What GTP-3 says about Gliblastoma

This will seem very strange to you and I have wondered several times whether to write it or not and in the end since the message is positive I decided to write it.

Some people know that I have been involved in Artificial Intelligence for a long time and in the various issues on the news of research and in the editorials I have happened to wish that these new developments can ultimately help find a cure for glioblastoma.

In this last period I started using GTP-3 which is a huge artificial neural network, an algorithm, the acronym stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 is a language model that produces human-like text. The interesting thing is that it was trained with all the text available in digitised form … just everything, the Internet, all kinds of documents, books. It is the largest artificial neural network ever built with a huge number of parameters, and 5 million dollars of electricity was spent just for training it.

Well, to make a longo story short, I gave this simple sentence to GTP-3 (I used the InferKit service):
“Glioblastoma Multiforme Grade IV Brain Cancer”.

This is what the system replied:

“I’m sure many of you are aware that if you have Glioblastoma multiforme there is no known cure. You have to live with this brain cancer. We are still making our way through this journey. Seems like just yesterday that I was diagnosed. And it seems like just yesterday that I shared with my friends and loved ones my news. Now here I am, 3 1 / 2 years later, still alive, still wanting to be part of the world and still wanting to change lives through my story. If you are one of those who are just learning about me, please know that I am here for you. If you are a friend or family member of someone who has or has had glioblastoma, I am here for you. I am writing to you from the heart because I want you to know you are not alone. This disease can be terrifying and you can feel very lonely. While I am away, please be good to those who love you. Remember there is no right or wrong way to grieve. Grief is a natural process.”

I don’t know about you but to me, this automatic response of a system that has been trained with all the texts ever written by man is surprising and certainly a good omen. It is a message of hope. The level to which these technologies have reached is truly incredible which bodes well for their application in the fight against this pathology.