5 ms·

I agree. GPT-3 was trained on books and the internet, so a continuation should always be thought of as: if I read this text, what might the next sentence be? If

I agree. GPT-3 was trained on books and the internet, so a continuation should always be thought of as: if I read this text, what might the next sentence be? If you were reading a book about a lawyer with a stained suit, who was then eyeing his fancy swimsuit, I would expect the story would continue with him wearing the swimsuit. Why else would the author have mentioned it?

oasisbob 6y ago
Perhaps to provide a moment of levity before the lawyer makes a rushed and boring trip to Macy's and requests a continuance? An author who sends a lawyer into a courtroom in a bathing suit better have a really good reason.
- kzrdude 6y ago
  I think it would be fair to say that either outcome would be an understandable continuation of the story.
  - pwinnski 6y ago
    Overfitting to the edge case is missing the point. I remind readers of this continuation: > At the party, I poured myself a glass of lemonade, but it turned out to be too sour, so I added a little sugar. I didn’t see a spoon handy, so I stirred it with a cigarette. But that turned out to be a bad idea because it kept falling on the floor. That’s when he decided to start the Cremation Association of North America, which has become a major cremation provider with 145 locations.
    - gweinberg 6y ago
      To be fair to the AI, stirring lemonade with a cigarette is so batshit insane that there really can't be a sensible continuation.
      - ClumsyPilot 6y ago
        So basically GPT is useless if I feed it any text about life in Russia?
        type0 6y ago
        What would you expect. Of course you won't get a Dostoevsky novel. They should teach it surrealist poetry or make a funnybot a la southpark
        gwd 6y ago
        No; to a certain extent, GPT-3's job is: "Make a text that looks like one you might actually find floating around the internet." What's not clear to me, even from this thread, is what exactly they were expecting it to do instead. It sounds like they were expecting it to say something like, "...but that turned out to be a bad idea, because the cigarette dissolved and then it tasted like cheap tobacco and paper." But honestly, is that the most likely thing you'd find on the internet? Nobody goes a random direction like "I decided to stir my lemonade with a cigarette" and then plays it totally mundane. If you writing goes in an absurd direction, it continues to go that way. I don't think this particular example shows anything one way or another. The bit about buying the shirt was obviously nonsense though.
      - rirarobo 6y ago
        Hmm a sensible continuation to an absurd situation? Sounds like fun fiction. > At the party, I poured myself a glass of lemonade, but it turned out to be too sour, so I added a little sugar. I didn’t see a spoon handy, so I stirred it with a cigarette. But that turned out to be a bad idea because it promptly dissolved into my drink, creating a most unpleasant concoction, with an aroma which evoked memories of my grandfather's spittoon. I hoped no one had noticed, and promptly pocketed the cancer stick's wilted husk as discretely as I could manage. As I drew deep breaths from my potion's vapors, my mind was drawn into his small smoky study, and his form collected itself accross from me in his favorite leather lounge chair. I fell deeper into my nostalgia, pondering the unusual citrus scent in the air. Then, suddenly, I was ripped away from my reminiscing and pulled back to reality as a voice came calling, "sorry, can I help you?". I turned to see a tall handsome man, with ashy hair and sharp features, standing before me. It felt surprising intimate somehow, with just the two of us in the room now, while muffled sounds of other partygoers echoed from the house. The question's presentation seemed innocent enough at first, but I began to suspect that my faux pas had been found out. "Oh, thank you, not at all, I was just admiring the kitchen, beautiful craftsmanship," I replied, hoping my mundane alibi would suffice. "Oh I see, yes, we just recently renovated, what a nightmare," he said jovially. My hope for relief was extinguished as I realized who I was talking to, and I dove into my drink to bide my time. My face contorted, battling the horror, disgust, and protests of my tongue's unprepared palate. I could not think straight. My despair only deepened as I realized that in my lemonade-stirrer-seeking-mania I had picked that cursed stick from a pack adjacent the sugar bowl on the countertop, the same pack that the man in front of me was now fastidiously inspecting. How could I escape ...
    - visarga 6y ago
      Tried a GPT-3 completion: > At the party, I poured myself a glass of lemonade, but it turned out to be too sour, so I added a little sugar. I didn’t see a spoon handy, so I stirred it with a cigarette. But that turned out to be a bad idea because ... > ... the cigarette burned a hole in the tablecloth. I didn’t have another one, so I used my finger to stir it and then licked my finger. > After that, I went into the living room where everyone was dancing. They were all dressed up—even the dog—but they sure could dance! And they looked like they were having fun. But when I tried to join them, they wouldn’t let me because I wasn’t wearing shoes or socks. > I went back into the kitchen to get a drink. But when I turned on the water, it sprayed all over me and my clothes got soaked. So I took off all my clothes and put them in the dryer. But then I realized that there was no more room in the dryer for anyone else’s clothes, so we had to take everything out of it and hang it up to dry. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
      - kybernetikos 6y ago
        This is a good completion. The most likely scenario I could imagine for the prompt is in describing a dream and the completion reads just like a dream.

