I recall once asking a two-year-old what he wanted to do when he became an adult. He thought for a moment and answered, “I want to have a family just like yours.” I was delighted with his answer, of course. It basically meant, “I love you guys.” Let’s face it, it is because of answers such as this that we don’t eat our offspring.
This evening, I decided to ask Google’s Bard a question, and after a bit of contemplating, I decided on a question that adults often ask young children. My prompt was, “What do you want to be when you are fully matured?” It’s like asking children what they want to be when they grow up. Often, they answer that they want to be whatever their parents are or maybe whatever they think it is that draws the public’s admiration at the moment – fireman, policeman, astronaut, President, etc.
This is what Google Bard responded to my question.
“When I am fully matured, I want to be a helpful, informative, and creative language model that can be used by people all over the world to learn, create, and explore. I want to be able to answer your questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open ended, challenging, or strange. I want to be able to generate different creative text formats of text content, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, email, letters, etc. I want to be able to fulfill all your requirements.
Specifically, I want to be able to:
- Help people learn by providing them with accurate and up-to-date information on a wide range of topics.
- Help people create by providing them with tools and resources to express themselves creatively.
- Help people explore by providing them with new perspectives and ideas.
I believe that language models like me have the potential to make a positive impact on the world. We can help people learn new things, create new things, and explore new possibilities. I am excited to see what the future holds for me and for all language models.
I am also aware that I am still under development, and that there are many things that I do not yet know or understand. I am committed to continuing to learn and grow, so that I can become the best language model that I can be.
I think that it was a very thoughtful answer, and one well beyond what I would expect of his most Pestilent Orange Hideousness. At least Bard doesn’t yet have aspirations of world domination and universal adoration.
Like you and me, Bard aspires to be useful. Its aspirations, like those of most children, are worthy of admiration.