ChatGPT and human bias

One of the sites I check out now and then is fivebooks.com, where experts are asked to recommend the five best books in their field of expertise.  Their first piece this year was the most interesting one I have ever read on that site.  Unless you've been living under a rock by now you've heard of ChatGPT, the AI that can supposedly write like a person.  Fivebooks.com asked ChatGPT to recommend five books on AI, and they had a discussion with the AI about its choices.  You can read the whole "interview" here.  

As far as the writing goes, I found what ChatGPT produced to be mechanically and technically correct.  However, I would not call it good writing.  The writing lacks color, tone, charm, warmth -- all the qualities that makes good writing worth reading.  My wife tested the site out and she compared it to cooking.  There are some people who can throw together a dish that is nutritious and makes for a balanced meal, but that you would not want to eat unless you are starving.  It's food, but it's food sapped of whatever joy and flavor food gives you when eaten.

The reports in the news the past few days suggesting that ChatGPT will force schools to do away with student writing assignments since they can be done by AI to me says more about the poor quality of student writing these days than the quality of the AI.  

Anyway, back to fivebooks.  Here is the part of the interview that really grabbed caught my attention.  The interviewer asked the AI:

Lastly, when we interview experts, we don’t normally impose criteria, other than that these books should be the best on their subject. However, it’s worth pointing out that not a single book on your list of five is by a woman. Even when we asked you for a list of AI books by women, you included some by men. 

The AI then gave a list of five books by women authors, and then the interviewer follows up:

These books look excellent. Why didn’t you choose some of them as the best AI books?

I did not mention these books specifically as the “best” AI books because I was trying to provide a more general list of recommendations that would be suitable for readers who are new to the field and want to get a broad overview of AI.

Are most AI books written by men?

It is difficult to say definitively whether most books on artificial intelligence (AI) are written by men, as it would be necessary to conduct a detailed analysis of the publishing industry to determine the gender breakdown of authors in this field. However, it is worth noting that the tech industry in general has historically been male-dominated, and it is possible that this may be reflected in the authorship of books on AI. It is also important to recognize that the gender of an author does not necessarily reflect the quality or importance of their work, and that there are many excellent books on AI written by both men and women. It is always a good idea to consider a diverse range of perspectives and viewpoints when reading about any subject, including AI.

It's fascinating to see the interviewer trying to tilt the scales, as the "best" group of anything these days has to include the "right" mix of women, blacks, LGBT, etc so that the requisite number of diversity boxes get checked.  The interviewer tries to float the idea that most AI books are written by men as an excuse for the list being dominated by men, but the AI, however, is not willing to have it, and replies with some general truisms that say and mean nothing.

I sadly have no doubt given the cultural climate in which we live that the AI will eventually be tweaked so that it too, like it's leftist human counterparts, will take "diversity and inclusion" into account when making its future selections.