When I was in high school I tried out for plays and musicals. I had dreams of being on stage and becoming rich and famous (don’t most kids?). Those dreams were shattered as the Drama teacher (Mr. Vogel one of many teachers who helped shape me — and gets credit) needed me to do sound and lights. I was relegated to do geek stuff and I resembled that remark.

well not exactly teens — AI failure to generate correctly

During the rehearsals of musicals there were dance scenes and getting some 9th-12th graders with no dance training to dance was entertaining. Mr. Vogel knew a secret, that in a dance number with multiple people doing a synchronous choreographed routine that if you were out of step, missed a step if you kept smiling that people would think you were doing it right. The people who looked confused, looked at their feet or looked like they were concentrating too much were the ones that could be doing it wrong. If was the thought of confidence on stage that showed competence.

What does this have to do with AI? Using Chat-GPT or other tools they answer is such a confident manner that we believe what its generating is correct. In a previous post I spoke about this same idea of trusting blindly like a GPS and driving into a lake, I also have written about we trust Google also too much taking the first result as truth.

oops, my bad

A confident response does not mean it is factually correct, just like the dancer that is smiling, he may be out of step. Unless you know what the right dance move is supposed to be or the right fact you are being fooled by confidence. As a human we need to dig into our science background and question the result we are getting back to confirm the facts (as opposed to falsehood and confirmation bias.). Just ask the lawyer who used it to research a case and his only check was to ask GPT if it was lying.

There is a fear of AI taking over but the real fear is humans failing to think.

AI generating the thinking statue

This opinion is mine, and mine only, my current or former employers have nothing to do with it. I do not write for any financial gain, I do not take advertising and any product company listed was not done for payment. But if you do like what I write you can donate to the charity I support (with my wife who passed away in 2017) Morgan Stanley’s Children’s Hospital or donate to your favorite charity. I pay to host my site out of my own pocket, my intention is to keep it free.  I do read all feedback, I mostly wont post any of them

This Blog is a labor of love, and was originally going to be a book.  With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web I chose this path.  I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content.  I apologize in advance for my ADD as often topics may flip.  I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.   Images without notes are created using and AI tool that allows me to reuse them.