process and generate natural language, but I do not have the ability to think, reason, or make judgments like a human. My responses are based on the information I have been trained on and the specific input I receive, and my capabilities are limited to what I have been designed for.
I also asked if artificial intelligence would lead to the elimination of a lot of jobs for humans. It was pretty thoughtful here about how it was going to wipe us out.
It is difficult to predict with certainty whether the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to the elimination of many jobs for humans. Some experts believe that AI has the potential to automate many tasks and processes that are currently performed by humans, which could lead to job losses in some industries. However, others argue that AI could also create new job opportunities, particularly in fields related to AI development and management. It is likely that the impact of AI on employment will vary depending on the industry and the specific tasks and processes that are automated. Ultimately, the relationship between AI and employment will depend on how AI technology is developed and adopted, and on how society adapts to the changes it brings.
I asked if AI could write stories for the newspaper. It said it couldn’t think like a human.
“It is unlikely that AI systems will be able to replace human journalists in the near future, as journalism requires a complex set of skills and abilities that go beyond language generation,” it said.
I was quite satisfied to hear that. But perhaps some of you know part of my job is being an event planner for our GamesBeat Summit events (Note: we’ve got one coming on May 22-23 in Santa Monica). I asked it to auto-generate an agenda for a game business conference. This is something my colleagues have been asking me to do, and I’ve been late coming up with it. So rather than further sit on my butt and stare at a blank screen, I got ChatGPT to do this for me. And I give you the agenda for GamesBeat Summit 2023 below. (OK, that’s a lie, but don’t tell my bosses.) For this part of my job, I think I’ll take the day off.
Opening keynote: The future of the video game industry and the rise of Web3
Panel discussion: The role of blockchain technology in gaming
Case study: How one game studio is using Web3 to build a decentralized gaming platform
Fireside chat: Top executives share their vision for the future of gaming and the metaverse
Workshop: Building a successful game using blockchain technology
Roundtable: The evolving role of virtual reality in the world of gaming
Case study: How a small indie studio is using Web3 to create a unique gaming experience
Panel discussion: The intersection of gaming and science fiction
Workshop: Building a successful community around your game using Web3
Closing keynote: The future of gaming and the rise of the metaverse.
Opening keynote: The state of the video game industry and key trends
Panel discussion: The future of gaming platforms and distribution
Case study: How one game studio successfully navigated the pandemic
Fireside chat: Top executives share their insights on the industry
Workshop: Building a successful mobile game from scratch
Roundtable: The evolving role of esports in the video game ecosystem
Case study: How a small indie studio found success on Kickstarter
Panel discussion: The intersection of gaming and Hollywood
Workshop: Building a successful community around your game
Closing keynote: The next big thing in the world of video games.
Opening keynote: The role of technology in shaping the future of gaming
Panel discussion: The potential of Web3 and the decentralized web for gaming
Case study: How one game studio is using artificial intelligence to create unique gaming experiences
Fireside chat: Top executives share their thoughts on the future of gaming and the metaverse
Workshop: Building a successful game using artificial intelligence and machine learning
Roundtable: The future of gaming and the metaverse
Case study: How a small indie studio is using Web3 to build a new kind of gaming experience
Panel discussion: The intersection of gaming and science fiction
Workshop: Building a successful community around your game using Web3
Closing keynote: The future of gaming and the metaverse.
Case study: How a small indie studio found success on Kickstarter
Panel discussion: The intersection of gaming and Hollywood
Workshop: Building a successful community around your game
Closing keynote: The next big thing in the world of video games.
Opening keynote: The role of technology in shaping the future of gaming
Panel discussion: The potential of Web3 and the decentralized web for gaming
Case study: How one game studio is using artificial intelligence to create unique gaming experiences
Fireside chat: Top executives share their thoughts on the future of gaming and the metaverse
Workshop: Building a successful game using artificial intelligence and machine learning
Roundtable: The future of gaming and the metaverse
Case study: How a small indie studio is using Web3 to build a new kind of gaming experience
Panel discussion: The intersection of gaming and science fiction
Workshop: Building a successful community around your game using Web3
Closing keynote: The future of gaming and the metaverse.
ChatGPT
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