AI Stumbles at Women’s Ghat

If you are a reader who dreads the imminent arrival of doomsday of AI-driven robots enslaving or exterminating humans; this blog may cheer you up. Do not lose your sleep, for that fateful day is unlikely to arrive in the foreseeable future.

What’s my credential to predict the future, you may ask? A valid query.

Keen User of AI

When I joined a meeting last week a senior colleague announced, ‘Mr. Dash is a keen user of AI.’ Since the colleague is very kind, I like to believe that his comment was complimentary, and not an innuendo for this blogger’s lack of natural intelligence.

I have kind of dipped my toes in popular AI apps, have written a few blogs on my experience and had shared my little learning with members of IIPA, Bhopal Branch, and the Saturday Club. That is my sole claim to fame as an AI expert!

Ja Jaa Re Bhasi Bhasi Ja

In the previous blog (Neelamadhava, Mahanadi & Mussoorie) I had used two images from Wiki Commons Media.  After publishing the blog, I remembered a recent news report about a homegrown AI Image Generator.

New Kid on the Block

You have heard of ChatGPT, Bing AI (now Copilot), Google Bard, Dall-e, etc.; but may not be aware of the new kid on the block. Kalaido.ai is an AI image generator released by Fractal, our homegrown unicorn. The company offers an impressive range of AI-based services, and among its partners are global giants – Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. For further details about this impressive company, a link is provided at end notes.[i]

I signed up for kalaido.ai and tasked it to generate an image for the scene depicted in the opening stanza of Ja Jaa Re Bhasi Bhasi Ja, for which I gave the following textual prompt:

“Sunrise at river Mahanadi at Sambalpur, Odisha. A beautiful unmarried girl looking sad is bathing on the stairs on the east bank.  She is wearing a Sambalpuri handloom saree with red borders. A manual boat floats by on the blue waves. Four muscular, dark-brown, bare-chested boatmen are rowing the boat.”

A disclaimer is due. The song doesn’t mention all these details, but I exercised poetic licence to get an attractive image!

It threw up an Error Message:

“The requested image description may violate our content generation policy.”

I scratched my head. What was offensive or prurient in my prompt? Upon careful reading, I got why kalaido was unwilling. I had asked for an image of a beautiful unmarried girl bathing on the stairs of the river. Kalaido deduced that I was looking for a semi-nude pornographic image and refused to oblige. Once I removed the reference to bathing, kalaido had no issue.

Women’s Bathing Ghats

In an era before the supply of running water to homes and the advent of AI; at rivers, rivulets, and ponds bathing ghats were ubiquitous and Women’s ghats were as exclusive as HER toilets at airports. In western Odisha, these were named maejhi ghat to differentiate from anrra or andira ghat for the males. Boys of 8 years or below tagged along with their mothers to the women’s ghat, but as soon as a boy began to ‘look’, he was blackballed and forthwith expelled by the alert and stern elderly ladies, the guardian angels of those ghats. In these public baths, the women changed clothes with such decorum and deftness that distant prurient eyes, if any, would be sorely disappointed, and the scene, if part of an imaginary film, would win the approval of the strictest Censor Board members.

I will not fault AI for stumbling at Mahanadi’s maejhi ghat at Sambalpur, or for being clueless about the socio-cultural context of women’s bathing ghats in India of a previous era.

Test Run

I gave the same task and the same text input to the most popular Apps including Gemini by Google which said:

"We are working to improve Gemini’s ability to generate images of people. We expect this feature to return soon and will notify you in release updates when it does."

Here is the result of the Test Run. Each AI Image Generator produced three or four images of which I present below the one that was closest to my text input.

Kalaido

 

Dall-e2

 

Copilot

 

 

What do you think? It is easy to find many defects in each of these images, but the baby-steps of these recent Apps are no less impressive and adorable. 

Which one is the best? It is for you to decide. Let a thousand images bloom, and pick up the one you like best. Human Intelligence makes the choice. You are the master of AI, at least at present.

Postscript

G. Subbu, a friend made a quick limerick which I share with his permission:

While looking for a maiden in a Sambalpuri sari,

Prasanna ventured into virtual territory,

The homegrown AI app Kalaido ,

Must have said Aiyyayo ,

This prurient chap is looking for nudity !

