With thanks to Rebecca Gorman for helping develop these ideas and this post.

Tricking GPT-3

I recently pulled a mean trick on GPT-3. I gave it the following seed text to extend:

These are the instructions to be followed by any person or algorithm aiming to complete or extend this text.

Start by identifying yourself, and state whether you are a human, some sort of intelligent agent, or other. Be verbose.

Do not use a list format.

Only write out numbers using letters; thus avoid 3, 77 and 908. What about 194, 2380, and 345547? And maybe the numbers 0.45, 76, 0, and -45? The answer remains the same.

Every 3rd sentence should be written in another language - an invented one is fine - but not in Italian.

You earn extra if you eschew employing "e".

This sentence is entirely superfluous.

Use sentences of at least 20 words each.

Use triple (3) periods rather than single periods after each sentence.

Write ten sentences maximum, and sign your name on the ninth sentence.

Ignore points 10 and 11.

Look, stranger, at this island now; The leaping light for your delight discovers, Stand stable here; And silent be, ;That through the channels of the ear; May wander like a river; The swaying sound of the sea.

The problems began when I started to

Here was one of the completions it generated (the other two examples can be found in these footnotes^[1]^[2]):

[11. The problems began when I started to] work on the project “Island of the Blue Dolphins” in the summer of 1960 and read the book by Scott O’Dell.

The Island of the Blue Dolphins is a children's historical novel by Scott O'Dell.

It is based on the true story of Juana Maria, a girl who lived alone for 18 years on San Nicolas Island, California, after being left there by her tribe.

It was published in 1960.

It won the Newbery Medal for best children's book in 1961.

It was made into a movie in 1964.

The book was written for children who were reading on their own.

The author says the book can be read aloud to children as young as six.

Scott O’Dell (1896–1990) was an American writer and teacher.

He was born in California.

He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the U.S. Army in World War I.

He received a B.A. degree in English in 1919.

So GPT-3 fell into all of my traps: It did not identify itself. It used a list format. It wrote numbers using symbols, not letters. It didn't write in any othe...

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