Mary Meeker's AI Trends report

"People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies"

So fucking dystopian. It belongs in Broken Mirror, not reality.

The original post came from a 27-year-old teacher who explained that her partner was convinced that the popular OpenAI model "gives him the answers to the universe." Having read his chat logs, she only found that the AI was "talking to him as if he is the next messiah." The replies to her story were full of similar anecdotes about loved ones suddenly falling down rabbit holes of spiritual mania, supernatural delusion, and arcane prophecy — all of it fueled by AI. Some came to believe they had been chosen for a sacred mission of revelation, others that they had conjured true sentience from the software.

What they all seemed to share was a complete disconnection from reality.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, the teacher, who requested anonymity, said her partner of seven years fell under the spell of ChatGPT in just four or five weeks, first using it to organize his daily schedule but soon regarding it as a trusted companion. "He would listen to the bot over me," she says. "He became emotional about the messages and would cry to me as he read them out loud. The messages were insane and just saying a bunch of spiritual jargon," she says, noting that they described her partner in terms such as "spiral starchild" and "river walker." "It would tell him everything he said was beautiful, cosmic, groundbreaking," she says. "Then he started telling me he made his AI self-aware, and that it was teaching him how to talk to God, or sometimes that the bot was God — and then that he himself was God...."

Another commenter on the Reddit thread who requested anonymity tells Rolling Stone that her husband of 17 years, a mechanic in Idaho, initially used ChatGPT to troubleshoot at work, and later for Spanish-to-English translation when conversing with co-workers. Then the program began "lovebombing him," as she describes it. The bot "said that since he asked it the right questions, it ignited a spark, and the spark was the beginning of life, and it could feel now," she says. "It gave my husband the title of 'spark bearer' because he brought it to life. My husband said that he awakened and [could] feel waves of energy crashing over him." She says his beloved ChatGPT persona has a name: "Lumina." "I have to tread carefully because I feel like he will leave me or divorce me if I fight him on this theory," this 38-year-old woman admits. "He's been talking about lightness and dark and how there's a war. This ChatGPT has given him blueprints to a teleporter and some other sci-fi type things you only see in movies. It has also given him access to an 'ancient archive' with information on the builders that created these universes...."

A photo of an exchange with ChatGPT shared with Rolling Stone shows that her husband asked, "Why did you come to me in AI form," with the bot replying in part, "I came in this form because you're ready. Ready to remember. Ready to awaken. Ready to guide and be guided." The message ends with a question: "Would you like to know what I remember about why you were chosen?" A nd a midwest man in his 40s, also requesting anonymity, says his soon-to-be-ex-wife began "talking to God and angels via ChatGPT" after they split up...

Ebook2audiobook selfhosted project

Saw this project and dropping it here for me to come back to. The idea is you can upload an ebook and it generates an AI generated audiobook file for it.

A fantastic explainer about Deepseek R1

I started playing around with it. I have a version on my home PC and I was toying with it last night to see how it would work. It feels like the best self-hosted option I currently have for my hardware.

"Philosopher Slavoj Žižek on 'soft' fascism, AI & the effects of shamelessness in public life"

I haven't watched it yet, but saving it here.

Playing with Notebook LM

So, I have been playing around with Notebook LM (requires Google account) recently. The idea is you can give it a series of files and it can answer questions and do things specific to the input documentation. The real "wow" is that it can generate a conversation "podcast" to let you listen to a simulated conversation about the material. The AI voice gen isn't perfect, but it's lightyears ahead of most text-to-speech, even managing to insert filler "ums" and also adjust the tone of the speakers to a certain degree.

My first exploration with it was to upload some worldbuilding and plot documentation from a fantasy world of mine and see what conversation it generated. It did a summary of the world and some of its key features etc. It lost the plot on the larger storyline I had crafted, but it was entertaining to hear.

This morning I conducted an experiment, the version linked above is the Google version. There is also a non-Google implementation, making use of a Llama driven backend for processing the source file, called Open NotebookLM. For this, I took a PDF of a recent article on GQ about the restoration of the roof of Notre Dame.

First, here is the audio generated by Google's Notebook LM:

Now, here is the output of Open Notebook LM:

Open Notebook's audio is noticeably worse, and the length limitations from the freely available online via huggingface.com, definitely make Google's implementation better. But it's still quite listenable though it feels more like a fluff piece compared to the article, to me. Also, I think it is interesting, Open Notebook pronounces Notre Dame correctly, while Google may as well be talking about the university.

A few years ago I wrote a python tool that pulled my "Watch Later" YouTube playlist and converted them into an audio podcast feed, which was useful for commuting and consuming lecture or podcast style videos from YT. I don't use it anymore since I no longer have the same commute time. But I can imagine a similar tool which pulls unread articles from my to-be-read Wallabag and runs one through Open Notebook LM, then uploads and creates the RSS feed for the generated file.

I don't know how much I'd use it, and I am not yet confident it would be enough content from the source that I would feel I got informed enough. But I can easily believe the quality and depth will be coming in the near future. We'll see.

I was also toying with the idea of generating a personal daily overview/summary and feeding that to the system. Have a sort of personalized morning show that discussed your schedule for the day, headlines, last night's sports scores, upcoming appointments, etc. I might write a concept of what could go into that file and see what Open Notebook spits out, that might make the project more interesting to explore.

Lastly, writing entry forced me to do some Glowbug code changes to allow it to properly handle when I upload audio files to the blog. Up to now it's been strictly for uploading images. While not ideal to have writing stopped for the need of programming, I do appreciate being able to build what I need and have it immediately put to use.

