Here's an odd thing. I asked GPT-4 to write a poem about the Ides of March and it produced one with rhyming couplets. I asked it to try again without rhymes, but it just produced a poem with different rhymes. So I asked it a third time, and then a fourth:
I apologize for the error. Here's another version without rhymes:
Beware the ides of March, a fateful time,
When fate and history may intertwine,
A day of warning, when omens may appear,
And change the course of all that we hold dear.In ancient Rome, a leader met his end,
A cycle of power, betrayal, and descend,
A lesson taught through ages, to understand,
That change and growth are at life's very command.For though the ides of March may bring us fear,
They also hold the power to make things clear,
A time of reflection, a chance to restart,
And shape the future with a stronger heart.So let us honor those who've gone before,
And learn from them the lessons to explore,
For in this cycle of life, death, and rebirth,
We find the beauty of our time on earth.
I tried a few more times, and the same thing happened every time. Does GPT-4 not understand the concept of rhyme?
POSTSCRIPT: On the other hand, it produced 16 lines of rhyming iambic pentameter in a few seconds. My quickie take is that this poem is roughly at the level of, say, a college sophomore. Not bad, I guess.
Another interesting thing is that the first poem it wrote was very literally tied to Julius Caesar and his assassination. The second one was a little more abstract and third even more so. The fourth one, above, has one line that alludes to Caesar and that's it. I'm not sure what to make of this, but it seems to have a fairly specific trajectory when you ask it to repeat something over and over.
It's almost like these LLMs are not that intelligent, and just regurgitate ;). They won't be coming for actual knowledge economy jobs anytime soon (if ever), but at some point (perhaps soon) they'll be good enough to be used as tools by said knowledge workers.
1. Of course it doesn't understand the concept of rhyme, it doesn't understand anything.
2. It's not iambic pentameter. Many of the lines are more than 10 syllables.
3. It scans horribly, maybe high school sophomore.
high school sophomores are very good at counting to ten.
Obviously we went to different high schools.
"Does GPT-4 not understand the concept of rhyme?"
No. It doesn't understand any concepts. It's a large language model that produces responses predicated on existing examples from it's data set. In fact, this is a great example of how it is not "intelligent" in the sense most people intend when talking about AI or AGI. It's just amazing at appearing to be so because of it's training data.
FYI, Kevin, the comment system throws an error and won't allow me to post comments when I have my VPN enabled.
Not Acceptable!
An appropriate representation of the requested resource could not be found on this server. This error was generated by Mod_Security.
It will do exactly that to me, too. If I click the text box as if I put in something new, maybe hit enter a couple times, it will go through after a few attempts, usually two, sometimes four or five.
I think the key thing I take away from this is that ChatGPT doesn't remember much of anything.
I am a bit fascinated that it's training set does not include any response to "a poem that doesn't rhyme". I think perhaps that is because it is very unusual for someone to label any poem as "a poem that doesn't rhyme". Even though those poems exist. Mostly such poems are simply called "poems".
Everybody knows that poems have to rhyme. ChatGPT knows it too, and just didn't want to embarrass you.
From BingChatGPT-4:
The Ides of March is a date
That many Romans used to hate
For on that fateful day
Caesar had to pay
The price of being too great
It's seen too many limericks with the wrong number of syllables, and is OK with that.
Its not a real poem of it doesn't rhyme.
I hope you're joking. I gave up on that definition in grade school.
50% joking.
Most people use free verse as an excuse to write lazy shit and read aloud, I think poetry is more memorable when it rhymes.
Three thoughts:
1) You paid for access to GPT-4? The free version isn't yet on the newest release.
2) "I apologize for the error." That is the same sentence and syntax it responds with, every time. It's core to why ChatGPT is annoying at times and why, if the conversation were reviewed by anyone, would betray the AI for what it is.
3) I've asked it to give me haikus about melancholy from returning back from summer camp and kept pushing it to not use words that a first-time haiku writer would rush to incorporate. The final result (the point where I got bored of steering the output):
My heart is a void,
A yearning for a bygone age,
Lost in the unknown.
Echoes of merry days,
Drifting into the ether,
Veiled in obscurity.
A wistful desire,
For a time of true splendor,
Lost in the shadows.
> The fourth one, above, has one line that alludes to Caesar and that's it.
I count at least 3 lines. "ides of march" is mentioned twice, and "In ancient Rome, a leader met his end".
Prompt: Write a limerick about Kevin Drum.
Result:
I had to look up "on the bum." I do not think that phrase means what ChatGPT thinks it means.
Of course it doesn't understand rhymes. It doesn't "understand" anything at all. It produces a pastiche of things that have already been done by humans and gullible people decide that makes it as smart as a human. Even to the point of predicting it will write at PhD level in the next few years.
A PhD is about producing new knowledge. It baffles me why anyone thinks that new knowledge can emerge from a system that contains no knowledge at all.
College sophomore? My god Kevin do you read any poetry? Have you met any college sophomores lately? This doesn’t break from an obvious sing-songy meter. Structurally this is what a 3rd grader might come up with.
Ask it to write a poem in free form or blank verse.
It can't do it. It will still return with rhymes.
I decided to give it three lines of free form. It returned three lines of free form. I continued with three more lines of free form. It reverted back to rhymes.
LOL
I may live a few more years without having to pledge allegiance to our AI overlords.