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Maybe Chat is the rough beast...

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You know, paragraph level autocomplete seems valuable in many contexts. And, it seems completely inappropriate for some others. Surprise is a key aspect of writing prose, whether or not you are writing fiction. Maybe the surprise only happens between one paragraph and the next.

Technical writing does not afford many opportunities for surprise, it is true. But there's not none, and surprising readers, even with choice of made-up names in examples, helps keep them engaged and interested. It is, of course, valuable in other forms of expression as well, such as music or painting.

However, the use you wish it for probably doesn't require surprise. There is another element, attunement. This is something that happens between humans and it is mostly non-verbal. It has a big impact though. ChatGPT can't do it. But maybe nobody's asking it to.

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attunement is very hard except for in person...

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Yeah, it really is. I have this vague notion that intelligence - or maybe a better word would be sapience - is necessarily embodied. Even Murderbot (which you introduced me to, thank you very much!) has a body.

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not necessarily a body, but some kind of feedback loop and then readjustment of behavior...

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