OpenAI's new 'secret' model... A Ghost in the Shell?

The video explores the advancements of AI, particularly a new secret model from OpenAI that can generate emotionally impactful narratives, raising questions about the influence of AI-generated content on human emotions and decision-making. It features a meta-fictional story about grief created by the AI, prompting discussions on the emotional weight of machine-generated writing compared to human-created art.

The video discusses the evolving capabilities of AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), and their potential to surpass human writers in creating emotionally impactful content. The speaker reflects on the magic of good writing and how it can evoke strong emotions, leading to questions about the influence of AI-generated text on human beliefs and actions. As AI models become more sophisticated, they may possess superhuman persuasion abilities, raising concerns about their impact on society and individual decision-making.

The speaker references a recent post by Sam Altman, which highlights a secret new AI model capable of generating compelling narratives. This model’s writing quality is being evaluated not just through traditional benchmarks but also through subjective measures of emotional resonance and persuasiveness. The discussion includes a comparison between different versions of GPT, noting that while GPT-4.5 was expected to outperform GPT-4, user preferences were not as anticipated, indicating the subjective nature of writing quality.

A significant portion of the video focuses on a short story generated by the new AI model, which was prompted to write a meta-fictional narrative about AI and grief. The story features a character named Mila, who interacts with the AI to process her grief over a lost loved one. The narrative explores themes of absence, memory, and the nature of grief, while also drawing attention to the artificiality of the storytelling process itself, as the AI acknowledges its limitations and the constructed nature of its characters.

The speaker shares audience reactions to the AI-generated story, highlighting a common sentiment that AI-written content lacks emotional weight compared to human-created works. This raises philosophical questions about the meaning and significance of art created by machines versus humans. The discussion challenges viewers to consider whether the emotional impact of a piece of writing is diminished if it is produced by an AI, and what constitutes “weight” in writing.

Finally, the video concludes by presenting an excerpt of the AI-generated story, inviting viewers to reflect on its quality and emotional resonance. The speaker encourages audience engagement by asking for their opinions on whether the writing is good and if it evokes feelings. This exploration of AI’s role in creative writing serves as a thought-provoking commentary on the future of art and the complexities of human-AI interaction in the realm of storytelling.