I asked ChatGPT to write a poem about playing fingerstyle guitar

[tbeltrans]

...and here is the result:

In solitude's embrace, I take my stand,
With a six-string companion, held in my hand,
A dance of melodies, fingers deftly trace,
As I embark on a journey, playing solo in grace.

Each string a universe, waiting to be explored,
I pluck and strum, creating a symphony restored,
With nimble fingers, I caress the fretboard's art,
Awakening emotions, weaving magic from my heart.

A tapestry of chords, vibrant and alive,
Resonates with the depths where emotions thrive,
In every stroke and flicker, a story unfolds,
Whispering secrets, untold and bold.

The melody sings, like a lark in flight,
Filling the air, with pure delight,
As harmonies intertwine, a seamless blend,
I lose myself in music, a transcendental trend.

The rhythm pulsates, a heartbeat serene,
Guiding my fingers, a conductor unseen,
From gentle whispers to fiery crescendos,
I paint a canvas of notes, where passion flows.

In this realm of fingerstyle, a language untold,
I communicate feelings, with strings and gold,
From delicate whispers to thunderous roars,
I explore the depths of music's boundless shores.

In solitude's embrace, I find my sanctuary,
With every strum and pluck, I am free,
For the guitar is my voice, my truest friend,
As I navigate the symphony, where melodies transcend.

So, let the strings reverberate, in harmonious strife,
As I journey through moments, the ebb and flow of life,
Playing solo fingerstyle, my spirit alight,
In a world of acoustic beauty, where dreams take flight.

Tony

[b1j]

Just think about how no one had an iPhone a dozen years ago, and how saturated the world and its cultures are with it today. Much sooner than another dozen years from now, everything will have changed from the penetration of AI into every fissure of life. Toys today, essentials tomorrow, and then, controllers.

Sorry, I just see it as a force we are helpless against. Remember how it “was” in 2023.

[Glennwillow]

That's pretty fascinating!

- Glenn

[DJC]

No offence to the artificial intelligence thing...but it’s about as wooden and soulless as you’d expect a machine to come up with.

But give it time and I’m sure it’ll be rivalling what a talented human can do.

[Brushwood]

These are quotes from a 5/17 Newsweek article by Justine Bateman about the danger of AI in the arts and a very interesting and alarming read for us creative humans:

“What does it mean to be human? You look human, you act human, you learn lessons, you have challenges, you feel emotions. And yet, in 2023, we’ve shrunk decidedly away from being human.”…”AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, but I refer to it as “Automatic Imitation.” In short, AI is an algorithm that is fed a wealth of information and given a task, and it then delivers the result based on information it’s been fed. There are more complexities, but that is the basic design and function of AI. And it is being used in the arts for greed, trained on all of our past work.”

I personally feel that these are the beginnings of dangerous times for any art form.

[Robin, Wales]

I can remember when looking something up in Encyclopedia Britanica was considered cheating!

Anyway, that poem is very human like. It is just about as bad as any poetry I would write! It is interesting though that the poem shapes solo fingerstyle guitar playing from such an introverted perspective, the audience does not feature. I wonder where it got that idea from.... AGF?

[nickv6]

Originally Posted by Brushwood

These are quotes from a 5/17 Newsweek article by Justine Bateman about the danger of AI in the arts:

"AI is an algorithm that is fed a wealth of information and given a task, and it then delivers the result based on information it’s been fed. There are more complexities, but that is the basic design and function”

Isn't this also an exact description of the human condition?
Nick

[jmagill]

Originally Posted by nickv6

Isn't this also an exact description of the human condition?
Nick

No.

AI operates within the rules it's been given. Humans can break those rules in creative ways, imagining beyond their experience to make something new. This is the definition of 'creativity'. But the more information an AI gathers, the better it gets at imitating humans, and therein lies the danger. When AI begins to break its own rules to create ones it thinks are 'better', it's game over.

AI is not only an existential threat to the personal expression that is the foundation of all art, it's potentially an existential threat to existence itself.

In a thread about ChatGPT on another forum, I wrote:


If AI doesn't worry you, you are not paying attention.

In a CBS interview with Geoffrey Hinton, the "Godfather of Artificial Intelligence", posted on 3/25/23, he says:

As for the odds of AI trying to wipe out humanity? "It's not inconceivable, that's all I'll say," Hinton said. The bigger issue, he said, is that people need to learn to manage a technology that could give a handful of companies or governments an incredible amount of power. "I think it's very reasonable for people to be worrying about these issues now, even though it's not going to happen in the next year or two," Hinton said. "People should be thinking about those issues."


So, AI will give even more power to the Big Tech companies controlling our lives for their own profit, and oh, by the way, it's also not inconceivable that AI could wipe out humanity, says the man who ought to know.

ChatGPT is not just a cool toy to play with, a shortcut for the lazy or a crutch for those who never learned to express themselves through the written word.
AI is not just a time-saving tool or a premise for a Hollywood blockbuster. It's here, and its implications are serious, and not just for Art.

.

[Robin, Wales]

... it's also not inconceivable that AI could wipe out humanity...

A little out of context, but it does make for good press. There are lots of more likely things that could "wipe out humanity" asteroid strikes have a bit of a history here. With AI, someone could always switch off a few servers!

