Artificial Sweetener: ChatGPT and Me

Howdy Kool_Turk,

I enjoyed what you said about letting ChatGPT do a quick edit on some of your notes. Over the last couple of months, I did submit one of my old articles, "Soul of a Guide Dog" and asked ChatGPT to improve it. That particular blog was for a different audience than AppleVis and I had written it early one morning, based on a dream I had just had. It was a good essay, but I never edited it as I liked how it turned out when first typed in. But, because I had never really cleaned up the text, there was some repetition in word selections and some stylistic choices that I would normally avoid. So, that seemed like a good story to hand to ChatGPT.

Yikes! Yes, it rewrote my work and it did not sound anything like me. It was technically correct, but bland, bland, bland. The original story had a lot of emotion in it. ChatGPT's version had none. Still, it was fun to try.

Thanks for your note. It was much appreciated,

Morgan

Kevin,

Thank you so much for writing, and my apologies for such a tardy response.

It's good to meet up with another HyperCard enthusiast. I made really good use of the product during its years in the Mac world by writing what was called "Computer Aided Instruction" templates, as well as software that would help teach my very young son to read at an early age. I also wrote my first somewhat-useful pseudo-screen reader that I named "Talk2Me" as my remaining vision was cratering at the time and I needed a way to listen to the contents of my Mac screens. It worked for several years. Later, I used outSPOKEN from Berkeley Systems and finally, VoiceOver.

The university graduate school textbook that I co-authored with George Culp started one day when I realized that I knew HyperCard, and its program language, inside out, and I approached George about a major book project. We were both at the University of Texas and, when you work in that environment, a text book is always a good career move. George had written several other textbooks, including the popular "An Apple for the Teacher" and I was hopeful that he might be willing to work on another book. I believe that some of his other books covered the TRS-80 and Commodore computer, from way back in the early microcomputer days. Fortunately, George said, "Yes." 18 months later, we completed that monumental task and it went through two editions and five printings. By the way, our book was titled, "The Educators Guide to HyperCard and HyperTalk" and did pretty well in that niche market. That was so long ago that I lost the three and a half inch floppies where I had stored the original text.

Fun memories. Thanks for getting me started...

Warm wishes,

Morgan

Ekaj,

What a treat to hear from you! I always enjoy your notes.

ChatGPT has become my primary AI toy, as that is what I now subscribe to and the app is on my iPhone's home page. I must admit that I use ChatGPT several times a day, mostly to quickly learn something that crosses my mind, and then I take what I learn from ChatGPT to help me refine my Google searches. And, although ChatGPT is currently the only engine that I run as a stand-alone app, I can sure see how much artificial intelligence is already embedded in our lives from the behavior of certain iPhone apps to telephone support hotlines. So, because I have realized just how little I know, I am now reading professional papers and books on the topic, trying to catch up. It is all really fascinating. However, as I said in the blog, this AI invasion is something that will require monitoring and managing. Exciting times!

It was fun to read about your own experience with AI platforms and your being a part of a beta cycle. That sounds great. And, I did like reading about the products you have encountered.

Ekaj, it is always really nice to hear from you. Take care of yourself and I will see you here on AppleVis again soon!

Best wishes,

Morgan

Brad,

I really appreciate your assessment where AI may be headed, and your mentioning specific efforts by name and vendor helps me remember who I ought to keep watching. Thank you!

I am having the best time with ChatGPT. Last night I got curious about cardboard box manufacturing. Just an odd, curious moment on my part. So, I gave ChatGPT very specific instructions about what had me pondering, and a second later, I was learning something new. I love thinking machines that can teach me new stuff.

I doubt that significant improvement in AI will take five more years. It just seems to be moving at such a rapid clip. And, adding to that thought, yesterday, I saw a quick news blurb about Apple pouring more money into AI research and development. What a ride! I just hope we manage it, monitor it, and have fun!

Brad, thank you for writing. It was great hearing from you.

Cheers,

Morgan

Dear Brian,

Thanks for your note titled, "The Future is Nigh." It reminded me very much of my early exposure to the early science fiction of robots, including the robot mice of Ray Bradbury and the famous "I, Robot" book by Issac Asimov. Toss in the robot flailing his hooked arms, crying "Danger Will Robinson" on the 1960s "Lost in Space" and you'll have some of the seeds that drew me to the computer sciences so many years ago.

Nowadays, we deal with stationary robots at parking garages, the grocery store, and of course, the mobile one embedded in my car.

The future is in deed here and promises to be interesting.

Best wishes, and thanks for writing,

Morgan

Hi Bahzad,

Thank you very much for the kind note. It's good to know we both share a fondness for AI and cinnamon coffee cake.

I do plan to look into PI AI. Your solid recommendation has made me very curious.

Thanks again for writing.

