Birkdale Computing

The “Gettysburg Address” is a concise and powerful speech given by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln There have been a lot of articles written in the past six months or so about generative AI (GAI)[i], Large Language Models, and just about anything concerning Artificial Intelligence. So, I thought I’d compare what are probably the two sites that get the most attention. Many people are running experiments to see if they can figure out how these generative AI systems generate text under various conditions and assumptions. There is now a growing new skillset called “Prompt Engineering” which is being defined and refined that is making its way into the popular and professional imagination. Many people are already specializing in it to make a living in this post-GAI world.

I took two topics near and dear to my heart, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and The Six Basic Interrogatives Framework for Data Analysis, aka 6BI. I then asked both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard the same question. The prompt I used was very simple but had one big assumption built into it, specifically knowing what the abbreviation “6BI” stood for, without being prompted with a definition of it in the prompt box[ii]. This type of prompting is often referred to as Zero Shot prompting because it gives the model zero “shots” of relevant real time data to augment its training data, thus forcing it to rely solely on its current training to produce a response.

My prompt on August 21, 2023:

Apply the principles of 6BI to the Gettysburg Address.[iii]

ChatGPT’s response:

on November 19, 1863, shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. To apply the principles of 6BI (Six Basic Interrogatives) to the Gettysburg Address, we need to investigate it from the perspective of “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, “why’, and “how’.

1. Who: The “Gettysburg Address” was delivered by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, in front of an audience composed of citizens and soldiers.
2. What: The “Gettysburg Address” is a brief, eloquent speech that helped redefine the purpose and meaning of the Civil War and the American union. The speech contains just 272 words, yet its message of equality, freedom, and the significance of a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” has endured for centuries.
3. When: The “Gettysburg Address” was delivered on November 19, 1863, amidst the ongoing American Civil War.
4. Where: The speech was given at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where one of the bloodiest and most significant battles of the Civil War had taken place just a few months prior.
5. Why: Lincoln’s aim was to commemorate the Union soldiers who died at the Battle of Gettysburg and to motivate the living to continue the struggle for the preservation of the Union and the principles it was founded upon. He wanted to redefine the Civil War as not just a battle for the preservation of the Union, but also for the principles of human equality, and a “new birth of freedom.”
6. How: Lincoln structured his speech in a way that was deeply rooted in the history and values of the United States. He began by evoking the founding principles of the United States (“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”), moved on to the present struggle (“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”), and concluded with a vision for the future (“…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”). The speech was brief, poignant, and delivered with a gravity befitting the occasion.

In sum, the 6BI approach offers a comprehensive way to dissect and analyze the Gettysburg Address, shedding light on its significance from various perspectives.

Bard’s response:

Sure, here are some ways to apply the principles of 6BI to the Gettysburg Address:

• Brevity: The Gettysburg Address is only 272 words long, making it one of the shortest speeches ever delivered by a US president. This brevity helps to keep the speech focused and memorable.
• Impact: The Gettysburg Address has had a profound impact on American history and culture. It is considered one of the most important speeches ever given, and it is often cited as an example of great oratory.
• Clarity: The Gettysburg Address is clear and easy to understand. Lincoln uses simple language and straightforward sentences, which makes his message accessible to everyone.
• Logic: The Gettysburg Address is logically structured. Lincoln begins by stating the purpose of his speech, then he provides evidence to support his claim, and finally he concludes with a call to action.
• Immediacy: The Gettysburg Address is written in the present tense, which gives it a sense of immediacy. Lincoln speaks as if the events of the Civil War are happening right now, which makes his speech more powerful and urgent.
• Universality: The Gettysburg Address is universal in its appeal. Lincoln’s message of equality and freedom is relevant to people all over the world.

These are just a few ways to apply the principles of 6BI to the Gettysburg Address. The speech is a masterpiece of oratory, and it is a testament to Lincoln’s skill as a communicator.

