How do we make sense of changing human social norms? Ask a bot, of course Torsten Bell

Last week, half the internet was experimenting with ChatGPT, a new artificial intelligence chatbot that can write text on almost any subject under the sun with only the most basic of instructions. You should have a go. Reactions so far focus on predicting the end of education (it can churn out an essay in seconds) or arguing that it's fun but irrelevant to human progress. Sceptics should note that machine learning and big data analysis is supporting social science progress. Take the debate about cultural norms, where some emphasise the persistence of views passed between generations, while others argue ideas converge between places over time.