Tag: AI

Say what Bard?

Anyone blindly using AI to inform themselves or pass off knowledge and wisdom as their own needs to steady their steeds.

This very morning I spotted a post on twitter raising Population Collapse as a major risk to the future of civilisation. A quote, I believe, attributable to Elon Musk. I’ve been aware of population pyramids since I attended high school in the Eighties, and the economic impact of the cessation of perpetual growth, but is this really a problem for civilisation as a whole?

It was the plague in England, after all, that released the poorest from indentured labour, and a huge drop in available workers led to an increase in the value of their labour. The plague itself was terrible, but life was measurably better for those who came after, than it was before.

So rather than brush up on the evidence myself, I turned to AI to do the intellectual grunt work.

Prompt: What are the dangers of population collapse?

Population collapse is a serious problem that can have a number of negative consequences for a society. Some of the dangers of population collapse include:
Economic decline: A shrinking workforce can lead to a decline in economic productivity. This can make it difficult to maintain a strong economy and provide for the needs of the population.
Social instability: A declining population can lead to social instability. This is because a smaller population means fewer people to support the social fabric. This can lead to an increase in crime, violence, and social unrest.
Cultural loss: A declining population can lead to the loss of culture. This is because a smaller population means fewer people to pass on cultural traditions and values. This can lead to a loss of identity and a sense of community.
Environmental degradation: A declining population can lead to environmental degradation. This is because a smaller population means less demand for resources. This can lead to an increase in pollution and the destruction of natural habitats.
It is important to note that population collapse is not inevitable. There are a number of things that can be done to prevent population collapse, such as increasing the birth rate, encouraging immigration, and improving the quality of life.
Here are some of the things that can be done to prevent population collapse:
Increase the birth rate: This can be done by providing financial incentives for families to have more children, making it easier for women to balance work and family life, and providing better education and healthcare for children.
Encourage immigration: This can be done by making it easier for immigrants to come to the country and by providing them with the support they need to integrate into society.
Improve the quality of life: This can be done by reducing poverty, improving education, and providing access to healthcare.
By taking these steps, we can help to prevent population collapse and ensure a bright future for our society.

Google Bard response.

Superficially, this is a solid response and one that might well be parroted in an essay or an online argument, but some of the points just don’t make sense, so I challenged it.

Prompt: How would a declining demand for resources lead to additional environmental degradation?

A declining demand for resources could lead to additional environmental degradation in a few ways.
First, a declining demand could lead to a decrease in the price of resources. This could make it more profitable to extract and use resources, even if they are harmful to the environment. For example, if the demand for oil declines, it could become more profitable to extract oil from tar sands, which is a more environmentally damaging process than extracting oil from conventional sources.
Second, a declining demand could lead to a decrease in the amount of investment in environmental protection. If there is less demand for resources, there is less incentive to invest in technologies that reduce pollution or protect natural habitats. This could lead to an increase in environmental degradation, even if the overall amount of pollution or resource consumption declines.
Third, a declining demand could lead to a decrease in the number of people who are concerned about the environment. If fewer people are using resources, there may be less public support for environmental protection measures. This could lead to a decrease in the enforcement of environmental regulations and an increase in environmental degradation.
It is important to note that a declining demand for resources is not always a bad thing. In some cases, it can lead to a decrease in pollution and resource consumption. However, it is important to be aware of the potential negative consequences of a declining demand for resources and to take steps to mitigate these consequences.
Here are some of the things that can be done to mitigate the negative consequences of a declining demand for resources:
Invest in environmental protection: Even if the demand for resources declines, it is important to continue to invest in technologies that reduce pollution and protect natural habitats. This will help to ensure that the environment is protected even if the demand for resources does not increase.
Increase public awareness: It is important to increase public awareness of the potential negative consequences of a declining demand for resources. This will help to ensure that there is public support for environmental protection measures.
Enforce environmental regulations: Even if the demand for resources declines, it is important to continue to enforce environmental regulations. This will help to ensure that the environment is protected even if the demand for resources does not increase.

Google Bard response

The reply still didn’t ring true, so I queried it again.

Prompt: This doesn’t make sense. How would a drop in oil price lead to tar sand extraction being more economically attractive?

