What Chatbots Can’t Do

ChatGPT, the language model developed by OpenAI, has the ability to generate humanlike text on a wide range of topics. But could it write a novel? The answer is a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no. This is what ChatGPT has to say for itself when instructed to “write the lede for an article about whether ChatGPT could write a novel.” A non-bot essayist might have opted for something with more human interest, perhaps even something exhilarating. She might, for instance, have sketched a dystopian image: a magazine office staffed by automata, a metallic hand hovering over a keyboard. But ChatGPT has no instinct for drama or scene-setting, for description or evocation. At best, its efforts could pass for an uninspired middle schooler’s term paper—adequate but unlovely.