Best wishes to you from Texas,

Morgan

Yo DMNagel,

What a cool idea. I had never really thought about using an AI engine for gaming. I tend to just decide I want to learn something new and then I see what ChatGPT can come up with. The other day, I learned a lot about centipedes and millipedes. Now, I would be inclined to embrace this new technology with games if I found out that ChatGPT knew the plot and subplots of the old text-based "Haunt" game, played on the circa 1980 DEC-10 computer. "Haunt" was a great game that I would love to revisit. Thanks for helping me wander down another AI path...

Take care,

Morgan

Paul,

It is always a treat to hear from you. And, I love your note. You write well both in your own blog and in your comments to others. Thank you, sir!

First, to show off my own age, or better put, my old age. Yes, there was a television show with a talking car, an artificially intelligent and sentient car named "Kitt." The show, "Knight Rider" was a popular show in the early 1980s. Even so, I was already a married man and seldom watched the tube. I'm a reading fanatic. And yet, I did watch another television show in 1965 about another talking car. "My mother, the Car" was a sitcom starring Jerry van Dyke, Dick van Dyke's brother, that was about a man's mother who had passed away, but came back as a vintage car, a 1928 Porter. I have read that the car shown in the season was actually a modified 1927 Model T touring car. Anyway, his mother spoke to Jerry through the radio. Sadly, that show did not last long. It was so delightfully inane.

The last show you mentioned was the rather famous "Mister Ed," a sitcom about a talking horse. It ran from 1961 to 1966, and all episodes were in black and white. I would not have known the difference as we didn't get our first color television until 1969. "Mister Ed" was well known for the horse calling to his owner, "Wilbur!" rather loudly from his stall. And then, of course, the horse would converse with his human. That show was too silly even for me. "A horse is a horse, of course, of course..."

You're right about HyperCard beating the World Wide Web into our collective consciousness. I was having fun writing code with links between HyperCard pages in those early years, and then just as I felt I had master the HyperTalk language, I had to learn HTML, the HyperText Markup Language, that enabled the display of information on the new Web. HyperCard didn't last long once the Web ensnared us all. Exciting times!

By the way, I loved reading about your authoring a short piece in King James English and then using ChatGPT as a grammar checker. Excellent use case! Although I cannot write in Middle English, I do love Shakespeare and have used ChatGPT to generate new sonnets. Goofy, but fun.

Paul, your message was a delight and brought back many fond memories. Thank you!

Morgan

Howdy Mister Kayne,

Thanks for sending along such an informative note. I now have some more products to explore and some interesting new ways to put AI to use.

You are right that I am using version 4.0, although it is considerably less expensive here in the States. It cost $20 a month, and I justified it in my own mind by changing some attributes in my cellular plan that were not getting fully utilized, which resulted in more than $20 in savings. As much as I access ChatGPT, I wanted to both support the work and know that I was interacting with their most up-to-date build.

I sure enjoy hearing from you! And, knowing that you are writing from India brought back fond memories of my own. I had the pleasure of spending a month in Nagpur in 2016 and really enjoyed my time there.

Best wishes from Texas,

Morgan

Trenton,

I am really happy that you enjoyed my blog as you clearly know a whole lot more than I do about this new AI environment. So, thank you for taking the time to both read and comment on my post. That was fun!

I must admit you got me thinking about how easy, and fun, it would be to get lost in one of the worlds that AI can build. If we can just manage and monitor this new environment, it looks quite promising.

Trenton, your message was full of interesting data and much enthusiasm. Thank you very much for writing!

Morgan

Howdy again Kool_Turk,

I really like the idea of using an interactive AI engine for audio editing. I used to do a lot of sound mixing, purely for pleasure, and I was fairly decent at it. Part of the reason I quit doing so much of it was the different programs I had to keep learning as the technology improved and vendors of audio editing products dropped off the map. Still, I can imagine a way to talk my way through an editing process, so that potential interface is definitely in my hopeful sights.

Thanks for something else to ponder,

Morgan

Dear Dominic,

I share both your awe of, and concerns about, AI. Even so, I am still enjoying how I can make this tool work for me. I just keep thinking of new ways to potentially put it to use every day. It's going to be a really interesting ride for us all.

Warm wishes,

Morgan

Dear Winter Roses,

I wondered if I could just tell ChatGPT what punctuation to use in its answer. And, it worked! The example question I posed to ChatGPT yielded the desired results. My original query is between the sets of triple asterisks below.

***
Write a very short paragraph where a worm says, "Hello there!" to a pebble. Please use proper single quotes in your response.
***

So, I expect that if you give a short description of what you want the answer to look like, ChatGPT might well make you very happy. I am not absolutely certain what other line breaks and spacing you might desire, but if you can describe that in your instructions to ChatGPT, I'd be hopeful for your success.

I hope this helpsa teeny bit,

Morgan

Robot helpers for getting around would indeed be another step forward. Even so, I am a bit set in my ways. I have a guide dog that leads me quite well, doesn't require batteries, and likes to cuddle on the floor. Still, the artificial intelligence revolution is going to take us somewhere, and perhaps to some destinations that we don't expect.

I choose to be hopeful.

Cheers and best wishes,

Morgan