BTW, with a right prompt, GPT-4 does a decent job at emulating Hemingway, a Literature Nobel laureate.
“She left, the door clicking shut with a finality that echoed in her chest.” Next!
Curiously, when I googled the phrase “echoed in her chest”, all but two of the first page of hits were AI-generated stories. “Echoed in his chest” was similar.
Might be an example of the mode collapse of RLHF. It seems to show up a lot in the specific language—jokes, especially—whereas you don’t seem to see quite the same tells with Claude-2 of a few phrases constantly surfacing (although this might reflect the much lower usage of it).
I would suggest to try the jumping boy story (the #7 in this comment). It’s the first AI-written story I’ve ever encountered that feels like it’s written by a competent writer.
As usual, it contains some overused phrasings, but the overall quality is surprisingly good.
Yes, I think that’s the best of all the stories on this page so far. Agreed about the overused purple phrases (makes me itch to delete a bunch of clauses), but you can easily see how you could keep going with that one and get something which might actually be worth reading—the angle I would take is the ‘time dilation horror’ one where he uses his power to jump through increasingly large time periods to escape from his terrible life (which has the benefit of encouraging a double-reading where the ‘time jumps’ are actually just retreating into some abuse-triggered fugue state).
time jumps’ are actually just retreating into some abuse-triggered fugue state
Wait, I thought this was the intended meaning of the original, the twist of the whole story. The Hemingway prompt explicitly asks GPT to include mental illness and at the end of the story:
He closed his eyes again. A minute passed, or perhaps a lifetime.
he explicitly just loses track of time in these moments.
Had a human written it, I would agree. But since it’s a LLM, be wary of overreading it and ascribing much more intentionality & planning than it actually put into the story. ‘Mental illness’ could be anything, and could just as easily be unrelated or even be the cause of his SF superpowers, as its esoteric interpretation—lots of characters are gifted genuine, real (within the story), superpowers because of trauma or mental issues. You cannot assume that that’s what the LLM ‘meant’ simply because you find that a more satisfying interpretation. (Note how broad the Hemingway prompt is: “The themes are selected in such a way as to please the typical pretentious literary critic: poverty, inequalities, racism, domestic violence, mental illness, suffering, etc.” There are a lot of options to choose from, and several, like poverty and inequality, clearly are in the story already, meaning it doesn’t have to pick ‘domestic violence’, ‘mental illness’, ‘suffering’, or ‘etc’ at all to fulfill the instructions.)
As a quick test of “Interpret this story:” with ChatGPT-4, it doesn’t seem to go for a abuse/fugue-state explanation:
The story you’ve shared is rich with vivid imagery and emotional depth. It presents a narrative of a young boy named Jimmy, who seems disconnected from the lively atmosphere of the old town square he’s in. The story contrasts his internal world with the external environment, highlighting his sense of isolation and detachment.
Key elements include:
The Setting: The sun-baked old town square, with a clock tower stuck at 3:17, sets a scene of stagnation and timelessness, mirroring Jimmy’s emotional state.
Characters:
Jimmy: Portrayed as a lonely, distant boy, seemingly out of sync with his surroundings.
Mrs. Jenkins: An old woman who shows concern for Jimmy, suggesting a community that still cares for him.
Other Townspeople: Represent the normal flow of life, contrasting with Jimmy’s detached existence.
Symbolism:
The Clock Tower: Stuck in time, it symbolizes Jimmy’s feeling of being trapped in a moment.
The Sandwich: Offered by Mrs. Jenkins, it represents the care of the community but is left uneaten by Jimmy, indicating his disconnection.
The Changing Square: Subtle changes that only Jimmy notices could represent his unique perception of time or reality.
Themes:
Isolation vs. Community: Jimmy’s isolation contrasts with the vibrant life of the square.
Time and Change: The frozen clock and Jimmy’s ability to perceive shifts in time suggest themes of temporality and change.
The Ending: Jimmy’s ability to jump through time, one minute at a time, introduces a fantastical element. It symbolizes his journey through life, carrying the weight of his past while moving into an uncertain future.
The story is a poignant exploration of loneliness, the passage of time, and the subtle connections between an individual and their community. It leaves readers with a sense of melancholy, wonder, and contemplation about the nature of time and human connection.
BTW, I added to the comment with the story that the story is released into the Public Domain, without any restrictions to its distribution, modification etc.
Please feel free to build upon this remarkable story, if you wish.
“She left, the door clicking shut with a finality that echoed in her chest.” Next!
Curiously, when I googled the phrase “echoed in her chest”, all but two of the first page of hits were AI-generated stories. “Echoed in his chest” was similar.
Might be an example of the mode collapse of RLHF. It seems to show up a lot in the specific language—jokes, especially—whereas you don’t seem to see quite the same tells with Claude-2 of a few phrases constantly surfacing (although this might reflect the much lower usage of it).
I would suggest to try the jumping boy story (the #7 in this comment). It’s the first AI-written story I’ve ever encountered that feels like it’s written by a competent writer.
As usual, it contains some overused phrasings, but the overall quality is surprisingly good.
Yes, I think that’s the best of all the stories on this page so far. Agreed about the overused purple phrases (makes me itch to delete a bunch of clauses), but you can easily see how you could keep going with that one and get something which might actually be worth reading—the angle I would take is the ‘time dilation horror’ one where he uses his power to jump through increasingly large time periods to escape from his terrible life (which has the benefit of encouraging a double-reading where the ‘time jumps’ are actually just retreating into some abuse-triggered fugue state).
Wait, I thought this was the intended meaning of the original, the twist of the whole story. The Hemingway prompt explicitly asks GPT to include mental illness and at the end of the story:
he explicitly just loses track of time in these moments.
Had a human written it, I would agree. But since it’s a LLM, be wary of overreading it and ascribing much more intentionality & planning than it actually put into the story. ‘Mental illness’ could be anything, and could just as easily be unrelated or even be the cause of his SF superpowers, as its esoteric interpretation—lots of characters are gifted genuine, real (within the story), superpowers because of trauma or mental issues. You cannot assume that that’s what the LLM ‘meant’ simply because you find that a more satisfying interpretation. (Note how broad the Hemingway prompt is: “The themes are selected in such a way as to please the typical pretentious literary critic: poverty, inequalities, racism, domestic violence, mental illness, suffering, etc.” There are a lot of options to choose from, and several, like poverty and inequality, clearly are in the story already, meaning it doesn’t have to pick ‘domestic violence’, ‘mental illness’, ‘suffering’, or ‘etc’ at all to fulfill the instructions.)
As a quick test of “Interpret this story:” with ChatGPT-4, it doesn’t seem to go for a abuse/fugue-state explanation:
BTW, I added to the comment with the story that the story is released into the Public Domain, without any restrictions to its distribution, modification etc.
Please feel free to build upon this remarkable story, if you wish.