瓦萊麗·赫德森

Playing with ChatGPT from Open-AI has become all the rage1 at the moment. This online correspondent powered by artificial intelligence will attempt to answer your questions with a paragraphs worth of knowledge2， write lyrics or pen stories from prompts you suggested， and more， with all responses derived from information processed by algorithms.

目前，跟OpenAI所研發(fā)的ChatGPT互動(dòng)已成了潮流。這位網(wǎng)絡(luò)筆友由人工智能驅(qū)動(dòng)，它會(huì)把知識(shí)組織成段落來(lái)回答你的問(wèn)題，根據(jù)你給的提示詞寫歌詞或?qū)懝适拢鹊?，而它所有的回答都源自?jīng)算法處理過(guò)的信息。

ChatGPT writes on the level of sophistication of about a sixth grader， Id say， scraping the vast amount of online knowledge to do so.

依我看，ChatGPT的寫作水平與六年級(jí)學(xué)生相當(dāng)，它在網(wǎng)上搜刮了大量知識(shí)來(lái)完成寫作。

Not surprisingly， people are worried about the bias of ChatGPT： online source material can be very much in line with favored narratives， especially as social media companies have been revealed to actively bury certain viewpoints in favor of others， even burying particular unwelcome facts.

人們擔(dān)心ChatGPT會(huì)懷有偏見，這并不奇怪：網(wǎng)絡(luò)原始材料和大眾偏好的敘事高度一致，尤其是社交媒體公司已遭到曝光，稱它們主動(dòng)隱藏某些觀點(diǎn)、推崇另一些，甚至隱藏某些不受歡迎的事實(shí)。

The world is starting to react. Schools are now deliberating whether to embrace ChatGPT or view it as plagiarism. Artists are suing， as lyrics and visuals created are all by definition derivative of works by human beings. Lobbyists may find their work much easier， which may not be to the public good. Troublingly， humans are also turning to ChatGPT as a kind of ouija board3， asking AI what they should do in their personal circumstances， such as whether to divorce a spouse.

全世界都開始作出反應(yīng)。學(xué)校在考慮是欣然接受ChatGPT，還是將其視為剽竊。藝術(shù)家們紛紛起訴，因?yàn)锳I創(chuàng)作的歌詞和視覺資料，按定義說(shuō)都衍生自人類作品。說(shuō)客們也許發(fā)覺工作更輕松了，可這對(duì)公眾利益不一定是好事。令人擔(dān)心的是，還有人把ChatGPT當(dāng)作某種占卦板，向AI咨詢?nèi)绾翁幚硪恍┧饺藛?wèn)題，比如要不要與配偶離婚。

Theres some larger questions here， though. With the advent of ChatGPT， there has been increasing discussion about whether Western civilization is moving into a “post-literate” era. Were at a 40-year low in the U.S. in terms of young people reading for pleasure， according to Pew Research4. Bosses complain their younger employees boast that they dont read emails—even work emails—at all. Universities are dropping requirements for standardized test scores and even personal statements from applicants. Short TikTok videos and 280-character tweets are the limited and limiting daily fare of the rising generation.

不過(guò)，還有一些更嚴(yán)峻的問(wèn)題。隨著ChatGPT的出現(xiàn)，越來(lái)越多的人討論西方文明是否正進(jìn)入“后文字”時(shí)代。皮尤研究中心的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，在美國(guó)，為樂(lè)趣而閱讀的年輕人的數(shù)量處于40年來(lái)的最低點(diǎn)。老板們抱怨說(shuō)，他們的年輕員工夸口說(shuō)壓根不看電子郵件——連工作郵件都不看。大學(xué)正逐步降低對(duì)申請(qǐng)者標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化考試成績(jī)乃至個(gè)人陳述的要求。國(guó)際版抖音短視頻和280個(gè)字符以內(nèi)的推文是新一代人每日有限的信息源，其內(nèi)容還有局限性。

Its hard not to see a post-literate Western society as the advent of a new type of Dark Ages5. What we know occurred is that the knowledge， learning and thinking skills accrued during the golden ages of Greece， Rome and Arabia were largely lost to the rising generations through war and destruction. This time around， these things are being lost to our advances in technology—but the effect is still the same.

