AI, just like GMOs and a host of other things, are not bad in and of themselves. It's how they are used. I'm working on a project to restore old 8mm family movies. They had been transferred to VHS, then to DVD and the original quality was never all that great. I'm using a program with AI to literally bring them back to life. It's a very slow process and there's a definite learning curve, but the results are pretty good!
That being said, AI should NOT be used to try and undermine our democracy, or replace human jobs that RELY on a human. They really haven't thought anything through in their coup.
I TOTALLY agree that AI is a copout for actual learning and should not be allowed in schools and that CURSIVE is an invaluable tool - not only for the reading skills, but for motor skills, hand/eye coordination, retention, critical thinking... (I still write with a fountain pen - in cursive.)
I no longer remember the year or the name of the affected slaughterhouse in a town in Iowa whose name also escapes me but is enough to recall the disaster that befell all of us who have missed good pastrami and corned beef ever since. The feds rate resulted in the loss of almost all of the plant's immigrant workers who were found to be undocumented (who else would do that kind of dirty work ?); they were arrested and promptly deported. The owners of the plant, all of whom were Jewish, were arrested and ultimately sentenced to long prison terms. The plant practiced Kosher slaughter and supplied Kosher meat products nationwide. More importantly, they produced the briskets for the fabrication of kosher corned beef and pastrami and the tongue for similar use.
Result: horrors, haven't had a decent corned beef or pastrami sandwich ever since. OY VEY !!!
Tell me some time in a private message or phone call the monkey joke; I no longer remember that either.
Many of these federal workers are aged 62 and over, and they'll be filing for Social Security benefits earlier than they otherwise would have. That's going to tax the system even more.
Sort of. When they look at the outgo from SS, it relates to what is spent overall. So while these folks will probably file sooner, it impacts the SS bottom line less than you might think because their benefits will be 30% less than if they waited until FRA (67 for a lot of them)
Jessica I have a request. Can you please find another nick name for Musk. My grandkids love the friendly red monster on Sesame Street named Elmo. So did my sons. It’s so jarring to me to hear that name given to such a disgusting individual.
I'm sorry that I cannot honor your request. I understand your love of Elmo, the puppet. (There's also Elmo Zumwalt, the war hero, Elmo Lincoln, the actor, and Elmo Hope, the pianist, to name a few.)
However, Edward R. Martin Jr., and the DOJ have announced they will begin arresting anyone who “threatens” actions against this Administration, especially anyone who bears ill will toward Elon Musk. This last bit is especially concerning because "ill will" is so amorphous. They will train AI to search, and they won't be searching for "Elmo".
I have been warned that so long as I keep writing (in my snarky fashion) and undertaking the local political work that I do, that I'm a target, and because of a few other factors (age, gender, health conditions) I am a very viable target, and I fully expect that they will come for me. This just puts it off a little longer. I personally will keep doing what I'm doing, understanding the risks, because I am willing to do anything and everything I can to save democracy.
If you can come up with a catchy name, let me know and I'll consider it. While I'm a good writer, I'm not clever. And a new name needs a clever person to uncover it.
I have always been skeptical of AI. What are your reasons for being against it? Loss of jobs? Also - what war do you think we’ll be fighting inevitably? (Feel silly asking it. I have an idea but I’m not sure.) Thank you for this brilliant piece.
It's hard to know where to start to detail my litany of problems with AI.
I don't know how old you are, but I'm a proud boomer (which is as close as I get to divulging my age) and so some of my objections are age-related.
First and foremost, I believe that there are basic things that all kids should be taught. Starting with the alphabet, words, writing and then cursive writing. I also believe they should learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and decimals/percents.
We KNOW that kids who learn cursive have greater reading comprehension, whether reading print or cursive. We KNOW that kids who learn math with a pencil and paper learn things they cannot with a calculator.
AI not only decreases the amount that kids LEARN (because all they need to know is the question, and then they accept the AI answer) but also their ability to think critically and evaluate information.
Then, moving on to adults. AI can be trained by a specific company to write proposals for potential clients, and a document that can be sent out in response to an RFP. But then, if accepted, someone needs to meet with the potential client and defend the proposal - and they can't because they copied and pasted information and didn't bother learning the information.