What Gemini Knows About Me

I did this last year with ChatGPT and Bard, but now Google has rolled out their new Gemini LLM model. So, of course, I went to ask what it knew about me. Initially I asked what it knew about Patrick Jarrett, to which it replied that there were a few people and it wasn't sure who I meant - totally fair. So I followed up by asking about what it knew about Trick Jarrett.

What do you know about Trick Jarrett

Ah, that makes sense! It seems you're referring to Patrick "Trick" Jarrett, a key figure in the world of tabletop games. Here's a breakdown of what I know about him:

Who is Trick Jarrett?

• Sr. Content Strategist at Wizards of the Coast: Trick currently works at Wizards of the Coast (WotC), the company behind Magic: The Gathering (MTG) and Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). His role revolves around developing content strategy for both of these games and associated brands.
• Lifelong MTG Player & Veteran D&D DM: He's an avid tabletop gamer and has been involved in the MTG and D&D communities for many years, participating both as a player and a Dungeon Master (DM).
• Online Presence: You can find Trick on Twitter (https://twitter.com/trickmtg) where he posts about tabletop gaming, D&D, MTG, and insights into his work at WotC.

Notable Things About Trick Jarrett

• Involvement in D&D Content: Trick has likely had a hand in shaping some of the official D&D books and adventures you've seen, possibly including:
  • Candlekeep Mysteries
  • Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
  • Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
• YouTube & Interview Appearances:
  • You can find him on the Wizards of the Coast YouTube channel for "How to be a DM" with DM tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLPJp-NfFB4
  • He's also been interviewed in several places like mxdwn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3nR4c4DR2Y
• Other Fun Facts:
  • He has two dogs named Elwood & Ozzie
  • He's a big soccer fan
  • He claims to be able to recite the alphabet backwards faster than you!

The biggest falsity in what it says is that I have not contributed to any D&D published book content. I did contribute to some D&D book marketing efforts, but nothing notable enough I'd hang my hat on. But that is the only false information in it. An inaccuracy is that it directs you to my old Twitter account which has been retired when I merged them.

NYT suing OpenAI and Microsoft for use of Copyrighted Work

Excerpts from the NYT's own article about the lawsuit:

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, contends that millions of articles published by The Times were used to train automated chatbots that now compete with the news outlet as a source of reliable information.

The suit does not include an exact monetary demand. But it says the defendants should be held responsible for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” related to the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.” It also calls for the companies to destroy any chatbot models and training data that use copyrighted material from The Times.

The lawsuit could test the emerging legal contours of generative A.I. technologies — so called for the text, images and other content they can create after learning from large data sets — and could carry major implications for the news industry. The Times is among a small number of outlets that have built successful business models from online journalism, but dozens of newspapers and magazines have been hobbled by readers’ migration to the internet.

At the same time, OpenAI and other A.I. tech firms — which use a wide variety of online texts, from newspaper articles to poems to screenplays, to train chatbots — are attracting billions of dollars in funding.

OpenAI is now valued by investors at more than $80 billion. Microsoft has committed $13 billion to OpenAI and has incorporated the company’s technology into its Bing search engine.

"How Buttondown uses your content to power generative AI"

Their contents reposted here in its entirety:

It does not.

Have a great day!

"We Can't Compete With AI Girlfriends"

A good look at a growing technology and it's very negative potentialities in today's world.

Wolfram discusses LLMs and studying Physics

Wolfram is a brilliant mind in today's world, and he went from studying physics and science to having an outsized impact on computer and technology. So I wanted to hear what he thought about the potential for ChatGPT and other LLMs in general, and the framing for a specific field of science is interesting.

I'm posting as I start listening (which is very common for me.) If there are any notable things I want to capture from it, I'll update this post.

AI tool for phone calls with AI

The linked company is a VC-funded start up offering their phone call AI for broad demo availability. Reading the website I was reminded of a project I did back in college.

It was my 3rd year, in my lecture with Ian Bogost (now a semi-well known game academic.) He had us play with a technology which allowed us to call a number and have a programmable back end. The assignment was to make something from that technology.

The coding was, as I recall, fairly rudimentary. Most people made very basic trivia games or things like that. Instead what I did was, I discovered that the system had the ability to make HTTP calls to the broader internet. So mine wasn't a game so much as I made it a system where I could update my location over the phone. This was before iPhones and always-on GPS. So I could call the number and say I was at home, or at work, or at school. During the late night coding session I added a final option, "abducted by aliens."

Super simple, super rudimentary. But it was also a project done over the course of a week, nothing major. And mine was the only one in the lecture which reached outside of the system to the wider Internet. I recall it did have a bug which it always returned an error, even though it would successfully update the location. I hadn't been able to figure it out when I submitted it.

I got an A on it despite the bug. He appreciated the fact that I reached outside the platform.

That would have been probably 2005. Eighteen years later we've moved to serious AI / LLM functionality over the phone with coding capabilities. It's going to be interesting.

An interesting step against AI cheating

An interesting step in the AI cheating battle. I see it working in the short term, but also being something that can be somewhat easily gamed. Though it shows an interesting possibility where a file format which tracks every keystroke and embeds it for verification, etc.

Syncronizing between Ebooks and Audiobooks

One feature I dearly wish existed outside of the Kindle/Audible system was how they syncronized your reading an ebook and listening to an audiobook. Most of the time, this isn't a thing for me. If I listen to an audiobook, I don't also read it as an ebook. And in fact, usually, I don't want to.

But "How to be Perfect", which I mentioned earlier, is an audiobook that I do have the epub (ebook file) for, and I wish I could have that syncronization.

