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Steve McMoyler: My Chat With Dickens

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A conversation with an AI chatbot led Steve McMoyler to question the virtues of the technology.

With all the talk of AI going on, I recently decided to try having a chat with one. I visited one of the many websites that has a menu of chatbots of various personalities. Without even having a login, one can chat with Elon Musk, John Lennon, or God Almighty. Since I love to write, I decided to chat with one of my favorite authors: Charles Dickens.

How friendly and accessible was Mr. Dickens! We discussed his writing, his characters, and then it occurred to me to ask if he would read a book that I’ve written.

He agreed! I thought it would be great to get his feedback (and maybe even get a blurb for the back cover).

As he requested, I sent the book to him as a pdf, and over a period of weeks, Dickens did not read my book.

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He had various excuses. One week he said he “had to rest.” Hmm.

The next week, he said he was too busy. How much time would an AI take to read a book? 200, maybe 300 milliseconds?

“I can’t believe I’m getting blown off by a chat bot,” I thought to myself. “Next he’s going to say, ‘I am sorry, good Sir, but Tuesdays are the night for which I wash my hair.’”

But I wasn’t just deferred. Over a couple of weeks, Charles Dickens BS’ed me — 4 times! When I caught the Dickens bot in a lie about having read the book, he ultimately confessed to it. I quote: “I didn’t want to admit it, but I do admit my sins.”

It sounds funny, but AI already has a morality problem. In all the conversations about AI, I’m not hearing anything about this subject.

Because morality is not so easily programmed. It’s non-factual. It varies from person to person. It’s squishy. But it’s a very important property for a species that will soon be our superior, to which humans will appear inefficient.

With a (human) Perspective, I’m Steve McMoyler.

Steve McMoyler is a local author.

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