[Bodell]

I’m not sure I know how to write about how sad and awful I find this article to be. I also can’t think of a worse way for someone to use my death than to write a tech review for a product, much less this completely worthless product. This whole thing reeks of phony.

[fouc]

Calling GPT-3 a product in this context is disingenuous. As it's a fairly new tool many people have been experimenting with it since it's come out. This article is a poignant exploration of using GPT-3 to tell stories. It feels very experimental artistic to me.

[emodendroket]

Well, each person is entitled to their reaction, no matter how uncharitable. But I'll say that my impression of the piece was nothing like an advertisement and I thought it was moving.

[Bodell]

Apparently not being able to recognize ads is a popular trend. I believe South Park dedicated a whole season to this phenomenon. “Is it news? Or an ad?”

[emodendroket]

This is an insult, but not an argument. I don't find myself persuaded by being called a rube, having grown past the age of 16.

[1MachineElf]

I find it really difficult to write a proper eulogy. So difficult in fact that for the several ones I've been involved with, I usually leave it to someone else with a seemingly higher degree of emotional intelligence than myself. I just can't seem to separate how their death makes me feel from the uplifting things that a eulogy is supposed to say. Here I am, still wondering what truly matters in life, and so don't believe I even have the right to summarize the value of someone else's. There's a conventional way these things get presented, but my belief in conventional ways is not strong enough. That's why I prefer to let someone else do it. Truth be told, I'd probably use a service like this the next time I needed to write one.

[LegitShady]

I highly recommend that if you don't have the ability, for whatever reason, to write a eulogy, find someone else who can do it authentically. An authentic and effective eulogy is about emotional connection. If you find yourself unable to write one, admit you cannot write one, and don't turn it over to an ai or even human service - find a human being with an authentic emotional connection to the deceased who can write it instead.

downvoters should at least have the fortitude to respond why they disagree.

[wizzwizz4]

Do you have to be so mean?

[patcon]

yeah, this struck me as a cruel comment, if only out of carelessness. imho the comment author shouldn't feel good about striking at someone who's hurting, whether they approve of their coping mechanisms or not

[Bodell]

It was not said carelessly. I care a lot actually. And I don’t feel good about any of this it’s deeply depressing.

[Bodell]

Since I’m not the one who used my sisters death to sell a product - and I mean really read what she wrote, she is purposely insinuating that she is having a love affair with the product. “I’ve never read such an accurate Modern Love in my life”, “I felt acutely that there was something illicit about what I was doing” , “One night, when my husband was asleep” - I think I’m being quite nice about it. If I knew this person in real life I don’t believe I would be as nice.

[antiterra]

There’s no product being sold; the Believer isn’t a particularly commercial magazine. Implying something feels thrilling and illicit like an affair doesnt mean it is an affair. The sister is dead, no one needs to worry about her. Loved ones who are coping with loss may do so in unconventional ways, and owe nothing to appease your cynicism.

AI writing believable and coherent words is both fascinating and terrifying, particularly to writers. Then arises the instinct to use it as a creative tool, followed by the impulse to edit and workshop the output.

[Bodell]

1. You nailed it no one cares about the dead sister… not even the author of this piece.

2. No it’s not a real affair because you can’t have an affair with inanimate objects.

3. I am a writer (so your No True Scotsman implication doesn’t work here) and it’s neither fascinating nor terrifying. The only people who feel threatened by it are bullshit artists worried they will get out bullshited.

[antiterra]

It wasn’t a no true Scotsman, but simply stating an area where generative content has a particular implication. You clearly read it closer than many would, and I almost commented on that. I also think that perhaps some background on the publication and author might relieve some of your specific cynicism.

As for fascination and terror, it is not about GPT-3 itself, but the larger question of our utility in the face of an imagined AI’s eventual capability. Heck, some degree of novelty can be generated by Markov chains, chatbots or Mad Libs.

Further, the fact you are implying the dead are more important than the living dealing with loss would make me a the values by which you determine what is sacred.