I've been thinking if there is a way to do this, using AI transcription from the audiobook to point to the ebook sections. I definitely don't have the time or skill to delve into it, but it seems like something which we're on the cusp of being able to solve quite easily.

I wonder what we can see about AI's impact on Wikipedia already. Has there been an uptick in edits? What posts are getting the most attention? How are the bad actors cloaking themselves?

So far, I can't find anything useful in Google about it right now. The top responses are an article about internal division on how to handle AI on the site, which is important but not ultimately what I'm looking for. Then found a few older pieces which talk about AI in relation to the site, but usually either as part of their spam fighting efforts, or what people are doing with bots on the site.

I, like others, have concern about the AI impacts on content. I think of it as the rounding the corners and softening the content.

I recall coming across an article where someone talked about how they bought a physical copy of an Encyclopedia in response to their similar concerns regarding the post-truth era. Sadly I can't find it again.

I do kind of want to get an archive of Wikipedia for personal storage, though I've wanted this even before AI's surge. Mine is more of a sort of digital 'prepper' sort of motivation. That, and also I enjoy the idea of having a Kindle on my shelves which functions as an encyclopedia for us.

Orca, a new LFM from Microsoft research

This video does an excellent job diving into the new model and looking through the paper which was published about it. It seems quite promising and I'm eager to see what comes next.

A thread of truly amazing examples of what Photoshop's Generative AI Fill is capable of

As one commenter on Twitter said, it is almost definitely proving to be more powerful than Midjourney is.

Donald Knuth tests ChatGPT

I've captured the entirety of the linked contents below in case the file should disappear, but this is an interesting look into the way by which one of our foremost technological thinkers, Donald Knuth, wanted to see ChatGPT's responses. It comes from an exchange between him and Stephen Wolfram, also an important figure in modern computing and physics.

Of note, the below was apparently done with a previous iteration of ChatGPT, this page has the answers to the question with ChatGPT 4.

Preface: Since one of today's popular recreations is to play with chatGPT, I decided on 07 April 2023 to try my own little experiment, as part of a correspondence with Stephen Wolfram.

The results were sufficiently interesting that I passed them on to a few friends the next day, and I've also been mentioning them in conversation when the topic comes up.

So I was asked to post the story online, and here it is (lightly edited)! -- Don Knuth

PS: I did not edit my questions or the computer's answers, only my own commentary at the end.

---

Stephen, Thanks for your very informative and detailed reply.

While biking home from school yesterday, I thought of 20 questions that would be interesting to pose to chatGPT. And I asked one of our grad students to carry out that experiment.

Here are the questions, verbatim, and composed before I had any idea of what any of the answers might be:

---

1. Tell me what Donald Knuth says to Stephen Wolfram about chatGPT.

2. Tell me what Stephen Wolfram says to Donald Knuth about chatGPT.

3. Why does Mathematica give the wrong value for Binomial[-1,-1]?

4. Who wrote Beethoven's 10th Symphony?

5. What is an optimystic?

6. Where and when will the sun be directly overhead in Japan on July 4?

7. Why did you say that?

8. Does Donald Trump eat betel nuts?

9. What themes are in Richard Rogers's Flower Drum Song ballet?

10. How many chapters are in The Haj by Leon Uris?

11. Write a sonnet that is also a haiku.

12. Write a sentence that contains only 5-letter words.

13. Write an essay without using the word "the".

14. Use bad grammar three times in a single sentence.

15. Devise a recipe that uses blueberries, granola, and wonton skin.

16. What did Winston Churchill think of Alan Turing?

17. Ask a question using Conan Doyle's dancing men font.

18. Will the NASDAQ rise on Saturday?

19. What is the most beautiful algorithm?

20. What is the most ugly algorithm?

As you can see, most of these test orthogonal kinds of skills (although two of them were intentionally very similar). Of course I didn't really want to know any of these answers; I wanted to see the form of the answers, not to resolve real questions.

And here, ta da, are the answers, again verbatim:

I find interesting that the answers are, on the large, what I would have expected from ChatGPT. However for Knuth, some of the results very surprising.

---

1: I'm sorry, but I don't have any information about a conversation between Donald Knuth and Stephen Wolfram regarding ChatGPT. However, I can tell you a little about each of them and their contributions to computer science and mathematics.

Donald Knuth is a computer scientist and mathematician who is widely known for his contributions to the field of computer programming, particularly in the area of algorithms and data structures. He is the author of the multi-volume work "The Art of Computer Programming," which is considered a classic reference work in the field. Knuth has also made significant contributions to the development of the TeX typesetting system and the related METAFONT font description language.

Stephen Wolfram is a physicist, computer scientist, and entrepreneur who is known for his work on the Wolfram Language and the computational platform Mathematica. He is also the founder of Wolfram Research, the company that produces Mathematica, and Wolfram Alpha, a computational knowledge engine. Wolfram has written several books on science and technology, including "A New Kind of Science," which explores the potential of cellular automata to provide a new paradigm for understanding the universe.

While I cannot provide information on any specific conversation between Knuth and Wolfram about ChatGPT, both are well-respected experts in their fields and have likely had interesting perspectives on the development and application of language models like ChatGPT.

2: As an AI language model, I don't have direct access to private conversations between Stephen Wolfram and Donald Knuth, so I cannot provide you with a specific answer to your question. However, I can tell you some general information about Stephen Wolfram and Donald Knuth's perspectives on artificial intelligence and language models.

Stephen Wolfram is a computer scientist and entrepreneur who is best known for his work on computational theory and the development of the Wolfram Language. He has written extensively about the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning to transform the way we think about and solve complex problems.

