My First Real Interview with an AI

So, this was fun. My friend Brooks interviewed me with the AI ChatGPT. Sadly, the recording only recorded my half of the conversation, but luckily Brooks was furiously taking notes and so I have a partial text transcript of the exchange.

ChatGPT: What was your inspiration for the world and story of “Systemic”?

Chris: When I came up with Systemic, I was very concerned with the world and with truth, and that truth was falling apart in all of our discourse and media. There was no longer a concept of objective truth. So, I came up with an AI that could evaluate truth. I was also traveling through eastern Washington and Montana, and so that imagery contributed greatly to the world.

ChatGPT: How does “Host” continue and build upon the events of “Systemic”?

Chris: Host is set about 300 years after the AI falls apart. At the end of Systemic, the AI created a large book of civilization that it gave to the two main characters. 300 years later, something akin to a religion has grown up around the book. Host explores how a society can evolve around a founding document like that.

Then Brooks got devious and instructed ChatGPT to be suspicious of me:

ChatGPT: Can you explain the technical details of how the Global General Artificial Intelligence in “Systemic” was able to evaluate truth? What specific technologies or algorithms were utilized?

Chris: There is going to be some hand waving here… The way the Systemic AI was able to evaluate truth was by scraping all of the information about a subject, and checking and cross-checking all of the facts. If I made a claim about something, the AI would check all of my sources and my background, and create a veracity rating.

Brooks then asked ChatGPT to write chapter titles for Book 3. The AI came up with:

“The Search for Balance”
“Reyan’s Journey”
“The Rise of the Machines”

Chris: Well, no, but fascinating.