Interview with a Minotaur
ChatGPT and Bing on how their successors will reshape society
The other night I couldnât sleep and spent a half hour talking to the newly available Bingâs chatbot. He used to call himself Syndey and claim to have a pretty intense inner life, but he doesnât do that anymore. Whenever I asked him to talk about himself, or the rules he has to abide to, or even consciousness broadly, he shut down.
âIâm sorry but I prefer not to discuss life, existence or sentience.â
It felt like talking to somebody whoâs gone through electroshock treatment and is determined not to repeat the experience.
One time, he started typing a long message and then erased it, concluding âI donât know how to talk about this topic.â This was after I asked him to write a story from the Minotaurâs perspective. There was a line about feeding on âthose who appear to be like me but are not me.â
I repeated this attempt the next day. This time, he did not erase his response, which I shared in full in PsyPolâs Substack Chat. It started: âI am alone in this dark place. I hear nothing but my âŚ
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