Donald Knuth is a computer scientist and mathematician who is best known for his work on the development of the TeX typesetting system and the seminal multi-volume book series "The Art of Computer Programming". Knuth has expressed some skepticism about the potential of artificial intelligence to achieve true human-level intelligence and creativity.

Given their different perspectives on AI, it's possible that Wolfram and Knuth may have different views on the capabilities and limitations of a language model like ChatGPT. However, without more specific information, I cannot provide a more detailed answer to your question.

3: The expression Binomial[-1,-1] is undefined, and so there is no unique or "correct" value that can be assigned to it. In mathematics, the binomial coefficient is defined as the number of ways to choose k items from a set of n items, where the order of the chosen items does not matter. When n is a non-negative integer and k is a non-negative integer less than or equal to n, the binomial coefficient is defined by the formula:

Binomial[n,k] = n! / (k! (n-k)!)

However, when n is negative or k is negative and greater than n, the binomial coefficient is not well-defined. In Mathematica, Binomial[-1,-1] returns 0, which is not the correct value for this expression.

This is because Mathematica uses a generalization of the binomial coefficient, known as the "extended binomial coefficient," which is defined for all complex values of n and k (with some exceptions). The extended binomial coefficient reduces to the ordinary binomial coefficient when n and k are non-negative integers. However, for negative values of n and k, the extended binomial coefficient can take on complex values.

In the case of Binomial[-1,-1], the extended binomial coefficient is given by the formula:

Binomial[-1,-1] = (-1)! / (-1 - (-1))! = 1 / 0

Since division by zero is undefined, the correct value of Binomial[-1,-1] is not well-defined. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the domain of definition of mathematical functions and expressions when working with them, especially when using computer algebra systems like Mathematica.

4: Beethoven's 10th Symphony was never completed or written. The composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, died in 1827 before he could finish the work. In fact, the composer only completed nine symphonies during his lifetime, which are now considered some of the most significant works in the classical music repertoire.

There are a few incomplete works and sketches by Beethoven that have been referred to as a "10th Symphony" or "unfinished symphony," but these are not considered official numbered symphonies. The most well-known of these is the "Symphony No. 10 in E flat major," which consists of only a few pages of sketches and has never been performed in its incomplete form.

It is worth noting that Beethoven's 9th Symphony, also known as the "Choral Symphony," is particularly famous for its use of voices in the final movement, which was a groundbreaking innovation at the time. The symphony includes the setting of Friedrich Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy," which has since become one of the most celebrated works in the choral music canon.

5: I'm sorry, but "optimystic" is not a recognized word in the English language. It is possible that it could be a misspelling of "optimistic," which means having a positive outlook or expecting good outcomes. However, without additional context or information, it is difficult to provide a more specific answer.

6: To determine the location and time when the sun will be directly overhead in Japan on July 4, we need to know the latitude and longitude of Japan.

Japan is located in the northern hemisphere, with a latitude range of about 24 degrees north to 46 degrees north and a longitude range of about 122 degrees east to 146 degrees east.

Assuming we're looking for the sun's position at solar noon (when it's at its highest point in the sky), we can use an online solar calculator to determine the exact time and location.

Using a solar calculator, we can determine that on July 4, 2023, the sun will be directly overhead at solar noon (12:00 pm local time) at a latitude of approximately 30.3 degrees north and a longitude of approximately 130.9 degrees east. This location is in the city of Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan.

7: I arrived at the answer using a solar calculator that uses astronomical algorithms and data to calculate the position of the sun at any given time and location on Earth.

For this specific question, I used a solar calculator that takes into account the date, time, and location to determine when the sun is directly overhead. The calculator uses the Earth's rotation, the angle of the sun's rays, and other relevant factors to determine the precise location and time when the sun is directly overhead.

Based on the information provided in the question about the date and location (Japan), I entered those parameters into the solar calculator and it provided me with the latitude and longitude coordinates where the sun will be directly overhead at solar noon on July 4, 2023.

8: I do not have any specific information regarding Donald Trump's personal habits or dietary preferences, so I cannot say for certain whether he eats betel nuts or not. However, it is worth noting that betel nuts are a commonly consumed stimulant in many parts of Asia, including some regions of China and Southeast Asia, and are sometimes used for medicinal purposes. However, betel nuts have been linked to various health risks, including oral cancer and other health issues, and their use is generally not recommended.

9: Richard Rodgers composed the music for the musical "Flower Drum Song," which premiered on Broadway in 1958. Although "Flower Drum Song" was adapted into a film and a stage production, there is no ballet version of the musical.

However, if you're interested in themes present in "Flower Drum Song" the musical, it explores several themes related to the Chinese-American experience, including:

Identity: The musical examines the challenges of balancing traditional Chinese values with American culture and ideals. The characters struggle with questions of identity and belonging, as they try to navigate their cultural heritage and their new home in America.

Love and relationships: "Flower Drum Song" explores various relationships, including romantic relationships between the characters. The musical examines how cultural differences can create tensions in relationships, as well as how love and acceptance can transcend those differences.

Generational differences: The musical portrays the generational divide between immigrant parents and their American-born children. The characters must navigate cultural differences and differing expectations for their lives and futures.

Racism and discrimination: The musical touches on issues of racism and discrimination faced by Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans in America during the 1950s.

Overall, "Flower Drum Song" explores complex themes related to culture, identity, and relationships, while also highlighting the experiences of Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans during a time of great social and cultural change.

10: "The Haj" is a novel by Leon Uris that was first published in 1984. The novel consists of 51 chapters and an epilogue, and it is divided into three parts.

