Canada Research Chair in Philosophy @yorkuniversity 'Morals of the Story' columnist @TheTLS words: @nytimes @latimes @aeonmag new book: https://nitter.cf/t.co/PXXoh5GnXn
Toronto, Ontario
Joined October 2018
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Do chatbots like GPT and Bing have minds? No. Are they intelligent? Not really.
But they are tools to access the zeitgeist -- how humans, collectively, think. That is unprecedented.
(from 2020, but leaving it pinned while chatbots in the news)
dailynous.com/2020/07/30/phi…
Regina Rini retweeted
Once in a while SNL makes me LOL for real. And this one made me laugh. Well, it was a chuckle.
holy shit
This AI-generated recessional for human achievement is... shockingly... humane
the opening reference to Hilbert, and the echo later, made me gasp. I'm assuming that a person prompted that. If AI came up with that itself, the game is up
new in the TLS
why advanced mathematics may be the first place we should call a voluntary halt on using AI
the-tls.com/regular-features…
Sometimes I imagine Eisenhower and friends, soon after winning WWII, looking around at all the new babies coming into the world, thinking: what a marvelous future we are leaving them, what extraordinary things they will go on to do
WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE
President Trump escalated his invective against Norway, calling it a ‘shit house country’ and saying Norwegian immigrants are not welcome in the United States because the Nobel committee, based in the capital Oslo, has not awarded him a Peace Prize reut.rs/3U1joSt
the US govt claimed Canadian targeted retaliatory tariffs were 'election interference'. But this decision shows how the Canadian goal was policy change rather than election outcomes. Targeting states with active elections was a means, not an end
BREAKING:
The United States is expected to remove 50% tariffs on some Canadian products in a bid to help Maine Senator Susan Collins and other Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.
Full Story: on.wsj.com/4i6fCyU
Orban behaviour
SCOOP: The State Dept has started asking career diplomats up for promotion if they voted for Trump in 16, 20, 24.
Federal law prohibits politically based hiring for career staff.
State tells @washingtonsun it's screening for "fidelity" and execution of the president's vision👇
we are into the "I know a witch when I see one" / "No, I don't detect any witches here!" phase. Magical amulets will be dipped in calf's blood, guilt ascertained by the pangram of splatter. Perhaps there will be a trial by ordeal
This writer who won a short story contest was accused by the Atlantic of using AI, and he has denied it.
Most people who hear about this probably won't go and actually READ the short story but you actually can (it's easy to find), and so I did.
Most of the time when someone is accused of using AI, we just tend to believe the accusation because (frankly) you can usually transparently tell it's written by AI.
Well, I don't think this story was written by AI. I'm personally very very sensitive to AI-generated writing (I hate it, I feel an almost visceral revulsion). The short story is objectively really really good and if it was written using AI, then it would mean that AI is leagues better at creative writing than we think it is.
I don't know what could have prompted anyone to even think it was written using AI, unless the journalist who leveled the accusation is one of those midwits who think anything "with lots of words" means it's AI-produced... but the journalist is a published writer herself and can presumably distinguish quality writing. The short story is clearly good writing.
(I recommend that you read it - it's not long, and it's a good story)
The journalist cited @Pangram, which I also generally trust, but either it still can't quite distinguish top-quality writing from AI drivel or I can't.
the real Hunger Games prequel
TONIGHT at 6PM.
Five small-business owners. One million dollars.
Watch them battle to turn their dreams into reality.
The Million Dollar Pitch Competition. Don’t miss it ➡️ youtube.com/live/M_lGBxyrnio…
genuine curiosity: is "pain threshold" a concept he used before his political career, like in 'Art of the Deal'? Or is this just something he heard Fox News heads saying about him recently and now it's a part of his (inevitably narcissistic) thinking about every topic?
Trump: “What I’d like to see — Canada become our 51st state. So I’d love to see that. Some people say that would be a long shot. If people wanted to play the game right, it would be 100% certain that they’d become a state. But a lot of people don’t like to play the game. Because they don’t have a threshold of pain.”
the fake news new york times?
PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT.
@NYTimes: 'The Trump administration cut legal immigration in half early this year with policies blocking visas for immigrants from nearly half the globe.'
Regina Rini retweeted
A really fascinating study in how AI content is affecting how people perceive all content.
This video was produced by one of the top creative agencies in the country, led by @DennisJMatthews, for the Brad Bradford campaign for mayor of Toronto.
Because it is professionally filmed on high quality equipment and well lit, the comment section is full of people are calling it 'AI slop'.
I don't believe this is simply a case of partisans being bitter and conspiratorial. I just saw a journalist from another city with no connection to this election speculate that this is AI.
Because AI video is so clean and cinematic, people are now assuming anything that's well filmed is somehow AI.
This is part of the reason we tell so many of our clients who want to film social content to simply pick up the phone and talk into it. People are starting to mentally flag that anything well-produced may be AI generated. Most people consuming content online prefer authenticity over production value.
Of course, people using AI to generate content have caught on, and they are now using AI tools to generate imperfect, grainy footage to look more real.
People are already having a hard time telling the difference -- and this is the worst the technology is ever going to be.
Did any human being ever actually say 'statey funes'?
Has that person been banned from all telecommunication platforms yet?
While The Telegraph has deemed 'picky bits' "the most revolting phrase in the English language", more Britons have a positive view of the term (43%) than a negative one (25%), with 31% neutral
Net positivity towards...
Picky bits: +18
Maccy Ds: +15
Holibobs: −23
Tommy K: −44
The rona: −44
Jackie P: −53
Menty B: −57
Cozzy livs: −65
Platty joobs: −65
Statey funes: −78
