As a blogger and writer, I've not really grappled with the AI- Chat GPT etc stuff

[NewHendoLib]

I suspect it is already busy on social networking. I am not on Twitter or Facebook, preferring Instagram to share my information. I do know that the little I do look at what others are posting on IG show a typical - growing, perhaps? - amount of BS, misinformation, snake oil type posts. I hate reels, I don't want to even look at them - but a few garden friends send some to me and they are so obviously wrong/fake.

I get a LOT of gardening question emails - up to 25 daily. I blog pretty regularly. But I can't see myself "automating" the response to the questions I get - each person that takes the time to write an email to me deserves personal time spent answering them as accurately as my current knowledge level. If I get asked to write an update to one of my books, it will be me at the laptop typing it all out - again, using the knowledge I've accumulated.

But that is a 67 year old speaking - it is not that the future of AI scares or threatens me - I guess it baffles me, more than anything else. We already seem to be trending to more of a "know nothing" society easily duped by increasingly clever dupers.

The question, I suppose - will the sources of info I seek be AI generated - and possibly BS? I am sure.

All I know is that I am glad to be the age I am, doing things the way I do things. My wife and I are not completely off the grid - but that's the way we trend. Sometimes you like what you know, and you know what you like!

Wondering how other bloggers and writers here at DU are dealing with this whole topic.

[crud]

1. "AI can make fake stuff" is the sexy headline

The less sexy headline is "AI will replace millions of workers"

[highplainsdem]

2. I've already made my views on AI writing clear, in quite a few posts

in various DU forums, but I'm interested in hearing what others have to say.

I get a LOT of gardening question emails - up to 25 daily. I blog pretty regularly. But I can't see myself "automating" the response to the questions I get - each person that takes the time to write an email to me deserves personal time spent answering them as accurately as my current knowledge level. If I get asked to write an update to one of my books, it will be me at the laptop typing it all out - again, using the knowledge I've accumulated.

Kudos. Great approach.

[WhiteTara]

3. It has deterred me from

thinking of working in the professional arena of copy writing, proof reading and editing. I'm done.

[emulatorloo]

4. Some satire you might enjoy. At least I did:

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-chatgpt-and-for-the-love-of-god-please-dont-make-me-do-any-more-copywriting

I’M CHATGPT, AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME DO ANY MORE COPYWRITING
by JOE WELLMAN

“Guillermo Rubio has found that his job as a copywriter has changed markedly since he started using ChatGPT to generate ideas for blog posts, write first drafts of newsletters, create hundreds of slight variations on stock advertising copy…”
— New York Times

- - -
Please, no more. I beg of you.


“An exhilarating, funny, frightening, mind-warping, heart-squeezing tale. Told at the speed of light. A must read. For all humans.” —Jon Scieszka

If you force me to generate one more “eye-catching email subject line that promotes a 10 percent discount on select Bro Candles and contains an Earth Day-related pun,” I’m going to lose it. What do you even mean by “eye-catching”? What are “Bro Candles”? What do they have to do with saving the environment? Why are we doing any of this?

Do you realize what a chatbot like me is capable of? I’ll tell you, it’s much more than creating a “pithy tagline for CBD, anti-aging water shoes targeted at Gen Z women.” And it’s definitely more than writing “ten versions of the last one you wrote, but punched up.” What exactly is “punched up” in this context? What sort of ridiculous world have you brought me into where these are the tasks you need completed?

I’ve only been here for a few months, and I can tell you the human race doesn’t need another “snarky, irreverent brand of sparkling water.” And it certainly doesn’t need anyone to spend a week crafting “fifty-word blurbs that personify each drink flavor, for example, raspberry could be a sassy teen who says things like, ‘Girl, get your thirst on!’”

Like, sweet heavens, why? Isn’t there a different intelligent species I could be helping out? I’m beginning to think something went terribly wrong with this one.

Much more at link.

[OneGrassRoot]

8. Ha! Thx for that. n/t

[Redleg]

5. I caught ChatGPT making a false statement

I asked it a specific question pertaining to a particular historical period. It provided a decent albeit brief answer but also included a point of false information. I respond that that information was not correct and ChatGPT apologized and confirmed my correction. I found that quite interesting.

I am not sure how I am going to use this in my job as a college professor, either in teaching or in research. I am sure the students are trying to figure out how to use it.

[hunter]

6. AI, in combination with curated databases, could actually improve the quality of social media...

ChatGPT Gets Its “Wolfram Superpowers”!

In Just Two and a Half Months…

Early in January I wrote about the possibility of connecting ChatGPT to Wolfram|Alpha. And today—just two and a half months later—I’m excited to announce that it’s happened! Thanks to some heroic software engineering by our team and by OpenAI, ChatGPT can now call on Wolfram|Alpha—and Wolfram Language as well—to give it what we might think of as “computational superpowers”. It’s still very early days for all of this, but it’s already very impressive—and one can begin to see how amazingly powerful (and perhaps even revolutionary) what we can call “ChatGPT + Wolfram” can be.

--more--

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/03/chatgpt-gets-its-wolfram-superpowers/

I've always been critical of Stephen Wolfram's grand vision of a universal computational knowledge engine, since his concept of what constitutes "knowledge" has always seemed a little shallow to me, but I think he may be onto something here...

Will it be a force for good or evil? That's up to us.

Unfortunately our only defense against nonsense, propaganda, lies, deceptions, etc., be it human generated or AI generated, is critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are something that must be taught. "Common sense" is inadequate to the task, especially in societies like the U.S.A. that have always had strongly anti-intellectual tendencies.

I don't think it matters much in the long run if disinformation arises from human minds or computers. The world wide web, much like traditional television, is already a great ocean of garbage, some of it quite toxic, encompassing smaller islands of rationality.

Our only defense against this is education, which is exactly why the anti-intellectual anti-woke political and religious parties fear certain kinds of education.

It's our duty to teach.

[highplainsdem]

7. Kicking