HOT PURSUIT

If you’re searching for some great entertainment and maybe need some ideas, great you may be in luck. But if you need reliable and accurate information, you may best stay away.

The latest technological gizmo has created quite the stir around the country in recent weeks.

It’s being described as the cutting-edge chatbot— the artificial intelligence-driven chatbot GPT-3, or ChatGPT for short. It’s essentially a robot answering and providing information.

Folks on the internet are obsessed with ChatGPT, according to many published reports.

For those who aren’t aware, ChatGPT is a chatbot launched by OpenAl in November. It has the ability to write and debug computer programs; to compose music, teleplays, fairy tales and student essays; to answer test questions; to write poetry and song lyrics, among many other things. The service is currently free, but there are plans to monetize it later.

Just this week it was announced that ChatGPT passed an MBA exam given by a Wharton professor. It’s leaving educators scratching their heads and wondering if bots like ChatGPT could become a detriment to education in the future.

And as I found out this week in my tinkering around with the chatbot, you may want to think twice before you consider it a reliable source of information.

My question was pretty simple and straight-forward: What is Steele County Minnesota known for?

Here is the immediate response I got within seconds: “Steele County, Minnesota is located in the southern part of the state and is known for a few things. The county is home to the city of Owatonna, which is known for the Steele County Fairgrounds which hosts the Steele County Free Fair, one of the largest county fairs in the state. Steele County is also home to several lakes, such as Rice Lake and Lake Elysian, which are popular for recreational activities such as fishing and boating. The county is also home to the State School of Science, a public high school that focuses on science and technology education. Additionally, the county has a rich agricultural heritage and is known for its production of corn, soybeans, and hogs.”

I asked ChatGPT about the Steele County Free Fair. It popped out this 85-word response right away: “The Steele County Free Fair is an annual fair that takes place in Owatonna, Minnesota. It typically features a variety of events and activities, such as agricultural displays, animal shows, live music, carnival rides and games, food vendors, and more. The fair provides an opportunity for the local community to celebrate its agricultural heritage and showcase the talents and accomplishments of its residents. The fair usually includes events such as 4-H shows, open class exhibit, commercial exhibit, rodeo, truck and tractor pulls, demolition derby and live music.”

I got a chuckle out of another question I asked: What celebrity is from Owatonna Minnesota? The response was Jesse Ventura, Minnesota’s former governor. As far as I know, Ventura really has no connections to Owatonna. Unless it’s when he was governor, I really wonder if he’s ever been in Owatonna.

When I asked about Blooming Prairie, ChatGPT said: “The town is surrounded by many beautiful lakes.” The last I checked Oak Glen Lake sits several miles north town and is the only lake within many, many miles. And it’s not exactly a recreational lake as ChatGPT implied.

As you can see in the few examples I’ve outlined with Owatonna and Blooming Prairie, ChatGPT is providing amazing answers to questions quickly, and many of them are quite frankly, amazingly wrong.

Is ChatGPT a good source of information about the world? Absolutely not. The prompt page even warns users that ChatGPT “may occasionally generate incorrect information.”

All I can say is proceed with caution. Heed the warning ChatGPT puts out about itself.

I certainly hope if you’re planning to utilize ChatGPT that you don’t rely on it as your source for community news. Leave that to the Steele County Times and the live professional journalists that we have busting their butts to cover the community like none other.

Going in hot pursuit of ChatGPT may put you down a dangerous path of factual inaccuracies.