You are right, a drop in oil price would not lead to tar sand extraction being more economically attractive. In fact, it would have the opposite effect.
Tar sands are a type of oil that is very difficult and expensive to extract. The process of extracting tar sands requires a lot of energy and water, and it produces a lot of pollution. As a result, tar sands are only economically viable when oil prices are high.
If oil prices drop, it will become less profitable to extract tar sands. This is because the cost of extracting tar sands will not decrease as much as the price of oil. As a result, tar sand extraction will become less economically attractive, and there will be less demand for tar sands.
In addition, a drop in oil price could lead to an increase in the use of renewable energy sources. This is because renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, become more competitive with fossil fuels when oil prices are low. As a result, there will be less demand for oil, including tar sands.
Overall, a drop in oil price would not lead to tar sand extraction being more economically attractive. In fact, it would have the opposite effect.

Google Bard response

So we did start to get somewhere eventually. But what this shows is that the technology is some way from maturity, and it’s answers often need scrutiny. Google freely accepts that the technology is still at beta stage and to not rely on it, and that’s not my point. If social media posts are to be believed, big if, then users are obtaining legal advice from these things and students are cheating on exams. I just don’t buy it.

The point of this isn’t about Population Collapse, I don’t have a qualified opinion on that, only that AI can’t be relied on to provide a qualified opinion either. Not yet anyway.

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The Age of Whimsy

Sunday mornings for me of late have become a sort of sedentary stay in bed and generate AI art for a while type affair. Are we allowed to call it art? Dunno.

I have been thinking much lately, not least because I’ve been researching it, the lost ancient knowledge, or rather, what we can discern of it from the scraps of evidence that survived the passage of time thus far.

I wondered what the AI might tell me about the various ages of the zodiac. Aquarius is in ascendance, and the transition is often met with new dawns born of painful endings.

So what does Age of Aquarius mean to the AI?

It’s all a bit psychedelic and blended with Eastern mysticism. Hardly surprising.

Age of Taurus?

Age of Taurus, the Bull, from 4300 bce to 2150 bce, is a much different affair. It was the dawn of the iron age, and growth of civilization, and cows.

The Age of Pieces?

Pieces, the current astrological period began in year 1, and will run to 2150, at which point something cataclysmic may or may not happen. Curious imagery, looks like a video game. The age of Christianity and fish, not really getting that from the AI.

Next I tried Virgo, my own sign.

The Age of Virgo is duller than I imagined. It ran from 13000 to 10750 bce, the Younger Dryas period, the time as the great floods that reshaped the geography and climate across the planet. Maybe this is more representative of the next Age of Virgo in around 12772 AD.

Out of interest, I wondered what AI might know of the Younger Dryas period and it gave me scenes of melting ice, which is accurate I think.

And with the addition of the word ‘catacylism’ we get more end of the world stuff.

These don’t tell me anything, the AI doesn’t know anything that we don’t already know, but it’s a fun way to spend a Sunday morning in bed, coffee to hand.

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AI AI AI – The Future is Simple

AI is everywhere already, and it’s only going to get everywhere else. I can’t even sit in bed on a morning with a mug of hot coffee, scrolling through my Facebook feed, without seeing more ads for AI.

Create high quality content in seconds. Sounds like a bucket of awesomeness doesn’t it. Here I am, struggling to manage just one post a month, as I try to balance my time across work and watching telly and all the other drudges that take priority. Why bother collecting thoughts, doing research, selecting images and wot not before writing it down, editing, and, with no shortage of trepidation, hitting the publish button.

Not anymore says the AI people. With just a few clicks and a couple of key strokes, I can spam the entire internet with self referencing auto drivel.

I don’t know if I can challenge the “high quality” claim at half seven in the morning, but what is clear is the value destruction this will cause.

Anything that can be created in seconds by anyone anywhere cannot be said to have value. Value is derived from scarcity, everyone knows that.

So where does that leave bloggers? Dunno really.

I will continue to write the occasional post here and there, but I suppose the odds of being found and read will be even worse once the click bait factories deploy AI content on mass to the masses.

I picture an internet dominated by content produced whimsically and ephemerally, tailored to the user’s recent activity. Whole websites, like TV tropes for example, that took years to build with hundreds of contributors, will be created on the spot, and coloured to fit the views and biases of the individual in the interest of keeping them engaged long enough to register as an impression to an advertiser.

We won’t be able to trust a single thing we see on the internet. Photo and video and voice evidence will mean nothing. A few words uttered and you’ll have video evidence of anything you like.

The standard of the images above is low, and on closer inspection, they don’t withstand any scrutiny. The eyes are particularly creepy. It will be easy to fool some, perhaps many for a while, but I think this is a huge shift in our civilisation. This is perhaps the beginning, ironicaly, of an information dark age.

