With the recent open distribution of ChatGPT, a new chatbot from OpenAI, all kinds of predictions as to the imminent death of the world as we know it have come forward and run rampant. This is the end of the college essay; The College Essay is Dead, the Atlantic. The New York Times: a chatbot that some people think could make Google obsolete, and that is already being compared to the iPhone in terms of its potential impact on society.

And what do you know. AI is just getting started.

The ChatGPT recently let loose to the world is still in training. Its more advanced replacements are already lined up.

Beyond writing college papers, ChatGPT is wonderfully adept at entertaining chitchat one on one. What’s a great name for a restaurant that’s never been used before? I asked.

Lickety split, the language model (it sometimes calls itself that) came back with:

              The Flavor Forge

              The Whisking Kitchen

              The Mouthwatering Menagerie

              The Delicious Dining Hall

              The Pickled Parrot

The Mouthwatering Menagerie?  I don’t think so. The Pickled Parrot sounds like something on Sanibel circa 1983.

Something in my request triggered names beginning with the. So, I tried to rectify that with a new request.

Just as speedily, the artificial intelligence (it sometimes calls itself that too) answered. Among my favorites were:

Feast of Fools

Feastivus

Gourmet Guild Hall

Epicurean Exchange Market

Flavor Fortress Bistro

 Feastivus is more than interesting.

How about a good slogan for AI?

No problem.

             AI: proceed with caution

              AI: a tool, not a threat
AI: use it ethically

              AI: use it for good

Not bad at all.

ChatGPT is kind of fun. Deep down, it wants to please. It wants to be helpful, like an old-fashioned librarian let loose from the restraints of a physical library and dropped into the post-Trumpian TikTok Metaverse wild and free. It knows everything we have ever entrusted to the web (up until 2021). Its successors already know so much more.

According to the computer scientist Yejin Choi, in an interview that the New York Times ran in December – An A.I. Pioneer on What We Should Really Fear, this is where we are at:

“The truth is, what’s easy for machines can be hard for humans and vice versa.               You’d be surprised how A.I. struggles with basic common sense. “

What do you know. Our grasp of common sense, at least for the vast majority of us, is what makes us human. AI doesn’t get it, and is having a hard time learning it.

Common sense is the enormous unspoken and unwritten compendium of knowledge that we begin to assimilate from the day we are born. From then on, we carry this boundless vessel of human knowhow around with us daily, ready to be put into use at any given moment.

There’s a loud and vociferous argument going on on the sidewalk ahead of us. It sounds out of control. Perhaps we take out our cell phone and call the police. Perhaps we cross the street. Perhaps we turn and walk back the way we came from. We’re using our common sense.

How many times have we screamed at the screen, Get out of there, now!  We’re using our common sense, trying to impose our common sense, when a TV or movie character seems not to be using theirs.

Yejin Choi puts it this way:

“A way of describing it is that common sense is the dark matter of intelligence. Normal matter is what we see, what we can interact with. We thought for a long time that that’s what was there in the physical world — and just that. It turns out that’s only 5 percent of the universe. Ninety-five percent is dark matter and dark energy, but it’s invisible and not directly measurable. We know it exists, because if it doesn’t, then the normal matter doesn’t make sense. So we know it’s there, and we know there’s a lot of it. We’re coming to that realization with common sense. It’s the unspoken, implicit knowledge that you and I have.”

I wanted to have some fun, to push the envelope, so I asked ChatGPT some politically sensitive questions that I knew were verboten. The chat bot is wired to fend off politically charged inquiries.

“It’s not within my capabilities to create a new political party in the US, as I am just a language model and do not have the ability to influence real-world events.”

Okay, Well said.

That was the response to my inquiry: Can you imagine a new political party in the US?

But ChatGPT went on, unexpectedly, surprising me: 

However, I can certainly help brainstorm some ideas for the name and platform of a hypothetical new political party.

Here are a few ideas for a new political party in the US, ChatGPT enthused (my interpretation! No, ChatGPT doesn’t have emotions. Not yet!):

“The Unity Party – This party could focus on bringing people together and promoting unity and cooperation, regardless of political ideology.

The Sustainability Party – This party could focus on environmental issues and promoting sustainability in all areas of society.

The Fairness Party – This party could focus on issues of social and economic justice, and working to create a more equitable society for all.

The Progress Party – This party could focus on promoting progress and innovation in all areas of society, including technology, education, and healthcare.

Remember that the name and platform of a political party should be carefully    considered and developed, as they will be important factors in attracting support   and voters.”

What do you know!

All the chatbot’s suggestions sounded pretty commonsensible to me.

The post The Fairness Party appeared first on Occasional Planet.

