“Jason Rohrer designed Project December in September last year as an old-style cryptic website. He was interested in the promises of GPT-3 — an AI created by Microsoft-funded company OpenAI in mid-2020. The system was conceived as a multitasking language model that could carry out several language generation tasks but ended up being so much more. Essay writing, song composing, or chatting are some of GPT-3’s language skills. But don’t mistake it with those generic and boring chatbots like Siri or Alexa. GPT-3 can hold creative, profound, and meaningful conversations, even emulating the style of the likes of Marcus Aurelius or Shakespeare — or anyone you may want. That was what Rohrer had in mind when he created what would become his most viral creation — and his downfall. He named it Samantha, after the AI protagonist of the movie Her, and imprinted in it the same caring personality. After transforming GPT-3 into a polished chatbot, he decided to share it for others to access. Project December was born.”
