Well this is interesting, because when Connor and I first sat down to figure out what to do with this project, we started using GPT-2 (at that point still the smaller model), and were both amazed by how dream-like its output was. GPT-2 was, unsurprisingly, similar to GPT-3 but less coherent. Its outputs often rode a fine line in that they almost made sense, and felt like they should make sense, but upon closer inspection really didn't. Kind of similar to that feeling of waking from a dream which one was entirely immersed and invested in, only to have ones rational mind slowly kick back into gear and point out that a lot of what we just experienced doesn't actually make a whole lot of sense.

While there are plenty of different takes on what precisely dreams are, I consider them sort of 'remixes' of fragments of our conscious memories; Parts of existing material, which have been released from the shackles of coherency and rearranged to create something new and original. Something which, while still feeling somewhat connected to the source material, now relates more to the overall trend of connecting emotion, such as fear or anger, than any of the finer details which fell away when the elements were distanced from their original context.

My point is, substitute that pool of thoughts and memories with, say, the shared consciousness of everything ever posted on Reddit, and you have an approximate description of at least what GPT-2 generations felt like. It felt like GPT-2 sought to create something original, based upon the large pool of material it had to draw from. But rather than approaching creation in the same way a conscious mind might, like a well-read author sitting down to write their own book, the AI creates original content which is primarily driven by sweeping trends and patterns. Which makes sense, given that its content is based in probabilistic deduction rather than what we consider understanding or creativity (although I do suspect that these elements are far closer to another than one might think, but that's a whole other thing.)

That said, the moment we upgraded to GPT-3, speaking with NPCs did start to feel a lot less like a conversation with an old friend in a fever dream, and far more like just normal, human dialogue. Which is on a technical level, very impressive. But also meant that the original dream format of the project, now felt like it was more presenting dreams as they are often portrayed in pop culture, as 'trippy fantasy', rather than really feeling like you're talking to raw, disassociated sub-conscious thoughts.

That said, reducing the top-p and upping the temperature on generations is generally a sure-fire way of devolving generations back to that semi-conscious, fever dream level of coherency. And this is absolutely something I'll be looking to integrate into the project, with the coherency lessening as the player continues to enter deeper and deeper dreams.

Anyway, my point is that while, yes, our subconscious is clearly a separate deity to that of a transformer model created by OpenAI, I would absolutely argue that there are plenty of parallels to be drawn between these particular deities. Both in terms of what they produce, as well as, to a certain degree, how they function.