That's a ridiculous title for an article. Of course it won't, but ChatGPT is far and away the greatest manifestation of a publicly accessible, AI-centric Chatbot that I've ever come across, though I'm sure there are a sprinkling of top secret lab-bound projects that would challenge its abilities.
Many of us Earthlings working in or contributing to sectors which could be perceived in some way as 'manual' in nature (and I realise that term will be grossly offensive to most of those people - for which I apologise) are probably safe for now, but many of the rest of us will surely increasingly struggle to find any relevance in the AI-dominated near future.
I've been experimenting with the ChatGPT engine for a couple of weeks now, and accepting its limitations going in, it's everything it's cracked up to be. Amongst other things, it can write high quality conversational-style articles, so from now on I'll let it write all the stuff for the website!
It was initially trained on a very large yet supposedly diverse and representative dataset, but unlike cheap toys like Alexa (which isn't actually much more than a voice controlled search engine) ChatGPT doesn't just go off trawling the internet for answers to your questions. Oh no. It has a proper crack at trying to use its pseudo-intelligence and finite database to deliver a human-like response which betters the efforts of all previous attempts by such 'machines'.
Panic ye not though. It's not currently self-learning or self-teaching, so it's not going to re-boot one morning and find that it's become some kind of all-powerful sentient super-being. Not just yet.
I encourage you all to go and have a play. On the face of it, it can answer sensibly structured questions pretty well, and will gladly (bless its cotton socks) have another stab should you be displeased with the initial results. It will remember previous questions and answers, so you can use a follow-up approach to do this such as 'make your answer more technical and specific' or 'adjust your answer to prioritise a younger audience and expand it to 200 words' for example.
In one of my tests, I asked it to write something on how ChatGPT could help in our hobby. Here's what it had to say:
As an amateur radio operator, you are no stranger to the technical aspects of this hobby. You know that communication protocols play a crucial role in enabling reliable and efficient communication over the airwaves. And you may be interested to learn that ChatGPT, a natural language processing technology developed by OpenAI, could potentially be used to advance digital communication protocols in amateur radio.
ChatGPT has the ability to understand and generate human-like text, making it a valuable tool for a variety of applications. One way it could be used in amateur radio is to develop more advanced messaging systems that use digital communication protocols. These systems could potentially allow for faster, more reliable communication between ham radio operators, especially in emergency situations when traditional forms of communication may be disrupted.
Another potential application of ChatGPT in amateur radio is the development of intelligent assistants that can help users learn more about the technical aspects of the hobby. For example, these assistants could be programmed to provide users with information about different digital communication protocols, such as AX.25, APRS, and D-STAR, as well as the benefits and limitations of each protocol.
Overall, ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize the world of amateur radio by enabling the development of more advanced communication tools and intelligent assistants. As this technology continues to advance, it's likely that we'll see even more innovative uses for it in the world of ham radio. So if you're a tech-savvy amateur radio operator, be sure to keep an eye on ChatGPT and other advanced technologies as they continue to shape the future of this exciting hobby.
Passable as human output, wouldn't you say? If we forgive its propensity for the word 'protocol'. Completely machine generated.
What had me scoffing and denouncing though was its apparent ability to write meaningful computer code given the highest-level specifications and requirements. But by tweaking the way you ask it to perform these tasks, you can get ready-to-run programs that actually do what you want!
I had to pick my jaw up off the floor several times, as I generated, compiled, executed, error-checked and verified snippets of code for various projects I'm currently working on, and they were insanely accurate and complete. Easily fooled, if you wanted to prove a point (such as if you were a software developer pushing for a pay rise), but a massive progression for the hobbyists and back-bedroom developers.
Give it a go, if your job's secure enough!
Berni M0XYF