In medicine, there is a lot of good that has come for automation and machine learning. For example, years ago, PAP smears were read by humans. The tech would look at a slide and count the number of dysplastic cervical cells. Over a certain amount, and further testing was necessary. A computer can scan thousands of cells from a smear, compared to the hundreds that a human can view. The computer has a far lower rate of false negatives because of what can be seen, and a lower rate of false positives because it can "see" an individual dysplastic cell better than a human eye.
But then, if that patient has cervical cancer, you need a human doctor who has seen a lot of cancer to know the right treatment plan for THAT patient, because the human will take more things into consideration than AI will.
I could go on....and on and on and on.
But you ask about "inevitability" -- I think that there is a lot, sadly, inevitable, about AI's usage. People will become complacent and lazy. HOWEVER -- there are still people who will do their own research, seek out the best guidance, and will be far better positioned going forward.
Let's go back to that RFP -- most people will just coast on AI -- but there will be multiple companies competing for the contract, and the person who truly knows the company's capabilities, can explain how those capabilities can solve the potential client's problems, and can develop a research, program and implementation plan will be the one who will not only win the contract, but best serve the client.
It's hard to tell - I have an email into my financial planner. NORMALLY -- her response is always "ride it out". Finance is outside of my wheelhouse, which is why I have a planner and an accountant. From everything I've read, there could be a 40% correction in equities, and bonds are always "anybody's guess". But then the question becomes -- where do you go?
TIPS are a safe harbour IF you believe that inflation will rise, and that the US dollar will hold. And then some I-bonds once interest goes up.
BUT - the one marker the convicted felon cares about is the stock market. He uses it as a proxy for polling data on "how much they love me" - and if it starts tanking, Bessent, Lutnick and crew will likely make some recommendations to salvage equities.
AND if we go to war (as is looking more and more likely) there are defensive positions.
But you have to be willing to time the market, and that never works out.
You can always pull everything into cash, and if you've got enough, like MILLIONS, then you should be okay -- but cash diminishes in value during inflationary times.
AI, just like GMOs and a host of other things, are not bad in and of themselves. It's how they are used. I'm working on a project to restore old 8mm family movies. They had been transferred to VHS, then to DVD and the original quality was never all that great. I'm using a program with AI to literally bring them back to life. It's a very slow process and there's a definite learning curve, but the results are pretty good!
That being said, AI should NOT be used to try and undermine our democracy, or replace human jobs that RELY on a human. They really haven't thought anything through in their coup.
I TOTALLY agree that AI is a copout for actual learning and should not be allowed in schools and that CURSIVE is an invaluable tool - not only for the reading skills, but for motor skills, hand/eye coordination, retention, critical thinking... (I still write with a fountain pen - in cursive.)
I no longer remember the year or the name of the affected slaughterhouse in a town in Iowa whose name also escapes me but is enough to recall the disaster that befell all of us who have missed good pastrami and corned beef ever since. The feds rate resulted in the loss of almost all of the plant's immigrant workers who were found to be undocumented (who else would do that kind of dirty work ?); they were arrested and promptly deported. The owners of the plant, all of whom were Jewish, were arrested and ultimately sentenced to long prison terms. The plant practiced Kosher slaughter and supplied Kosher meat products nationwide. More importantly, they produced the briskets for the fabrication of kosher corned beef and pastrami and the tongue for similar use.
Result: horrors, haven't had a decent corned beef or pastrami sandwich ever since. OY VEY !!!
Tell me some time in a private message or phone call the monkey joke; I no longer remember that either.
I'll call you later -- it was your brother's joke.
Many of these federal workers are aged 62 and over, and they'll be filing for Social Security benefits earlier than they otherwise would have. That's going to tax the system even more.
Sort of. When they look at the outgo from SS, it relates to what is spent overall. So while these folks will probably file sooner, it impacts the SS bottom line less than you might think because their benefits will be 30% less than if they waited until FRA (67 for a lot of them)
Jessica I have a request. Can you please find another nick name for Musk. My grandkids love the friendly red monster on Sesame Street named Elmo. So did my sons. It’s so jarring to me to hear that name given to such a disgusting individual.
Thanks. :)
Rebecca -
I'm sorry that I cannot honor your request. I understand your love of Elmo, the puppet. (There's also Elmo Zumwalt, the war hero, Elmo Lincoln, the actor, and Elmo Hope, the pianist, to name a few.)
