Does ChatGPT Understand the Concept of Tragedy? Symbolic AI & Neural Nets

By Bbenzon @bbenzon

New working paper. Title above, links, abstract and contents below:

Abstract: Tragedy is an abstract concept. David Hays proposed that abstract concepts can be metalingually defined. A term, such as tragedy, can be given its meaning by a pattern over a string of words. By using a cognitive network to define tragedy Brian Phillips investigated that computationally. In this paper I have taken Brian Phillips’ definition and presented it to ChatGPT in six different trials, where each trial also included a short story. Three stories satisfied the definition and three did not. ChatGPT was asked to indicate whether or not the story satisfied the definition it was given. It was correct in each case.

CONTENTS

Symbolic Computation and Abstract Definition 2
Tragedy Defined 2
ChatGPT Confronts “Tragedy” in Six Trials 4