GPT-3 and Covid-19

The current version of GPT-3 was trained on data collected until October 2019, making it unaware of Covid-19, which only started spreading widely in December of that year. Thomas Smith from Gado Images was curious to see what would come out of teaching GPT-3 about the virus and asking it questions about the pandemic. Would the system's answers reflect reality?

In the future, having a system like GPT-3 at our disposal when a new virus appears could be more than just an academic exercise. AI can detect patterns humans may miss. If we were to face a similar virus to Covid-19, we could train GPT-3 with the information we have and ask it questions about the virus or the new pandemic's development. For instance, it could detect connections to other pandemics, similarities to other pathogens and other relevant patterns. This could help provide recommendations, useful public health measures and even predict the virus' spread.

GPT-3's predictions about Covid-19 weren't entirely accurate, but it did get important details right, such as the fact that the virus can be transmitted through the air and the importance of wearing face masks. This information was available to public health leaders as early as February 2020.

You can read the full story here: https://onezero.medium.com/i-asked-gpt-3-about-covid-19-its-responses-shocked-me-589267ec41a6