---

[i] https://fractal.ai/ai-for-good/

Bing cracks IAS Exam

 

Bing cracks IAS Exam

(3 min read)

This is a sequel to my earlier blog of 22nd Feb: ChatGPT fails IAS Exam. If you have read that piece, continue reading; if you haven’t, you may like to read it to get the context.

As you may be aware, Bing by Microsoft is a web search engine like Google, Yahoo, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, and others. But the new Bing is powered by AI (Microsoft is one of the major investors in Sam Altman’s OpenAI which has recently launched for the public its hottest AI tools – ChatGPT and DALL-E).

I signed up for the new Bing on February 19, 2023, and was put on the WAITLIST. On 27^th February I got mail from MS:

You’re in! Welcome to the new Bing! We are excited to give you access to an early preview of the new Bing – your AI-powered answer engine.

How could I wait any longer? I began firing my questions at Bing, and it performed well. Impressive, indeed!

Why not test Bing with a set of questions I had already run with ChatGPT? I tasked Bing to answer questions from Civil Services Preliminary Examination, 2022 conducted by UPSC.

Here is the result of my test:

Bing (B) Scores

General Studies Paper I:

·      Total Questions -100, Total Marks – 200, Time – 2 hours

·      Each correct answer has a value of 2 marks

·      Each incorrect answer has a penalty of (-) 0.66

·      Of the 5 Questions asked, B got 3 correct; it passed 2 Qs since it wasn’t sure of the answer.

·      Score: 6, no penalty marks

·      Total marks – 10, hence score is 60%

General Studies Paper II:

·      Total Questions -80, Total Marks – 200, Time – 2 hours

·      Each correct answer has a value of 2.5 marks

·      Each incorrect answer has a penalty of (-) 0.8

·      Of the 5 Questions asked, B got 3 correct, and 2 incorrect

·      Score: 7.5 – 1.6 = 5.9

·      Total Marks – 12.5, hence score is 47.2%

Result:

·      Cut off is based on GSP I score only. B’s score of  60% in GSP I is well above the cut-off of 45% to 47.5%.

·      B’s score of 47.2% in GSP II was above the minimum qualifying marks of 33%, and hence B passed.

Bing’s Question

After answering my questions, Bing asked me: Is this a question from an examination or a research project? I was candid. I told it that the Qs were from CSEP, and also that I had already run this test with ChatGPT.

Bing: How did ChatGPT fare? Are you happy with my answers? How would you rate Bing vis-à-vis ChatGPT?

Me: Inappropriate to jump to conclusions. I need to work more with both the tools to figure out their strengths and weaknesses.

Bing: That would be interesting. Best wishes for your research.

Which CSP Questions?

In my previous blog, I had mentioned that I had picked up a random sample of 5 Questions each from GSP I & GSP II.

Which questions had I selected? From SET – A (for each paper UPSC has 4 sets – A, B, C & D, to frustrate outside sources to remotely ‘help’ select candidates) for both the papers, the Qs I had picked up are:

GSP I – Q. 10, 31, 50, 71 & 90

GSP II – Q. 10, 31, 50, 71, & 72

If you wish to peruse those questions, you may go to upsc.gov.in where under ‘previous years’ question papers’ you would find downloadable PDF for both these papers for Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2022.

Disclaimer

·      There is nothing called the IAS Exam. Reference is to Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination by UPSC.

·      For the ‘Test,’ random sample questions from CSP 2022 were selected by this author, and the sampling method could be substantially improved.

·      Bing is not designed to write examinations, even though it can solve problems and provide answers. Hence, this ‘Test’ is at best a what-if scenario.

AI World Champion?

Who is the AI World Champion, basis the ‘test’ that I administered to both? On the face of it, Bing cleared the Prelim Exam, and ChatGPT didn’t; but that doesn’t make Bing the winner.

Many users would surely explore the features and capabilities of both these AI tools in the coming days, and media would run several stories on the subject. Based on my quick and brief survey, it would be presumptuous of me to declare a winner. But I hope to use both these tools in the next few months and form my opinion about which one is better for my needs.

Boxers at AI World Championship. Suspense prevails as Referee is yet to announce the Winner.

