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Topic: A.I. Shakespeare Authorship Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Mark Haslett
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Joined: 19 April 2004
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Posted: 09 December 2024 at 2:12am | IP Logged | 1 post reply
I decided to ask Chat GPT to do the following:

“Run a Bayes theorem analysis of the single hypothesis that Will Shaksper
of Stratford wrote the sophisticated and influential plays and poems
attributed to Shakespeare. Remember the oppressive police state of
Elizabethan England and the punishments for writers who displeased lord
Burghley or the Queen.”

Here is the conclusion of the response I got:

“Based on the available evidence and historical context, the posterior
probability of the hypothesis that William Shaksper of Stratford wrote the
works attributed to Shakespeare is quite low—around 3.4%. This result is
primarily due to the apparent intellectual sophistication of the works and
the lack of direct evidence linking Shaksper to them in a meaningful way.”

It’s interesting how good A.I. can be at being logical and dispassionate.
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 09 December 2024 at 2:22am | IP Logged | 2 post reply
I just repeated verbatim this question to ChatGPT and...

>>
Given the strong evidence for Shakespeare of Stratford and the relatively weak evidence for alternative hypotheses, the posterior probability that he authored the works is about 97.7%. This analysis supports the traditional attribution while acknowledging political factors in Elizabethan England that may have influenced literary practices.

However, if new, credible evidence for alternative authorship emerges, this analysis could shift significantly.
>>
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Mark Haslett
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Posted: 09 December 2024 at 2:45am | IP Logged | 3 post reply
Hilarious.

I had done a “conversation” about the issues yesterday.

I asked if it would consider the points I made. It said it would.

Lo, and behold- I asked my question today and got the reply I got.

Then you get that reply? Whatever.
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Mark Haslett
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Posted: 09 December 2024 at 3:06am | IP Logged | 4 post reply
It’s like a video game. It “resets” to the consensus/cultural bias.

If you challenge ChatGPT to provide a reason that describes the evidence
for connecting the works to the man from Stratford upon Avon as “strong”, it
backs down pretty fast.

But I guess it does not actually “learn” to adhere to any apparent new
understanding.

Edited by Mark Haslett on 09 December 2024 at 3:07am
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 09 December 2024 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply
AI right now seems like a roll of the dice. Tangentially, in electronic legal research, there are new AI functions (very troubling for me as a law professor... I want my student to know themselves how to research!) and -- whew! -- some dicey results, even to the point of AI claiming the absolute opposite legal conclusion that cases hold. But it's early yet, in the technology overall. More to come, more to be seen...
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John Byrne
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Posted: 09 December 2024 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply
Here we see the limitations of AI. Tasked to determine who wrote the works of Shakespeare, the machine mind scans every available document and finds an obvious conclusion: Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.

But who was Shakespeare? Another comprehensive search produces the man from Stratford, whose name, Shaksper (Shax sper) has for centuries been interchangeable with the name on the Work.

Of course, asking the same question multiple times will produce multiple, variable answers. (It’s like the old observation, ask five people the same question, get six answers.)

Not exactly Case Closed!

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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 09 December 2024 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply
I'm not sure asking the same tech that recommended eating gravel for the health benefits is going to settle the authorship question.
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Steven Brake
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Posted: 09 December 2024 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply
JB wrote: whose name, Shaksper (Shax sper) has for centuries been interchangeable with the name on the Work.

SB replied: Was that his name, though? Or, as was quite conventional, was it one of a myriad of spellings sometimes used to ref to Will from Stratford-Upon-Avon?
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