I read an AI-generated item that misused the word "penultimate." It made the same mistake a great many people make when they think the word means the absolute, very last. Seeing that reinforced that AI regurgitates the words and ideas of human beings, mistakes included, but if it actually were intelligent it would correct such errors.
It isn't really artificial intelligence, it's only a reasonable facsimile. It is ersatz intelligence.
The grammatical/syntactical error: "It would involving helping..." in the question ---demonstrating (it appears) "change blindness" which most of us suffer from (except the Empress, aka Pat the Perfect, of course). We mere mortals tend to focus on the overall meaning of the text rather than single words.
AI like most technology is a mirror. What we see in it depends on what we bring to it. I suggest AI can make us more human, but not by being human‑like. It makes us more human by being decisively not human. Because when you’re talking to something that has: no ego, no social anxiety, no desire for status and no fear of embarrassment…it becomes painfully clear which parts of our behavior are uniquely, beautifully, frustratingly human — and which ones we might want to upgrade. So, AI can make us more human. But if we don’t rise to the moment, it can also make us less human — not by force, but by convenience. The future isn’t a battle between humans and machines. It’s a battle between humanity at its best and humanity on autopilot.
I have them; so did my mom -- they made her dizzy and "seasick" but just annoy me. Since I discovered Hildegard of Bingin had them and saw them as visiting angels, I have embraced that idea. As an atheist I figured it's my only chance to see 'em.
Well, I did. She was the one who told me it was ocular migraines, not harmful, nothing to worry about. An annoyance, nothing more. But she never mentioned any sort of test to figure out if it was the more dangerous or less dangerous type. She did of course run a battery of tests on my vision and peered into my eyes with various devices. Maybe that in itself was the determining battery of tests.
Oddly after a period of having these things every so often for a few years, I realized recently that they have not appeared for probably a couple years or so now. Maybe longer. So maybe whatever was triggering them no longer does. For these last few years I have been using prescription sunglasses rather than the cheapie type that clips over my regular glasses. Maybe that makes a difference.
I have avoided using AI wherever possible, although it is impossible nowadays to avoid it entirely. But today, in response to Mr. Weingarten's column, I installed Anthropic's Claude (which I selected because the company bravely stood up to Pete Hegseth's order that they create a "SkyNet," or at least the weapon in the old Chevy Chase movie "Deal of the Century," for him) on my PC and directed it to:
"Create a joke for me that begins with, "David Ellison, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk walk into a bar," that is funny but highly critical of their role in taking over various news outlets and pushing them toward the political right wing."
It returned the following:
__________________
David Ellison, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk walk into a bar.
The bartender says, "What'll it be, gentlemen?"
Ellison says, "I'll take a Paramount on the rocks — just water it down until nobody can tell what it used to be."
Bezos says, "I'll have a Washington Post. Actually, make it a Washington Toast — I'd like it well done, politically neutral on the outside, and hollow in the middle."
Musk says, "Just give me whatever everyone else is having and I'll rename it 'X,' fire 80% of your staff, let the loudest drunks in the bar decide the menu, and call it a free speech victory."
The bartender looks at all three and says, "So… three media empires, gutted and served right?"
They nod.
He slides them each a glass of water and says, "Congratulations. You just paid billions of dollars for something you've made completely transparent."
The real punchline? The check will be picked up by the advertisers — until they too quietly leave."
_____________________
Not quite as sharp as I'd have preferred, but hey, it AI, right?
So you've had retinal detachment, too? Terrifying, isn't it? I had both mine detach a few months apart. Luckily, a very good optical surgeon reattached them. I shudder every time I think about it.
Having done it, I know that writing an obituary for a loved one is difficult. But it can be very cathartic. Especially if you consult others while doing it. It gives you a chance to work through the process of grieving. I frequently check the obits that appear on the websites for the funeral homes in my hometown. So many people “lived a life marked by faith, devotion, and deep love for family and community” that it’s obvious that the survivors used AI to generate the writing. The dead come across as being generic. The survivors are doing a disservice to their loved one and to themselves, in my opinion. I certainly hope that I won’t be remembered as having lived a life marked by faith, devotion, and deep love for family and community.
Do you remember desktop publishing from the late 80s? Computers and printers had gotten to the point that anyone could publish their own flyers. But “anyone” doesn’t have the aesthetic skill to produce something that looks nice and balanced. Most people threw six different fonts on the same page just because they could. It was a real mess.
AI is the same thing. It is not a consciousness creating, and it never will be. It is just a high-powered iteration machine, created by our consciousness. Its real danger is that it is creating a new priest class, the very wealthy and powerful Tech Bros. When the French revolution came after the wealthy and powerful, the priest class was never touched.