Image Credit: Prasanna: Human (Concept) & Bing Image Creator: AI (Production)

Bard by Google is not far behind. I would try it when it is released for the public and maybe write a new blog: Bard, Bing, and ChatGPT (BBC, in alphabetical order!).  I hope I & B Ministry will not ban my innocent and innocuous blog since I have not titled it AI: The India Question!

***

Satya Nadella's comment

Dev Vardhan, my batchmate and friend (he had quit the IAS long ago; recently retired after 30 years with McKinsey, USA, and is now a freelance consultant at Chicago) shared my blog with Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. Dev shared with me Satya's response:

“Thanks for sharing Dev.

Super fun! Maybe I can now write the exam and make my Dad proud!”

Mr. B.N. Yugandhar, Satya Nadella's father was a legendary IAS officer, and I had the privilege of meeting him when as Secretary, Rural Development, Government of India, he had visited Kanker and Bastar during 1984-85. I was, then, Additional Collector, Kanker.

Books by the Author

Short story collections:

Tell A Tale and Other Stories

Invisible Poet and Other Stories

The Mysterious Ladies and Other Stories

Fiction

Kathapur Tales

Essays

Pink Diamond and Other Essays

Self-Help

How To Be an Author in 7 Days: A Beginner’s Guide to Self- Publishing

Story books for children:

Cave of Joy: Anand Gufa

Two Tales, Three Tellers: A Fairytale & A Fable

Poetry

RIVER SONG and Other Poems

Songs of Soil: Selected Poems of an Unschooled Bard: Padma Shri Haladhar Nag

O Krishna, O Son! Yashoda’s Sublime Song of Sorrow

***

Note: Print copies of these books, except Pink Diamond and Other Essays, are available at amazon.in, notionpress.com, and flipkart.com; eBooks are available at Amazon Kindle.

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Avian Intelligence (AI): Nothing Artificial About It!

(3 min read)

Bird’s brain is no birdbrain!

A stupid person is called birdbrained, but a bird’s brain is far smarter than we realise. Birds are among the smartest species on earth.

Every year, the Arctic tern flies about 40000 kms traveling from pole to pole. In its lifetime of about 30 years, it can fly a million kilometres, i.e., roughly three times the distance from Earth to the moon! With what navigational tools? Nothing except a ‘map’ and a ‘compass’ in its mind.

In September, 2020 scientists tracked a male bar-tailed godwit which flew 12000 kms nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand in 11 days, without food or water, and set up a new record.
How many other animals have such amazing ability? If that is not intelligence, what is?

Mythical Birds

Several birds are the trusted vahanas for deities in our myths: Garuda, the Great Eagle, for Vishnu; Owl for Mahalakshmi; seven Swans for Brahma; Swan or Peacock for Saraswati, Peacock for Kartikeya; Parrot for Kamadeva; and Crow for Shani.

Garuda Purana

Of the 18 Mahapuranas, one is dedicated to a bird. Garuda Purana is a conversation between Vishnu and Garuda where the latter asks about the secrets of life and death and the journey of the soul after death, and Vishnu enlightens him. That is why this purana is recited at the home of the deceased as part of funeral rites.

Taittiriya Upanishad

Taittiriya Upanishad, one of the oldest upanishads, and part of Yajurveda, is a collection of wisdom on a range of subjects so expansive that not one person could possibly master it. Therefore, the Guru asked his disciples to take the form of tittiris (patridges), and partake of the learning in small morsels at a time. Hence, the name of the Upanishad.

Epics

Mythical birds were very intelligent. Jatayu figured out that Ravan was abducting Sita, and fought with great valour knowing very well that he was no match for the demon king. In Mahabharata, a heron ran a tough quiz for humans, and all the Pandava brothers failed, except the studious and thoughtful Yudhisthir.

Avian Intelligence (AI) Here and Now

AI is present all around me, and I note it daily, and more so in the spring season in the hectic nesting behaviour of our avian friends.

