Did a creepy 1950s Roald Dahl short story predict AI?

Did this short story predict artificial intelligence?

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A story published in the 1950s might have predicted the rise of AI and ChatGPT. ‘The Great Automatic Grammatizator’ talks about a computer powerful enough to tell stories in seconds.

Sound familiar?

Here’s more about this short story from the 1950s.

DID THIS STORY PREDICT AI?

Author Roald Dahl wrote The Great Automatic Grammatizator in the 1950s.

The story talks about an inventor, who claims his computer can write full stories in less than minutes. His boss tests the new invention. Impressed, he involves the government.

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In the story, writers rely on the Great Automatic Grammatizator to write. Computers create ‘original thought’ in the story, just like writers.

Writers who don’t agree, starve in the story. Writers who use the Grammatizator become rich.

Almost just like ChatGPT.

AI AND THE GREAT AUTOMATIC GRAMMATIZATOR

The Great Automatic Grammatizator can easily be compared to ChatGPT. One is a horror story from the 1950s.

Elon Musk and Sam Altman founded ChatGPT in 2015. The story just shows that technology can be used for a lot of different things – and yes, AI can be creepy as wel!

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AI even affected the Presidency. Experts checked the a presidential speech to find out if AI could have written it.

ROALD DAHL

Roald Dahl was born in 1916, and wrote stories like James and the Giant Peach. Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were also famous Roald Dahl stories – though he wrote many other, including The Great Automatic Grammatizator.

Many Roald Dahl stories have become movies, including many of the above.

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