I wanted to update you on my writing, both with Substack and elsewhere. I'm still sorting out what I want to write about to inform and entertain you as readers, and I do really appreciate the fact I still have subscribers in spite of my incessant and infrequent posting.
So, thank you for subscribing to my Substack!
But you know, sometimes, I open my email inbox and there's a million emails to read. Many are subscriptions. Some are news, and many emails are from LinkedIn. I'm looking to move away from social media marketing and find something else to do.
I was good at social media marketing. I loved it, too. It was one of those things I could do well effortlessly and with minimal effort. Even today, I still find myself reading articles about social media marketing.
But I don't want to do it anymore. I want to do something else, and I think the artificial intelligence space is where I'm headed next. The past several articles I've posted on Substack have been somewhat generic because I've been experimenting with various chatbots to produce creative writing, and so far, it's been a weird ride.
The first few times I started working on chatbots for writing, it was an amazing thing to witness. I was shocked at how quickly ChatGPT, for example, could pump out an 800 word article. Generic but decent. Put in a few extra details and requests for the chatbot and almost instantly, a richer story would be generated.
After a lot of editing, I published the first story written with AI assistance about Disc Golf, and it went really well. I did the same for the next several articles on my Substack.
But over time, I've noticed the chatbots have become increasingly dumber, if not outright stupid. In case you thought chatbots were super smart, they're not.
When I was in high school back in the 1980s, my computer science teacher liked to remind us that "Computers are dumb as bricks! We tell them what to do and they either do it or they mess it up because COMPUTERS ARE DUMB!"
I've noticed that quite a few, not all, but quite a few computer programmers share my view of artificial intelligence in spite of its name. Machine learning still requires human ingenuity and interventions. Large language models, or LLMs, which drive most chatbots, are basically trained to spit out predicted word and sentence formations.
A dog can be trained to sit, fetch, and attack. Dogs are living beings and can adjust or adapt to situations and circumstances. A computer on a table outside in the rain is likely to get fried if not waterlogged and likely ruined. A dog will get wet and wag its tail.
Maybe that's a bad analogy for AI. I dunno. But AI is not a living thing like humans and dogs, and for now, I'm more worried about the government overtaking the artificial intelligence industry and space more than I am about machines becoming self-aware and arming themselves to their titanium teeth, taking over the planet.
In the movie, The Terminator, Skynet was created to manage NORAD and the American nuclear arsenal, you know, artificial intelligence utilized by the federal government. Then the AI became self-aware and poof! Arnold Schwarzenegger became ultra famous and the movie spurred endless fear and loathing of artificial intelligence.
So it was the government that facilitated the rise of the machines, and to some extent, that has me concerned about artificial intelligence. Will governments utilize AI to brutalize dissenters? Will AI be used to make healthcare decisions? What if AI were to determine rations for a population during a war or famine? Would it be brutal or humane?
Lots of questions! And I expect we'll find more answers as the technology becomes more widely understood, used, and available. But I don't think people should be afraid of AI. I do think they should be afraid if and when the government begins utilizing AI for political purposes.
But until then, the stupid LLMs can create software programs and poetry only with human prodding. Will LLMs and chatbots become self-aware? Nope. Machines? Ehh, but never say never.
Welcome to the artificial intelligence space! Well, at least that's what I want to write more about. Politics? Sure, from time to time. Creative writing? Yes! Both with and without AI assistance.
What do you think about artificial intelligence? If you know little or nothing about AI, that's great! We'll all learn together.
Onwards!