This dialogue began as an experiment on the pedagogical value of “role-play” with ChatGPT–would it be worthwhile for students to converse with ChatGPT in the voice of a figure, character, or perspective they are studying? Having finally emerged from the rabbit-hole that ensued, I am happy to confirm that it is. Conversing with the chatbot in the voice of Socrates was a challenging (and very fun) exercise in “prompt engineering”: one has to consider the character’s tone and personality, typical rhetorical moves, cultural context, views, and arguments. In addition, getting the dialogue to go in the overall direction one wants requires anticipating the sorts of things ChatGPT is likely to say and the moves it is likely to make. This can help familiarize students with the strengths and weaknesses of the chatbot, and LLMs in general. It can also serve as a springboard to the all-important discussion of how they work.

The dialogue you see is unedited (you can scroll through the original transcript below). ChatGPT really is this weird–almost as weird as Socrates himself.