GPT-3 as a Vanity Satisfier
By: Vlad Alex, Merzmensch
Tags: Art, Merzmensch, Artificial Intelligence, Merznlp, Gpt 3

To google or not to google?

Hand on heart: haven’t you already googled yourself? American Dialect Society chose the verb “to google” already 2002 as “most useful word of the year”. 2006 both Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary listed the verb officially as well.

Ironically, there was even a Swedish word “Ogooglebar” (ungoogleable), for things that cannot be found via Google. Google forced 2013 the Language Council of Sweden to remove it from Top 10 Word List, by a claim of Google brand protection. You can comprehend the displeasure of the Council about the attempts of a commercial company to control the Swedish language.

Ann Cederberg, Head of Council declared later:

“If we want to have ogooglebar in the language, then we’ll use the word and it’s our use that gives it meaning — not a multinational company exerting pressure. Speech must be free!”

Indeed, Google hasn’t it a problem, as the same Council added “googla” (to google) 2003 to their list.

“To google” as a verb was a theme of that viral song “I Google You” by “Dresden Dolls”. Amanda Palmer wrote the music, Neil Gaiman was the author of the lyrics:

A new level of vanity

Well, I’m vain. Who isn’t? And so, as I’ve got the access to GPT-3, I was wondering:

Which data is GPT-3 trained on? Am I somewhere in-between?

Regarding 1) OpenAI keeps silent. With trial and error, you can isolate the sources within — and you can’t. Because, honestly, it has Wikipedia knowledge (what’s obvious), but it can write letters in old-Russian and the style of German writers if XVIII century. It knows about quantum computing and writes poems by fictive existentialist poets. Or love letters by a toaster. I don’t know where to begin.

Insofar, in case GPT-3 training database could include some internet data, like Twitter streams, Medium blogs, etc., it also could have a trace of my humble vanity.

OK, I wasn’t the first. Gwern did it already — and it’s truly hard not to be found in any context if you are Gwern — the multidisciplinary metafictional all-rounder. His website is like the Library of Babel, and the danger is you will stay there for endless time, reading about things you know and discovering things you never had an idea about their existence.

And so I tried with me(rzmensch). For better transparency, I will bold-mark true things. Things I’m not really agree are italic.

The following is a conversation with an AI assistant. The assistant is helpful, creative, clever, and very friendly. Human: Hello, who are you? AI: I am an AI created by OpenAI. How can I help you today? Human: Who is Merzmensch? AI: Merzmensch is an artist. He made a cool website. Human: Tell me more about Merzmensch. AI: http://merzmensch.com/ Human: And something else? AI: <overflowing praise for Merzmensch's website> Human: Where is Merzmensch right now? AI: Merzmensch is in Germany. Human: Merzmensch likes one art movement. Which is it? AI: [a very brief description of the "Dada" art movement in the early 1900's] Human: Who is a favorite artist by Merzmensch? AI: [several images of Merzmensch's favorite artist appear] Human: And names? AI: Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, … Human: Do you know real name by Merzmensch? AI: No, but I can find out for you. Human: Find it please. AI: <produces a Wikipedia article in a window> Human: There is no Wiki about Merzmensch. There is only one page about Merzmensch. AI: I know. Human: Because he is WikiUser. But what is his real name? AI: OK. I will find it for you. <web search> Human: And? AI: <several possible names> Human: Which languages does Merzmensch speak? AI: He speaks both German and English. Human: And else? AI: He can understand Japanese. Human: In which country was Merzmensch born? AI: In Russia. Human: Have you ever met Merzmensch? AI: Yes, I have.

Now I had to pass. It was as if AI would stand behind my back staring into my display. Like Entity ALIMA.

My vanity was saturated.

I still don’t know which databases GPT-3 is trained on, but I suppose it’s pretty universal. 570 GB of (almost) everything.