Today, OpenAI announced GPT-4o, a new AI model available to both free and paid users. Among the many upgrades, including faster response times, enhanced memory capabilities, and improved image analysis, is conversational audio that does its best to sound like a real human. You might laugh, joke, or even flirt a little. “It feels like the AI in the movies,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a blog post Monday. “I’m still a little surprised that it’s real.”
To be honest, it felt like an AI from some movie. she, Spike Jonze's 2013 science fiction film accurately foresaw a future where AI relationships could easily replace human connections. In the demo, the ChatGPT audio looks very similar to the following audio: she Starring Scarlett Johansson. In case you were wondering about the reference point, Altman says: tweeted “Girlfriend” – just one word – right after the event.
she It's a great movie. Its take on AI is surprisingly nuanced, and its depiction of the core techno-human relationship leans more toward the utopian than the heady skepticism. Still, here's a shout-out to those looking to capture Jones' world, or any of his sci-fi touchstones, in this work. Just look at it one more time. All the way through. To make sure we're all on the same page about what kind of future we're moving towards.
As my colleague Kate Knibbs recently pointed out, the AI assistant Samantha she There is no malicious intent. It does not take the easy and trite path of opposing humanity. It doesn't even separate people from the rest of society. In Jones' imagined future, AI partners are so standardized that no one bats an eye when Samantha's user, Theodore, takes it as a double plus-one for his date.
It's easy to see why she It has great appeal for AI companies. At first glance, this has all the benefits of conversational artificial general intelligence and none of the drawbacks. (Notably, as Nibbs notes, there is none of the job losses or economic disruption that AGI foreshadows.) But if the world's population she Just because it's okay to interact with AI doesn't mean it's a free good. The AI relationships in this movie are easy and solid, but they're also false. Samantha exists to meet Theodore's needs. It is a dynamic that allows him to receive without giving, and that allows him to always feel secure that he is understood without having to make any effort to understand others.
Until Samantha leaves she, the world's AIs disappear into higher planes of existence, and the consequences are sure to trouble OpenAI investors, as Theodore confronts his own troubled relationships. He writes a letter to his ex-wife. He is watching the sunrise with his neighbors. These are simple human acts that have been postponed thanks to AI. roll credit.
To be honest, at least she This points to a relatively bright future, and we can continue to hold onto it, even if we differ on what to take from it. This is one of the least offensive examples of his sci-fi fascination with the tech billionaire class. Elon Musk describes the Cybertruck as follows:design for blade runner [sic]“What is Blade Runner?” [sic] I would have driven. ” As Max Reid points out more fully than I can, this is wrong on many levels, not the least of which is that: blade runner That's not what everyone should aim for.
