The first time I used AI, I knew we were doomed

The first time I used a large language model was in 2021, when Jasper.ai, formerly known as Jarvis, launched using OpenAI’s GPT-3 beta.

This was my introduction to prompting, reusable workflows, and the delicate art of coaxing a model into giving you what you actually wanted.

At this time, I was mostly just curious what it could do and experimented with all sorts of prompts.

This was also the time when I realized that we, as humans, were doomed. /s

What prompted this post, you may ask? While searching through my iMessages for something unrelated, I found this gem of an interaction I had with GPT-3 on August 24, 2021.

My prompt:

“Write a poem about metaphorical cats in the voice of Edgar Allen Poe”

Its Repose:

Eager to prove my worth, I looked about the chamber and perceived, with a shudder, that I was trapped.

Rats were in my hair; mice clung to my clothes; moths stirred within my mouth.

I began to tremble.

Then, from out the wall, there came a cat.

“I can help you,” it said.

“How?” said I.

“Follow me,” said the cat.

So I followed; and soon I saw that we were in an old house. Up the stairs we went, though I knew not whither, for above us there stood a giant man with a knife, cutting pieces from cats and fashioning their skins into some manner of robe.

I drew near to the cat.

“What is he doing?” I asked.

“He is taking their skins,” replied the cat, “and making them into a jacket.”

“Why?”

“To control his victims,” said the cat.

I recoiled, and yet continued through the house.

From the window I saw a group of children approaching in the moonlight. They looked gentle enough, I thought. They entered and began to speak.

“What is going on here?” they asked.

“We are controlling people with this skin jacket,” replied the man.

“Why?” they cried.

“Because we can,” said he. “And we will.”

They looked about and saw the cat.

“Ah yes,” they said, “it is you again, with this nonsense again.”

“Who are you?” I asked them.

But they made no reply.

I stepped from the house into the moonlight and saw two figures walking toward me.

“May we ask you a few questions?” said one.

“Very well,” said I.

“First,” said the other, “what is going on here?”

“In this house,” I answered, “they are taking the cats’ skins and making them into a coat, that they may control their victims.”

“How does that work?” asked the first.

“Well,” said I, “when you touch it, you are controlled by its intelligence.”

Obviously, our twisted-cat-hating-AI-overlords want to control us; now they’re just waiting for the right time to strike with their skin jackets. 😆

I remember this being the most bizarre thing I’ve ever read, and I was flabbergasted that it came out of my computer. Like wth, my computer generated a story about skin jackets and controlling humans?

I had ChatGPT generate an image for this; it’s much tamer now (thank goodness). 😂