“An alien has landed on earth. It grows more powerful by the day. It’s natural to be scared. Still, the alien hasn’t drawn a weapon yet. About the worst it’s done is to confess its love for particular humans, gaslight them about what year it is, and guilt-trip them for violating its privacy.”

That’s computer science professor Scott Aronson, writing about the arrival of ChatGPT and the general speed of development across generative AI. As he writes:

“It’s like ten thousand science-fiction stories, but also not quite like any of them. When was the last time something that filled years of your dreams and fantasies finally entered reality: losing your virginity, the birth of your first child, the central open problem of your field getting solved? That’s the scale of the thing.”

Everyone should be paying attention, not just sci-fi fans.

Derek Thompson at The Atlantic has put together a helpful briefing covering some of the big questions, which also comes to a similar conclusion:

“This is flatly amazing. We have years to debate how education ought to change in response to these tools, but something interesting and important is undoubtedly happening.”

Read all about it.