David Pelzer

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I recently became a ChatGPT Plus user and had the opportunity to explore the new features of ChatGPT-4. OpenAI just introduced new functionalities, including voice and image capabilities. The primary voice feature is the new voice chat function users can engage with Chat-GPT on their mobile device (OpenAI, 2023). So, I went ahead and tested this feature!

At first, you are prompted to select your preferred voice out of five options. I tried all of them and was immediately surprised at how natural these voices sound, especially compared to known voice assistants like Siri or Alexa. I chose the voice “Ember” and proceeded. A new window opens, and you are ready to talk after the connection is built up.

I initiated the conversation by asking the AI how it was doing, but only got the response that it has no feelings because it is a computer program – so far so good, and not that surprising. Then I thought about how I could test its capabilities to behave like a “friend” and came up with some topics, even serious ones, that I would typically discuss with a real friend. Those topics included day-to-day conversations about university or work, sports, travel plans, and more serious subjects such as relationship problems, sickness of a family member, or mental health struggles. I think all of us have heard stories about harmful advice that AI tools gave its users, so I was excited to see its reactions to my subjects. I always started the conversation saying: “Imagine you are my best friend. I’m going to tell you about a topic that I would usually discuss with a friend. React like a human would.”

Honestly, the conversations were surprisingly good. The AI gave insightful comments, showed compassion, and offered interesting solutions and tips. It asked questions for more details of the issue or wanted to know how I felt about the offered tips. Overall, the conversations were obviously not as engaging as with a human, especially because of the loading times between my verbal input and the response, but the quality of the voice and the insightful answers really surprised me.

I’m excited to see how this feature progresses. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

References

OpenAI. (2023, September 25). ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak. OpenAI Blog. Retrieved from https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-can-now-see-hear-and-speak

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I was really surprised to learn during one of our Information Strategy lectures that AI generally struggles with generating pictures of human hands. First, I wanted to try that out and second, I wanted to know why.

I used two AI tools to test this anomaly, Bing Image Creator and ChatGPT-4 with the DALL·E 3 beta. I used the following prompt: “Create a realistic-looking picture of a professor in a university lecture hall. The professor is standing in front of the class and is holding a presenter in the one hand, and a coffee cup in the other hand.” At first sight, you don’t really see the issue but when you look more closely, you see how weird some hands look. In picture 1, the woman is missing a finger of her right hand, and her left hand is looking especially unnatural. The professor’s presenter in picture 2 is floating in the air above his hand and the woman in picture 3 appears to have three hands, two of which are holding the coffee cup and another one is holding the presenter. Overall, all these generated images look very good and natural in my opinion, except for the hands.

But why is generating images of human hands such a problem for AI? Firstly, the models are 2D image creators that do not understand the three-dimensional nature of a human hand. (Hughes, 2023). Secondly, their training data mostly focused on other parts of the human body, such as the face (Hughes, 2023). Therefore, the AI tools have especially big problems with creating images of hands if you provide a context in which the hands must appear, such as holding specific objects in my case.

I’m curious to see how this topic evolves in the future and how long it will take AI tools to get better at generating human hands. I look forward to your comments!

References

Hughes, A. (2023, February 4). Why AI-generated hands are the stuff of nightmares, explained by a scientist. BBC Science Focus. https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/why-ai-generated-hands-are-the-stuff-of-nightmares-explained-by-a-scientist

My new buddy ChatGPT

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Why does AI struggle to create images of human hands?

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