Theory of Change #066: Simon Willison on technical and practical applications of ChatGPT and AI

Artificial intelligence is all over the news of late. People are using it to compose silly poems and making images of dogs driving cars. There’s also a lot of hype for the technology with some putative experts claiming we’re on the verge of sentient robots seeking to destroy us all. There are also a lot of naysayers who claim that the generative AIs that are out there like ChatGPT or Midjourney are nothing but toys and are just useless creators of junk.The truth, however, is somewhere in-between all this. It is actually true that ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, or Microsoft’s Sydney function are not sentient at all. But they are incredibly useful. And a lot of people are already using them to do incredible things. In fact, even if these technologies never improve, they are already going to reshape the way we work, learn, and play.Joining me today to discuss AI and its implications is Simon Willison, he is a technology researcher and programmer who does consulting work to help media companies parse and publish data. He’s also the co-creator of the Django, a Python programming framework.MEMBERSHIP BENEFITSThis is a free episode of Theory of Change. But in order to keep the show sustainable, the full audio, video, and transcript for some episodes are available to subscribers only. The deep conversations we bring you about politics, religion, technology, and media take great time and care to produce. Your subscriptions make Theory of Change possible and we’re very grateful for your help.Please join today to get full access with Patreon or Substack.If you would like to support the show but don’t want to subscribe, you can also send one-time donations via PayPal.If you're not able to support financially, please help us by subscribing and/or leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts. Doing this helps other people find Theory of Change and our great guests.ABOUT THE SHOWTheory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.Theory of Change on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoryChangeMatthew Sheffield on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffieldMatthew Sheffield on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattsheffield GUEST INFOSimon Willison's official siteHe's also on Twitter and MastodonYou can get the full transcript of this episode with links to various topics and articles mentioned at Flux or via Substack.  This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theoryofchange.flux.community/subscribe This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plus.flux.community/subscribe