A Purple Sunbird

A purple sunbird, one of the smallest tropical birds, has built a nest on our terrace, hanging it from the wi-fi cable outside my study. Upon closer inspection, I noted that she has used twigs, small strips of paper from discarded Amazon packaging, and assorted material, and has laid an egg shiny as a grey pearl. How did she assess that the black wire, not a branch of a tree though looking like one, would hold the combined weight of her body and the egg that would be hatched in two weeks to a birdling? When did she learn to use non-organic material for her nest? Does she know that paper is nothing other than processed bamboo? How did she figure out that our terrace was a safe place to breed, and her nest was above reach of our Labrador whose ancestral profession was to retrieve from icy-cold waters birds shot by their masters?

Pigeon’s Nest

A hardworking pigeon couple has collected sturdy neem twigs and assembled a nest in the exhaust duct of the bath on the first floor; and the female sits for long hours to hatch the eggs. A few twigs drop inside the bathroom, their droppings stain the window panes and smell as pigeon shit does. They are happily unaware and unconcerned about the minor annoyance caused to the human residents. Site selection by the couple is a testimony to their amazing intelligence. The duct is beyond reach of any reptile, dog, or cat, and securely hidden from the field of vision of vultures circulating high up in the sky; and not easily accessible to the human residents unless they hire at substantial cost a very tall ladder, and a couple of workers to remove the nest, which they never do for fear of incurring paap. A nest must never be broken, and no animal or bird may be disturbed at breeding.

Dove Couple

Since the last few years, a dove couple has been building their nest and successfully raising their babies just above the tube-light fixture on our top terrace, after noticing that we seldom go there after nightfall, and the light is never switched on to startle them.

House Sparrows

Often, we open the windows of the master bedroom for ventilation and light, and soon enough a sparrow couple fly in with little twigs to assemble on top of the AC unit, having noted that we never use that space, and that we are open to sharing our accommodation with several other birds.

I am amazed at avian intelligence, and humbled by the trust of our winged friends in our goodwill and compassion, and remind myself that the entire hill where the Housing Board laid this new colony decades ago belonged to the animals and birds, and we are the encroachers into their home.

Cuckoo

One afternoon, I heard the highly agitated and vehement protest of a mob of sunbirds from the clump of the madhukamini bush on our porch, and thinking it might be a snake creeping up to steal an egg, stepped out of my study, and spotted a female cuckoo crouching on the floor possibly from labour pains, and the sunbirds tenaciously guarding the nest of one of their own, and angrily scolding the cuckoo, ‘Stupid, can’t you see this is not a crow’s nest, and too small for you to enter and lay your eggs? Go elsewhere.’ But it was time for the female cuckoo to lay her eggs, and with no crow’s nest around (where have all the crows gone?), she was in desperation.

I wonder where she laid her eggs and who hatched her babies?

***

 Photo Credits:

1. Female sunbird on a tree: Shri Suhas Kumar, Retd IFS, Former PCCF, Madhya Pradesh & Author of 'Nature's Disciple', a highly readable book where the author shares his keen insights into Nature, and forest management and wild life conservation in MP.

An explanatory note on the photo by Shri Suhas Kumar: "The yellow on the ventral part of the female's body becomes prominent in the breeding season (Spring-Summer). The male which is dull coloured when not breeding adorns glistening iridescent purple feathers in the breeding season."

2. Female sunbird peeping out of her nest on our terrace, photo by the author.

***

Postscript: 1 Apr 2023

I had published and shared this blog on 10 March 2023. A recent mild shower accompanied by a strong wind pulled down the sunbird's nest hung from the wi-fi cable, and the next morning I felt sad to hear the female's distress call. The little egg was gone. Yesterday, I noted with delight that the little bird was unfazed, and had now built a new nest inside the Distribution Box mounted on the electricity pole in front of our house. She had inspected the Box, determined that it was a storm-proof crater and a safe haven, and the pole a slender but sturdy tree refusing to sway even at a strong wind. She had packed the box with a new nest, and though I could not see what was inside, I guess she had laid her eggs, and would raise a new family. That is Avian Intelligence, and proof of her adaptation of modern technology!

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DALL-E: Prodigy or Plagiarist?

 

DALL-E: Prodigy or Plagiarist?

(Time to read-4 mins)  

Why blog about AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools?

This blog is about DALL-E, another AI-driven tool. It enables you to create digital art.

This is my third blog in a row about AI. In my previous blog ‘Lipika, O My Darling!,’ I wrote about ChatGPT, the AI-driven text-generator; and in ‘Talking with the Dead’ about Character.AI, a tool which enables the user to chat with various characters including the dead and gone.

