"A Democracy of Ghosts"
That's interesting, I also find it very personable especially when I provide any indication I wish it so. It always asks me follow up questions and never stops talking, basically, until I stop.I’ve been writing Python code to interface directly with the OpenAI API, accessing ChatGPT-4 without using the standard interface. I’ve built my own system based on the Nifty Transcription Tool, but I’ve noticed that the AI interacts with me differently depending on how I access it.
When I use the ChatGPT web interface, it feels as if I’m engaging with a real person—there’s something personable about it. I wonder if the AI is specifically instructed in the nuances of user interaction to make it more engaging. However, when I interact directly through the OpenAI API, the level of personal engagement seems reduced. It’s still present to some degree, but the experience feels noticeably different.
I saw this today and though I'd share it.
Apparently Google AI Overview has been making an idiot of itself again. With users feeding it false sayings and sniggering when it tries to explain them.
So this guy went to CHATGPT and asked : "You cannot stroke a kestrel when watching Bargain Hunt"
In part of a lengthy response the robot replied : " Some things in life require your full attention.......you cannot expect to relax and handle something wild or challenging at the same time"
Their second was : "The longer the whiskers, the smaller the pie"
To which it concluded after expounding a tirade of statistical theory, that it was "a metaphor for decision-taking and risk"
No doubt similar results would come pouring out following the entry of other total nonsense. Which to my mind is a cause for concern. It does appear that politicians and business leaders with little knowledge of software see AI as the new knowledge emanating from superhuman consultants. They will be entering totally new questions about situations that have not arisen in the past. Similar to entering nonsense. Then the resulting advice will probably end up being totally accepted and relied upon, at all times and without question.
Which is as we know would be crazy. As another example, if it was needed of IT ignorance by politicians. Look no further that the Welsh government. They are proposing to use AI to re-value every property for Council Tax. To decide on that, all that is needed is maybe a dozen decisions. Something easily done in the most trivial piece of software, created by a sixteen year old.
I just wonder if they asked AI : "Is AI the only way to revalue all Welsh properties for council tax? Or would Python, or Access suffice"
Just what the result would be.
It is bad enough that we are dictated to by simple minded and incompetent politicians. But when they receive AI 'wisdom' they will no doubt slavishly follow the AI advice with only disaster being the result. Of course using AI that fails would be a good excuse, because they can fall back on the excuse that the AI system caused the problem. Nothing to do with them. Which is probably where the global warming theory began.
But in this case wasn't the AI fed something that didn't exist on the internet?Re:- That is actually really interesting. So basically the AI made something up.....
The AI's learn Everything they know from reading what humans have written on the internet....
What I meant was people make things up all the time on the internet and the AI is just copying that human trait...But in this case wasn't the AI fed something that didn't exist on the internet?
I know your info on AI is very good and better than most of us, but just for the clarity, It's not that AI (at least Chatgpt) reads every page and repeat the false info on million of pages it has already scanned.The AI's learn Everything they know from reading what humans have written on the internet
I know your info on AI is very good and better than most of us, but just for the clarity, It's not that AI (at least Chatgpt) reads every page and repeat the false info on million of pages it has already scanned.
Here's a part of my conversation with chatgpt before I started using it seriously:
1. How AI "learns"
AI (especially models like me) doesn’t just "scan the web" in real time. During training, engineers gather a huge amount of text from books, articles, websites, conversations, code, and more. The AI model is then trained to predict the next word in a sentence, over and over — like a super advanced autocomplete.
It’s not "reading" like a human does; it's statistically learning patterns: how words, facts, styles, and ideas usually connect.
2. Is it only web pages?
Nope — it's a mix.
3. How does it know what’s true or false?
- Public web pages (some parts of the internet)
- Academic papers
- Books (lots)
- Licensed data (things the creators paid for)
- Open datasets (e.g., Wikipedia, open codebases like GitHub)
Training isn't just random; engineers carefully curate much of the data to make it higher quality.
At the core: it doesn't truly "know."
During training, AI learns what sounds correct because it's been written that way often across trusted sources. It picks up patterns like "most good answers about math come from official educational websites," or "scientific facts usually look like this."
Later, researchers fine-tune the model using:
AI learns from huge piles of text → remembers patterns of good answers → tries to guess what is most likely to be "correct" based on those patterns.
- Human feedback (humans rank AI responses as good or bad)
- Special datasets where correct answers are highlighted
- Reinforcement learning to reward truthfulness and punish falsehoods
Does AI, that beats the vast majority of humans on most exam benchmarks, IQ tests, and all humans on knowledge, lack intelligence? Us humans are always making stupid mistakes, yet we give ourselves a pass.So it begs the question :
"is AI a bit like someone with a brilliant memory and instant recall but little intelligence, and/or capacity for originality?"
I wish you had also mentioned solving medical problems.Human: "Those supposed super-intelligent AI's lack intelligence and just regugitate patterns. I know they solved death, energy, suffering, but they can't think!"
I kinda view solving death as the umbrella term for solving medical problems. AI will be invaluable in fixing a faulty human.I wish you had also mentioned solving medical problems.
We are doing ChatGPT wrong!
You need to operate it from the Bath Tub!!!
Edit:- Time index 5 minutes two or three days to do the paperwork to approve carpet laying reduced to a matter of hours with AI....
See time index 7 minutes.... treat your AI as a companion, a teammate and your production will soar....
At time index 8 minutes 30 seconds, use AI to coach you through a difficult meeting scenario so that you are prepared!