More and more Democrats are expressing dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden. It was particularly evident on the weekend of July 9 – 10 when thousands of protesters gathered outside the White House to express their frustration that Biden was not doing more to protect abortion rights. The protesters seemed absolutely unaware of what Biden had done the day before through executive action to protect reproductive rights, as accurately described in “The Week:”

President Biden on Friday signed an executive order aimed at protecting access to abortion and other reproductive health care services now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Per the administration’s fact sheet, the order “builds on the actions” the White House has already taken by protecting access to abortion and contraception; guarding patient privacy; promoting safety and security for patients, providers, and clinics; and coordinating federal efforts to safeguard reproductive rights. In more specific terms, the order directs Health and Human Services to expand access to abortion pills, fortify birth control coverage under Obamacare, and organize free legal services for those that have been criminally charged for seeking out or providing an abortion. [CBS News, The Week]

Within an hour of the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, Biden expressed his outrage and his commitment to Congress codifying Roe. He has done all that could be expected of a reasonable person to find ways to minimize the impact of the Dobbs decision and to advance reproductive rights. What is it about what Biden has done that his protesters do not understand?

Biden has also done virtually everything that a reasonable person could do to control inflation. It is a global problem, not something that can solely be solved by the United States or any other individual country.

He just completed a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia. Once again, progressives are giving him considerable criticism. When in Saudi Arabia, he did not shake hands with heir to the throne, but rather had a fist-bump with Mohammed Bin Salman. This had to be difficult for Biden to do, because he has repeatedly stated that MBS is responsible for the torture and mutilation of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi.

So, why did Biden do this? Because oil prices in the United States have been soaring until the past several weeks. While Biden and many others know that in time more oil will be drilled, pumped and refined the U.S. to bring supplies to a level where prices will go down, most people cannot be the patient. The best source of additional oil at the present time is from the OPEC countries of which Saudi Arabia is a leader. So, Biden has to hold his nose and “beg” for OPEC to immediately increase supplies.

He did not do it in the most elegant way, but he did it as anyone would when it becomes essential.

Biden is doing so many of the things that Americans want, but he is getting little credit. More an more we are hearing that Biden is too old to be president; that he is a “doddering old man.” He may be older than most of us, he may not be the steadiest person on his feet, but he is mentally as sharp as he has ever been. He is probably smarter than ever because he is outstanding at learning from his past mistakes.

Maybe we want a younger person to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2024. But for now, Biden is our president and he’s a damn good one. If Joe Manchin won’t give him a break, the kind that would send his popularity soaring, then let’s have the rest of us provide him with the support that he needs and has earned. It’s time to say ‘yes’ to him.

The post What Part of ‘Yes’ Do You Not Understand About Biden? appeared first on Occasional Planet.

[by Arthur Lieber]

If every rule has an exception, thent “no one likes a sore loser” has Stephen Coburn as its exception. This Wilfred Brimley lookalike is the co-owner of the not-to-be Triple Crown Winner California Chrome.

After his horse came in a disappointing fourth place in the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel of the Triple Crown, Coburn could not contain his bitterness and sense that he had been dealt a raw deal. Interviewed less than five minutes after the conclusion of the race, Coburn said about his horse:

Well, I thought he’d stand his ground, but he didn’t have it in him apparently. You know what, he’s been in three, this is his third very big race. These other horses, they always sit them out. They sit them out and try to upset the applecart. I’ll never see — I’m 61 years old, and I’ll never see in my lifetime another Triple Crown winner because of the way they do this. It’s not fair to these horses that have been in the game since Day One. I look at it this way: If you can’t make enough points to get into the Kentucky Derby, you can’t run in the other two races.

What he’s saying is that, as opposed to California Chriome, the horses that beat his were well-rested. They had sat out either the Kentucky Derby or the Preakness in the weeks prior to the Belmont. Coburn wanted a level playing field, in which the competitors in the third jewel would have competed in the previous two and be equally fatigued going into the race.

What Coburn didn’t say were the usual platitudes. Instead he sounded like a man who had been sucker-punched. If that’s what happened, why shouldn’t he be allowed to let off steam? Not everyone can be as gracious as Al Gore was after he had an election stolen from him. Coburn was not only talking about California Chrome; he was talking about horses not yet born but who, under the current rules, would be extremely unlikely to win the Triple Crown.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz wrote the following day:

After watching another flat, fatigued Triple Crown contender get consumed by the epic challenge of winning a third race in five weeks and doing so over the exhausting distance of Belmont’s mile-and-a-half oval, I believe the sport of thoroughbred racing needs to saddle up and gallop in a new direction.

The gallant California Chrome never had a chance Saturday, having left his sharpness and finishing kick at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. When the moment came for Chrome to make his move Saturday and sweep through the long stretch at Belmont, he had had nothing left to give.

The opt-out, drop-in strategy prompted California Chrome co-owner Steve Coburn to rage against the system — calling it a “coward’s way out” — moments after his horse finished in a dead heat for fourth place. Coburn wasn’t gracious. A feel-good story suddenly boiled over in temper. But his frustration is understandable.

The point isn’t to make it easy for an outstanding horse to win a Triple Crown; the purpose should be to give that horse a fair chance. And I want to see the highest number of talented, fit, fresh horses run in all three races. Extra time off between races would greatly enhance that possibility.

Two days after the race, Coburn offered the requisite apology, saying that he was “very ashamed” of his behavior in the moments following the race. But why did he have to do that? His only crime was one that is familiar to progressives; he spoke truth to power. I would like to reward him by putting his visage on my favorite breakfast cereal.

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