AI! AI! A ChatGPT is come!

[RoseMorninStar]

Oh, that's bizarre.

[narya]

There was a girl in a wheelchair in the original book, and lots of sheep. That's about the only intersection between book and that, um, **********.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A better use of ChatGPT

I just asked ChatGPT to write a song about Donald Trump going to prison, set to the tune of “Gilligan’s Island.” Amazingly, the app came up with the following verses in literally ONE SECOND:



Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of Trump's demise,
From a golden throne to prison bars, his fall we can't disguise.
He promised greatness, power, fame — a leader strong and bold,
But deceit and lies were his whole game, a story to be told.

The trial started getting rough, the truth began to spread,
The former leader's actions shown, the darkness overhead.
With lawyers by his side, Trump fought, but justice would not bend,
No pardon to protect his fate, the law it will defend.

In a courtroom with the evidence, the jury found their way,
There’s no escape from what Trump’s done, no matter what he'd say.
The ship of truth sailed steadily, the verdict soon to land,
From glory days to prison cell, his fate now in their hands.

The captain of this fateful trip, the Trump of the White House,
He'll pay the price for all his deeds, no way to squirm or grouse.
He'll serve his time, reflect upon the choices he once made,
A cautionary tale it is, for leaders yet to fade.

As the tale concludes, we see, the consequences clear,
No matter who you are, my friend, the law remains sincere.
Let's learn from history's lessons told, to seek a brighter day,
Where truth and justice guide us all, as we move on our way.

[Jude]

At first glance that looks impressive, but apart from mentioning the White House, there's very little to distinguish Trump from every other person facing trial and prison.

I'd be seriously impressed if it mentioned the Insurrection, the election lies, the tweets, the exaggerating of crowd sizes, and so on. For that, it looks like we still need actual human commentators and satirists.

[N.E. Brigand]

Speaking of the White House, last week the Biden administration issued this, whose headline reads "FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Secures Voluntary Commitments from Leading Artificial Intelligence Companies to Manage the Risks Posed by AI."

[N.E. Brigand]

Last week, Fortune reported that "Over just a few months, ChatGPT went from correctly answering a simple math problem 98% of the time to just 2%".

[Frelga]

He didn't say which website, so I'm filing this as possibly true. But it's both plausible and hilarious.

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[Maria]

Yesterday I asked on our family discord group a question about storing fruit in vinegar. I had to cut up the last of the pears yesterday and wondered how long they'd last soaking in vinegar (part of the chutney recipe) while waiting for some tomatoes to make the chutney with. I actually addressed this query to my younger daughter (trained as a food scientist) and my older daughter's husband (trained as a chef). My older daughter, however, beat everyone to the punch and asked chatGPT the question. I don't know how she phrased the question, but here is ChatGPT's reply:

If your mom is looking to preserve the pears for a few days until she gets enough tomatoes for chutney, here's what she should consider:

1. **Soaking in Vinegar:** Vinegar is a preservative because of its high acidity. If the pears are submerged in vinegar, it will slow down the ripening process and inhibit bacterial growth, which can buy her a few days. However, it will also impact the flavor of the pears, making them tangy.

2. **Cooking the Pears:** Cooking the pears can stop the ripening process. After cooking, she can place them in vinegar or even in a sugar syrup to hold them. This method might provide a better texture for the chutney later on and could be more palatable than soaking them raw in vinegar.

3. **Cold Storage:** Since she mentioned that cold storage isn't an option due to the pears' overripeness, it's important to keep the pears in a cool, dark place if not refrigerated.

Given the options, if she wants to maintain the best possible texture and flavor for her chutney, I would suggest she lightly cooks the pears and then stores them in vinegar or a sugar syrup. This will halt the ripening process and ensure that the pears remain in good condition until she's ready to make her chutney.

To which I said, "That sounds reasonable.... but this is the same AI that made up law references for a court case, isn't it?" (laughter ensued)

My human son in law said that just soaking in vinegar and very cold storage would be sufficient for a few days.
Food Scientist daughter has not yet chimed in. I was actually hoping she had a chart somewhere that would give me a specific number of days I could hold the fruit like that... but I guess she's busy or something and hasn't checked our chat site.

Chat GPT's answer wasn't bad, but I put the pears right into the vinegar as I cut them up so they don't brown and would have to cook them in the vinegar and then store them in the pot while they cool down. I think that much hot vinegar sitting that long would damage the pot and contaminate the pear/vinegar mixture. So they are soaking raw in plastic bags in the coldest part of the fridge right now.

