February 7, 2023
Frank Karsten
Magic: The Gathering
14 Min.
As a content creator in the Magic community with a keen interest in artificial intelligence, I've been keeping a close eye on the recent release of OpenAI's new language-generation model, ChatGPT. After it became available to the public on November 30, it reached a million users in just five days. While I'm excited about the potential of this technology to generate natural-sounding text, I'm also wary of its potential impact on Magic content creation.
In today’s blog, I'll explore the cool applications and dangerous pitfalls of ChatGPT through a series of questions and responses - essentially a conversation with the model. My own thoughts on the matter will be presented in regular font, while my prompts will be in bold and ChatGPT's responses will be in italics. To add some visuals, I've included several images created by Midjourney, an AI image generator that has also shown great potential.
Hi ChatGPT! I'm writing an article to explain your potential for Magic content. Could you briefly summarize what ChatGPT is and how people can use it?
“Certainly! ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI that has been trained on a vast collection of text from various sources. It is designed to generate human-like responses to prompts provided by users. ChatGPT can be utilized in a variety of applications, such as generating content for social media, websites, and more.
In the context of Magic: The Gathering content creation, ChatGPT could potentially be used to generate ideas for new articles, videos, and even deck guides. For example, a content creator might give ChatGPT a prompt like "What are some untapped topics related to Magic that could make for interesting content?" and ChatGPT could provide a list of potential ideas for the content creator to explore.
It's important to note that ChatGPT is a tool, and like any tool, it has its limitations. While it can produce text that is coherent and sounds natural, it does not possess an understanding of the underlying mechanics of Magic or the strategic considerations that go into constructing a competitive deck. Therefore, it is unlikely that ChatGPT will entirely replace human content creators, but it could be a useful tool for generating ideas or inspiring creativity.”
That’s an excellent summary. ChatGPT indeed lacks the knowledge and experience that comes from years of playing and studying the game. As I’ll show in more detail later, it cannot anticipate potential matchups, provide in-depth analysis or adjust to the ever-changing metagame. In other words, don't expect ChatGPT to build a Pro Tour-winning deck anytime soon.
However, that doesn't mean that Magic content creators can't use it as a tool to help generate ideas, spark creativity or suggest outlines. In addition, ChatGPT has an impressive ability to write engaging essays or short stories.
Write an article for the Ultimate Guard blog for me. Topic: fun stories from the early days of Magic before sleeves and playmats became commonplace.
“When I think back to the early days of Magic: the Gathering, I think of a time before sleeves, playmats, and the myriad of other accessories that have become commonplace in the game today. While those items certainly make the game more enjoyable and accessible, there was something special about the early days of Magic, when the game was still in its infancy and players had to get creative in order to make the most of the game.
In the early days of Magic, players had to get creative in order to protect their cards from wear and tear. Before the advent of card sleeves, players used to store their cards in plastic sandwich bags or wrap them in rubber bands. Some players even went so far as to place their cards in plastic sleeves made for baseball cards. Of course, these methods were not ideal, as the cards could still be damaged over time from shuffling and general wear and tear.
In the early days of Magic, players also had to get creative when it came to playing surfaces. Before playmats were widely available, players had to make do with whatever surfaces they had available. Some players used to play on a table, while others used to play on the floor. Some even used to play on the hoods of their cars!
