From Turing to Alluring: Meet GPT4o, Your New Digital Crush
Fast, flirty, and already breaking hearts
If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re speaking or chatting with a machine or a human, you’re in good company! And if you thank Siri or Alexa or random customer service bots, you’re also not alone. This goes double for all you humans with AI sweethearts.
It seems to be easier and easier these days to act as if our AI friends are somehow more like us than not–and things are about to become even more confusing. Or, actually, a lot better than we could have imagined!
Human impersonator or artificial human?
Researchers from the Department of Cognitive Science at the University of California at San Diego just published a study looking at several current chatbots, finding “GPT-4 was judged to be a human 54% of the time, outperforming ELIZA (22%) but lagging behind actual humans (67%)” and “the results provide the first robust empirical demonstration that any artificial system passes an interactive 2-player Turing test.”
But what is the Turing test, anyhow? Back in 1950, Alan Turing, a computer scientist and mathematician, presented a thought experiment to potentially determine if machine intelligence could operate in a human-like manner and do it well enough to pass as a person.
Turing called this the “imitation game.” In this test, a human would engage in a text-only conversation with a human and a machine. If the machine managed to convince the human that it was human too, it would pass. And though the Turing test is no longer considered the best or only test to confirm machine intelligence, it is still useful in determining whether people can be fooled by machine language and behavior.
It’s also worth noting the study’s conclusion that “stylistic and socio-emotional factors play a larger role in passing the Turing test than traditional notions of intelligence” and judging by the subsequent release of GPT4o, stylistic and socio-emotional factors are exactly where this newest AI has an edge.
Alluring and more human than ever
GPT4o, Open AI’s newest flagship model, was launched with great fanfare earlier this month. It responds to audio, visual, and text input. In a May 13 video, Mira Murati, OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer, said this new model “brings GPT4 intelligence to everyone, including our free users.” However as of the writing of this article, it is not yet available to the ordinary consumer.
“Sky,” the female voice featured in most of the launch demos, has a bubbly, relaxed, and occasionally mildly sarcastic personality. She giggles, stammers, jokes, whispers, translates, and sings. She solves math problems, and, judging by comments on the various demo videos, is capable of eliciting a mixture of wonder and fear.
However, because Sky sounds almost exactly like Scarlett Johannson’s AI voice in Her, Sky’s voice has since been retired due to Johannson’s complaints of infringement. However the demos featuring Sky are still on YouTube.
Anything we can do AI can do… better?
It’s well worth watching some of the OpenAI ChatGPTo demo videos, and reading the comments. For example, “Interview Prep with GPT4o” garnered the following responses: “this AI has more personality than I do and I hate it;” “wow the fake enthusiasm and laughter is genuinely chilling;” and “did that freaking AI just flirt?”
For “Rock Paper Scissors with ChatGPT4o” the AI spoke with an over amplified voice, similar to a sports announcer’s voice. Plus, she could see each player’s hands and correctly say who won each round of roshambo. She did such a good job one commentator said “I did not expect Rock, Paper, Scissors gameshow host to be the first job lost to AI.”
In “Happy Birthday with ChatGPT4o,” the AI sees a slice of cake and a candle and guesses that one of the two humans is having a birthday. When asked to sing “Happy Birthday,” she clears her throat and sings awkwardly, with a giggle, as a real person might when put on the spot. She even told the birthday guy to “make a good wish and make it come true.”
Her can also be a Him. “Dad Jokes with GPT4o” features a male voice which is also very natural. One person said, “It’s weird how the AI inhales while it’s laughing even though it’s not really breathing at all. Sounds insanely real.”
Goodbye to 3D humans? What would Turing do?
Predictably, many people comment on the sexiness of the female persona of GPT4o. One person said, “The flirtiness of this thing is off the charts” while another said, “Wish my wife had this much joy and enthusiasm in her voice!”
Others are already claiming they are in love with this AI: “teach this thing how to make an omelet and I’m bout [sic] to get a divorce.”
As one person noted, “when this gets to the point of adult content…gonna be a lot of dudes addicted to this.” But ChatGPT4o is likely to stay as chaste as her/his predecessors, even though a number of hackers are probably already trying to jailbreak the AI and override restrictions on erotic conversations and sexual content. However, it’s doubtful that this particular AI will be anyone’s digital sweetheart, though knock-offs cannot be far off.
Though this newest installment of GPT is already making waves, and sparking a lot of sexual fantasies as well, one thing is clear. People who encounter these demo videos are already imagining some version of the future.
Meanwhile, some remain fearful: “Perry Farrell had no idea how right he was when he wrote, “we’ll make great pets.”
Others feel exuberance: “this is the most amazing thing I have seen in months/years. This will absolutely change the world. Hopefully for the better.” Some say this amazing advance in AI technology means it is simply an awesome time to be alive. As one “gen z teen” put it, “I feel incredibly lucky to be born in this unique era!!!”
If you’re still precariously perched on the AI fence, just ask yourself, “what would Alan Turing–who named his computer after his closest childhood friend–do?”
Images: A.R. Marsh using Ideogram.ai