Before the invention of photography and audio recordings, if something happened, we had to go on the word of those who witnessed it. I can see us returning to that state of being. Anything on the internet will be, to all intents and purposes, unreliable, unverifiable.

What we see and hear from the internet will bear even less semblance to what we see in the world beyond our window. Everyone will have to engage in their actual communities in order to survive, or at the very least, maintain the social order.

Am I catastrophising? I don’t think I am. I think we’re about to enter a very turbulent era in human history. The reality of AI is changing our relationship with everything.

I have a love of food, for example.

With AI I can enjoy endless images of food, food porn, and not a single chef need lift a finger. Shame they can’t be eaten.

These cakes and roast aren’t real, but they look good enough for a blog to be skimmed through, and it took next to zero effort to create them.

I could be a travel blogger if I wanted, and have the AI write up convincing articles and journals of exciting exotic places that only exist in ram.

The early days of the internet were great for exchanging ideas and finding like minded groups to talk about anything and everything. There were always trolls, and you couldn’t always trust that the truth was being told. But it was more or less a certainty that you were interacting with another human, or possibly a cat. We don’t have that certainty anymore. Conversations with AI can be utterly convincing. Imagine a forum where there are hundreds of Bots chatting among themselves.

The very idea of a website is under threat. Anyone looking to buy a fishing rod might stumble across a well established forum with decades of threads and posts and helpful members happy to direct the new member to a certain rod. A well established forum with decades of  threads and helpful members that only exists for the duration of the transaction.

Does a website exist if no one is looking at it? The internet will become a probability wave.

Deep.

AI, I’m told has already encroached on the world of adult content creators. I don’t like to judge, but it’s probably not a bad thing if the demand for live acts of depravity drops out. How this plays out is anyone’s guess though.

I mean, here I am, typing my own words for an article I could have generated in seconds, and no one would have known. But that’s not the point. I would know, and as AI becomes increasingly dominant, demand for actual words written by actual people, in my view, will only increase. Real experience and real accounts of real experience will become cherished.

I’m not one of those king Canute luddites resistant to change. I have nothing to gain from shunning AI art. It’s given me the opportunity to illustrate my words without resorting to effort, and paying an artist.

Does it really matter that these images are AI generated?  I’m only using them to brighten up the page anyway. I’d be a fool not to, wouldn’t I?

The long and short of it is. AI is going to be disruptive. Blogs like this, will become unique and authentic voices amidst the plethora of valueless content, and I have some faith that readers will know the difference, but the only way they will be certain is to see with their own eyes. If we have something to say, we’re all going to have to get used to speaking in public. The written word will count for little, and this complication will, ironicaly herald in a new simpler time.

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There is a Future in Authenticism

Investigating AI shortcut hype

We are at an age where a new technology has come along. AI is making headlines as it infiltrates our daily lives. It is, apparently, writing successful job applications and essays. It threatens to flood the blognet with regurgitated drivel, so naturally I’m curious.

I have, admittedly, wasted an hour or two exploring the free image generators with mixed results. The AI generated images aren’t displeasing, but they also aren’t anything either. They are a curiosity, and have some illustrative utility, but there’s no value in anything that can be generated in a second on a whim.

An AI Tram
An AI Signal Box
AI answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything

But I wanted to see if there was much to the hype. Could it be a shortcut for my own endeavours? Word on the street is that Self Publishers are flooding Amazon with AI generated novels. How can that be good?

A test was necessary. On my massive to-do list is a reflective history of my home village. I have collected hundreds of accounts and memories from social media, news clippings, old photos, and read several books written about the place. There is still more to do, I might never finish it, but this is more about the journey I suppose, and I’m enjoying it so far.

AI Thurnscoe

But anyway. Could AI clip a few years off of my local history writing journey? I decided to ask it a whimsical essay question.

The Question

Write an essay explaining the socio economic situation in Thurnscoe South Yorkshire, describing its history, people, industry, culture, and future prospects.

The Answer

Thurnscoe South Yorkshire is a deprived inner city area in the metropolitan county of South Yorkshire, England. It is located approx 12 miles north of Sheffield and comprises the following wards: Burton, Clay Cross, East Pinder, Heppelthorpe, Jarrow, Mexborough, newington, and thurnscoe. The 2001 census recorded the population of Thurnscoe as 9,507, a decrease of 2.1% from the 10,047 recorded in 1991.

The socio-economic condition of Thurnscoe is reflective of the UK as a whole. Poverty, lack of opportunities and poor housing are common features. Thurnscoe has seen little recent job or economic growth, and its industry is aging and in decline. There is a high level of social deprivation.