Here are some additional thoughts on how the principles of 6BI apply to the Gettysburg Address:

• Brevity: The Gettysburg Address is brief, but it is not short on substance. Lincoln packs a lot of meaning into his 272 words, and he does so in a way that is both clear and concise.
• Impact: The Gettysburg Address has had a profound impact on American history and culture. It is considered one of the most important speeches ever given, and it is often cited as an example of great oratory. Lincoln’s words helped to inspire the nation during the Civil War, and they continue to inspire people today.
• Clarity: The Gettysburg Address is clear and easy to understand. Lincoln uses simple language and straightforward sentences, which makes his message accessible to everyone. He also avoids jargon and technical terms, which helps to ensure that his speech is understood by a wide audience.
• Logic: The Gettysburg Address is logically structured. Lincoln begins by stating the purpose of his speech, then he provides evidence to support his claim, and finally he concludes with a call to action. This logical structure makes the speech easy to follow and understand.
• Immediacy: The Gettysburg Address is written in the present tense, which gives it a sense of immediacy. Lincoln speaks as if the events of the Civil War are happening right now, which makes his speech more powerful and urgent. He also uses the word “here” to refer to the battlefield at Gettysburg, which further creates a sense of immediacy.
• Universality: The Gettysburg Address is universal in its appeal. Lincoln’s message of equality and freedom is relevant to people all over the world. He speaks of the “unfinished work” of the Civil War, but he also speaks of the “great task remaining before us” as a nation. This suggests that the principles of equality and freedom are still relevant today, and that they are still worth fighting for.

The Gettysburg Address is a masterpiece of oratory, and it is a testament to Lincoln’s skill as a communicator. The principles of 6BI can help us to understand why[iv] the speech is so effective, and they can also help us to improve our own communication skills.

Brief Analysis of the Responses.

This article provides a comparison between the responses of ChatGPT and Bard when the same prompt is input to them. Specifically, to apply the principles of 6BI to the Gettysburg Address. It highlights the differences in their approaches brought about by both the data in their training and the algorithms processing it[v]. It is clear they were trained differently. It also shows the distinct approaches taken by each model.

The ChatGPT model emphasizes the six interrogatives, referring to them by their names, but not grouping them into a superset of aspects or dimensions as John Zachman[vi] originally did. The order of the interrogatives is changed from Zachman’s original order which, spread across two articles, was “What”, “How”, “Where”, “Who”, “When” and “Why”. The original articles were focused exclusively on business.

On the other hand, Bard focuses exclusively on Lincoln’s address itself, ignoring the six basic interrogatives.  Bard sites another set of aspects which are stated in terms of assertions and not interrogatives. These are: “Brevity”, “Impact”, “Clarity”, “Logic”, “Immediacy” and “Universality”.  These aspects don’t seem to be attributed to a single, original analysis of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address[vii].

These aspects, insightful as they are in their own right, do not correctly answer the prompt. I will assume for the purposes of this article that the 6BI aspects were not included in the data on which the Bard model was trained. 

Though both John Zachman’s publications, my publications, and publications by several other writers on the same topic have been on the internet for more than 10 years, Bard either was not trained on that data, or its activation algorithms did not make the connection. This observation[viii], of course, is only as of the date of the prompt (see above).

The most pronounced feature of Bard’s response, in my opinion, is unlike Lincoln’s address itself, its lack of brevity.

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[i] Not to be confused with AGI (Artificial General Intelligence).

[ii] It is also assumed, of course, that the LLMs have been pre-trained on the Gettysburg Address.

[iii] Please note the grammatically correct English sentence. I think it is important to prompt these models in language that is as well written (or spoken) as possible for reasons that I will discuss later.

[iv] One of the six basic interrogatives.

[v] This processing is basically, but not exclusively, Machine Learning (ML) and the data comes primarily from scraping the world wide web.

[vi] John Zachman originally published his two articles about the six aspects of enterprise architecture in 1987 and 1989.

[vii] Yes, I did ask both AI’s if they could site from whom, or where the assertive aspects came. Neither know.

[viii] Of course, I would not have been able to make that assertion had I not observed the data, or at least, that portion of it captured by the two subject models.