I guess Chat GPT didn't actually ask me to cook them in vinegar, so its advice wasn't *that* bad. It just didn't take my idiosyncratic methods into account.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

To which I said, "That sounds reasonable.... but this is the same AI that made up law references for a court case, isn't it?" (laughter ensued)

[Frelga]

And that's the problem with Large Language Models like ChatGPT. They generate plausible text, but it's up to you to know if it is accurate.

[RoseMorninStar]

Do you have a non-human son in law?

Sorry I have nothing to add to the pear conversation.

[Maria]

Do you have a non-human son in law?

OK, I guess that was an unnecessary clarification.

[Jude]

I actually feel some sympathy for the lawyer who submitted a law reference from AI. It's possible to be a talented and conscientious lawyer without understanding the difference between a search engine and a chatbot that impersonates one.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

If he had just submitted a reference without realizing that it was fake, I would have some sympathy for him (even though it is not a mistake that competent lawyer should make). But when he was called on it and then doubled down by submitting copies of the fake opinions themselves, and lied to the judge about when he was on vacation, and a bunch of other stuff, I lost any capacity to have any sympathy for him at all.

[Jude]

Okay, I didn't know about that second part. I'm feeling a bit less sympathetic now.

[Frelga]

That was the most embarrassing misuse of technology by a lawyer since the "I am not a cat" guy.

This one came with clarifying context, but I'm not sure if it makes it better or worse.

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The context is that the AI was supposed to generate a recipe from the ingredients you provide. But it did not restrict what constitutes an ingredient, so if you tell it you have bleach, it will give you a recipe for chlorine gas. Which is highly poisonous.

Yeah, that's worse.

[Jude]

Microsoft pulls article recommending Ottawa Food Bank to tourists

Bizarre travel article comes after Microsoft replaced journalists with artificial intelligence

Microsoft has removed an article that advised tourists to visit the "beautiful" Ottawa Food Bank on an empty stomach, after facing ridicule about the company's reliance on artificial intelligence for news.

Published last week and titled "Headed to Ottawa? Here's what you shouldn't miss!" the article listed 15 must-see attractions for visitors to the capital.

The list was rife with errors. It featured a photo of the Rideau River in an entry about the Rideau Canal, and a photo of the Rideau Canal in an entry about Parc Omega near Montebello, Que. It advised tourists to enjoy the pristine grass of "Parliament Hills."

But the Ottawa Food Bank entry earned the most mockery in technology publications and on social media. The article called the food bank one of Ottawa's "beautiful attractions," before putting it third on the list.

Most of the entry simply describes what the food bank does, but it closes with a bizarre recommendation:

"Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach."

That appears to be an out-of-context rewrite of a paragraph on the food bank's website. "Life is challenging enough," it says. "Imagine facing it on an empty stomach."

The article carried the byline "Microsoft Travel." There is nothing on the page that identifies it as the product of AI, though Microsoft has increasingly cut humans out of its news operations. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the article was generated.

Microsoft laid off dozens of journalists in 2020 in a move to rely on artificial intelligence, according to multiple news reports at the time. Those journalists were responsible for selecting content for Microsoft platforms, including MSN and the Edge browser.

The strangeness of the Ottawa travel article was first highlighted by an X user called Paris Marx, who posted that "Microsoft is really hitting it out of the park with its AI-generated travel stories!"

Beyond the geographic errors and the inexplicable recommendation to fast before enjoying the food bank, the article exhibited an unusual writing style. It advised tourists that Winterlude offers them the chance to experience "North America's largest snow," while calling the Rideau Canal "naturallyfrozen."

The article also offered the following insight:

"The Canadian Parliament Buildings are the buildings that house the Parliament of Canada."

[Frelga]

"The Canadian Parliament Buildings are the buildings that house the Parliament of Canada."

Well, you never know. My husband once had a project at a building in San Francisco that still had the marquee of a federal agency, forgot which. It attracted a crowd of protestors. The contractor had to go and explain that it had long since been converted to private use and in fact they were building a fitness center there.

Meanwhile,

'New York Times' considers legal action against OpenAI as copyright tensions swirl

This could be a major milestone for how the copyright law applies to the content scraped and digested by the LLMs without the consent of the creators or copyright owners.

if a federal judge finds that OpenAI illegally copied the Times' articles to train its AI model, the court could order the company to destroy ChatGPT's dataset, forcing the company to recreate it using only work that it is authorized to use.

Federal copyright law also carries stiff financial penalties, with violators facing fines up to $150,000 for each infringement "committed willfully."

[RoseMorninStar]

Oi. I hope they rehire some humans.

[Túrin Turambar]

It's easy to see how something like this could have happened.
"Humans like recommendations for places to eat when they are on holiday"
"Humans like recommendations for cheap or free attractions"
"Oh look, a place that provides free food - the humans will love that!"

So yeah, you do need actual people for this sort of thing.