Nevertheless there are also some positive features. The community is fiercely proud of its history and there is a strong sense of community spirit. The people are friendly and hospitable, and there is a lot of involvement in voluntary and community activities. The sense of humour is often unforced and the local pubs and clubs are lively and lively places.

Thurnscoe is unlikely to experience any dramatic socio-economic changes in the near future, but its prospects are difficult to predict.

What is an Essay?

An essay is a composition of prose that addresses a particular question or topic. It can be long or shorter, formal or informal, comprehensive or specific, and it typically explores one or more ideas in depth.

Judgement

As starting points go, this is pretty poor. It takes some stratosphericly high data and waffles a bit. This isn’t even GCSE geography level; just to be certain I also asked the AI what an essay was, I would have expected a few thousand words, but no, essays can be short form now, bit convenient. The claim that students, or job applicants, could use this tool as some shortcut to advantage doesn’t hold water. I would need to tweek and customise and furnish it with actual facts and research, in that the ChatGPT interface has nothing on the good old fashioned keyboard.

And perhaps more importantly, you can’t eat AI dessert. Just saying.

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Oi! Tide. Noooo!

It may be a fad, it may be the algorithms, it may be my settings, I don’t know. But articles about AI are filling my news feeds at the moment, and truth be told, I’m not reading them.

Last night I found myself with the big TV to myself and an unexpected bottle of red I found next to the Christmas decorations that still need putting away. Naturally I embraced this me time to watch three old transport documentaries from the sixties – who wouldn’t?

I won’t labour the details but there was a programme about the newly built and most advanced automated marshalling yard in the world, Tinsley. It closed in 1998.

There was another one about the last day of Trams in Sheffield. The rails were ripped from Sheffield’s roads in 1960, and put back in again in 1993.

The last one was a BBC documentary called Engines Must Not Enter the Potato Siding. It was a look at the railways and railwaymen in 1969 and spoke to drivers and crew. Some lamented the passing of the steam engine, others espoused the modern electric locomotives. The electric locomotives, and the line they operated are both long gone. The trains went to scrap, the trackbed grassed over.

But what am I talking about trains for? I like trains. Also. It’s change and it’s impermanence. AI, or creative AI is going to ruffle a lot of feathers, and the world will adjust and move on. Banning AI at university because of the potential for cheating would be like banning the library because of its potential for cheating. AI gives students unlimited and context driven information in a form that their assessments require. It’s the assessments that must change, and will change, and as with everything else, it’s the early adopters, the innovative, that will reap the rewards that this new technology offers.

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AI Writers

AI is coming so it seems, if it’s not already here.

Computers have been driving trains and landing planes for some time, but now it’s writing novels and drawing some stunning pictures. It’s scary stuff.

There was a particularly downbeat item in the Spectator about it the other day, the End of Writing it said. Now, have no doubt that before long we’ll be able to go to our TV and tell it that we want to watch a Batman v Iron Man movie in the style of Studio Ghibli, and it will be a great film. But I don’t think it’s the end of writing.

For a start, I write because I have something to say. I want to share my thoughts and insights with anyone that will listen. If I was the last surviving human, living in a cave on a planet at the other side of the cosmos, with zero chance of being found by another being, I would still write. AI wouldn’t. AI will fulfil a request against supplied parameters, it will make connections based on algorithms based on existing work and it will compile them in a way that satisfies a user requirement.

If you keep getting exactly what you want, you soon stop wanting it, because it’s there, and you can have it whenever, so it loses its value.

Sure, AI can answer questions and present information very effectively, but that’s not creative. I see AI, in this context, as a development of the audio visual interface. Like the difference between text based output and graphics.

For all I know, AI will set itself the task of tugging on every loose thread and unpicking the fabric of reality, thus answering all of the questions and handing us the moon on a stick, though I can’t help but think of the Nine Billion Names for God whenever computers are put to the ultimate question.

It could happen though, five years from now the AI could have figured it all out and set us on the path toward a Kardishev Type 10 civilization before the end of the decade. I’m not ruling anything out, but if that’s the case, worrying about writing career options is a little redundant.

My point is that although this is coming, I think readers will still want to connect with other humans. Humans will continue to write what they feel, and others will want to read that, and I think that will go on indefinitely.

It is impossible to predict where AI will take us, and where we will take AI. I imagine it will be misused. 1984 gave us the perfect application for such technology, and don’t think we have much defence against it. What will be will be, and I will continue to write about it all the same.

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