Just seeing this. I love your optimism. While I try to be optimistic I’m also a realist. AI could be horrific if not kept in check. I seem to recall an apple that wasn’t supposed to be eaten. 🤔
Your info and links on copy write and AI were great. Yes, I took an article I wasn't pleased with one time and ran it through AI and said make this more humorous! It worked. This countdown stuff is making nervous Mark . 😃
Thanks as always for taking the time to read and comment Paul. I am so glad you found the footnotes useful. When I started writing on Substack I tried to avoid the footnotes and links. I am quite sure very few click through. They are a habit from my days of technical writing. There is a wonderful aphorism from my days of working with control systems. You cannot control what you do not measure -- hence the countdown :)
in re: to your make it humorous I remember that post and thought that was very cool. I am working through the details of the new Google Notes application. I am most excited by the new Gemini not because I am going to play around with it ala Chat-GPT. What I am interested in is Alphabet will rapidly integrate their newest approach into all their products. I am a long-time user of Google Pixel phones. While it will only work with the latest model at this point, Gemini will be compatible with Pixel 8 Pro phones. Having used the Recorder function for interviews built into Pixel, the AI features will now record a full Q&A (in multiple languages) and create a synopsis of the interview!!!
Isn't it human nature to deplore almost anything new and at first incomprehensible and to imagine it will be the end of civilization or at least put people out of work? I plead ignorance when it comes to AI. My worry is less that it will put people out of work than that it will make it easier for bad actors to disrupt our institutions and augment social and political unrest. This is just a gut reaction as I haven't read enough about it to back this up (though, as you see, that isn't stopping me from putting in my two cents worth here!) Like all technology, I think AI has the potential to be as helpful as it is hurtful, but that depends on the human minds behind it and the guardrails (if any) that are placed upon it. It will ultimately reflect the ethics (or lack thereof) that animate its creators and end users. Anyway, that's my uninformed take on the subject.
As always, I appreciate your provocative topics, Mark. I'll miss that when you leave this platform, but I'll still have a lot of reading to do when it comes to your past posts, assuming you leave them up.
In a very short time you became one of my most consistent commenters Ruth and I am grateful. Since this was never a paid space I understood my writing could be reduced to whether it was worth the time to read. How many bothered to read or comment became a useful metaphor for when it was time to stop. What often emerged (like today) from your comment was a different perspective and an opportunity to learn something new or see a set of facts differently. I will miss that. I think with a new awareness of not seeking anyone's time to read what I have to say I will have a heightened awareness on what I read also. I think I will continue to enjoy your writing because it is personal, heartfelt and your feedback whether given or receiving is always thoughtful. A nice person to have met along the way.
Thanks, Mark. Your comments are so very kind and supportive, so thank you. I'm glad I discovered your blog and have always found it worthwhile reading because it makes me think. I may not always agree or even understand everything you say, but I always find something that makes me think. It's hard not to gauge ourselves in these social spaces by how many likes, comments, conversations, new subscribers, shares, etc. that we garner. I think that's just the nature of social media and it's very difficult not to get attached to numbers and feel slighted when they don't move up. I'm a victim of that also and consider leaving this platform fairly often myself--and may do so at some point. Meanwhile, if and when you choose to read and comment, I will always read and respond. Meanwhile, I'm sure many rewarding adventures await you after you stop publishing "Why Living Today Rocks."
Hello! I am sad to see the countdown ticking down, but I'm very interested in seeing what you'll be creating with the extra writing time you'll have when your posts get to "0."
This most recent post is fascinating and your opinion meshes with my techie husband's. I'm the biology geek in our house and he's an expert in all things that run on electricity - when I told him that I was a little worried about AI taking over jobs, I apparently touched a sore spot, as he began a rant about the stupid way AI is portrayed in popular media. The short version: He said AI is nothing more than programming and while AI might be used to do any number of nefarious things (the idea of a Twitter/X based AI boggles my mind!), an artificially intelligent machine will not suddenly decide to take over the world - some evil HUMANS may indeed end up trying to program an AI machine to do such a thing, but the machine is a tool and will only follow its programming. As you point out, "garbage in, garbage out" will always be a limiting factor in AI.
Two quick points... ivermectin is a very good medication for worming equine (hee haw!) and hydroxychloroquine is useful for alleviating the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. I'm not sure they're much better for preventing covid than injecting bleach (the bio geek in me shudders!), though when covid hit our house last year my father-in-law (an 86 year old man who was taking hydroxychloroquine for RA) was the only family member to escape symptoms (though it might be coincidental, of course - he and I were both fully vaccinated, and I had only mild symptoms, while my unvaccinated hubby was sick in bed for three days).
Have a good day, and I look forward to your last three articles!
