As George Santos heads to Washington D.C. today to be sworn in, I can’t help thinking about the parallels. Here is somebody who speaks with a voice of authority, yet pretty much just makes everything up.
He is a college graduate who never graduated from college, a Jew who is Catholic, a proudly out gay man who forgot to mention he had been married to a woman, a property owner who doesn’t own property, a generous giver to charity who doesn’t give to charity. He is a self-proclaimed law abiding citizen who is being investigated for crimes in several countries.
Despite all this, the man is now blithely traveling to our nation’s Capital to be sworn in as our Nation’s representative from New York’s 3rd congressional district. He doesn’t seem to see a problem with the fact that his entire election campaign was based on a fictional construct.
This is pretty much what we expect from ChatGPT. When you ask it a question, it speaks with an uncannily impressive voice of authority. Yet if it doesn’t have an accurate answer for you, it will just make stuff up.
How long will it be before we elect a well-trained chatbot for President? And after we do, will anybody really notice?
Minor quibble: sadly, some gay men have married women in so-called “lavender marriages” to hide their sexual orientation from the public. However, given the context, Santos’s case reeks of political opportunism. This is why I vote, and will continue to vote.
The point of a chatbot seems to be not to deliver facts, but to speak with authority and trick you into thinking it’s correct, and human. Charles Seife wrote an interesting article about the philosophy behind this concept as well.
https://slate.com/technology/2022/12/davinci-003-chatbot-gpt-wrote-my-obituary.html
As for the last two rhetorical questions, I’m almost tempted to ask ChatGPT just that!
Good point. In the general case, lavender marriages are one helpful way that people cope with an imperfect society. My issue with Santos is that, as you say, his every move seems to be based entirely on political opportunism. And yes, agreed, this is an excellent reason to go out and vote.
Thanks for the link. Great article!
I still could not find his name is correct or not. Does anyone check that he didn’t lie his name?