Anyway, "AI" is not just one thing, it is a term for lots of different aspects of technology. But, again, it is good press clickbate to lump everything into one entity that we can all hate.

Y2K didn't happen because of a little regulation and lots of normal folks taking small actions to avert catastrophe. The same will happen with AI. There will be a little bit of regulation and lots of normal folks, in the course of their jobs, will all take small actions to avoid the extreme.

[tbeltrans]

I questioned whether to post that "poem" in this forum, but am glad I did. For me, it is simply a mater of curiosity. Considering that the career I retired from was as a software engineer with some experience with AI back 30 years ago before moving on to embedded systems, it seems natural to me to be building NNs and playing with the technology as a bit of a hobby. I don't think that makes me lazy. I went through college to get my engineering degree in the evenings while working full time during the day, am active as a volunteer in retirement, and am continuing to study and learn about various aspects of technology. When it comes to guitar, I still do all of my arranging by hand with pencil and paper. I think most people who participate in these forums are similarly driven in their respective interests, so I don't see "lazy" as being applicable to folks around here.

This thread is making for some interesting discussion and the posts in the thread seem to be very revealing about those that post them, ranging from fear to curious and interested. I worked on an early AI project in conjunction with the National Institute of Health back in the mid-90s. Their purpose was to track and predict the spread of pandemics, while mine was to run around a network predicting and finding bottlenecks. I worked on the technology that is now the internet back around 1985 when nobody outside of research and companies such as I worked for back then had even an inkling about that technology. The internet has grown to reflect both the good and bad sides of human nature, just as I am sure AI will too.

In my mind, it is a good thing that there is much discussion about AI and the future. Whether we fear it, are curious about it, or embrace it, it is here and will continue to develop. I am not sure that we collectively can control it, since anyone with the requisite knowledge (i.e. most any kid these days who grew up with computers) can fashion a kind of supercomputer by building a Beowulf style cluster of PCs and build/run NNs and be connected to the internet to correspond with similar setups. To me, the danger is in what people choose to use these tools for.

With regard to being lazy in dependence on AI to write poetry, term papers, or anything else, it really depends on how these tools are used. AI could, for example, be used to generate ideas upon which we humans can build to create something new. We know that movie score writing and such are often aided by the use of AI and this has been true for some time now. I wonder how many realize how much AI has already been adapted into various facets of our lives. There are many web sites that use AI generated content already. This fact does not make AI "wrong" or "right", it simple is what it is.

Consider calculators. Rather than doing math in our heads, we can now whip out a cell phone to run calculations for just about anything. Maybe because I am getting on in age and am concerned about maintaining cognitive ability, I still choose to do normal daily calculations such as tips in my head, but will use calculating software for much more complicated stuff. When I went through electronics school, we used slide rules and the then very early calculators were forbidden for use on exams.

Consider spell checkers. At one time, those might have been considered cheating. Now, people rely on them rather than developing the ability to sound out and correctly spell words in documents they type. These days, people will dictate documents verbally rather than type them themselves. But, then, there was a time when people hired secretaries to whom they dictated all forms of written communication instead of typing it themselves.

These are rather small, innocuous examples of the use of technology and AI is certainly much larger and potentially much more intrusive into the human condition, but these still serve as examples of adapting to the use of technology in our daily lives and how we choose to use it. Similarly, AI is a tool and we will each choose how we will (or not) use it.

To me, technology continues to move forward (?) and we have to learn to grapple with it. This has long been true. It has also long been true that in developing such technology, we have not stopped to consider the long term ramifications, but with AI, the discussion does seem to be happening relatively early in its development. Everything we humans have discovered such as fire or developed such as the automobile can be considered "technology" that we use, each has both helped us and caused myriad of problems. That we are seriously discussing AI at the leadership level this early is different and just maybe, we will benefit from such discussion and whatever measures come out of it.

Tony

[rstaight]

There is a gentleman who attends the same jams that attend. Last month, when it was turn for a song, he said I have a new one.

He went on to explain he wrote the first line and AI created the rest. All that was left for him was to put it to music. It is a really good song.

As amazing as AI is, it is only in its infancy. That scares me, it is still a computer program that can lean towards the beliefs and convictions of its programmer.

What unintended consequences are in the future? It is amazing what AI can do today. But, as I said earlier, it scares me.

[Andyrondack]

Well if that's what chat Gpt came up with I dread to think what awful sentimental guff it trained on.
Try it again but this time stipulate that you want something in the style of Pam Ayres or Lawrence Ferlinghetti and see if it comes up with anything interesting .
I don't think it will though because it can't ' break the rules' which is what is required to create humour or anything which relies on surprising the audience.

[Kh1967]

Simply put, the one thing that is likely to end humanity, is humanity.

There have been developments over the years, and like anything, they can be used for good or for evil. What remains are the humans behind it and their choice(s) on how to use any technological advancement.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Kh1967

Simply put, the one thing that is likely to end humanity, is humanity.

There have been developments over the years, and like anything, they can be used for good or for evil. What remains are the humans behind it and their choice(s) on how to use any technological advancement.

Sometimes I wish there was a "like" button.

Tony

[Jamolay]

As long as we don’t give AI power over its own on/off button….