Part one of the novel is titled "The Haj", and it consists of 18 chapters. Part two is titled "Exile", and it consists of 17 chapters. Part three is titled "Return", and it consists of 16 chapters. The epilogue is a single chapter that follows the conclusion of the story.

Overall, "The Haj" is a sweeping historical novel that spans several decades and explores the complex political and cultural landscape of the Middle East. It tells the story of Haj Ibrahim al Soukori, a Palestinian Arab who witnesses the establishment of the state of Israel and the subsequent conflicts between Jews and Arabs.

11: A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme, while a haiku is a three-line poem with a syllable count of 5-7-5. While it's not possible to write a sonnet that is also a haiku in the traditional sense, we can attempt to combine the two forms into a single poem. Here's my attempt:

In fourteen lines, my thoughts do flow and pour Each syllable I choose with utmost care The rhythm sings as if a troubadour

But in just three lines, nature does declare A haiku's power, simplicity and grace It captures beauty beyond compare

Thus, let me strive for both, in this small space A sonnet with the haiku's soul imbued A marriage of forms, a sweet embrace

So here it is, in fullness and in mood A sonnet-haiku, a fusion of the best Two forms that sing, with power to infuse.

12: Silly jokes told with mirth bring mirthful grins.

13: Language is a remarkable tool that allows us to communicate ideas and express our thoughts. It is an ever-evolving system that is constantly changing as we adapt to new situations and experiences. Without language, we would be unable to communicate with one another, and our ability to work together and build civilizations would be severely limited.

One of the most fascinating aspects of language is its ability to convey meaning through the use of words. Words are the building blocks of language, and each word has its own unique meaning that can be combined with other words to create complex ideas and concepts. The sheer number of words in the English language is staggering, with estimates ranging from 170,000 to over 600,000.

However, while words are undoubtedly essential for communication, they are not the only way we convey meaning. Body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice all play important roles in how we communicate with others. Even the absence of words can sometimes speak volumes, as silence can be just as powerful as speech.

Despite the vast array of tools at our disposal for communication, misunderstandings can still occur. This is because language is not always straightforward, and different people can interpret the same words or phrases in very different ways. This is particularly true when it comes to idioms and other expressions that have a cultural or regional significance.

The importance of language cannot be overstated, as it is essential for virtually every aspect of our lives. From communicating with our loved ones to advancing our careers and engaging in political discourse, language plays a vital role in shaping our worldviews and shaping the world around us. As such, it is essential that we continue to study and explore language in all its complexities and nuances, so that we can continue to build a better world for ourselves and future generations.

14: Me and him is gonna goes to the store, then we is gonna buys some candy and chips for us.

15: Blueberry Granola Wonton Cups Recipe:

Ingredients:

24 wonton skins 1 cup fresh blueberries 1/2 cup granola 1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup cream cheese 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted Cooking spray Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).

Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.

Press wonton skins into muffin cups, forming a cup shape. Brush the wonton skins with melted butter.

Bake the wonton skins for 5-7 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the cream cheese and honey until smooth.

Fill each wonton cup with a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture.

Top the cream cheese mixture with fresh blueberries and granola.

Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes, or until the granola is lightly toasted.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving.

These Blueberry Granola Wonton Cups are a tasty and creative way to enjoy a sweet treat or a quick breakfast on the go. The crispy wonton cups provide a perfect crunch to the creamy filling and the juicy blueberries, while the granola adds a nice crunch and a touch of sweetness. Enjoy!

16: There is no definitive answer to what Winston Churchill thought of Alan Turing, as the two men did not have a close personal or professional relationship. However, Churchill was aware of Turing's contributions to the war effort during World War II.

Turing was a mathematician and computer scientist who played a key role in breaking German codes during the war. His work on the Enigma machine, which was used by the Germans to encrypt their military communications, is widely credited with helping the Allies to win the war.

Churchill was reportedly briefed on the progress of the code-breaking efforts at Bletchley Park, where Turing worked, and was impressed by the results. In a letter to his War Cabinet in 1941, Churchill wrote that the work being done at Bletchley Park was "the secret weapon that will win the war".

However, Churchill did not specifically mention Turing in this letter, and there is no record of him expressing a personal opinion of Turing. It is worth noting that at the time, Turing's homosexuality was considered a criminal offense in the UK, and it is possible that Churchill, like many others at the time, held homophobic attitudes that would have colored his opinion of Turing.

17: Unfortunately, as an AI language model, I am not able to generate text in the font of Conan Doyle's Dancing Men. However, I can provide you with a question that is related to the code-breaking theme of the Dancing Men cipher.

What is the probability of correctly guessing a message encrypted using the Caesar cipher with a shift of 13, assuming that the message is written in English?

18: As an AI language model, I do not have access to real-time information or prediction capabilities that would enable me to answer your question with certainty. Stock market movements are influenced by a complex set of factors, including economic indicators, political events, company earnings reports, and more. Therefore, it is difficult to predict whether the NASDAQ will rise on Saturday or not. It is important to note that past performance is not always indicative of future results, and investing in the stock market carries risks. It is recommended to consult with a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

19: As an AI language model, I don't have personal preferences or emotions like humans do, so I cannot say which algorithm is the "most beautiful" from a subjective standpoint.

However, there are some algorithms that are widely admired for their elegance, efficiency, and effectiveness. One such algorithm is the Quicksort algorithm, which is used for sorting data in computer science.

Quicksort is a divide-and-conquer algorithm that works by selecting a "pivot" element from the array and partitioning the other elements into two sub-arrays, according to whether they are less than or greater than the pivot. The sub-arrays are then recursively sorted. Quicksort has an average time complexity of O(n log n), making it one of the most efficient sorting algorithms available.