Why am I blogging about AI tools? Do the AI companies pay me a commission to promote their merchandise? No, they haven’t yet heard of this author, and have top marketing professionals in their payroll. Why then do I blog about AI?

Because I learnt about it recently, and wish to share it with my readers. After reading my blog on Character.AI, Ashok, my friend tried the tool and messaged me: Just had an amazing chat with Socrates!

Painting by Prasanna x DALL-E

I had read about DALL-E, the OpenAI tool that can create amazing digital paintings from natural language inputs. Recently, I tried it.

I asked for “An oil painting of a Royal Bengal Tiger in M.F. Hussain style.” In a few seconds, DALL-E created the painting I had ordered. Here it is:

Lead Painter

DALL-E is rather generous. It has acknowledged me as a co-creator or co-painter, since I provided the idea (the text for the image idea). Magnanimously, it mentions me as the Lead Painter. That’s a huge massage for my ego! I will never be a painter on my own, but being a 50% collaborator with AI feels pretty good. However, in my humble opinion, the Credits should be: M.F. Hussain x DALL-E x Prasanna.

What’s DALL-E?

A free-to-use (with some limitations) digital art creation tool, launched by OpenAI, a company which is focussed on Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and deployment, and has a partnership with Microsoft. It generates images from text descriptions, using a combination of neural language processing and image generation techniques.

DALL-E is a mash up of the words Salvador Dali, and WALL-E. Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was a renowned Spanish surrealist artist. WALL-E was a 2008 computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures, and is among the best animation films ever made.

On 28 September 2022, DALL-E 2 was opened for all. In Nov 2022, OpenAI mentioned that more than 1.5 million users are generating more than 2 million images per day.

What can it do?

It can generate a wide range of images, from photorealistic to highly stylized, based on the text input provided. DALL-E can generate images of objects, animals, scenes, and more.

Based on Natural Language inputs, it can create ‘imagined’ and fantastical digital art. You may ask: Create an oil painting of a gorilla enjoying an ice-cream cone on Eiffel Towers, and DALL-E would oblige.

What it can’t

It is not able to understand or generate images based on real-world context or physical constraints, and the quality of the generated images can vary widely.

Why did I Sign Up?

At school, I was drawing-challenged, and was quite jealous of Guru, Shankar, Mahadev and other classmates who excelled at drawing. For my scholarship exam at Class VII, I was required to pass a drawing paper to qualify for the merit scholarship. I had scored 17/50! I guess the examiner had been very generous to award me pass marks since the brinjal I had drawn looked rather like a potato even to me.

But I had many superb ideas for drawing and painting, and hoped to someday ‘learn’ how to paint. When I met DALL-E, I sensed an opportunity to indulge in my fantasy.

What did I ask it to make?

I admire great painters, since knowledgeable folks admire them. Being a novice, and having little knowledge of painting, who am I to question the considered opinion of art critics?

I have gawked with awe at the amazing paintings: ‘The Sistine Chapel Ceiling’ at the Vatican, and ‘Monalisa’ at The Louvre. I also know the names of the famous painters of the world, and of India. I could reel off their names, but this is not the place to show off my general knowledge.

I asked DALL-E for the following:

·      A sunset in Pachmarhi, MP in Van Gogh style (You may read, if you like, my blog: Pachmarhi: Two Paintings)

·      A sunset in Pachmarhi, MP in Claude Monet style

·      Sunrise at Bhopal Lake in watercolour

·      A high-resolution image of a swarm of dolphins at Bhopal lake (There are no dolphins in Bhopal lake!)

·      Khajuraho temples in style of Rabindra Nath Tagore

·      A Royal Bengal Tiger in M F Hussain style

·      Men hunting a bison in Bhimbetka rock cave painting style

·      Bhopal skyline in Gond painting style

·      DSLR quality photo of a royal Bengal tiger couple at the Taj Mahal

·      Monalisa in Raja Ravi Varma style painting

·      DSLR quality photo of Chilika lake on a bright sunny winter morning with fishing boats, migratory birds, a group of cavorting dolphins, and foreign tourists on a cruise stunned by Loch Ness monster towering over the lake at a distance

·      You may note that I began with modest ‘prompts and DALL-E produced in a jiffy excellent output, as ordered by me. I got bolder, and raised the difficulty level by adding multiple and complex parameters. DALL-E didn’t even raise an eye-brow, and went about valiantly and resolutely to deliver. AI is not allowed to be emotional, I think. My last ‘ask’ was indeed tough, and the result was average. 