AI would be a great physician's tool. No doctor knows every odd disease, even in their speciality, but I find more and more doctors know little about much beyond that, while the body is (and I hate this word) holistic. A cortisone shot in my shoulders helped my back. But my back doctor and shoulder doctor didn't consult each other, even though they're in the same practice.
This goes back (hehe) to my observation about orthopedics; they only focus on their specialty. That is a knee specialist never considers the back, which is affected by changes to the knee. Or the elbow specialist has no interest in the shoulder. Like the old song, Dem Bones, “the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone, the foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone”
It greatly increased mine, but I’m just a few weeks out from having it and from what I’ve read, it’s to be expected, especially with the anterior approach.
My Inova ortho - a former champion gymnast, not that it matters in this context - specializes in the entire human body. I like that a LOT better than body-part specialists. There are still such generalists.
Your AI prediction reminds me of the joke about the lawyer who hires a plumber to fix his toilet and lets him know he’s a lawyer, to which the plumber replies, “Oh you are? I was a lawyer once too.” Also I was interested in your zipper migraine. I get them too—at random times maybe one or twice a year. It freaked me out at first, but I found that if I just wait them out, preferably in a quiet place, they will go away in about 15 minutes, after first getting stronger and then gradually fading away.
Gene, I, too, occasionally get those optic migraines that also began about 25 years ago. I, too, am about your age. I, too, am Jewish. Coincidence? I think not!
And yes, the error in the Poll was deliberate, to distinguish it from AI.
You didn't say that, if I took the job, I couldn't subtly sabotage AI while making big bucks.
Thank the good lord. I thought maybe you were finally going around the bend.
Apropos of that, here's a very recent article in The Atlantic about typos: https://tinyurl.com/5hc6wzck
I read an AI-generated item that misused the word "penultimate." It made the same mistake a great many people make when they think the word means the absolute, very last. Seeing that reinforced that AI regurgitates the words and ideas of human beings, mistakes included, but if it actually were intelligent it would correct such errors.
It isn't really artificial intelligence, it's only a reasonable facsimile. It is ersatz intelligence.
Please, what is the error? The only inconsistency I noticed is that only the last option contains punctuation.
The grammatical/syntactical error: "It would involving helping..." in the question ---demonstrating (it appears) "change blindness" which most of us suffer from (except the Empress, aka Pat the Perfect, of course). We mere mortals tend to focus on the overall meaning of the text rather than single words.
Good heavens! I stared at it and reread it a dozen times without seeing that.
Same for me!
interesting, my mind auto-corrected it, didn't "see" it until you pointed it out.
AI like most technology is a mirror. What we see in it depends on what we bring to it. I suggest AI can make us more human, but not by being human‑like. It makes us more human by being decisively not human. Because when you’re talking to something that has: no ego, no social anxiety, no desire for status and no fear of embarrassment…it becomes painfully clear which parts of our behavior are uniquely, beautifully, frustratingly human — and which ones we might want to upgrade. So, AI can make us more human. But if we don’t rise to the moment, it can also make us less human — not by force, but by convenience. The future isn’t a battle between humans and machines. It’s a battle between humanity at its best and humanity on autopilot.
We probably all unknowingly helped build AI. I sure would have liked 200K a year for it.
Yeah I get those optical migraines too. They were scary the first time, now I just wait them out.
I have them; so did my mom -- they made her dizzy and "seasick" but just annoy me. Since I discovered Hildegard of Bingin had them and saw them as visiting angels, I have embraced that idea. As an atheist I figured it's my only chance to see 'em.
I do too. It looks like a mini-kaleidoscope when it happens. What is the easy diagnostic test to figure out which version one might have?
One eye or both eyes?
One.
See your physician.
Well, I did. She was the one who told me it was ocular migraines, not harmful, nothing to worry about. An annoyance, nothing more. But she never mentioned any sort of test to figure out if it was the more dangerous or less dangerous type. She did of course run a battery of tests on my vision and peered into my eyes with various devices. Maybe that in itself was the determining battery of tests.
Oddly after a period of having these things every so often for a few years, I realized recently that they have not appeared for probably a couple years or so now. Maybe longer. So maybe whatever was triggering them no longer does. For these last few years I have been using prescription sunglasses rather than the cheapie type that clips over my regular glasses. Maybe that makes a difference.
I see big black blobs in both eyes. My doctor said that they're optical migraines.
