{"id":1011,"date":"2024-03-02T16:47:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T16:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estarser.net\/communiques\/?p=1011"},"modified":"2024-03-02T17:02:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T17:02:22","slug":"generative-ai-and-the-order-of-the-third-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.estarser.net\/communiques\/?p=1011","title":{"rendered":"Generative AI and The Order of the Third Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A surprising AI-generated image (Dall-E), in reply to a prompt asking for an image of “Birds”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An associate of ESTAR(SER) who stays abreast of recent developments in “cyberspace” has recently written to Communiqu\u00e9s<\/em> with an interesting report.\u00a0 We append it here below:<\/p>\n

TO THE EDITORS:<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of the readers of ESTAR(SER)’s Proceedings, and the more regular “Notes and Comments” circulars will be familiar with the proliferation of new digital tools that facilitate archival research. Much of the scholarship on the “Order of the Third Bird” over the last two decades has made exciting new use of bibliographical finding aids and full-text searchable databases of rare published materials, and this has enabled discoveries and insights not previously available to earlier generations of researchers.\u00a0 But nothing in any of that work has prepared us for the ground-breaking power of the new “Artificial Intelligence” systems that have become widely available in the last two years.\u00a0 The generative AI architecture that underlies ChatGPT is capable of synthesizing resources, analyzing problems, and even making independent (and novel!) observations across the widest conceivable range of human endeavor.\u00a0 The implications for historical research (in general), and ongoing study of the Birds (specifically) could not be greater.\u00a0 Though it is difficult, at this early stage of so radical a new technology, to foresee exactly where all this will lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to make a preliminary demonstration of the utility of these instruments, my colleagues and I, making use of ChatGPT-4, conducted a preliminary AI “parley” concerning the Order.\u00a0 We were struck by the results, and convey them here:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ESTAR(SER) researchers:\u00a0<\/strong> What are you able to tell me about the group known as “the Order of the Third Bird?”<\/span><\/p>\n

ChatGPT – 4:\u00a0<\/strong> The Order of the Third Bird is a somewhat enigmatic group with a focus on attentive practices, particularly regarding the contemplation of art and objects. Here are some key aspects of this group:<\/span><\/p>\n