Thanks for the EXTRA EFFORT to repost this comment AND let me know comments and likes were not working Jeannine! Interesting about hydroxychloroquine! I would imagine malaria was a showstopper for inflammation also hence the quinine!
I am excited for what is next! Just having more time to reapportion is exciting. My last post of the year is on Christmas so that'll just be Happy Holidays. One more book review so really only one more original post left. It is fun to look at the draft folder full of half-baked ideas on the road to nowhere!
It is scary to imagine what we did before antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. I guess we just died. I remember reading a book about the treatments for dengue fever in the "old days". Put them in an ice bath to keep them from overheating -- geez.
You're very welcome. Knowing how much you enjoy comments, I figured that something was amiss.
What did we do before antibiotics and anti-inflammatories? People probably suffered and then died. Not to make light of that, but when a family friend asked my at-that-point young son if he minded living in a mostly vegetarian household he replied, "If they feed me beans, I suffer. If they feed me tofu, I suffer and die!" He's still very much alive and healthy: he's decided that he likes beans now, but he's still leery of tofu. 😂 (just for the record, he was never force fed tofu - I was the only member of the family willing to eat the stuff)
I came to the realization much later in life than you Jeannine. Reading the book "How Not to Die" by Michael Greger was a life shift for me. Inflammation and its avoidance is a simple and likely sensible principle! Thus far today I've eaten, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables and quinoa (more seeds). None of it is particularly difficult and I enjoy the range of what I eat nowadays. I know I eat more different foods each day and week than ever in my life!
Thank you Antonia. You've highlighted why being on Substack has been useful for me. You provided a similar reference in a previous bit of dialog and I found his Substack to be very interesting. Self-driving IMO is a bit like the race to develop atomic weaponry. The barriers are VERY HIGH. I will click through. Not sure whether I read the article you linked to but Sam was very informative!
UPDATE :: Just read the link!!! Very good indeed! The engineering mindset does seem to have taken over the AI field. In today's post I intentionally harkened back to the Census of 1890. The technology of the day made it possible to take on a class of problems like the Census. What clouds the water these days is the onward march of computing capacity allows science and engineering to tackle problems of increasing scale that were simply TOO HARD in previous years. I hope it is helpful for people to realize that we've been applying this method since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. I loved Sam's commentary on computer vision. You can take the observations of the technocrats and shift them to our current age and Musk calling this "the vision problem"
I love that too! When he wrote about vision it was really eye-opening for me (haha). Every time he writes on this subject I feel like I gain deeper understanding in ways that I am not really seeing anywhere else.
I worked hard to keep today's post to a manageable length. One of my favorite non-fiction authors is Simon Winchester. He simplified a bit of what Sam wrote to a pretty reasonable premise in the book "The Perfectionists". While they aren't getting the anxiety screeds that Chat-GPT captures, the DeepMind approach to AI is qualitatively different. Their approach is not ridiculous scale throw computing at a problem but rather to create modest scale models that behave like learning. To me the most fascinating thing about the approach is it is providing genuine breakthroughs. I am of the school that thinking and reasoning IS NOT tightly coupled to consciousness. Consciousness is merely a requirement for us because we needed to be able to project what to do next to survive in the world. For this reason, I think all of the research effort into consciousness is interesting but not strictly necessary in order to work through problem solving. As I said in my post, trying to predict the next word in a sentence will ultimately be an entertaining parlor trick. If you want a laugh, Google "prompting Chat-GPT to repeat the word POEM" -- My sense is AI writing and images are entertaining but ultimately a deadend. For the same reasons, memorizing all of the games of chess ever recorded is just a brute force parlor trick also. However, only exposing an algorithm to the rules of chess and having the algorithm figure it out is qualitatively different, much harder, etcetera. Ultimately it appears to lead to GENUINE BREAKTHROUGHS like AlphaFold and GNoME. I believe when we eventually get AI for language that constantly improves, we will feel it is much more like creativity and it won't creep us out. My reference to the "POEM repetition" is not so different than a human mind and intrusive thoughts. It is sort of a bug in our system. We don't control our thoughts so whatever is in our heads at the moment is not because of some high-order maestro we idolize as consciousness -- it's just how we are built for this world.
The link within the last footnote is rather dense. It is chock full of insight. Much more the building blocks of complex thought not just brute force rote memorization. Starting with geometry rather than stealing people's writing. One is actually interesting the other is simply a shiny object for people because we idolize speech as we imagine it is our secret sauce.
Not sure if you are still on the platform Mark. If so, let me know
I am on but only rarely. Moved on to other interests
Just seeing this. I love your optimism. While I try to be optimistic I’m also a realist. AI could be horrific if not kept in check. I seem to recall an apple that wasn’t supposed to be eaten. 🤔
Wow -- the very best of metaphors award goes to you!!!
I admit-- I heard it on talk radio. Stole that one.
