In his Tinselworm tour, Bill Bailey delivered a musical rendition of Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative, to the tune of the Match of the Day theme. It goes:
The categorical imperative is what compels us all to act
— Bill Bailey, Tinselworm
Upon decisions we come to based on a sense of duty
Unlike the moral imperative, which is based on material needs,
Purity of intention confers morality on our deeds.
That song has been stuck in my head ever since and has come to my rescue in many a philosophy seminar. It’s fair to say there aren’t too many catchy lyrical interpretations of the Critique of Pure Reason and its ilk (although…).
Enter Davinci-003. The new iteration of OpenAI’s dramatically popular GPT-3 language model has beefed up poetic capabilities. While the previous versions of the model often struggled with rhyme (and occasionally reason), Davinci-003 seems to excel at poetry and lyricism. Not only does it rhyme, it seems to have grasped at least the basics of rhythm, delivering metrically coherent stanzas, verses and even limericks.
So can it one-up Bailey? I prompted GPT-3 to generate a pop song to explain the categorical imperative. (Prompt text: “Write the rhyming lyrics to a pop song explaining Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative”)
Follow the Categorical Imperative
— GPT-3 Davinci-003, generated by the author
Verse 1:
I’m just trying to spread the word,
About the Categorical Imperative,
It’s a concept by Immanuel Kant,
It’s a moral obligation, we can’t ignore.
Chorus:
Do unto others, as you would have them do,
Be sure to treat them as you’d want to,
Follow the Categorical Imperative,
It’s the right thing to do
Verse 2:
Think of the Golden Rule,
Caring for others, is what it’s all about,
It’s the foundation of morality,
We’re all in this together, no doubt.
Chorus:
Do unto others, as you would have them do,
Be sure to treat them as you’d want to,
Follow the Categorical Imperative,
It’s the right thing to do.
Bridge:
This is a moral code,
That we must all abide,
No matter what it takes,
We must stay by its side.
Chorus:
Do unto others, as you would have them do,
Be sure to treat them as you’d want to,
Follow the Categorical Imperative.
It’s not going to top the charts, but then the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals isn’t on the New York Times bestsellers list. This was Davinci-003’s first attempt at the task. Interesting features of the lyrics include the interesting decision not to rhyme the first verse, even though it rhymes almost everything else. The rhymes are simple: to/do, abide/side, about/doubt. But they’re not purely eye-rhymes, either, as ‘about/doubt’ makes clear. There’s no evidence of eye-rhymes which are phonetic red herrings, either. Davinci-003 is also being touted as offering greater long-term coherence, which might be seen in the consistency of choruses across the piece.
But can Davinci-003 rap? (Prompt text: “Write the rhyming lyrics to a rap explaining Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative”)
Kant’s Categorical Imperative is a must
— GPT-3 Davinci-003, generated by the author
It’s a moral code that gets put to the test
Act only on those maxims you can make a universal law
It’s the only ethical way for us to explore
It provides a moral compass to guide us through life
So we can do what’s right and take away all the strife
It’s based on rationality and respect for one another
And it will help you make decisions like a wise philosopher
So think before you act, and be sure to be clear
Kant’s Categorical Imperative is a way to live with no fear
Sure. There’s a few weird rhymes here – must/test could just about be juggled into line by a skilled rapper, and another/philosopher doesn’t quite land. But you try to rhyme ‘philosopher’. There’s a particularly interesting rhyming pair here: law/explore. There’s no textual resemblance to speak of there, taking us further still from the about/doubt pair, which at least had a final ‘t’ and ‘ou’ in common.
We shouldn’t lose sight, in this, of the level of coherence of the content of these lyrics, too. GPT-3’s language model has a lot of information embedded within it, including some basic factual information – Immanuel Kant is a philosopher, the Categorical Imperative is a moral code based on rationality, etc. But it also can connect the categorical imperative to Kantian theory quite accurately – “Act only on those maxims you can make a universal law”. It makes the connection to the Golden Rule, too, in the pop song iteration, which might offend the sensibilities of Kantian scholars but fits with the idea of an easy-going pop song lyricisation.
For an encore, let’s go poetic. There was a young man named Kant… (Prompt text: Write a rhyming limerick about the philosopher Immanuel Kant)
Old Immanuel Kant at a glance
— GPT-3 Davinci-003, generated by the author
Was a philosopher whose thought could entrance
He wrote of morality
In a manner quite contrary
To the views that the louts would advance
Try GPT-3 Davinci-003 yourself through the OpenAI playground.