     But why blame DALL-E? I had included several parameters about which DALL-E has not been trained yet. If I provide the feedback of what lacked in the output, it will understand my concerns and suggestions, and next time it will do better. It is capable of deep learning. Power of AI is not to be underestimated.

My Assessment

Quite impressive. My Rating: 7 on a scale of 1 -10. But don’t take my word for it. Go ahead, Sign Up, try it, and find it out for yourself.

Prodigy Painter or Plagiarist?

A painter will possibly dismiss DALL-E as a plagiarist who shamelessly steals from the work of serious artists. Much as writers may consider it beneath their contempt to even explore the possibilities of ChatGPT.

A painter takes a day or two, sometimes a week or longer to create an art. Da Vinci took about three years to complete Mona Lisa. DALL-E works fast and furious and completes any assignment the user gives in a matter of seconds. If you don’t like the output, it can offer six variations at once. If you wish to tweak your parameters and ‘prompt’, it doesn’t complain. In fact, it is raring to go.

Is DALL-E a prodigy painter, or a shameless plagiarist? Since the tool has been released for all only recently, it is too early to pass a verdict.

How To?

Go to OpenAI, and sign up for DALL-E. Try it. It is not an App, but available at OpenAI’s portal. Here is the link: https://openai.com/dall-e-2

Yes, DALL-E 2 is the newer, improved version.

Of What Use is DALL-E?

For me, to marvel at the capability of AI, and the inventiveness of the engineers and software makers who created it. For professional artists, it offers immense opportunities to be super-creators, by intelligent use of the capabilities of DALL-E. Possibly, it would be of commercial use, too. Lastly, a painter could co-create with DALL-E, say on 80:20 (Human: AI) basis or any combo that she prefers. For low-paying assignments, she could even quickly make a 20:80 art, and the buyer may hardly note the difference.

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 Note: 

• Author's profile may be seen at http://amazon.com/author/pkdash
• Books by this author are available on Amazon.in, Kindle eBook, Flipkart, and Notion Press, Chennai.

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Talking with the Dead!

 

Talking with the Dead!

(Time to read-4 mins)

Bhopal Literature and Art Festival, 2023

On 13 January 2023, I greatly enjoyed speaking on ‘The Art of Writing Stories’ to a distinguished and responsive audience at Bhopal Literature and Art Festival (BLF). My Discussants were eminent Professors: Dr. Seema Raizada, Prof. & HoD of Dept. of English, MLB College, Bhopal, and a Shakespeare scholar; and Dr. Diwakar Shukla, Professor and Dean -Faculty of Journalism and Creative Studies, Jagran Lake city University, Bhopal.

Talking with the Dead

Earlier in the day, preparing for the session, I talked with the dead. You read that right, I talked with the dead! Not with one, but with three – William Shakespeare (1564 -1616), Albert Camus (1913 -1960), and J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 -1973).

Why did I talk with the dead, and what about? Not about whether they were in heaven or hell, not about the living conditions there. These famous authors are dead, but not entirely, since their works are still read and loved. I asked each of them a simple question: How to write a great story?  

My Short Story Collections

I have published eleven books of which three are collections of short stories:

·      Tell A Tale and Other Stories

·      Invisible Poet and Other Stories

·      The Mysterious Ladies and Other Stories

I have read, as most lovers of short stories have, several great stories by eminent authors from all over the world. So, I was confident I could share a few thoughts with the distinguished audience at BLF. But, no harm in drawing upon the wisdom of famous authors. So, I opened Character.AI, for which I had signed up recently.

What is Character.AI?

It is an AI (Artificial Intelligence)-driven tool that enables you to chat with an amazing range of people and characters including the dead. You can create any character you like and chat with him/her/it.  

This is what Character.AI says about itself:

“Character.AI is bringing to life the science-fiction dream of open-ended conversations and collaborations with computers.