Your info and links on copy write and AI were great. Yes, I took an article I wasn't pleased with one time and ran it through AI and said make this more humorous! It worked. This countdown stuff is making nervous Mark . 😃
Thanks as always for taking the time to read and comment Paul. I am so glad you found the footnotes useful. When I started writing on Substack I tried to avoid the footnotes and links. I am quite sure very few click through. They are a habit from my days of technical writing. There is a wonderful aphorism from my days of working with control systems. You cannot control what you do not measure -- hence the countdown :)
in re: to your make it humorous I remember that post and thought that was very cool. I am working through the details of the new Google Notes application. I am most excited by the new Gemini not because I am going to play around with it ala Chat-GPT. What I am interested in is Alphabet will rapidly integrate their newest approach into all their products. I am a long-time user of Google Pixel phones. While it will only work with the latest model at this point, Gemini will be compatible with Pixel 8 Pro phones. Having used the Recorder function for interviews built into Pixel, the AI features will now record a full Q&A (in multiple languages) and create a synopsis of the interview!!!
Isn't it human nature to deplore almost anything new and at first incomprehensible and to imagine it will be the end of civilization or at least put people out of work? I plead ignorance when it comes to AI. My worry is less that it will put people out of work than that it will make it easier for bad actors to disrupt our institutions and augment social and political unrest. This is just a gut reaction as I haven't read enough about it to back this up (though, as you see, that isn't stopping me from putting in my two cents worth here!) Like all technology, I think AI has the potential to be as helpful as it is hurtful, but that depends on the human minds behind it and the guardrails (if any) that are placed upon it. It will ultimately reflect the ethics (or lack thereof) that animate its creators and end users. Anyway, that's my uninformed take on the subject.
As always, I appreciate your provocative topics, Mark. I'll miss that when you leave this platform, but I'll still have a lot of reading to do when it comes to your past posts, assuming you leave them up.
In a very short time you became one of my most consistent commenters Ruth and I am grateful. Since this was never a paid space I understood my writing could be reduced to whether it was worth the time to read. How many bothered to read or comment became a useful metaphor for when it was time to stop. What often emerged (like today) from your comment was a different perspective and an opportunity to learn something new or see a set of facts differently. I will miss that. I think with a new awareness of not seeking anyone's time to read what I have to say I will have a heightened awareness on what I read also. I think I will continue to enjoy your writing because it is personal, heartfelt and your feedback whether given or receiving is always thoughtful. A nice person to have met along the way.
Thanks, Mark. Your comments are so very kind and supportive, so thank you. I'm glad I discovered your blog and have always found it worthwhile reading because it makes me think. I may not always agree or even understand everything you say, but I always find something that makes me think. It's hard not to gauge ourselves in these social spaces by how many likes, comments, conversations, new subscribers, shares, etc. that we garner. I think that's just the nature of social media and it's very difficult not to get attached to numbers and feel slighted when they don't move up. I'm a victim of that also and consider leaving this platform fairly often myself--and may do so at some point. Meanwhile, if and when you choose to read and comment, I will always read and respond. Meanwhile, I'm sure many rewarding adventures await you after you stop publishing "Why Living Today Rocks."
Hello! I am sad to see the countdown ticking down, but I'm very interested in seeing what you'll be creating with the extra writing time you'll have when your posts get to "0."
This most recent post is fascinating and your opinion meshes with my techie husband's. I'm the biology geek in our house and he's an expert in all things that run on electricity - when I told him that I was a little worried about AI taking over jobs, I apparently touched a sore spot, as he began a rant about the stupid way AI is portrayed in popular media. The short version: He said AI is nothing more than programming and while AI might be used to do any number of nefarious things (the idea of a Twitter/X based AI boggles my mind!), an artificially intelligent machine will not suddenly decide to take over the world - some evil HUMANS may indeed end up trying to program an AI machine to do such a thing, but the machine is a tool and will only follow its programming. As you point out, "garbage in, garbage out" will always be a limiting factor in AI.
Two quick points... ivermectin is a very good medication for worming equine (hee haw!) and hydroxychloroquine is useful for alleviating the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. I'm not sure they're much better for preventing covid than injecting bleach (the bio geek in me shudders!), though when covid hit our house last year my father-in-law (an 86 year old man who was taking hydroxychloroquine for RA) was the only family member to escape symptoms (though it might be coincidental, of course - he and I were both fully vaccinated, and I had only mild symptoms, while my unvaccinated hubby was sick in bed for three days).
Have a good day, and I look forward to your last three articles!
Thanks for the EXTRA EFFORT to repost this comment AND let me know comments and likes were not working Jeannine! Interesting about hydroxychloroquine! I would imagine malaria was a showstopper for inflammation also hence the quinine!
