I am not from the Z Generation, as it is called by the technology makers, who were born in the early nineties of the last century, coinciding with the early days of communications technology and social networks. But I am trying to find my way in this unlimited field, as one of the users of technology, which is really a shoreless sea.
During the past few days, social networking sites and all media outlets have been abuzz with news of the newcomer in this field, which is the (ChatGBT) application, which uses artificial intelligence technology in search operations. This is in addition to the possibility of establishing a long and in-depth dialogue with the application and asking questions to it on all issues.
I decided to communicate with this application, and since it is not available directly yet in the Arab region, I went through the experience through the Microsoft browser. After the entry steps, I started asking some questions about the nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the West’s view of Islam and its relationship to terrorism. The answers were mostly general which you could receive from a child or boy at the preparatory stage at the latest. At the end of my conversation with him, I asked him about the great writer, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, one of the legends of journalism in Egypt and the world. There was a great shock, which I will convey as it is in the following lines:
Muhammad Hassanein Heikal (1923-2016) is an Egyptian journalist, writer, and thinker. He was born in the city of Al-Mahalla Al-Kubra, Gharbia Governorate, Egypt. Heikal is considered one of the most prominent intellectual and cultural figures in the Arab world.
Heikal worked as a journalist for several well-known Egyptian newspapers, such as Al-Ahram newspaper and Al-Akhbar newspaper, and he had a prominent role in establishing the weekly Al-Akhbar magazine in Egypt. Heikal also held the position of Minister of Culture in Egypt from 1980 to 1981. Heikal’s writings are considered among his most important contributions to the cultural and intellectual field in the Arab world, as his books dealt with many topics related to history, politics, culture, and art, and the most famous of them are “The Fall of the Masks”, “The Message in the Prohibited Time”, and “The Closed Doors.” Some of his books have won international awards. Heikal was distinguished by his bold and frank positions on many political and social issues in the Arab world, and he defended freedom, democracy, and human rights. Heikal passed away in 2016 at the age of 93. The answer is over.
When I assured him that most of what came in his response was false information, he replied by saying: I apologize for the error that occurred, and I thank you for the correction. Indeed, Muhammad Hassanein Heikal did not write literary novels. His writings mainly dealt with political, social, cultural, and artistic topics. I apologize again for the previous mistake.
Once again, I found another mistake and corrected it, and his answer was: Thank you for the correction. There is another error in my previous information. Indeed, Muhammad Hassanein Heikal did not hold the position of Minister of Culture in Egypt from 1980 to 1981; rather, he was imprisoned at the time and did not hold any official position. I apologize for the previous error and thank you for the correction.
The error was repeated, and the response was: I apologize for the error in the information I provided about the books of Muhammad Hassanein Heikal. I will rephrase my information correctly as follows: The books of Muhammad Hassanein Heikal dealt with many topics related to history, politics, culture, and art, and his most famous books are “The Fall of the Masks”, “The Message in the Forbidden Time”, and “The Closed Doors”. Heikal also wrote about his biography in “Me and Egypt” which was published in 2015.
When I assured him that Heikal had not written the previous books, he said: “I apologize once again for the previous mistake and thank you for the correction.”
And here I had to point out the unreliability of his information, and his response came: I am sorry to hear that, and I always try to provide the correct and reliable information as possible. It is important for me as a virtual assistant to be accurate and reliable, so I am constantly working on developing my language model and improving its accuracy and reliability. However, I am not perfect and errors can happen sometimes, and I appreciate correcting misinformation if it occurs. Thank you for the clarification and I will constantly improve myself.
Here, I thought that he had corrected his false information, and I decided to repeat the question to him about who is Muhammad Hassanein Heikal, and the response was again shocking, and his answer was as follows: Muhammad Hassanein Heikal is an Egyptian journalist, writer, and politician, born on September 23, 1923, and died on February 17, 2016. Heikal held many government positions in Egypt, including the Minister of Information and the Minister of Culture. He also had a prominent role in the cultural and political movement in Egypt during the second half of the twentieth century. Among Heikal’s most famous writings are: The Fall of the Masks, The Message in the Forbidden Time, The Closed Doors, The Long Days, The Third World War, and Me and Egypt. Heikal was known as one of the prominent cultural and intellectual figures in Egypt and the Arab world, and he had an important role in enriching the cultural and political movement in Egypt.
Here I decided to end this useless argument and assured him that he would not learn from his mistakes. His response was: “I apologize if I could not properly document the information. As a virtual assistant, I always try to provide as correct and reliable information as possible, and I rely on multiple reliable sources to gather information. However, I’m not perfect and it can go wrong sometimes. I will constantly improve myself and document the information more accurately in the future. Thank you for the correction and I hope I can better serve your knowledge needs in the future.”
Thus, my experience with this assistant ended, who is supposed to be smart and to be an alternative in the future. In fact, it is unfair that the experiment is judged as a complete failure while it is in its infancy, as there is no one, no matter how capable he is, who can reach the horizon in this field. This is where technological development does not go in a straight line, but it leaps and bounds in all directions, with which it is impossible to say that you have reached the end of the road. But the real problem is that this development and leaps are taking place around the clock, and this is the most serious challenge.
Dr. Hatem Sadek: Professor at Helwan University