處于后文字時(shí)代的西方社會(huì)，很難不被視為一個(gè)新型黑暗時(shí)代的前奏。我們知道，希臘、羅馬和阿拉伯的黃金時(shí)代所積累的知識(shí)、學(xué)識(shí)和思維能力，在戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)和破壞中大量失傳于后人。這一次，這些事物正是因我們的技術(shù)進(jìn)步而散佚——但結(jié)果是一樣的。

What is being lost？ First， the younger generation does not commit know-ledge to memory6; why should they？ The internet serves as their memory. But without substantive knowledge banked in your own memory， you cannot think well. For example， I remember when a colleague told me that our masters students in international affairs did not need to know where Afghanistan was on a map because they could just Google it. I would argue that if you do not have a mental idea of where Afghanistan is and what nations surround it， you simply cannot think at a sophisticated level about Afghanistan.

哪些東西在消逝？第一，年輕一代不把知識(shí)記在腦子里；他們何必去記呢？互聯(lián)網(wǎng)就是他們的記憶中樞。但如果腦中沒有充實(shí)的知識(shí)儲(chǔ)備，人就無(wú)法進(jìn)行透徹的思考。舉個(gè)例子，記得有位同事告訴我，我們國(guó)際事務(wù)專業(yè)的碩士生無(wú)需知道阿富汗在地圖上的位置，因?yàn)榭梢灾苯由瞎雀杷阉?。我要說(shuō)，如果你腦海里對(duì)阿富汗在哪兒、周邊有哪些國(guó)家沒有概念，你就不可能從深層次思考阿富汗問(wèn)題。

And if you outsource your personal knowledge base to Google or AI， you may or may not receive factual information， as my little experiment demonstrated. The line between fact and opinion， always contested， is now being given up for lost. Whats true according to ChatGPT depends on what part of the internet it has happened to scrape at a particular time. And that in turn is dependent on what social media companies boost， and what they bury. The idea that we would seek a truth that stands independent of our viewpoint is considered quaint， even silly. So much for7 the Renaissance.

正像我的小實(shí)驗(yàn)所證明的那樣，如果你把個(gè)人知識(shí)庫(kù)外包給谷歌或者AI，你可能會(huì)得到事實(shí)性的信息，也可能不會(huì)。事實(shí)和觀點(diǎn)之間的界限始終有爭(zhēng)議，現(xiàn)在人們正在放棄劃清這條界線的希望。ChatGPT認(rèn)定的真實(shí)，取決于它在某時(shí)刻碰巧搜羅了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的哪一部分。而這又取決于社交媒體公司宣傳什么，又遮掩什么。尋求不受個(gè)人看法影響的真理成了老古板，甚至愚蠢之舉。文藝復(fù)興就別指望了。

Second， allusion is lost. The cultural touchstones that enriched our society are just gone. If I used the phrase， “Ask not what your country can do for you，” many of my students would not know it was JFK who immortalized that phrase. If I were to say， “Blessed are the peacemakers，” many of my students would not know it was Jesus Christ who said this. And dont even think about a Shakespearean8 allusion.

第二，典故在消亡。賦社會(huì)以豐沛的文化試金石不復(fù)存在。如果我引用“不要問(wèn)國(guó)家能為你們做些什么”這句話，我的許多學(xué)生不會(huì)知道是肯尼迪讓它流芳百世。如果我說(shuō)，“締造和平的人是有福的”，許多學(xué)生不會(huì)知道這是耶穌基督說(shuō)的。更遑論莎士比亞作品中的典故了。

Third， deep reading and critical thinking skills are lost. The most important arguments cannot be distilled into 280 characters. These arguments are not only deep， but they are wide and nuanced， and have many dimensions. And it is in that richness that critical thinking becomes possible， as one dives beneath the thin surface of an argument to its complex roots to understand where the weaknesses are. In our time， there is but shallow understanding， for all nuance has been lost. Indeed， even debates on controversial issues， where one could hear critical thinkers engage each others viewpoints， are now anathema because if there is only surface， what could there be to debate？