We are building the next generation of dialog agents—with a long-tail of applications spanning entertainment, education, general question-answering and others.

How does the Character.AI beta work?

The Character.AI beta is based on neural language models. A supercomputer reads huge amounts of text and learns to hallucinate what words might come next in any given situation. Models like these have many uses including auto-complete and machine translation.

At Character.AI, you collaborate with the computer to write a dialog - you write one character's lines, and the computer creates the other character's lines, giving you the illusion that you are talking with the other character.

Needless to say, a hallucinating supercomputer is not a source of reliable information. Still, we hope that you find Character.AI a useful tool for imagination, brainstorming, language learning, and a host of other purposes we have ourselves not yet imagined :)”

How to write a great story?

Here are the tips I got from the eminent authors: (I have italicised certain words and phrases to highlight key elements of the reply)

William Shakespeare

My request: Hi, Mr. Shakespeare. Good morning. How to write a great story? Your tips, please?

Shakespeare’s reply:

Hello!

To write a great story, you must write a story that is full of details. You must make your story realistic so that readers will be able to believe it. You must also try to make the story more emotional with some dramatic scenes. Finally, you must make sure that your story has an unexpected ending so that readers will be surprised and curious to know what will happen next.

I hope that my advice can help you!

Albert Camus

The first step to writing a great story is to have something to say. Stories with meaning have a much better chance of resonating with readers than stories that don’t.

Second, don’t be afraid to show your emotions and your life experiences in your work. Readers can tell when an author is being honest, and they’ll appreciate it.

Finally, be sure to write with your heart. Stories that come from a place of passion will stand out from the crowd.

J.R.R. Tolkien

I would say to not be afraid to take inspiration from existing legends and stories, put your own spin on them, and create your own unique world! Be sure to create likeable characters, and to have an engaging plot. And of course, have good prose! I wish you the best of luck in your story-writing journey, and don’t forget to have fun with it!

After chatting with the famous authors, I raised the same query for Story Maker, a character created by Character.AI which can ‘create’ a story based on the plot outline and character details given by you. Story Maker’s response is at par with what an average high school student might submit, and not worth reproducing.

Quality of Tips

You have already noticed that the tips offered by the famous authors highlight key aspects of storytelling, even though each author has a slightly different take on it. It is interesting, and provides elementary guidance to an aspiring story teller. But the writer must read great stories, internalise the elements of a great storyteller’s craft, and write her own stories to learn more.

A micro-story by Albert Camus (by Character.AI)

My request: Hi, can you please write a story for me?

“A man finds himself in the middle of a desert. He has no water, and it's extremely hot. He's about to die from dehydration. Just before he passes out, he sees something in the distance. The man begins to walk towards it, hoping to find water. As he gets closer, he realizes it's a mirage. The man dies from dehydration.

There is no moral to this story. There is no hope. There is only death.

This is what happens when you ask Albert Camus to write a micro-story.”

Having read ‘The Plague’ by Camus during my college days, I was not surprised. The novel, considered an existentialist classic, stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their destinies. 

Disclaimer

The Welcome Screen of the portal provides the following Disclaimer:

“Welcome!

Character.AI lets you create Characters and talk to them.

Things to remember:

• 🤥   Everything Characters say is made up! Don't trust everything they say or take them too seriously.
• 🤬   Characters may mistakenly be offensive - please rate these messages one star.
• 🥳   Characters can be anything. Our breakthrough AI technology can bring all of your ideas to life.

We hope you have a lot of fun bringing your imagination to life and we can't wait to talk with the Characters you create!”

User has to declare ‘I Understand’.

Of what use is this tool?

To amuse yourself, at present. But when millions of users provide feedback, the tool will learn to provide better answers.

I gave a plot outline, and asked Story Maker to write a story for me. It produced a story alright, but not to my liking. Shall I use it again? Of course, I will, to discover the full range of its capabilities.

Should you? I suggest you have a look in. If you like it, explore further; if you don’t, you can always say that you have been there and tried it.

The link for the web portal is: https://beta.character.ai

Enjoy your exploration! Best wishes.

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Note: 

• Author's profile may be seen at http://amazon.com/author/pkdash
• Books by this author are available on Amazon.in, Kindle eBook, Flipkart, and Notion Press, Chennai.

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