The Daily10 Sep 2023

The Sunday Read: ‘Wikipedia’s Moment of Truth’

In early 2021, a Wikipedia editor peered into the future and saw what looked like a funnel cloud on the horizon: the rise of GPT-3, a precursor to the new chatbots from OpenAI. When this editor — a prolific Wikipedian who goes by the handle Barkeep49 on the site — gave the new technology a try, he could see that it was untrustworthy. The bot would readily mix fictional elements (a false name, a false academic citation) into otherwise factual and coherent answers. But he had no doubts about its potential. “I think A.I.’s day of writing a high-quality encyclopedia is coming sooner rather than later,” he wrote in “Death of Wikipedia,” an essay that he posted under his handle on Wikipedia itself. He speculated that a computerized model could, in time, displace his beloved website and its human editors, just as Wikipedia had supplanted the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which in 2012 announced it was discontinuing its print publication.

Recently, when I asked this editor if he still worried about his encyclopedia’s fate, he told me that the newer versions made him more convinced that ChatGPT was a threat. “It wouldn’t surprise me if things are fine for the next three years,” he said of Wikipedia, “and then, all of a sudden, in Year 4 or 5, things drop off a cliff.”

This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(2984)

Trump Banned the Media. This Time, the Media Struck Back.

For every day of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, there has been a camera from a major television network pointed at him. But on Monday, that all changed.Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Michael M. Grynbaum discus...

22 Sep 27min

The Trump Administration Defangs the Endangered Species Act

In its second term, the Trump administration has increased its efforts to undo environmental regulations. Last week, it became clear that the Endangered Species Act, one of America’s bedrock environme...

21 Sep 24min

How a 1,000-Year-Old Tapestry Took London by Storm

For the first time in centuries, the Bayeux Tapestry — a nearly 1,000-year-old piece of embroidery that depicts the invasion of England by William the Conqueror in 1066 — is on display in Britain.It w...

20 Sep 34min

Aaron Sorkin Goes Off Script

The Oscar-winning writer returns to Facebook with “The Social Reckoning”— and surprises us with the revelation of why he is so drawn to uplift and romance. Thoughts? Email us at theinterview@nytimes.c...

19 Sep 1h

The Techno-Religion at the Center of the A.I. Debate

Last week, a group of tech leaders called for putting guardrails on artificial intelligence. This week, these calls have been met by backlash from tech executives, lawmakers and President Trump, who l...

18 Sep 34min

Why Gas Prices Just Keep Going Up

About a month into the war with Iran, we spoke with Cameron Joudi, who owns a gas station in Florida, about how the conflict was reaching him at home. He recently reached out after seeing a 20-cent sp...

17 Sep 23min

48 Days Until the Midterms: Is a Blue Wave Coming?

As the general midterm elections begin, we take a look at where things stand. A new Times/Siena poll suggests that Democrats have a real shot at winning control of both chambers of Congress. But serio...

16 Sep 36min

The Bond Market Is Flipping Out. Here’s Why You Should Care.

For the past few months, you’ve probably been hearing about the turbulence in the bond market.Today, Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times, explains what has been hap...

15 Sep 28min