第三，深度閱讀能力和批判性思維能力在喪失。最重要的論證沒法凝練成280個(gè)字符。這些論證不但高深莫測(cè)，也寬廣無(wú)際、細(xì)致入微，有諸多維度。正是在此種詳實(shí)的論證中，批判性思維成為可能，因?yàn)槿丝梢詮哪硹l論點(diǎn)薄薄的表面層深潛下去，遁入其復(fù)雜的根源，以了解這一論題的弱點(diǎn)所在。我們的時(shí)代空有膚淺的理解，因?yàn)橐磺屑?xì)微的差別業(yè)已喪失。事實(shí)上，爭(zhēng)議性問(wèn)題的辯論中本可耳聞批判性思想家們的觀點(diǎn)交鋒，如今卻也令人極度反感，因?yàn)榭照劚硐?，還有什么可辯論的呢？

Last， of course， is that all these things combine to create not only extremist ideologies divorced from reality， but these in turn create mobs who are prepared to literally or figuratively rend dissenters limb from limb in the quest for purity of thought.

最后一點(diǎn)當(dāng)然是，以上所有因素結(jié)合在一起，不僅制造出脫離現(xiàn)實(shí)的極端主義意識(shí)形態(tài)，而且這些意識(shí)形態(tài)進(jìn)而制造了群氓，他們?yōu)榍笏枷氲募兇庑?，?zhǔn)備從字面上或象征意義上，將異見者撕成碎片。

All of this also means that those who continue to read and to practice critical thinking skills will increasingly be unable to effectively communicate with those who do not.

這一切還意味著，繼續(xù)閱讀、繼續(xù)訓(xùn)練批判性思維技能的人，將越來(lái)越無(wú)法和不讀不練的人有效溝通。

Some have suggested that the only way forward is to emulate those histor-ical oases from the Dark Ages： the monasteries—more particularly， an offline， hard-copy repository of the worlds knowledge that can be resurrected by its keepers once the current Dark Ages have passed. I do my small bit by insisting my students memorize a map of the world and important historical facts， figures and dates.

有些人認(rèn)為，唯一的出路是效仿黑暗時(shí)代的那些歷史綠洲：修道院——更確切地說(shuō)，一個(gè)離線的、紙質(zhì)的世界知識(shí)寶庫(kù)，待當(dāng)前的黑暗時(shí)代過(guò)去，它的保存者就可以使其復(fù)活。我堅(jiān)持讓學(xué)生識(shí)記世界地圖和重要的歷史事實(shí)、數(shù)字、日期，以盡我綿薄之力。

Ill end with an allusion—see if you recognize it. “Do not go gentle into that good night ... Rage， rage， against the dying of the light.”9 In your own way， and however you can， keep the light alive during these new Dark Ages.

我將以一個(gè)典故收尾——看看你認(rèn)不認(rèn)得出?！安灰獪睾偷刈哌M(jìn)那個(gè)良夜……怒斥，怒斥光明的消逝?！庇媚銈冏约旱姆绞?，不管是什么樣的方式，在新黑暗時(shí)代讓光長(zhǎng)明不滅。

（譯者為“《英語(yǔ)世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎(jiǎng)?wù)撸?/p>

1 be all the rage風(fēng)行一時(shí)，十分流行。? 2 a… worth of sth像……那么多的東西。

3 ouija board通靈板，占卜板。? 4美國(guó)的一間獨(dú)立性民調(diào)機(jī)構(gòu)。? 5黑暗時(shí)代（歐洲歷史上從羅馬帝國(guó)衰亡至公元 10 世紀(jì)的時(shí)期）。

6 commit to memory牢記。

7 so much for（表示行不通或沒用）作罷好了。? 8 Shakespearean由莎士比亞寫的；與莎士比亞有關(guān)的；典型的莎士比亞式的。

9該詩(shī)句出自《不要溫和地走進(jìn)那個(gè)良夜》，由英國(guó)詩(shī)人狄蘭·托馬斯創(chuàng)作于20世紀(jì)中期。此處采巫寧坤的譯本。