I have avoided using AI wherever possible, although it is impossible nowadays to avoid it entirely. But today, in response to Mr. Weingarten's column, I installed Anthropic's Claude (which I selected because the company bravely stood up to Pete Hegseth's order that they create a "SkyNet," or at least the weapon in the old Chevy Chase movie "Deal of the Century," for him) on my PC and directed it to:
"Create a joke for me that begins with, "David Ellison, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk walk into a bar," that is funny but highly critical of their role in taking over various news outlets and pushing them toward the political right wing."
It returned the following:
__________________
David Ellison, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk walk into a bar.
The bartender says, "What'll it be, gentlemen?"
Ellison says, "I'll take a Paramount on the rocks — just water it down until nobody can tell what it used to be."
Bezos says, "I'll have a Washington Post. Actually, make it a Washington Toast — I'd like it well done, politically neutral on the outside, and hollow in the middle."
Musk says, "Just give me whatever everyone else is having and I'll rename it 'X,' fire 80% of your staff, let the loudest drunks in the bar decide the menu, and call it a free speech victory."
The bartender looks at all three and says, "So… three media empires, gutted and served right?"
They nod.
He slides them each a glass of water and says, "Congratulations. You just paid billions of dollars for something you've made completely transparent."
The real punchline? The check will be picked up by the advertisers — until they too quietly leave."
_____________________
Not quite as sharp as I'd have preferred, but hey, it AI, right?
Mostly I think it didn't know when to stop while it was ahead.
No way in hell, but not on moral grounds. I am retired and plan to stay that way.
The future belongs to Archibald "Harry" Tuttle — DeNiro's character from the movie Brazil.
Yes!
So you've had retinal detachment, too? Terrifying, isn't it? I had both mine detach a few months apart. Luckily, a very good optical surgeon reattached them. I shudder every time I think about it.
Having done it, I know that writing an obituary for a loved one is difficult. But it can be very cathartic. Especially if you consult others while doing it. It gives you a chance to work through the process of grieving. I frequently check the obits that appear on the websites for the funeral homes in my hometown. So many people “lived a life marked by faith, devotion, and deep love for family and community” that it’s obvious that the survivors used AI to generate the writing. The dead come across as being generic. The survivors are doing a disservice to their loved one and to themselves, in my opinion. I certainly hope that I won’t be remembered as having lived a life marked by faith, devotion, and deep love for family and community.
Do you remember desktop publishing from the late 80s? Computers and printers had gotten to the point that anyone could publish their own flyers. But “anyone” doesn’t have the aesthetic skill to produce something that looks nice and balanced. Most people threw six different fonts on the same page just because they could. It was a real mess.
AI is the same thing. It is not a consciousness creating, and it never will be. It is just a high-powered iteration machine, created by our consciousness. Its real danger is that it is creating a new priest class, the very wealthy and powerful Tech Bros. When the French revolution came after the wealthy and powerful, the priest class was never touched.
Most AI will be natural language and let the user program and avoid another interface class. In my opinion, of course.
The Krugman and Heather have a pretty good piece on AI today ... and $450 for that is a pretty good price.
No shit. How can I get Uncle Charlie to come down here?
So, what is the simple test you mentioned re: ocular migraine?
Do you have the contact information of the hiring manager for this position?
AI would be a great physician's tool. No doctor knows every odd disease, even in their speciality, but I find more and more doctors know little about much beyond that, while the body is (and I hate this word) holistic. A cortisone shot in my shoulders helped my back. But my back doctor and shoulder doctor didn't consult each other, even though they're in the same practice.
This goes back (hehe) to my observation about orthopedics; they only focus on their specialty. That is a knee specialist never considers the back, which is affected by changes to the knee. Or the elbow specialist has no interest in the shoulder. Like the old song, Dem Bones, “the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone, the foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone”
I can attest to that. Hip replacement surgery greatly reduced my knee pain.
It greatly increased mine, but I’m just a few weeks out from having it and from what I’ve read, it’s to be expected, especially with the anterior approach.
My Inova ortho - a former champion gymnast, not that it matters in this context - specializes in the entire human body. I like that a LOT better than body-part specialists. There are still such generalists.
Few and far between
Your AI prediction reminds me of the joke about the lawyer who hires a plumber to fix his toilet and lets him know he’s a lawyer, to which the plumber replies, “Oh you are? I was a lawyer once too.” Also I was interested in your zipper migraine. I get them too—at random times maybe one or twice a year. It freaked me out at first, but I found that if I just wait them out, preferably in a quiet place, they will go away in about 15 minutes, after first getting stronger and then gradually fading away.
not fair, I have ocular migraine auras too but I didn't know there were two kinds and you didn't link to how to find out.
Gene, I, too, occasionally get those optic migraines that also began about 25 years ago. I, too, am about your age. I, too, am Jewish. Coincidence? I think not!