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GPT-3 Generates Hype in Closed Beta

GPT-3 can generate thought leadership and write code
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Francis Scialabba

3 min read

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OpenAI's new language model, GPT-3, can generate thought leadership and write code. It has captivated the tech community. Coincidence?

Timeline of events

  • Last March, OpenAI restructured to become a “capped-profit” hybrid organization. Microsoft, which invested $1 billion into OpenAI, is also providing the lab with a supercomputer and Azure services.
  • In May, OpenAI published technical documentation on GPT-3. The model has 175 billion parameters, a 117x increase over its predecessor’s 1.5 billion (pssh, how paltry). GPT-3 was trained on roughly a trillion words.
  • Last week: GPT-3 was distributed in closed private beta and users started tweeting viral examples of the model at work. And 🤯.

Early applications

Developer Kevin Lacker gave GPT-3 a Turing Test, which gauges whether a machine can demonstrate human-like intelligence. While it gave impressive answers, GPT-3 didn’t pass. Two responses show why: “A pencil is heavier than a toaster” and “there are three bonks in a quoit”.

Mckay Wrigley, an Emerging Tech Brew reader and developer, spun up Learn From Anyone in three hours. The GPT-3 demo app simulates conversations with historical figures.

  • “It started to spread and just didn’t stop,” he told me. “All of a sudden, you start talking to Steve Jobs about product and you’re getting legitimate answers and the way you look at everything starts to change a little bit.”
  • The site is down as OpenAI conducts a security review, but Wrigley anticipates it being restored today.

Elsewhere, GPT-3 penned an essay about, um, GPT-3 being the “biggest thing” in tech since blockchain, created a Figma design plug-in, powered a search engine, and created a mini app.

Dialing back the hype

AI execs at Tesla and Facebook raised good questions about polluting GPT future datasets and bias, respectively. “The GPT-3 hype is way too much,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said yesterday.

GPT-3 excels at predicting text, not understanding it. You can’t draw a straight line from GPT-3 to artificial general intelligence (AGI). It’s narrow AI, though this writer could tell you that crafting good prose isn’t always such a narrow task.

Bottom line: GPT-3 can be overhyped and a step change in AI at the same time. While the model won’t develop a new theory of the universe, it will likely find commercial applications in writing, design, programming, and customer service.

🚀 Want to learn more? Check out The Human’s Handbook to Computers that Think, where we break down the key concepts, players, and data surrounding AI

Keep up with the innovative tech transforming business

Tech Brew keeps business leaders up-to-date on the latest innovations, automation advances, policy shifts, and more, so they can make informed decisions about tech.