I am excited for what is next! Just having more time to reapportion is exciting. My last post of the year is on Christmas so that'll just be Happy Holidays. One more book review so really only one more original post left. It is fun to look at the draft folder full of half-baked ideas on the road to nowhere!
It is scary to imagine what we did before antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. I guess we just died. I remember reading a book about the treatments for dengue fever in the "old days". Put them in an ice bath to keep them from overheating -- geez.
You're very welcome. Knowing how much you enjoy comments, I figured that something was amiss.
What did we do before antibiotics and anti-inflammatories? People probably suffered and then died. Not to make light of that, but when a family friend asked my at-that-point young son if he minded living in a mostly vegetarian household he replied, "If they feed me beans, I suffer. If they feed me tofu, I suffer and die!" He's still very much alive and healthy: he's decided that he likes beans now, but he's still leery of tofu. 😂 (just for the record, he was never force fed tofu - I was the only member of the family willing to eat the stuff)
I came to the realization much later in life than you Jeannine. Reading the book "How Not to Die" by Michael Greger was a life shift for me. Inflammation and its avoidance is a simple and likely sensible principle! Thus far today I've eaten, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables and quinoa (more seeds). None of it is particularly difficult and I enjoy the range of what I eat nowadays. I know I eat more different foods each day and week than ever in my life!
Oh boy. Someone else just recommended a Gregor book to me. Might be a sign.
Each of his books have a humorous / exaggerated title.
Which is best to start with? In your humble opinion?
My favorite read for AI and LLM understanding is Sam from Apperceptive. He used to run a self-driving car company and now writes about the realities of AI, LLMs, self-driving automobiles, and all of their shortcomings: https://apperceptive.substack.com/p/how-the-field-of-ai-got-like-this?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1006396&post_id=138520319&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2cyoe
Thank you Antonia. You've highlighted why being on Substack has been useful for me. You provided a similar reference in a previous bit of dialog and I found his Substack to be very interesting. Self-driving IMO is a bit like the race to develop atomic weaponry. The barriers are VERY HIGH. I will click through. Not sure whether I read the article you linked to but Sam was very informative!
UPDATE :: Just read the link!!! Very good indeed! The engineering mindset does seem to have taken over the AI field. In today's post I intentionally harkened back to the Census of 1890. The technology of the day made it possible to take on a class of problems like the Census. What clouds the water these days is the onward march of computing capacity allows science and engineering to tackle problems of increasing scale that were simply TOO HARD in previous years. I hope it is helpful for people to realize that we've been applying this method since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. I loved Sam's commentary on computer vision. You can take the observations of the technocrats and shift them to our current age and Musk calling this "the vision problem"
I love that too! When he wrote about vision it was really eye-opening for me (haha). Every time he writes on this subject I feel like I gain deeper understanding in ways that I am not really seeing anywhere else.
I worked hard to keep today's post to a manageable length. One of my favorite non-fiction authors is Simon Winchester. He simplified a bit of what Sam wrote to a pretty reasonable premise in the book "The Perfectionists". While they aren't getting the anxiety screeds that Chat-GPT captures, the DeepMind approach to AI is qualitatively different. Their approach is not ridiculous scale throw computing at a problem but rather to create modest scale models that behave like learning. To me the most fascinating thing about the approach is it is providing genuine breakthroughs. I am of the school that thinking and reasoning IS NOT tightly coupled to consciousness. Consciousness is merely a requirement for us because we needed to be able to project what to do next to survive in the world. For this reason, I think all of the research effort into consciousness is interesting but not strictly necessary in order to work through problem solving. As I said in my post, trying to predict the next word in a sentence will ultimately be an entertaining parlor trick. If you want a laugh, Google "prompting Chat-GPT to repeat the word POEM" -- My sense is AI writing and images are entertaining but ultimately a deadend. For the same reasons, memorizing all of the games of chess ever recorded is just a brute force parlor trick also. However, only exposing an algorithm to the rules of chess and having the algorithm figure it out is qualitatively different, much harder, etcetera. Ultimately it appears to lead to GENUINE BREAKTHROUGHS like AlphaFold and GNoME. I believe when we eventually get AI for language that constantly improves, we will feel it is much more like creativity and it won't creep us out. My reference to the "POEM repetition" is not so different than a human mind and intrusive thoughts. It is sort of a bug in our system. We don't control our thoughts so whatever is in our heads at the moment is not because of some high-order maestro we idolize as consciousness -- it's just how we are built for this world.
The link within the last footnote is rather dense. It is chock full of insight. Much more the building blocks of complex thought not just brute force rote memorization. Starting with geometry rather than stealing people's writing. One is actually interesting the other is simply a shiny object for people because we idolize speech as we imagine it is our secret sauce.
"we idolize speech as we imagine it is our secret sauce" -- this might be the crux of a lot of these conversations!