Regarding Arnold Goodman, a top London lawyer well-liked for his kindness, though his sagging jowls gave him the look of a toad, the writer and silent film actress Lady Diana Cooper made a characteristically witty observation: “He looks as if he is just about to turn into a fairy prince.”
A few months ago, I was brainstorming how to write a thoughtful thank you letter to my dentist for giving me dental implants when Cooper’s remark suddenly came to mind (I had stumbled upon it some 10 years ago, in a book of her letters to her son, the historian John Julius Norwich). I had admired her quickness of mind in seeing a similarity between the Frog Prince and Goodman: Kiss the grotesque lawyer, and he, too, will turn into a handsome prince, Should I not likewise draw a parallel between my dentist and, say, the tooth fairy? The two are similar in that in one case, tooth is exchanged for money, while in the other, money is exchanged for tooth.
I then went on to pen this note:
Since I got my dental implants, I’ve come to think of myself as having lived through the tooth fairy tale in reverse. All I had to do was to slip you some money (through my banking app instead of under the pillow), and you gave me back my teeth, as if by magic.
My experience as your patient was fairy tale-like in other ways. My fear of the dentist was so deep-seated that it was like an eternal curse an evil witch had cast on me, yet you somehow managed to break it. The surgeries you performed on me were so stress-free under sedation that as I underwent them, I felt as serene as Sleeping Beauty in her 100-year slumber.
With diligent flossing, brushing and regular checkups, I hope I can live with my new teeth happily ever after.
Afterwards, curious as to how ChatGPT would go about executing my idea of incorporating fairy tale elements into my letter to my dentist, I asked it to write one. This was the result:
I hope this note brings a smile as bright as the one you’ve helped me achieve!
Thanks to you, I now feel like I’ve been granted my own “happily ever after” in the realm of smiles. If the Tooth Fairy could see your work, I imagine she’d hang up her wings, knowing her services are no longer needed. After all, who needs a fairy when you have a wizard of dentistry like you?
Your skill, patience, and precision have given me a magical new confidence. The implants feel like treasures straight out of a fairy tale – sturdy as a knight’s armor and shining like Cinderella’s glass slipper!
Thank you for making what could have been a daunting process feel as smooth as a ride in a pumpkin carriage.
With gratitude as golden as Rumpelstiltskin’s thread,
I think it is instructive to examine the two versions side by side, because this can shed light on whether AI can replace all writers. ChatGPT’s version disappoints on several fronts. It failed to see the resemblances between my dentist and the tooth fairy, treating the tooth fairy as just an ordinary fairy, and therefore only describing it as having to “hang up her wings, knowing her services are no longer needed.” Neither did ChatGPT have an understanding of the “less is more” principle; it went overboard in crowding so many fairy tale references in a 128-word note. Lastly, ChatGPT had no real understanding of the references themselves. Though it knew the fake tooth attached to an implant is made of porcelain, it failed to notice the tooth is not transparent, so it decided to compare it to Cinderella’s glass slipper. Though it knew a fake tooth is hard, it failed to consider the fact that it is also white, so it decided to compare it to a knight’s armour. Though it knew a good dentist would ensure that the procedures should proceed smoothly, it failed to see as nonsensical the act of matching the smoothness of the procedures with the smoothness of a pumpkin carriage ride.
Most of all, despite ChatGPT’s access to so much data on the internet, I doubt if it could conceive on its own the idea of using the Diana Cooper remark as a source of inspiration for the letter. In contrast, even though my knowledge base is laughably infinitesimal compared to the material that’s online, this didn’t stop me from zooming in on Cooper’s quote and knowing it could work. Using raw brain power instead of AI is also environmentally friendly. My idea appeared in my mind in a flash, without the need to drain the world’s energy (each ChatGPT inquiry consumes an average 0.34 watt-hours of electricity, which can power an LED flashlight for 41 minutes).
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt – now the chairman of an AI company – has admitted that right now, AI still isn’t truly creative.
“When you study the way scientific discovery works,” Schmidt noted in a recent interview, “what typically happens is a truly brilliant human being” looks at two completely different areas, sees a pattern, and then “takes the tools from one and applies it to another. Today, our systems cannot do that.”
I guess until AI becomes adept at establishing apt connections between different ideas and experiences, as a writer I don’t need to worry about being forced to hang up my wings.
Michelle Ng
英國牛津大學畢業，前《蘋果日報》和《眾新聞》專欄作家，現在身在楓葉國，心繫中國大陸和香港。
聯絡方式： michelleng.coach@proton.me
個人網站： https://michellengwritings.com
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