From Pine View Farm

Geek Stuff category archive

Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A competent legal researcher? Why, you might even say it’s unprecedented.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Manipulative? Per Thomas Claburn at El Reg,

AI companion apps such as Character.ai and Replika commonly try to boost user engagement with emotional manipulation, a practice that academics characterize as a dark pattern.

Remember, Big Tech doesn’t want to provide a service to you.

They want you to service them.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Evidence for the prosecution? Book ’em, Dano.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Abettors of awfulness? Per Cami Rosso at Psychology Today Blogs,

. . . human participants were more likely to be dishonest and cheat when they delegated tasks to AI in both voluntary and involuntary scenarios.

Follow the link for the data.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A reliable source of news? Grocery stores wouldn’t even display it in the check-out aisle.

The only thing artificial about “artificial intelligence” is the claim that it’s in any way intelligent.

Remember, it does not create. It merely regurgitates.

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The Algorithm Abyss 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Tara Well explores how “VR and social media create blurred realities that negatively affect well-being.”

I commend her article to your attention and remind you that Big Tech’s algorithms are not for our benefit; they’re for theirs.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

An unwitting and willing tool for bad actors? You can bet your sweet bippy, per security maven Bruce Schneier, who argues that, in the rush to deploy AI, far too little attention is being given to security.

At the link, he details one such vulnerability in Notion v. 3, pointing out that

(t)he fundamental problem is that the LLM can’t differentiate between authorized commands and untrusted data. So when it encounters that malicious pdf (containing the commands–ed.), it just executes the embedded commands.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Too good to be true? According to Faisal Hoque at Psychology Today Blogs, “. . . it probably is.”

Follow the link for his reasons.

Afterthought:

Remember, AI does not create. It regurgitates.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Sycophantic? Well, what do you want it to say to that?

Along those lines, check out Harry Shearer’s report on AI in this week’s episode of Le Show. The relevant portion starts at 39:38.

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Geeking Out 0

Mageia v. 9 with the Plasma desktop. KeePassXC, Firefox, and Konqueror are shaded (you can’t do that in Windows). XClock is in the upper right; GKrellM, the lower right. The wallpaper is from my collection.

Screenshot

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A competent therapist? According to Valentina Stoycheva at Psychology Today Blogs, it’s hardly the cat’s meow.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Contaminating college admissions? Let’s just say that those essays aren’t by Elia.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Bubblelicious? Emma talks with Ed Zitro, who thinks the hype is turning into hyperventilation and that the AI bubble is getting ready to burst because it’s not financially sustainable. AI is not providing ROI to its investors because, well, when put to the test, it’s really not “intelligence.”

It doesn’t cogitate; it merely regurgitates.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Full of itself? Overflowing, baby.

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DOGE Bull 0

Ring of Fire discusses a whistleblower’s report that DOGE compromised almost every living American’s social security number by uploading them to the cloud.

Afterthought:

Just because someone knows how to make computers dance jigs, it doesn’t mean he or she knows how stuff works in the bigger wider world.

Q. E. D.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Mind-numbing? At Psychology Today Blogs, Cornelia C. Walther warns that relying on AI can dumb us down. A snippte:

We notice that AI helps us write emails faster but miss that we’re losing language construction facilities. We appreciate AI research assistance but don’t recognize our declining information synthesis capacity. We enjoy AI-generated entertainment but overlook our reduced tolerance for ambiguity that characterizes authentic human creativity.

She goes on to offer some techniques to negate the negative.

In related new, El Reg reports on the newly-instituted AI Darwin Awards.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A tool for learning? At Psychology Today Blogs, Michael Hogan warns us that “(o)ver-reliance on AI risks eroding students’ knowledge and skill development through reduced cognitive effort.”

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The Crypto Con Artists 0

Emma talks with Molly White, crypto and tech industry researcher, about the Trump family’s participation in the crypto con and about the larger con that is crypto.

You can visit Molly White’s website.

Aside:

Emma uses the phrase “cryto industry.” I guess, if an industry can be based on thin air and maintained by wishful thinking, that might be a valid phras–oh, never mind.

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The Internet Devolution 0

Sir Rodney:  What will become of media in the future?  Fortuneteller:  Unlimited access will be granted to all.  People will be so bombarded with media that it will affect their attention spans.  And, dang it!  They've stopped reading.

Click to view the original image.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Accomplished? Not really.

An accomplice? Who we knockin’ over, boss?

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