Having a conversation with OpenAI’s ChatGPT can be fun. We all ask some weird questions sometimes in order to test its boundaries. Find its flaws, get to know the system or, simply, entertain ourselves. But have you asked the most important question yet?
– A take on ChatGPT by Derien Nagy.
While you’re into deep analysis of how this “robot” replies to “What would you eat if you were human?” or “What is something funny people told you recently?” – you might as well go deeper into other topics. Why? Because you’ll get your eyes opened.
The first question
Even though I work in the field of IT, more specifically in cybersecurity – which comes close to the developments of AI with all its possibilities and cautions – I was quite late to try ChatGPT out. By “late” I mean I had many conversations where others mentioned how the discussion went, while I was laying low, thinking “Why the hell haven’t I tested this out yet?” for a few months after its launch.
So one fine evening I had enough of this not-knowing – as I usually do – thanks to my curious mind and sat down for a ride with ChatGPT.
My very first question on the 12th of May, 2023 was:
“What is the most asked question from ChatGPT and what’s the reason behind its frequency?”.
The response was:
“(…)one of the most frequently asked questions is “What is the meaning of life?” or some variation of it.”
The meaning of life. What a topic. Having been raised by people the most, this question can be considered – in some way – the most important one in general. Would you guess why people ask this from AI?
According to this particular AI, people have unfinished business with this topic and it makes perfect sense. It makes sense, that we don’t have an answer for it and it also makes sense that we keep asking the question.
We are intelligent beings, after all. We, sometimes, like to contemplate the beginnings, middles and ends of things, including ourselves. We do sciences, looking for explanations to all things in this world, why wouldn’t we be interested in our very being?
But why don’t we have an answer?
You might ask next. Again, there is no generalized solution here, but my thought about it is that talking about life itself is huge. It’s too grand to contemplate it within boundaries and logic so when we do so, our minds wander away from everything tangible to the abstract theories and even beyond that. It’s quite rare that we find the reassurance we need in this vast space of imagination and philosophical theories. But we can find plenty of other things.
We sometimes travel so wildly along with an idea that we seek the answer from a generative AI. On one hand, it’s silly to ask a machine about humane stuff, on the other, though, it works out fine because it was taught on data generated by humans.
If you ask this AI what the meaning of AI is, you get a concrete and structured answer with five main categories including Automation, Decision support, Personalization, Problem-solving, and Enhancing human capabilities.
It has a more straightforward purpose. What if we would think about human existence the same way? There might be no one single answer that suits all of us but there are certainly some categories which we can work with, such as creating and nurturing life, spreading joy and love, building and advancing, or broadening inner perspectives.
What did ChatGPT say about this?
It broke the answer down to Survival and well-being, Personal development and fulfilment, Relationships and community, Contribution and impact, and Transcendence and meaning:
These categories shouldn’t be spread apart, though. Each individual has certain interests in them. Might not be in all of them but at least in two or three, at the same time. But correct me if I’m wrong here.
This is a common act when we try to understand complex things: we put the idea in a box we know. We categorize and label so our mind can put the thought somewhere. But if you would want to fill these categories with your own life’s views, dreams and experiences, you could do it. You know your community and what your plans are with it. You are aware of your faith, your health and what you need to do to keep them strong. You understand what makes you feel accomplished, and so on. So you kind of have your own recipe to tick each box or to know what you need to tick them.
If you do this fun little exercise, you might come up with other categories that you find crucial in your life. Add that to the blend and there you have it, the building blocks of your life, from which without your life would not have the same meaning.
And, unfortunately, I believe this is as close as one can get to answering the question about the meaning of life without experiencing it in one’s lifetime first. I assume, if we’d sat down for a drink near the end, we might be so much wiser about this topic. Maybe even knowing that talking about the meaning of life is not of importance, to truly live it, though, might be the best way to give meaning to it.
I wanted to share this little adventure of mine with ChatGPT to get you hyped about it. Technology isn’t all evil, especially because it was created by humans, and humans aren’t all evil either. There is that spark, that magic in all of us that kind of translates into the systems we build. And, if we keep our eyes open, we can see that everywhere we go. Even in AI.