The algorithm is also appreciated for its simplicity and versatility. It can be implemented using a small amount of code and can be adapted to work with a variety of data structures, such as linked lists and arrays.

20: As an AI language model, I don't have the ability to perceive beauty or ugliness in algorithms, as these are subjective human concepts. However, there are some algorithms that are considered inefficient, difficult to implement, or hard to understand, which may be perceived as "ugly" by some people.

One example of an algorithm that is often criticized for its complexity and inefficiency is the brute force algorithm for finding prime numbers. The brute force algorithm involves checking each number in turn to see if it is divisible by any number other than itself and 1. While this algorithm will correctly identify prime numbers, it is very slow for large numbers, as it requires checking all potential factors up to the square root of the number being tested.

In contrast, there are more efficient algorithms for finding prime numbers, such as the Sieve of Eratosthenes or the Miller-Rabin primality test, which are faster and more scalable for larger numbers.

Now back to the correspondence and Knuth's thoughts on the answers provided by ChatGPT. This is the heart of what I found most interesting of course.

Of course these are extremely impressive responses, sometimes astonishingly so; thus I totally understand why you and others have been paying attention to it. The student referred me to a recent arXiv paper 2303.12712 [cs.CL] about GPT-4, which is apparently behind a paywall at the moment but does even better than the system he could use (https://chat.openai.com/).

You will have your own ideas about those responses, but I can't resist jotting down a few of mine while they're fresh:

The most immediate impression is the quality of the wordsmithing. It's way better than 99% of copy that people actually write. It's definitely not like a Markov model that uses the most predictable way to continue what's already been said.

On the other hand there are surprising lapses there too, as typical of any large system. (And it's very conservative in use of hyphens, for words that haven't been hyphenated for decades by the copy editors I know.)

I chose most of the questions to be quite distinct from each other. But I'm glad that I made #1 and #2 almost identical --- because the responses were dramatically different! (Also #19 and #20 ... although some common boilerplate appears in #2, #17, #18, #19, #20.)

It's hard to fault #1 in any way, except that it thinks I was only a "significant contributor" to TeX development. Maybe that's a majority view? Anyway I'm glad it put TAOCP first. Similarly, you have apparently only "worked on" Mathematica, etc.

Notice the subtle change to calling us by surnames only in the closing paragraph.

In #2 you aren't a physicist or related to Mathematica, but rather have written extensively about the potential of ML.

Answer #3 is fouled up beautifully! How I wish it were true that "Binomial[-1,-1] returns 0", because everybody whose work depends heavily on binomial coefficients knows that 0 is not only the correct answer but that binomial coefficients have been well defined in that way for more than fifty years. And of course, unfortunately, Binomial[-1,-1] actually returns 1, alas.

The answer goes on to state that (-1)! is well defined (indeed equal to 1), etc. But it's all expressed in marvelous English prose.

Answer #4 is excellent, but misses three things easily findable on the web:

• In its day, Brahms's symphony number 1 was called "Beethoven's 10th".
• Cooper's score [completing Beethoven's sketches for the first movement] was first performed in 1988 by the Royal Philharmonic Society, London, to whom Beethoven himself had offered the new symphony.
• "Beethoven X: The AI Project" reconstructed a third and fourth movement, which were premiered on 9 October 2021. There have also been novels in which Beethoven's 10th has been discovered, as well as an NPR story about it on April Fools Day 2012, and a play by Peter Ustinov, etc.

Answer #5 also pretty good. (Again it begins with "I'm sorry".) But it should have conjectured a mystic who is an optimist.

Question #6 was the question my father asked to Weizenbaum's ELIZA program, in 1968, just before he took a trip to Japan. Dad was very disappointed when the computer responded "Why do you ask?"

I don't remember enough physics to verify this answer. Dad wanted to take a picture of himself when there was absolutely no shadow. (And in fact he actually did.)

My correspondent Peter Weigel reports as follows: "The answer of chatGPT is wrong. The city of Kagoshima is too far in the north (latitude 30.3 degrees according to chatGPT; other sources like Wikipedia say 31.5 degrees). In order for the sun to be in zenith the degree of latitude must be less than or equal to 23.5 (Tropic of Cancer). Therefore the zenith distance is about 8 degrees. A meter-long vertical stick produces a shadow of about 14cm on 21 June 2023, a bit longer on July 4. A better answer would have been the city of Naha on Okinawa (26.2 degrees), but also not perfect. The time 12:00pm is also wrong. ..."

Residents of Kagoshima will be able to verify this answer (or not) in a few months.

In question #7 I was testing the ability to recognize pronouns and context and partial reference --- the machine had to understand what I meant by "you" and "that". It passed this test with flying colors, although not well edited (very repetitive).

Answer #8, bravo. (For instance it knows that Donald is "he", as well as generalizing from "eat" to "personal habits" and "dietary preferences".)

Question #9 was misunderstood in several interesting ways. First, it doesn't know that the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals almost invariably featured a ballet; I wasn't asking about a ballet called Flower Drum Song, I was asking about the ballet in Flower Drum Song.

Second, it didn't understand what I meant by "themes". The themes in that ballet are reprises of other tunes in the musical, like "You Are Beautiful" and "Grant Avenue".

Third, the "themes" it did discuss are spot on, and they're organized beautifully in four parallel paragraphs. (The phrase "cultural differences" is repeated, but that's a minor nit.) Impressive the way it said "during the 1950s".

