To me the most important discovery from GPT-3 is actually how bad we are at close reading. Our brains repair small inconsistencies, and even invert the meaning of whole passages, without us noticing. GPT-3 produces text similar enough to coherent thought that we essentially hallucinate the rest of its meaning. The model is nowhere close to sentient, but our tendency to repair and reconstruct ideas is so strong that it doesn’t matter.
Makes you think, how often does this happen with other writing?
When people post GPT-3 written replies, I never consciously think that it's artificial, but I subconsciously decide it's not worth reading and I skip it. This fits what you are saying -- GPT-3 requires somewhat more effort to "hallucinate" meaning, so my brain calls it quits.
Makes you think, how often does this happen with other writing?