Thank you, Mark. And thank you for dropping by to listen.
Finally, it’s warming up.
Two weeks ago, we were in the twenties — the below zero twenties. But now the temperature is in the 30’s — above zero — and the forecast indicates it may get up into the 40’s later this week.
It’s a January heat wave in Montana.
And I love it.
Now on to Episode 9 of the new year: “Who is the Master?”
WHO IS THE MASTER?
In case you haven’t noticed, Artificial Intelligence - AI - is here. Now I was able to see a lot of AI being used in various fields when I was at CES a couple of weeks ago.
AI is going to transform our workplaces, our schools, our homes, and our lives.
Some of those transformations will be amazingly good, almost magical.
Some those transformations have the possibility to be amazingly … bad … perhaps best described as evil.
Chat GPT
Now I use ChatGPT on a fairly regular basis. Unlike Sports Illustrated1, however, I don’t use it to write my articles or scripts, although it has the ability to do that.
I use ChatGPT to proofread what I write.
It corrects grammar and spelling errors (which would have come in handy when I was in school), and I often ask it to make suggestions for improving the article.
ChatGPT does an excellent job of proofreading, and it does a pretty good job of making suggestions. Some of the suggestions I apply to my writing and believe it makes for a stronger article. Some of the suggestions are less than good and I don’t use them. And then there are the suggestions that encourage me to be more politically correct or woke. As you can probably guess, I don’t use those suggestions at all.
Research
I also use ChatGPT, Bing, and Google Bard to do basic research on a topic.
But you have to be careful when you are using those tools for research. Sometimes the answers are inaccurate — which is another way of saying they are wrong.
If you use AI to research, you have to follow up with the results you are given in order to determine the truth of the assertions.
Words Worth Thinking About
Let me give you an example.
One of the topics I like to share with my readers are quotes. I call the section where I do that “Words Worth Thinking About.”
What I have found through the years I have been doing this is that often the quotes I read online are misattributed.
The attributions are repeated over, and over, and over, and over on the internet so that it seems that the individual surely must have said it. But when you track the quote down, you find out that either someone else said the quote or there is no record of the person actually saying or writing the words that everyone on the internet says he wrote.
When I check out a quote, I always ask my AI tool to give me a link to the original source. Sometimes it can. Sometimes it can’t.
I recently was checking out a quote by Abraham Lincoln. Both ChatGPT and Bing indicated Lincoln said the quote — which is good. It doesn’t make it true, but it’s a good start. When I asked for the source of the quote, both AIs said the phrase could be found in Lincoln’s message to Congress on December 1, 1862.
So, I got the link to the source and read the message.
The exact words of the quote were not in that document. It dealt with an aspect of the idea presented in the quote but did NOT contain the exact words of the quote.
I told ChatGPT about the situation and it agreed the exact words were not in the message, but that the idea represented Lincoln’s thoughts on the issue and were probably paraphrased by someone else and attributed to Lincoln.
As much as I like the quote, and as much as it has been requoted on the internet, I couldn’t use it because I couldn’t verify the source.
Broadcasts
Let’s take a look at some of the things happening in the world of broadcasting.
There are companies that offer you the possibility to own a radio station without having to bother with things like … oh, you know, human beings.
One company will provide you with several AI generated “personalities” to serve as DJs for your station. You describe the personalities you want, and the AI will create them for you. The DJs will introduce the songs and can even interact with one another.
And don’t worry about a news team. The AI will search the internet for news about your local town or the topic you want to specialize in, create articles to make up your news stories, and deliver the stories by your AI-created newscaster.
And if you happen to have a real person whose voice your listeners are used to, that person only has to speak a little bit to the AI, and it will create their “voice” for one of your DJs.
Think of all the money you could save not having to pay humans to do the work.
To be sure, there are some drawbacks.
The AI is deciding what goes out over the air and what it sounds like.
The AI has become the master of your station.
Websites
I purchased a software package about a year ago that claimed it could produce websites using AI. I purchased a domain, set up the basic design of the WordPress website, then selected the niches I was interested in and let the AI go to work.
It actually did a very nice job of producing articles on the topics I wanted covered and automatically adding them to the website. It even included illustrations for the articles.
It could produce as many articles as I wanted. I could schedule when I wanted them released even if I wanted dozens per day added to my website.
It looked very nice.
But when I read the articles, they were not anything I would have written. The software gave me the option of previewing the articles and revising them if I wanted before automatically publishing them to the website.
I’m sure it has improved greatly since I last used the software, but it’s not something I wanted to pursue.
And Worse …
I’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg of AI in our lives.
Hollywood stars and production companies are excited or frightened by the ability of AI to create images and sounds of real people and insert them in movies. You want to create a story using Tom Hanks when he was in his 20’s? AI can do that.
George Carlin, a stand-up comedian who passed away in 2008 at the age of 71, appears in a video doing his stand-up routine dealing with today’s topics. His estate is suing a company that supposedly used AI to create that video.
Imagine how that will impact news and political campaigns, when you won’t be able to tell if a politician actually did or did not say or do a particular thing, even though you saw a video of it happening.
Was it real, or was it AI?
Artificial Intelligence will control what we read, hear, or see when we use the internet and social media to find out the truth. We will be directed to the “truth” it has determined we need to hear, and we will be denied access to “misinformation” — which is often the real truth.
I should note that the graphics in this newsletter were created by DALL-E.
Here are some stories I found interesting recently. You might want to check them out.
“China’s AI Progress Sparks Fears of ‘Dystopian’ Future” by Jenny Li and Lynn Xu.
“High School Then and Now” by Maxim Lott.
“The ultimate Return guide to escaping the surveillance state” by Michael Matheson Miller.
“Beat Down: regarding the trajectory of the Los Angeles Times” by Chris Bray.
When you get an opportunity to help someone … help them.
Before I go, I’d like to share a blessing with you from the Old Testament.
“May the Lord bless and protect you; may the Lord’s face radiate with joy because of you; may he be gracious to you, show you his favor, and give you his peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26 (The Living Bible)
Until next time … be the reason someone smiles today
“Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers“ by Joe Raedle.
Who is the Master?