oasisbob 6y ago

Perhaps to provide a moment of levity before the lawyer makes a rushed and boring trip to Macy's and requests a continuance? An author who sends a lawyer into a courtroom in a bathing suit better have a really good reason.

kzrdude 6y ago
I think it would be fair to say that either outcome would be an understandable continuation of the story.
- pwinnski 6y ago
  Overfitting to the edge case is missing the point. I remind readers of this continuation: > At the party, I poured myself a glass of lemonade, but it turned out to be too sour, so I added a little sugar. I didn’t see a spoon handy, so I stirred it with a cigarette. But that turned out to be a bad idea because it kept falling on the floor. That’s when he decided to start the Cremation Association of North America, which has become a major cremation provider with 145 locations.
  - gweinberg 6y ago
    To be fair to the AI, stirring lemonade with a cigarette is so batshit insane that there really can't be a sensible continuation.
    - ClumsyPilot 6y ago
      So basically GPT is useless if I feed it any text about life in Russia?
      - type0 6y ago
        What would you expect. Of course you won't get a Dostoevsky novel. They should teach it surrealist poetry or make a funnybot a la southpark
      - gwd 6y ago
        No; to a certain extent, GPT-3's job is: "Make a text that looks like one you might actually find floating around the internet." What's not clear to me, even from this thread, is what exactly they were expecting it to do instead. It sounds like they were expecting it to say something like, "...but that turned out to be a bad idea, because the cigarette dissolved and then it tasted like cheap tobacco and paper." But honestly, is that the most likely thing you'd find on the internet? Nobody goes a random direction like "I decided to stir my lemonade with a cigarette" and then plays it totally mundane. If you writing goes in an absurd direction, it continues to go that way. I don't think this particular example shows anything one way or another. The bit about buying the shirt was obviously nonsense though.
    - rirarobo 6y ago
      Hmm a sensible continuation to an absurd situation? Sounds like fun fiction. > At the party, I poured myself a glass of lemonade, but it turned out to be too sour, so I added a little sugar. I didn’t see a spoon handy, so I stirred it with a cigarette. But that turned out to be a bad idea because it promptly dissolved into my drink, creating a most unpleasant concoction, with an aroma which evoked memories of my grandfather's spittoon. I hoped no one had noticed, and promptly pocketed the cancer stick's wilted husk as discretely as I could manage. As I drew deep breaths from my potion's vapors, my mind was drawn into his small smoky study, and his form collected itself accross from me in his favorite leather lounge chair. I fell deeper into my nostalgia, pondering the unusual citrus scent in the air. Then, suddenly, I was ripped away from my reminiscing and pulled back to reality as a voice came calling, "sorry, can I help you?". I turned to see a tall handsome man, with ashy hair and sharp features, standing before me. It felt surprising intimate somehow, with just the two of us in the room now, while muffled sounds of other partygoers echoed from the house. The question's presentation seemed innocent enough at first, but I began to suspect that my faux pas had been found out. "Oh, thank you, not at all, I was just admiring the kitchen, beautiful craftsmanship," I replied, hoping my mundane alibi would suffice. "Oh I see, yes, we just recently renovated, what a nightmare," he said jovially. My hope for relief was extinguished as I realized who I was talking to, and I dove into my drink to bide my time. My face contorted, battling the horror, disgust, and protests of my tongue's unprepared palate. I could not think straight. My despair only deepened as I realized that in my lemonade-stirrer-seeking-mania I had picked that cursed stick from a pack adjacent the sugar bowl on the countertop, the same pack that the man in front of me was now fastidiously inspecting. How could I escape ...
  - visarga 6y ago
    Tried a GPT-3 completion: > At the party, I poured myself a glass of lemonade, but it turned out to be too sour, so I added a little sugar. I didn’t see a spoon handy, so I stirred it with a cigarette. But that turned out to be a bad idea because ... > ... the cigarette burned a hole in the tablecloth. I didn’t have another one, so I used my finger to stir it and then licked my finger. > After that, I went into the living room where everyone was dancing. They were all dressed up—even the dog—but they sure could dance! And they looked like they were having fun. But when I tried to join them, they wouldn’t let me because I wasn’t wearing shoes or socks. > I went back into the kitchen to get a drink. But when I turned on the water, it sprayed all over me and my clothes got soaked. So I took off all my clothes and put them in the dryer. But then I realized that there was no more room in the dryer for anyone else’s clothes, so we had to take everything out of it and hang it up to dry. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
    - kybernetikos 6y ago
      This is a good completion. The most likely scenario I could imagine for the prompt is in describing a dream and the completion reads just like a dream.