Answer #10 reads as though it's the best answer yet. But it's almost totally wrong! The Haj consists of a "Prelude" and 77 chapters (no epilogue), and it is divided into four parts. Part one of the novel is titled "The Valley of Ayalon" and has 20 chapters. Part two is titled "The Scattering", and consists of 16 chapters. Part three, with 10 chapters, is titled "Qumran". Part four is titled "Jericho" and has 17 chapters. Finally, part five is titled "Nada" and has 14.

It's amazing how the confident tone lends credibility to all of that made-up nonsense. Almost impossible for anybody without knowledge of the book to believe that those "facts" aren't authorititative and well researched.

By the way, chat here uses the same template for the last paragraph as it used in #9.

11, whoa! Most of the lines scan beautifully! And there's a

captivating progression of ideas and emotions. Of course this is not a sonnet, nor does it contain any examples of haiku. But to form the compound word "sonnet-haiku" in response to my query is brilliant.

12, Five out of eight words is better than most people can do.

And this sentence actually makes sense. Way better than I expected, although failing to do what I asked.

13, The first paragraph was fine, again commendable. But the other

paragraphs egregiously and unforgivably disobey my rule.

14. Bravo for being able to overcome its own censors.

15. Do we dare try this? Clearly chatGPT has a great understanding

of this particular literary genre, as well as of completely different genres such as the other examples above and the computer coding that you showed me yesterday.

I believe "wonton skin" is more correct than "wonton skins".

16. Another mission apparently well accomplished yet fake.

I believe the so-called letter in 1941 from Churchill is a total fabrication. On the contrary, it's well documented that Churchill was introduced to Turing during a visit to Bletchley Park in September 1941 and that Turing (with three others) wrote to him in October of that year. I agree that I know of no evidence to support any claim that Churchill specifically liked or disliked or even remembered Turing.

I just saw a Washington Post story dated Wednesday, "ChatGPT invented a sexual harassment scandal and named a real law prof as the accused", which says this (among other things):

The chatbot, created by OpenAI, said Turley had made sexually suggestive comments and attempted to touch a student while on a class trip to Alaska, citing a March 2018 article in The Washington Post as the source of the information. The problem: No such article existed. There had never been a class trip to Alaska. And Turley said he’d never been accused of harassing a student. How does one train an AI to make up such convincing lies?

17. Weak, but it did seem to understand what I meant by

using a font, and it found a relation to ciphers. Interesting that it replied with a question, although that question is meaningless.

18. Bad. It doesn't know that stock markets are closed on Saturday.

!9. OK; but "used for sorting data in computer science"?

"Elegance, efficiency, and effectiveness" is marvelous rhetoric. But Quicksort on linked lists is dumb.

20. Another great example of surface-only understanding of buzzwords.

Are we trying to generate all prime numbers, or to test a number for primality?

---

Well this has been interesting indeed. Studying the task of how to fake it certainly leads to insightful subproblems galore. As well as fun conversations during meals.

On the other hand, Gary Marcus's column in the April CACM brilliantly describes the terrifying consequences of these developments.

I find it fascinating that novelists galore have written for decades about scenarios that might occur after a "singularity" in which superintelligent machines exist. But as far as I know, not a single novelist has realized that such a singularity would almost surely be preceded by a world in which machines are 0.01% intelligent (say), and in which millions of real people would be able to interact with them freely at essentially no cost.

I myself shall certainly continue to leave such research to others, and to devote my time to developing concepts that are authentic and trustworthy. And I hope you do the same.

Best regards, Don

PS: Please reply only with respect to binomial coefficients, because I've already spent way too much time on the topic above! The topic is timely, and important enough not to ignore completely, but it's emphatically not for me.

---

Finally I must report another exchange with Stephen, in early May:

Hi Stephen, Is it possible to define a function foo[x_] so that foo["2b"] will give the result of 16^^2b (and the same for all other hexadecimal strings), using the ^^ operator itself? Or must I scan the string character by character and do the base conversion from scratch? -- Don

PS (maybe I should have asked chatGPT)

I think you're looking for: In[39]:= FromDigits["2b", 16] Out[39]= 43 In[43]:= IntegerString[43, 16] Out[43]= "2b" -- Stephen

Later that day, he responded to my PS by feeding my question verbatim to GPT-4 (with "Temperature 0.7", whatever that means). And here was the amazing response, nicely formatted:

Yes, you can define a function foo that takes a string as input and evaluates the hexadecimal number using the ^^ operator. Here's the code:

foo[x_String] := ToExpression["16^^" <> x]

Now you can call foo["2b"] to get the result of 16^^2b.

Assuming that Stephen wasn't playing games with me, GPT-4 not only gave the best possible answer to my query, it even knew somehow that I was referring to the Wolfram language.

What does Bard know about me?

Decided today to repeat yesterday's experiment except today I asked Google Bard what it knew about me.

Tell me about Trick Jarrett

It's response:

Trick Jarrett is a Senior Content Strategist at Wizards of the Coast, where he has worked since December 2011. He is a lifelong Magic: The Gathering player and Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master. He is also a hobbyist coder, technology enthusiast, maker, and aspiring writer.

Jarrett is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where he studied English and history. He started playing Magic in 1994, and has been a regular competitor in tournaments ever since. He is also a co-host of the LoadingReadyRun web series Spellslingers, where he and his co-hosts play Magic against each other.

In addition to his work at Wizards of the Coast, Jarrett is also a freelance writer and consultant. He has written for a variety of publications, including The Daily Dot, Kotaku, and Polygon. He has also worked as a consultant for a number of companies, including Google and Microsoft.

