Large language models can generate strings of text based on word patterns learned from the web pages, books, and other bodies of text in their training data. Besides ChatGPT, the programs make up the guts of search chatbots such as Microsoft Bing chat and Google’s Bard, and they underlie a growing number of applications that produce professional and creative copy in a flash. Their counterparts that generate AI-composed illustrations and videos draw on patterns from image datasets such as photos gathered from Pinterest and Flickr.

Often,…