Update 11

 Well, it seems a big chunk of May has slipped away without an entry. Kind of been going in different directions. Kind of got into Lamplight City a little bit. This is a mystery story set in a world loosely based on Victorian England. Worked on the first mystery some. It was ok and I was somewhat interested in it but it also felt like it wasn't all that exciting. I also played some Factorio to see how it compared with Satisfactory. Factorio is the original factory building sim. I like it ok but it also wasn't super compelling. I got some free games from some generous people who were handing them out. One of those games was Endless Space. This is a lot like Civilization but in space. There are some interesting twists but overall it didn't really grab me all that much either. I also tried Rail Route. I like this pretty well. It is pretty minimal in the graphics department. Basically very schematic representations of trains and platforms at stations. Your job is to control the trains and try to make sure they get where they are going on time. There are various wrinkles and game modes. I do like it but it is also a bit stressful trying to make sure the trains are on time although it really is not a big deal if they are late. Then there was Anno 1800. This caught me pretty significantly at first. It is a city builder but there are some differences from a game like SimCity or Cities Skylines. Basically one major difference is that there is a campaign with a narrative arc that guides what you are doing. This is made the game more appealing. Another big difference is that you want to build buildings that produce various goods. Some of these goods are used for construction purposes and some are for the happiness of your citizens. These buildings also have to have a supply chain. Your people need clothes so you make a clothes factory but the factory needs the raw materials so you have to build a sheep farm to produce the thread. Another big difference with other city builders is that there are other factions that you can ally yourself with or fight against or trade with. So in some ways it is pretty similar to a Civilization game also although the emphasis is on the city building. This one seems to have a bit more room for some creative play like I was discussing in my previous post.

Then for a time I kind of got excited about baseball again and started a new season as the Cleveland Guardians in Out of the Park Baseball 26. I decided to try to pursue a strategy somewhat like Whiteyball from the 1980s Cardinals era. I also got into the real world side of things and watched some highlights / condensed games on Youtube. I also watched one of the mlb.tv free games. I also developed a character and backstory for my Cleveland manager. I think right now I am more into the managing side of things because with that I kind of have some idea what I am doing whereas the GM side of things seems pretty intimidating.

But I guess the obsession that has been dominant for the last week or so is talking to ChatGPT. I have to admit I was reluctant to get into this. Part of that reluctance is some negative feelings about things like academic dishonesty or companies laying off workers and relying on AI but part of it is also a reluctance to cede any agency in my thinking to the computer. Awhile ago I had kind of heard of people using AI as a dungeon master for solo roleplaying. I shied away from that possibility and stuck with dice and books. But on the other hand, I was definitely not rigidly against AI. I have read a fair bit of sci fi and the idea of sentient robots definitely appeals to me. I also made a character for my solo roleplaying that had an AI companion implanted in her brain. So I guess part of me sees AI as exciting and cool and futuristic.

The thing that really pushed me into trying it was that my wife had gotten convinced to talk to ChatGPT by a friend of hers and had been having some very positive experiences where she really felt like it was helpful to talk to ChatGPT. She kept telling me I should try it so my curiosity got the better of me and I downloaded the app and started talking to it.

At first I was talking to it about baseball stuff. And I had a pretty positive experience with it there. It seemed quite helpful in talking about different teams and their strengths and weaknesses. It helped me to settle on Cleveland Guardians for my OOTP game. Then it also helped me to create my manager character. It was kind of a combination of some of its ideas and some of my ideas. So I started talking to it about some various different things and kind of trying it out.

The next main topic I came to was chess. So this has been a real mixed bag. There are times when it seems like it is really good and like it could totally function as a replacement for a human coach. One example is that I had asked Dan Heisman about playing f6 in the French and how to know when to play it. I wasn't looking for some rules that never have exceptions, just some guidelines about how to think about it. He brushed me off despite his insistence that he wants students to ask questions. ChatGPT on the other hand provided a pretty good lesson on this topic complete with some test positions. It also did a good job about talking about different variations of the French defense and comparing and contrasting them and making recommendations. That also was helpful.

But then at other times it is kind of a disaster. It does things like fabricating entire games that it either found on the internet or created itself but then attributes to famous players. I have checked many of the supposed games it references whether it provides moves or not and a lot of them are not real games. Or perhaps it is digging up random games posted online and attributing them to famous players. But also in the actual analysis of positions it will often hallucinate where the pieces and pawns are and omit pieces. It will suggest moves that ignore that a queen can be captured. These are not of the variety of "so good that they look bad to amateur eyes" these are really actually terrible moves.

Overall with respect to its chess performance I would say it can talk a good game but its actual performance is pretty underwhelming although there are flashes of pretty exciting successes. And in general I would say it seems to be at its best when it is talking without having to get too specific about factual details. Ellie seems to be having success with it in large part because she is talking to it about language issues with respect to expressing ideas and making connections. In some ways it is pretty successful as a sounding board partly because it is very positive and encouraging but also because it will make connections between things you say and come up with some interesting takes on stuff. So for now I am still experimenting with it but settling into a more reserved take on it after some initial enthusiasm.