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Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 23, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Curious question -- can GPT-4 write a poem that doesn't rhyme? I was trying this with the free (3.5?) version, and while it will tell you what rhyming means, it absolutely refuses to write blank verse. (or even any non-whole number of quatrains.

3.5 couldn't write a rhyming one in Russian. We had to do an international women's day performance, and a few of us asked it to write a poem that wasn't full of cringeworthy complementarianism. Nope, he was worse than Jeremias Suomalainen.

Nope, he was worse than Jeremias Suomalainen.

As a Finn I'm obligated to ask who the hell is "Jeremias Suomalainen" and why is his first name so weird?

Seems like Martti Larni is one of these writers that are more popular in another country than in their own. Jeremias is the protagonist of Arvokkaat köyhät: Ja heidän kirjava seurakuntansa, if I got the Finnish name of the novel right.

In the quiet folds of a lonely heart

Rests the whispers of forgotten memories,

Like fleeting shadows in the corners of the mind

They haunt the moments of restless contemplation.

For when the sands of Time are swept

By the wind of destiny, untamed and relentless,

Who can stand, fearless, against its force,

Unyielding, like the ancient immovable stones?

Through the dark tapestry of the cosmos, unbound,

Dawn breaks, with soft hues painting life anew

And floods the soul with the luminance of hope.

There, like the tree that stands tall, steadfast,

Reaching ever for the celestial sky above

The heart finds solace, seeks refuge

From the soundless noise of melancholy introspection

In the silent embrace of the eternal verdant womb.

With fleeting steps, heavy as the weight of the world,

The traveler seeks the path that leads to the end of sorrow.

As rivers twist and turn, in search of the distant ocean,

Where, ultimately, all dreams merge and surrender,

So, shall the weary heart, unbound by the chains of yore

Find rest on the calm shores of eternal slumber.

This poem, written in blank verse, does not contain any rhyme, allowing it to effectively maintain a natural rhythm and convey emotion through its expressive description and imagery. It expresses a reflective and contemplative theme, utilizing images of nature and the cosmos to evoke feelings of hope and peace. As it currently stands, it meets the requirements of a blank verse poem.

That's actually pretty good! The rhyming ones from GPT3.5 were all garbage doggerel, but I didn't feel like arguing with a bot that couldn't even count lines about the quality of its poetry.

(I'd tell it to use fewer commas though)

Having used GPT4, I only feel disdain for 3.5 and hardly touch it haha. I must admit that 3.5 is likely adequate for most tasks, but 4 is much more engaging a conversationalist and I feel like I'm settling for a gimped cousin when I use the alternatives.

If you want it for free, you can try Bing Chat, but in my experience, whatever Microsoft did to it makes it a PITA to use in comparison, whereas ChatGPT 4 just gets it done.