The Backstory: ChatGPT vs Your Human Brain

I spent 17+ hours with ChatGPT-4. Here's what happened... Part 1.

Dear reader: This article has been sitting in my drafts for 4 months… It NEEDS to be published. But I have a problem… The middle part is not yet finessed in a way I find satisfying. So I’ve made an executive decision. This week you get the backstory—a sneak peak into the chaos that goes on in my mind when I think about AI. The full breakdown of (my understanding) of how AI works will come next week.

Update: Welp! This turned into a three part series that spanned more than a month. But they are all published now. Yay! You can read Part 2 and Part 3 here. Thanks for your patience on this one!

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I’ll admit it…

I’ve been super creeped out by ChatGPT and the AI revolution...

It’s a weird, squeamish, turbulent feeling in my stomach. I get the urge to screw my face up like I’ve caught a whiff of week-old boiled cabbage.

It’s taken me MONTHS to get my head around this thing. It horrified me in a pretty visceral, emotional way. And yet, my dear brain (with its higher order processes) was also screaming—

FEAR NOT!! This is going to be the most valuable tool! Your business is going to grow 100000%. Your productivity will go through the roof!! We’ll be sipping mojitos on the beach in no time!

Ehhhh…. so these two parts of myself are at war over dear little AI.

This dichotomy is also exaggerated because my loving husband-to-be is ENTHRALLED with this thing. If we go one day without mentioning ChatGPT and it’s power—then call me a possum:

Me. As a possum. If we go one day in our household without mentioning ChatGPT. (This is an Australian possum in case you’re wondering.)

But still…. Until now… I haven’t really dived into the depths of this new technology and what it means. Because, to be honest—I’m scared.

Until today.¹

Today I decided to confront my fear and jump in the proverbial cold water of GPT-4. Yep. I pulled out my card and PAID for it. And with my first fresh prompt with GPT-4, what do I ask?

• “Please help me improve my sentence [inserted here] for my next article”.

And what do I get? NA-DA. Nothing of value. Drivel.

But luckily, I haven’t given up hope yet. Because my patient husband-to-be has trained me for this very moment.

I can hear his soft, sweet voice now:

“Nay [my nickname], it’s all about the prompt. The better your prompt—the better the output. It’s like having 1000 interns working with you. You’re smart and I believe in you. You can do it!

And here we are. I’ve paid for the best version yet… And if I’m really going to 10000x my productivity and get us living at the beach quick smart—I better learn how this damn thing works!

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My second ever prompt:

“Can you teach me how to best prompt chatgpt-4? what rules do you play by? what kind of information helps you get the best outputs?”

And then it responds with a WALL of text:

But this wasn’t nearly enough for me.

You see—I’m a little fan of depth psychology (read Carl Jung is my spirit animal)—and I want to know what’s BELOW the surface.

So then I ask: “Ok. Can you tell me more about how you interpret the data? How do you understand language? Is it like the human brain? or is it different?”

Because here’s the thing…

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I’m weary of this technology because I don’t understand how it works.

• I don’t know where the words come from.

• I don’t know how it selects information.

• I don’t know how or what it understands.

• I don’t know how it interprets our language.

• I don’t know how it comes up with the answers to our questions.

But here’s what I DO know:

• I know how the brain interprets language.

• I know how the brain takes our perception and turns it into meaning.

• I know how the brain produces emotional/rational responses to the environment.

• I know how it helps us communicate to move us towards our goals.

So what’s the answer?

Spend the next 17+ hours asking GPT-4 to explain HOW it processes information so I can compare it to my own human brain and be slightly less freaked out.

I keep reminding myself—this is a TOOL. Even though it SOUNDS human (sometimes)—it’s not.

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So if you’re jittery about GPT like me—let’s figure out how it works together.

Like REALLY works.

Because knowledge is power right? (And hopefully it will tame my dear limbic system).

Disclaimer: Neural net/machine learning people please correct me if I’ve got anything wrong in the following post. Machines make my brain spin—let alone machine learning!

But still. I’ve drunk from the AI elixir. And somehow, I think I’m here to stay.

So given that—here is what comes next:

• Part 2: Life as an AI: My no0b understanding of AI and ChatGPT. Aka how does GPT (and other LLMs) actually understand wtf you’re talking about?

• Part 3: The difference between you and ChatGPT—as far as my funny human brain can understand it.

Here is proof that the draft article actually does exist. Wish me luck!!

Screenshots of draft for proof of life for this article.

Lots of love,

Renee Aharon

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Other things to keep you occupied 🤓

• An in depth GPT breakdown: Thanks Stephen Wolfram!

• 12 minutes of pure joy (for neuro nerds): A pretty nifty youtube video of how your brain processes language

• What you learned about Broca’s & Wernicke’s areas at university was wrong…

• ChatGPT tutorial for 2023: In case you don’t have a GPT proficient fiancé like me.

• AI vs Machine Learning: Is there a difference?

• When you need more than words: Multi-model LLMs

• Visual Processing and cortical pathways: Aka how you actually see things

• Teach me anatomy: The auditory pathway

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1. I started drafting this on May 25th 2023… So yah… For context, this was a month or two after GPT4 was released into the world.