Background
When I was about 10 years old, my dad bought a WiFi router. It was the most amazing thing I had seen at the time. A little of bit of context. The packets of Internet used to pilgrimage through the telephone line before being rendered on the dusty CRT monitor desktop. To ensure safe passage, upon starting the computer, one used an application on the computer to setup a dial-up connection to the ISP. If god forbids, one of my relatives decided to call unannounced, I would loose my internet connection when my mother decided to answer the phone. At that time you see, call packets (and my mother’s conversations with distant relatives) were given preference to my humble internet packets (my net surfing time). One day he brought in the router, which safe-guarded my internet connection against my mother’s tyrannical conversations. The router also had a wireless connection option. The idea that packets of information could float through the air carrying videos blew my mind away. I could sit in peace undistrubted by the tyranny of the telephone.
But this is my earliest memory of being astounded by technology. I possibly had been amazed before, but I can’t recall those memories. Amongst all the technological advancements since then, my experience with ChatGPT triumphs my earliest memory of marvelling at technology. Inspite of claims such as ChatGPT is dumber than a dog1, the point is who cares? Since the existence of humans, has a human being ever been able to carry out a conversation with any non-human? I have used ChatGPT as a programming assistant, I simply ask for code and often just copy-paste the outputs. The recent advancements where ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak2 make this even more remarkable. It is able to discern possible causes and offers debugging strategies. In practice, does it really matter if it actually “reasoned” or was able to compress enough human knowledge from the internet and customize a likely strategy. I am saddened to say it is better at debugging code (written by it or someone else) than the undergraduates / graduates I have worked with at UCSD. I will grant that the jury may be still out on whether it can