I don’t know why I bother. I’ve been following advances in AI with interest and it’s getting scary good.

A big story recently is about how uncannily good ChatGPT is at writing text that is essentially indistiguishable from what a person might write.

So, I tried it by generating some text on a subject like yesterday’s post:

what is JavaScript spread syntax?

The ChatGPT response?

JavaScript spread syntax is a way to expand an array or an object into a list of items or key-value pairs, respectively. It is represented by three dots (…) followed by an iterable object, such as an array or an object.

Here are a few examples of how spread syntax can be used:

Expanding an array

You can use spread syntax to expand an array into a list of items:

const numbers = [1, 2, 3];
console.log(...numbers); // 1 2 3

const moreNumbers = [4, 5, 6];
const allNumbers = [...numbers, ...moreNumbers];
console.log(allNumbers); // [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Concatenating arrays

You can use spread syntax to concatenate two or more arrays into a single array:

const array1 = [1, 2, 3];
const array2 = [4, 5, 6];
const concatenatedArray = [...array1, ...array2];
console.log(concatenatedArray); // [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Copying arrays

You can use spread syntax to make a copy of an array:

const originalArray = [1, 2, 3];
const copy = [...originalArray];
console.log(copy); // [1, 2, 3]

Expanding an object

You can use spread syntax to expand an object into a list of key-value pairs:

const person = { name: 'John', age: 30 };
console.log({ ...person }); // { name: 'John', age: 30 }

const morePerson = { gender: 'male', height: 180 };
const allPerson = { ...person, ...morePerson };
console.log(allPerson); // { name: 'John', age: 30, gender: 'male', height: 180 }

Expanding an object

You can use spread syntax to expand an object into a list of key-value pairs:

const person = { name: 'John', age: 30 };
console.log({ ...person }); // { name: 'John', age: 30 }

const morePerson = { gender: 'male', height: 180 };
const allPerson = { ...person, ...morePerson };
console.log(allPerson); // { name: 'John', age: 30, gender: 'male', height: 180 }

Merging objects

You can use spread syntax to merge two or more objects into a single object:

const object1 = { a: 1, b: 2 };
const object2 = { c: 3, d: 4 };
const mergedObject = { ...object1, ...object2 };
console.log(mergedObject); // { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3, d: 4 }

Spread syntax is a powerful and concise way to work with arrays and objects in JavaScript. It is particularly useful when working with immutable data structures, as it allows you to create new arrays and objects based on existing ones without modifying the originals.

My simian brain is very impressed. It’s nicely written and answers the questions well.