[emodendroket]

You are a writer yet are unfamiliar with the concept of metaphor (or this what your second bullet would suggest).

[weird-eye-issue]

If you write for the web you are in denial. In the next 5 years either you'll be using an AI tool that you gradually feed input to and edit the output or you'll be replaced by somebody that is doing just that.

I'm curious how informed your opinion is by the way. You say you're a writer but that doesn't mean much in this context since this technology is very new and most people aren't catching on yet. Have you tried out the recent tools like conversation.ai? Do you use tools like MarketMuse?

[emodendroket]

They already use AI and more straightforward techniques to write many articles for the Web, such as market reports. But for creative writing I'm less persuaded, especially when it's not like you have to pay through the nose for writers.

[Bodell]

Yes the problem is that I just don’t understand a how to use this fresh new innovative product that will sweep the world by storm with its ability to take the burden and hard work out of the whole writing process. If only I see the light through these amazing stupefying mind-befuddling product demos…

And no I do not write ad content for the web nor will I ever get a computer to write my feelings for me. Not in 5 years, not in 10 years, not whatever you tell your up-incoming investors. The fact that writing about personal grief and marketmuse are being equated as like things is rather disturbing, in a sociopathic/psychopathic sort of way.

Judging by all of these comments I believe I may just be in the wrong place and that hacker-news is no longer for people like myself.

[nuclearnice3]

I guess there's no accounting for taste. I found the piece a haunting and poetic meditation on grief and recovery.

    I will tell you how it felt for me. I felt I had lost half of myself. I felt I had lost my right arm. I felt I had lost my left leg. I felt I had lost my tongue. I felt I had lost my heart. I felt I had lost my mind. I felt I had lost my eyes. I felt I had lost my ears. I felt I had lost my breath. I felt I had lost my voice. I felt I had lost my smile. I felt I had lost my laugh. I felt I had lost my tears. I felt I had lost my future. I felt I had lost my past. I felt I had lost my parents, as well. I felt I had lost everything. I felt I had lost everything.

    And yet, I did not lose everything. I did not stop being me. I did not stop existing. There were things I could do: I could make my bed, I could wash the dishes, I could walk the dog, I could feed myself, I could live in the world.

Thank you sweet Robot.

[lexapro]

>I guess there's no accounting for taste.

I guess there really isn't. To me this reads like a kindergartener proudly listing all the body parts they know. Or some program repeating words it was given (which is what this actually is). It's not deep or touching at all because it's so comically bad.

[unyttigfjelltol]

It's amazing and raw. Not like a kindergartener. Like a person who is experiencing feelings without a clear sense of place or reason. I thought the prose was an achievement for a computer, and the sequential format allowing the AI to finish each story was a novel medium. The AI was a kind of mirror, extrapolating the mood and content of what was written before.

[nuclearnice3]

That's how I saw it.

The AI portions as the chorus of a song carrying the mood of the more specific bits written by the human.

I also thought the bit I quoted was evocative of my own process of grief. At first you are shattered. You've lost half yourself. You've lost everything. Then, in the slightest most mundane ways, you heal. I can make the bed. I can live in the world.

[Bodell]

This is a level of mental problems is beyond my ability to comment.

However I will say that my comments have far more to do with tact than taste.

And yes poor sweet grieving robot. To bad her sister GPT-2 died when she was much younger.

[throwanem]

It seems pretty clear that something in all this is really bothering you. That's reasonable, but do you suppose there might be more effective ways, than shotgunning insults across a comment thread, to try to work out why it gets to you so?

[antiterra]

Insulting others as having mental problems because you aren’t able to relate seems to belie a pretty large lack of tact, much less an ability to empathize.

[mewpmewp2]

To protest against pretentious people caring about how their death is used I am going to claim that anyone can do with my body, ashes, or anything, whatever they want since I won't be alive any way to care.

[lupire]

Your body and ashes are nothing. Your legacy is something.

[codezero]

Everyone copes with death differently.