By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

You can make it argue almost anything, and it’s alarmingly cogent. Here’s an example.

Artificial intelligence is getting better, fast, and at times it’s alarming. As someone who teaches undergraduates, I can see the end of the term paper looming: It’s pretty easy to find plagiarism, but really hard to figure out if an AI helped do research and writing. (A student at Princeton has an app for that; it will last until the AI gets better, and then we’ll have an ongoing tech war that the teachers will lose.)

So check this out: My son asked the new public program, OpenAI, to write an argument about the problems with the Yimby movement. Here’s what the robot had to say:

Yimbyism, or “Yes In My Backyard” is an urban planning movement that supports increased housing density as a way to address rising housing costs. It is often presented as a solution to the housing crisis, as well as a way to promote economic development through gentrification…

Finally, Yimbyism does not address the underlying causes of the housing crisis, such as inadequate public investment in housing and land-use regulations that favor development over affordability. Until these issues are addressed, Yimbyism is unlikely to lead to meaningful, long-term solutions to the housing crisis…

Got that right.

But it can make the exact opposite argument, too.

And soon, this is going to be everywhere. I don’t even know where to start…(more)