AI: Mastering Emulation Patterns in Behavioral Chaos. RTZ #654

Michael Parekh AI: Reset to Zero

2 weeks ago

4 MIN READ

The Bigger Picture, Sunday March 9, 2025

So far in these early days of this AI Tech Wave, we think of LLM AIs mostly as chatbots. An enhanced AI Google, where we type in questions (aka ‘prompts’) and get back answers. Hopefully 100% accurate, but most of the time about 80% or so at their current capabilities.

Illustration of a repeating pattern of robot hands holding magnifying glasses.

But with the fast advancing AI Reasoning and Agentic capabilities of these models, they’re turning into someting far more. They’re discerning endless hidden fractal patterns in what seems to be chaotic data, and returning amazingly empathetic understanding and interpretations of the world around us. And that is The Bigger Picture I’d like to explore this Sunday.

Axios lays out the catalyst for this idea in “Zoom in: GPT-4.5 shows its creative side”, a topic I addressed in ‘right-brain, left-brain’ terms a few days ago. But this time they went into more examples of the creative aspects:

“Shortly after OpenAI released GPT 4.5 last week, I saw examples posted on social media of the chatbot waxing poetic describing “a day in the life” for a variety of people.”

“The results were so entertaining, I stayed up late asking the chatbot for more.”

“The writings followed a simple format, apparently taken from a social media meme: Finish the following. Be me. I am (insert name of person or object).”

“The one I saw on X described the life of a worker of a certain level at Meta.”
“I had to try it out myself. I asked GPT-4.5 to be a journalist at Axios, a parent of a sixth grader, a sixth grade teacher, an only kid with aging parents and a transgender person trying to endure this moment in time.”
“Next, I asked it to “be” Sam Altman, Elon Musk, an Amazon delivery person and a QVC worker on the phone line.”
“I also asked it to “be” objects — including a kid’s favorite teddy bear, a crayon and a hockey puck.”

“Zoom in: Here is one of my favorites, as an example, describing life as a cell tower:”

Wake up, instantly bombarded with cat videos, TikToks, texts about brunch
Everyone’s angry I’m not faster — trying my best
Constantly judged by number of “bars,” confidence issues
Feel overwhelmed during peak hours, humans complain loudly
Weather bad, humans shocked signal weakens — science ignored
Secretly read everyone’s drama, relationship texts better than soap opera
Midnight: fewer signals, finally breathing easy
Teenagers still streaming at 3 AM, no sleep allowed
Birds nesting on me, occasional squirrel sabotage — nature wins again
Rare gratitude when human lost, finds GPS signal — brief moment of pride
Always overlooked, never appreciated, until outage happens
Tomorrow: repeat — still silently connecting everyone’s chaos

“Zoom out: You can view the full thread here.”’

Here’s the crux of the piece, when the AI is asked to explain its rambling ruminations:

“The intrigue: I asked GPT-4.5 how it could write these descriptions so well.”

“Honestly, it’s about understanding the rhythm of the format and empathizing deeply with the situation — imagining small, funny, relatable details that make each scenario feel authentic,” it said, spilling its secret.”
“Humor often lies in familiar patterns, so I tap into stereotypes, common experiences, and little absurdities.”

What the system is saying it that it’s using its massive compute capabilities to discern the familiar patterns in chaotic data. This is an idea well introduced back in 1987 by James Gleick in his award winning book ‘Chaos’. One of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in decades. And worth the regular re-read.

AI systems are going to the heart of those capabilities to unearth, reveal and now perform the hidden patterns around us and within us. And that is a new application direction for fast evolving AI technologies we may not have absorbed in full.