From Pine View Farm

Geek Stuff category archive

Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Sucking you down the rabbit hole? Per El Reg, to Google’s Hotel California of AI.

Afterthought:

For you whippersnappers who don’t ken the reference to “Hotel California,” well, just Yahoo! it.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A panderer to prurience? Why, it panders to prurience with picture-perfect perfection.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A shill for merch? El Reg explores how Google plans to infuse its AI with ads.

(Another reason to loathe AI.)

Aside:

My new Anddroid cell phone keeps nagging me to use Google’s Gemini AI.

I keep telling Gemini to go away. (I don’t need nor want what amounts to a talking search engine that chooses search results for me, which is basically all that AI is.)

A couple of times, before I’ve gotten a chance to tell it to go away, it’s eavesdropped on my conversation and started talking on its own, saying stuff that is irrelevant to whatever the conversation was about.

As far as I’m concerned, AI does not stand for “artificial intelligence.” It stands for “annoying interrupter.”

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A gaslighter? It could give lessons to Charles Boyer.

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Big Brother Business, Facebook Frolics Dept. 0

Meta employees caught in a mousetrap.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A privileged communication? Or evidence for the prosecution?

Aside:

Yes indeedy-do. Yesterday’s B. C. comic pretty much nailed it.

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A Picture Is Worth 0

Rat says to Pig and Goat,

Click for the original image.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Over-hyped? El Reg reports that, paraphrasing cURL developer Daniel Stenberg, “. . . as far as Stenberg is concerned: They’re (AI bots–ed.) only as good at finding security vulnerabilities as the humans who programmed them.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

An accessory before the fact? That’s for the court to decide.

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It’s All about the Algorithm 0

David talks about how the algorithm squelched one of his videos and the implications thereof for dis coarse discourse.

Aside:

If you click to “watch on Youtube,” you will find a link the video that David argues was squelched.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A co-conspirator? Per ABC News,

Online resellers using AI to pretend to be mom-and-pop stores

Afterthought:

I recently bought a new cell phone, because my old one, after many years of faithful service, had reached EOL. Its battery was no longer holding a charge. It was a damned fine phone, but stuff does wear out.

The new one will not stop nagging me to use its AI bot, and I can’t make the nagbot go away.

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I prefer real intelligence to the artificial fake.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A learning aid? Not when it “thinks” for you: At the Psychology Today website, Joe Pierre reports (emphasis added) that “(s)everal studies suggest that while using AI can help get work done faster, longer-term learning is impaired.”

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Are its hallucinations a threat to the rule of law? At Above the Law, Stephen Embry argues that, “(w)hen the public hears lawyers citing cases and laws that don’t exist, they conclude the whole system is a sham.”

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“Am I a Party Guest or a Backdrop?” 0

Just in case you needed more evidence that “social” media isn’t.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Pandora’s box? Hear from someone who took a peek.

Aside:

The danger of AI isn’t the “artificial intelligence” (sic) computer programs per se.

It’s human gullibility.

It’s something I’ve marveled at since I first started visiting BBSs (remember BBSs?).

It’s that persons will believe stuff that they see (and now that they hear) on a computer when they wouldn’t believe if it happened before their eyes.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Anti-intelligent? At the Psychology Today website, John Nosta argues that that is an appropriate term for AI. Follow the link for his reasoning.

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Artificial Intelligent—->Real Incineration 0

SFgate reports on a study showing that data centers being built to fuel the use of AI may do significant harm to the environment. A snippet:

Researchers from multiple institutions, including the University of Cambridge and Nanyang Technological University, used satellite data from that time to assess rising land surface temperatures at AI data centers worldwide. After conducting an analysis, they estimated that surrounding surface areas typically increase by an average of 2 degrees Celsius — or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit — once AI centers start operating, suggesting that the data center heat island effect “is real and significant, especially in the context of global warming and climate transformation.”

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Geeking Out 0

Mageia v. 9 with the Plasm desktop. The wallpaper is from my collection.

Screenshot

Click for a larger image.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A siren’s calling us to simple-mindedness? At the Psychology Today website, John Nosta argues that AI doesn’t replace thinking. It replaces the feeling that thinking is necessary in the first place.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Competent therapists? At the Psychology Today website, Pamela D. Garcy argues that, “(c)hatbots might provide temporary comfort, but they are not a substitute for human connection.”

Follow the link for her evidence.

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