Who is better at writing, birds, humans or AI?

Imagine a world where birds have the ability to read and write. Among them, the woodpecker stands out as a talented scribe, diligently pecking out words and stories on wooden surfaces. The other birds are always eager to gather and listen as Woody, the courageous Ivory-billed wood pecking bird, shares tales of his remarkable adventures.

A cerebral giants..

As humans developed bigger brains with more processing power, they were able to decode the writing of birds and understand what they were saying. They even learned how to write in bird language, using the same symbols and characters employed by the avian writers.

Eventually, humans became so proficient at writing in the language of birds that it was often difficult for the birds to distinguish whether a text had been written by one of their own or by a human. In fact, some of the human-written texts were even considered superior to those written by the birds, much to the surprise of the most learned avian intellectuals.

Small but mighty..

Now our poor Woody is in a tough spot. He is a writer, loved by others because of his stories, but he thinks his career is over because he can’t measure up to those two-legged giants, whatever he writes, a man can do better.

But if you ask me, I couldn’t care less about humans in this matter. Their stories may be a thousand times better, but what I really want to see are stories from Woody. I would like to see his perspective, his words, even if they seem imperfect or strange. I wish to get a glimpse into his thoughts, his inner life, and his feelings. A human could describe a bird’s life perfectly, but it would never be the same as hearing it from Woody himself. He’s writing would be genuine and authentic.

Polemical discourse..

In our world, there is currently a heated debate about the use of artificial intelligence in various fields, including writing, art, 3D modelling and gaming. Even in the early stages of its development, AI is beginning to affect many aspects of human activity, surprisingly, it has the potential to have the greatest impact on the creative sector, which was originally expected to be the least affected.

And it’s developing crazy fast. The world was stunned by the release of Open AI and ChatGPT, which showed the vast potential of artificial intelligence to a wider audience.

To comprehend the speed at which AI is progressing, let’s consider GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), which is currently generating the most excitement. AI scientists often use the number of parameters in a GPT model as a measure of its complexity and capacity to learn and create. The parameters in a GPT model are variables that have been learned during the training process and are used to make predictions and generate text.

On the horizon..

In short, a model with a larger number of parameters has a greater overall ability. In 2018 when GPT was released, GPT-1 had 117 million parameters. GPT-2 had 1.5 billion parameters, and GPT-3 in 2020 raised it to 175 billion parameters.

GPT-4 is expected to be released in the near future. This iteration is projected to have a stunning 100 trillion parameters. This would be a low estimate for the number of neural connections in the human brain. If GPT-4 does indeed have 100 trillion parameters, it will be on par with the human brain.

If people were impressed with GPT-3, what will they say about GPT-4? But if we look at the trend, what has been achieved in a few years, we can safely assume that AI will surpass human capabilities very soon, and for a significant margin.

Some scientists speculate that artificial intelligence could predict questions even before we speak or write them down. This is due to the fact that AI has the potential to have a significantly higher number of neural connections compared to humans, similar to how we can predict, to some extent, the movements of simple organisms such as worms or single-celled organisms.

What was unimaginable even a couple of years ago now is at our doorsteps. This can be a scary proposition for people who understand it, just as Woody felt when he realised there was a writer he couldn’t match.

Competitive analysis..

But back to the question of who is better at writing — birds, humans or artificial intelligence — we are potentially all equally good. The notion of “good” is subjective, as it depends on the viewpoint of the individual assessing it. Similarly, something that is scarce is often more valuable than something that is abundant, even if the abundant item is of higher quality.

If some unknown species from the future visited Earth and read the stories of Woody, Stephen and GPT4000, they could find all three of them equally fascinating. Because the stories tell more about the writer himself than the fictional characters. And that’s what it’s all about — authenticity.

I asked ChatGPT from Open AI for his opinion on the meaning of this term, and this is the response I received:

“Authenticity refers to the quality of being genuine and real. It is the state of being true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character, despite external pressures or influences. Being authentic means being honest, sincere, and genuine, and acting in accordance with one’s own values and beliefs. It is a way of being true to oneself, and being authentic can lead to greater self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-confidence.”

Final judgment..

As I conclude this article, I have one final question to consider: What if the boundaries are blurred and a person does something with the help of artificial intelligence? Is this still authentically human? What if we flip the tables and AI seeks human help? It’s hard for me to say at this point, but I foresee it becoming a key issue in the future. Will we remain authentic? Or will birds, humans and artificial intelligence eventually merge into one, indivisible entity? If that happens, I bet Woody wouldn’t be happy.