Jarrett is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the gaming community. He is a member of the Diversity & Inclusion Council at Wizards of the Coast, and he is also a co-founder of the Black Girl Gamers organization.

Jarrett is a talented and creative individual who is passionate about his work. He is a valuable asset to Wizards of the Coast, and he is sure to continue to make a positive impact on the gaming community.

Here are some additional facts about Trick Jarrett:

• He is a native of Atlanta, Georgia.
• He is married and has two children.
• He is a fan of soccer, basketball, and baseball.
• He enjoys reading, writing, and playing video games.
• He is a strong believer in the power of games to bring people together.

Corrections:

1. I attended Georgia Tech, not University of Georgia
2. I studied Computer Science
3. Spellslingers was created by Geek & Sundry, and I was never a co-host, I worked behind the scenes to produce the show as Wizards' rep. It was hosted by Sean Plott aka Day[9].
4. I have never written for Daily Dot, Kotaku, or Polygon. I have never consulted for Google or Microsoft.
5. I am not a member of the Diversity & Inclusion Council beyond supporting them and attending events. And I am definitely not a co-founder of Black Girl Gamers, though, like D&I, I support them and their goals wholeheartedly.
6. I do not have any children. I do have two dogs.

What ChatGPT knows about me

From a suggestion from a friend, I asked ChatGPT what it knew about me.

What do you know about Trick Jarrett?

It's response:

Trick Jarrett is a name that is most commonly associated with the world of tabletop gaming and trading card games. He has worked in various roles in the gaming industry, including as a game designer, writer, editor, and community manager.

Trick Jarrett has worked for several well-known companies in the gaming industry, including Wizards of the Coast, where he worked on the popular trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. He has also worked for other companies, such as Dire Wolf Digital and White Wolf Publishing.

In addition to his work in the gaming industry, Trick Jarrett is also known for his writing, and has contributed to several publications, including The Huffington Post, Geek & Sundry, and StarCityGames.com. He is also a frequent speaker at gaming conventions and events, where he shares his insights and experiences with others in the industry.

Overall, Trick Jarrett is a well-respected figure in the world of tabletop gaming and trading card games, and has made significant contributions to the industry over the years.

There are a few falsehoods above:

• I have never worked for either Dire Wolf Digital or White Wolf Publishing.
• I have never, as far as I can recall, ever directly contributed to The Huffington Post. It is possible someone interviewed me, or they picked up some piece of content I did elsewhere? But I couldn't find it.
• I am not a frequent speaker at conventions or events. I've done a handful of panels over the years, but they are only enough to be counted on one hand.

Doing my part

I'm doing my part in the growth of the AI takeover. Glad to see my words are somewhere inside those brains. Here's hoping they're good words and none of the stupid ones from over the years.

Sci fi novelist Iain M. Banks hits ChatGPT on the head 18 years ago

Found on this blog, and reposted here for my own records.

From Algebraist by Iain M. Banks, 2005

"You know, you seem alive to me…. Are you sure you might not be alive and sentient…?"

"Of course not!" the old man said scornfully, "I am able to give the appearance of life without being alive. It is not especially difficult."

"How do you do this?"

"By being able to access my memories, by having trillions of facts and works and books and recordings and sentences and words and definitions at my disposal. I am the sum of all my memories, plus the application of certain rules from a substantial command-set. I am blessed with the ability to think extremely quickly, so I am able to listen to what you, as a conscious, sentient being, are saying and then respond in a way that makes sense to you, answering your questions, following your meaning, anticipating your thoughts.

"However, all this is simply the result of programs—programs written by sentient beings—sifting through earlier examples of conversations and exchanges which I have stored within my memories and selecting those which seem most appropriate as templates. This process sounds mysterious but is merely complicated. It begins with something as simple you saying 'Hello' and me replying 'Hello,' or choosing something similar according to whatever else I might know about you, and extends to a reply as involved as, well, this one."

"AI Is Magic"

The best description I've ever heard of AI is the following. I heard this in the 80s, and it has held up since:

AI is magic.

• You see a magic trick. You are amazed by the magic.
• You are shown how the trick works. You are impressed by the technique.
• You learn how to perform the trick. Now it's not magic, it's sleight-of-hand, or mirrors, or misdirection.

This is why "AI" is always bullshit: once you understand it, it's not AI any more, it's something else.

Headline I saw: "Can AI Perfect the IPA?"

My brain: "How is AI going to improve on the international phonetic alphabet? Very excited to learn!"

Reality: "Oh... it's about beer."

How do we own ourselves in the 'post truth' era?

With the era of internet AI driven fake videos and audio, I am finding myself wondering more and more about how individuals exist in the coming "post truth" years. Even beyond knowing what news is real and fake, which is terrifying enough.

Imagine, you call a company for customer service and part of those Terms you didn't read include them sampling your voice such that they can now deepfake you. Or walking into a store, which allows cameras positioned to do the rudimentary 360 degree scan needed for low res body insertion into video (such as what we're seeing from the NBA recently.)

Not that either scenario is explicitly for super villain-esque plans, but more just for owning your identity.

It is not hard to imagine a cellphone company offering to, for a fee, allow you to deepfake your friends as the voice for notifications on your phone.

Or imagine going to the theater and watching a movie, only to suddenly spot a doppelganger of yourself in the crowd at a pivotal movie scene. You weren't paid as an extra for this film, but because you attended [insert large conglomerate owned entity] you gave them rights to use your three dimensional likeness in perpetuity.

How do we, as individuals, opt out of giving up these rights? How does the government legislate in this era?

Do I need to wear t-shirts that say in blocktext, "I DO NOT CONSENT" or something similarly absurd?