Since you’re the kind of person who’s subscribed to this newsletter, I’m probably not the first person to tell you about ChatGPT. In case I am, here’s the quick summary - ChatGPT is a chatbot built on top of GPT-3. It’s available here: https://chat.openai.com/chat. You might need to sign up for a waitlist (there was overwhelming demand for a while there) - if you do, sign up now; you won’t regret it.
I’m also probably not the first person to tell you that ChatGPT is AWESOME. It is so cool. But not just, like, cool to nerds who write about the metaverse. It’s one of those moments where it’s clear that it’s the beginning of a sea change in technology.
It’s a little odd that this has proven to be such a seminal moment in consumer use of AI, since GPT-3 has been around for months and ChatGPT just puts a better UI on top of it. On the other hand, the fact that it can recall what’s already happened in your conversation makes it feel much more natural to use. One use case I love is changing recipes - try telling it:
Give me a recipe for x.
Now make it vegan.
Now explain each change that you made to the recipe and why.
You could’ve gotten the same result from a single query with GPT-3, but the chat interface makes it feel like you’re texting your friend who’s a great cook for advice. Except it’s your friend who’s good at… everything. Like debugging code:
Or writing raps about non-traditional topics:
If you’re not impressed, just go check out #ChatGPT and #GPT3Chat on Twitter. If nothing in there blows your mind, you’re either incredibly boring or much smarter than I am.
So what does this have to do with the metaverse? Everything. This is increasingly going to become the main way we interact with the internet, and thus, the metaverse. People are already using it to generate AI art prompts, removing the barrier of needing to know exactly how to construct prompts to get what you want. This guy is even using it to create AR objects:
Soon, when you want to create something, whether it’s a poem, a piece of art, some code, or a new website, you’ll be able to describe it in natural language. It’ll democratize the creation of just about anything.
It’s equally useful for retrieving information. I’ve already found legitimate use for it in my work. I run an ecommerce business and was wondering about the maximum size of envelope that can be sent via USPS First Class Parcel mail. I’ve looked up this kind of info from USPS before, and it involves Googling, getting to a page on the USPS site, opening up a PDF with all of the info and scrolling around until you find the answer. Here’s the same question with ChatGPT:
If you need to search for a specific piece of information, as opposed to a website, ChatGPT already almost universally outperforms Google.
If you really want to impress your friends, you can turn it into a neat party trick on your iPhone. You know how Siri sucks at pretty much everything besides setting alarms and checking the weather? You can use shortcuts to turn ChatGPT into a voice assistant on your phone that actually works - open this Twitter thread for instructions:
The times, they are a-changin’, and the speed of that change seems to getting faster every day.
One last one for you: simulating a text adventure game, then simulating other players in it: https://medium.com/building-the-metaverse/creating-a-text-adventure-game-with-chatg-cffeff4d7cfd
Some neat metaverse stuff from the ol’ Twittersphere
Twitter has really been packed to the gills with great stuff this week. Before ChatGPT was the next big thing, augmented reality was trending - here’s some of the highlights there.
Since I’ve just gone on and on about how AI is the way we’ll interact with the metaverse in the future, let’s look at this lovely counterpoint. It’s a clever design, and the sort of thing that might make a great addition to an AI chatbot. One could imagine using the chatbot to take actions that aren’t associated with anything you can see, either physically or virtually, like launching an application or making a search query, while the ring is used to identify objects in the physical world that you want to act on or make selections in digital menus.
Museums are going to be so much cooler in 20 years. When I was a kid, I was always thrilled when I found some kind of interactive exhibit. Those were few and far between, though - they’re big and expensive and only one patron can use them at a time.
AR changes that paradigm, especially when patrons are bringing their own hardware with them. Instead of being static, museums (at least the good ones) will be deeply interactive experiences.
A couple of weeks ago I talked about Google Maps’ new AR view - here’s a similarly useful tool. Of course, Tokyo’s probably one of the least useful places for this, since their subway is well designed with excellent signage, but the concept is a great one for anybody looking to use public transit in an unfamiliar city.
I love this because it’s a different take on AR, with the restaurant providing the hardware instead of you bringing your own.
Another top-notch educational use for AR. How much cooler is this than looking at a picture in a decade-old textbook?
Even The Weather Channel is embracing AR! I’ll still just check the weather on my phone, but hopefully those diehard TWC watchers (whoever they are) are loving this.
Remember when you were a kid and you used to use your imagination when you played outside? God, we were chumps. This is so much cooler than that. My kids are so lucky.
Remember when we had Tamagotchis? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - the times, they are a-changin’.