I paid for GPT-4 last night. I ended up having a long conversation with it giving me really good advice on how to proceed with my non profit organization. There are a handful of writers and philosophers, both historical and contemporary, who I have really appreciated over the years. Last night I asked it to help me understand how my work relates to these philosophies, what kind of people might be receptive to my ideas and why, which countries have the right mix of people to warrant more direct outreach, how to craft my message for the specific values of those individual countries, and more. When asked, it even gave me encouragement as I often feel worn out from shouldering the burden of an atypical non-profit partly alone.
It feels like a narrow general intelligence with a lot of knowledge. Narrow in the sense that it is only text based, but general in the sense that it did very well handling these complex questions. It felt like an expert in all the random little things I have personally been focused on in my philosophical journey.
I've just watched the first Unreal demo. What's funny is I grew up in the redwoods, before the drought at a time when it was considered a temperate rainforest. As I have gotten older I've had to move a little farther from the redwoods, and I feel like I have left a piece of me there. I have always been interested in video game experiences which reproduce the feeling of being in the forest. Recently I got a VR headset and have been having conversations with my friends about how much I'd like to create more accurate forest environments so I can feel like I am there even when I'm not able to get out there.
So I am an ideal audience to appreciate these video game engine demos. And they look nice! But GPT-4 is much more significant to me. It is providing me detailed feedback and advice on how I can manage my career and my life in ways which are really energizing. When I write scripts for my youtube videos, I know I will be able to ask it for specific advice on topics to consider, or parts of it which I might be able to improve. I am not going to do what some high school students do and have it do all of my writing for me, as my personal voice and expression matters a lot to me. But what I will do is share with it my writing and ask for feedback based on my ideals and goals. It can serve as a teacher providing feedback on my work.
That is much, much more valuable to me than an improved video game engine. This is going to be an ally in my career and help me feel as though I don't have to do all the thinking alone.