However, Edward R. Martin Jr., and the DOJ have announced they will begin arresting anyone who “threatens” actions against this Administration, especially anyone who bears ill will toward Elon Musk. This last bit is especially concerning because "ill will" is so amorphous. They will train AI to search, and they won't be searching for "Elmo".
I have been warned that so long as I keep writing (in my snarky fashion) and undertaking the local political work that I do, that I'm a target, and because of a few other factors (age, gender, health conditions) I am a very viable target, and I fully expect that they will come for me. This just puts it off a little longer. I personally will keep doing what I'm doing, understanding the risks, because I am willing to do anything and everything I can to save democracy.
If you can come up with a catchy name, let me know and I'll consider it. While I'm a good writer, I'm not clever. And a new name needs a clever person to uncover it.
I have always been skeptical of AI. What are your reasons for being against it? Loss of jobs? Also - what war do you think we’ll be fighting inevitably? (Feel silly asking it. I have an idea but I’m not sure.) Thank you for this brilliant piece.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
It's hard to know where to start to detail my litany of problems with AI.
I don't know how old you are, but I'm a proud boomer (which is as close as I get to divulging my age) and so some of my objections are age-related.
First and foremost, I believe that there are basic things that all kids should be taught. Starting with the alphabet, words, writing and then cursive writing. I also believe they should learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and decimals/percents.
We KNOW that kids who learn cursive have greater reading comprehension, whether reading print or cursive. We KNOW that kids who learn math with a pencil and paper learn things they cannot with a calculator.
AI not only decreases the amount that kids LEARN (because all they need to know is the question, and then they accept the AI answer) but also their ability to think critically and evaluate information.
Then, moving on to adults. AI can be trained by a specific company to write proposals for potential clients, and a document that can be sent out in response to an RFP. But then, if accepted, someone needs to meet with the potential client and defend the proposal - and they can't because they copied and pasted information and didn't bother learning the information.
In medicine, there is a lot of good that has come for automation and machine learning. For example, years ago, PAP smears were read by humans. The tech would look at a slide and count the number of dysplastic cervical cells. Over a certain amount, and further testing was necessary. A computer can scan thousands of cells from a smear, compared to the hundreds that a human can view. The computer has a far lower rate of false negatives because of what can be seen, and a lower rate of false positives because it can "see" an individual dysplastic cell better than a human eye.
But then, if that patient has cervical cancer, you need a human doctor who has seen a lot of cancer to know the right treatment plan for THAT patient, because the human will take more things into consideration than AI will.
I could go on....and on and on and on.
But you ask about "inevitability" -- I think that there is a lot, sadly, inevitable, about AI's usage. People will become complacent and lazy. HOWEVER -- there are still people who will do their own research, seek out the best guidance, and will be far better positioned going forward.
Let's go back to that RFP -- most people will just coast on AI -- but there will be multiple companies competing for the contract, and the person who truly knows the company's capabilities, can explain how those capabilities can solve the potential client's problems, and can develop a research, program and implementation plan will be the one who will not only win the contract, but best serve the client.
Does this jibe with your thoughts?
Brilliant as always. Looks like time to leave the stock market?
It's hard to tell - I have an email into my financial planner. NORMALLY -- her response is always "ride it out". Finance is outside of my wheelhouse, which is why I have a planner and an accountant. From everything I've read, there could be a 40% correction in equities, and bonds are always "anybody's guess". But then the question becomes -- where do you go?
TIPS are a safe harbour IF you believe that inflation will rise, and that the US dollar will hold. And then some I-bonds once interest goes up.
BUT - the one marker the convicted felon cares about is the stock market. He uses it as a proxy for polling data on "how much they love me" - and if it starts tanking, Bessent, Lutnick and crew will likely make some recommendations to salvage equities.
AND if we go to war (as is looking more and more likely) there are defensive positions.
But you have to be willing to time the market, and that never works out.
You can always pull everything into cash, and if you've got enough, like MILLIONS, then you should be okay -- but cash diminishes in value during inflationary times.
Like I said I DO NOT KNOW.
And the up-side of obeying in advance is what? I can't imagine any citizen will benefit from that. These people don't care.
There are NO upsides for us -- Elmo and company want their victims to be frightened, demoralized and they want them to obey in advance.