Supernatural: Religious or Superstitious
If you were to ask me any questions about Supernatural, the hit TV show written by Eric Kripke that aired in 2005 about two brothers who hunt monsters, chances are I’d be able to answer it. However, I would like to test Chat GTP’s knowledge of this 15 season tv show by going on a deep dive into the religious subtext that the show has to offer. While this sounds subjective, I can promise you it is not. Supernatural plays host to a whole arrange of religions, ranging from Hinduism to Christianity, and even Greek and Norse Gods.
So when asking Chat GTP about the show I considered past conversations with friends that I had about the show and how our emotions and connection to the show go above and beyond the basic understanding that Chat GTP would have. Which begs the question, would Chat GTP be able to replicate the way a fan would talk about the show? Or would it simply be a man-made algorithm talking at me? My first question was as follows:
“Tell me about the religious subtext of Supernatural.”
“Supernatural” is a form of entertainment, and while it may incorporate elements of religious and mythological themes, it is primarily a work of fiction designed for entertainment purposes. It should not be equated with religious texts like the Bible”
Okay, already we’ve hit a roadblock, that’s not a very human thing to say, never in any of my conversations with my friends have they disputed the fact that Supernatural was religious. However, after asking for Chat GTP to write me a lengthy essay about the various religious themes in Supernatural, I was given the answer I was looking for.
” Write me an essay about how there is religious sub-text in Supernatural.”
“At the core of religious experiences is the theme of faith and belief. In Supernatural, the characters, particularly the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, exhibit unwavering faith in their mission to protect humanity from supernatural threats.”
Finally! We are getting somewhere, I have finally been given an answer that don’t get me wrong is correct but there is no mention of any specific characters (besides Sam and Dean), there is no reference to episodes, seasons, or any other specific points in the show. The responses I was given were accurate, and I was even reminded of certain themes that I forgot were in the show, such as destiny and divine intervention. Unfortunately, Everything Chat GTP gave to me was base knowledge, there was nothing more in depth than that. This is very similar to how Bhatia was teaching Baby GPT to write.
“Language models are a kind of universal mimic: They imitate whatever they’ve been trained on. With enough data and rounds of training, this imitation can become fairly uncanny, as ChatGTP and its peers have shown us.”
While Supernatural isn’t precisely akin to language modeling, it has a unique language of it’s own. The language of the fan. One aspect I appreciate in Bhatia’s article is her acknowledgement that Baby GPT is essentially an algorithm that learns patterns. If I manually kept feeding ChatGTP information about Supernatural I bet we would see a similar outcome as we saw with BabyGTP. ChatGTP will never fully be able to replicate how a fan will talk about the show which is proven by it’s rather ineffective communication style of the information. In this case, ChatGTP is ineffective due to its inability to delve deeper. Exploring nuances and intricacies is a vital component of discussing pop culture, such as characters in their respective tv shows. Nevertheless, ChatGTP effectively provided sufficient information about the show to engage in a decent conversation. However, the exchange felt mechanical and rigid, lacking the typical enthusiasm of a fan.
Bhatia, Aatish. “Let Us Show You How GPT Works – Using Jane Austen.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Apr. 2023, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/26/upshot/gpt-from scratch.html?unlocked_article_code=HiWNX_xHJch0lm7lrjpE7B_4uvDFrmT19lrxy6I9WZ77mUfsh2recNtlTlylbktaK-P7BcSPDHXmNuvk90i5PG-90v0x2htoEMErvTqscz-uicIor7SQaaGfCFOxF3hStudh70l7kYdjCYgTiPyq_jtHrxONe7ILtz_E2CgK2GmqfUV2Z1FeWoIhHYcJi4QrPoAAVwc0R9MBzB48LJlbyJKCyjH2ehiOofKuL9WsrALTwNzUw4mka98apHBhxV7SKObGpYAoMhYfXxnTStUvUnKMrypURh9qEQss4Z8WjQ8YQ9EKXaHMVGXDjR4NVoGHeOOR4J_Rl_wST9J1HlR_okZVCQBQgXKK_A&smid=url-share.