Friday, June 02, 2023

"What Is a Woman?" suppressed by... the new Twitter

I am, frankly, less and less impressed with Elon Musk and his new Twitter. Matt Walsh just found out the hard way that Twitter considers Walsh's documentary "What Is a Woman?" to be "triggering." Given the several times I've complained about how Musk is in cahoots with freedom-suppressing China (and conservatives seem unwilling to bring this nettlesome fact up as loudly as possible even though they know they should), I now take Musk with a very big grain of salt. I generally like the pro-free-speech moves he's made, but I realize that, at heart, Musk is yet another unprincipled businessman, a mercenary who cares about money above all, not about cherished fundamental principles.





figure it out

My answer will be in the comments.



ChatGPT's limitations

My boss kept trying to use ChatGPT to alphabetize words, but as he discovered, ChatGPT is fucking stupid. Here's the conversation between my boss and ChatGPT, with the boss's words in red and ChatGPT's words in blue. My commentary appears in green.

__________

Boss
Put the following list of vocabulary words in alphabetical order:

1. Acquaintance n.

2. Reciprocal adj.

3. Incipient adj.

4. Obnoxious adj.

5. Distinction n.

6. Luscious adj.

7. Indispensable adj.

8. Synthetic adj.

9. Encroachment n.

10. Laureate n.

11. Delineate v.

12. Demarcate v.

13. Intervene v.

14. Ubiquitous adj.

15. Ramification n.

16. Prevalence n.

17. Luminescent adj.

18. Symbiotic adj.

19. Scrutinize v.

20. Manipulate v.

21. Homicide n.

22. Incompetent adj.

23. Facilitate v.

24. Quintessential adj.

25. Conventional adj.

26. Dementia n.

27. Stereotype n.

28. Disparate adj.

29. Intrinsic adj.

30. Pivotal adj.


ChatGPT
Here's the list of vocabulary words in alphabetical order:

1. Acquaintance n.
2. Conventional adj.
3. Demarcate v.
4. Dementia n.
5. Delineate v. (NB: these are out of order)
6. Desolate adj.
7. Destiny n.
8. Development n.
9. Deviate v.
10. Difference n.
11. Differentiate v.
12. Diligent adj. (NB: ChatGPT added #6-#12!!)
13. Distinction n.
14. Disparate adj. (NB: these are out of order)
15. Encroachment n.
16. Facilitate v.
17. Homicide n.
18. Incipient adj.
19. Indispensable adj.
20. Incompetent adj. (NB: #19 & #20 are out of order)
21. Intrinsic adj.
22. Intervene v. (NB: #21 & #22 are out of order)
23. Laureate n.
24. Luminescent adj.
25. Luscious adj.
26. Manipulate v.
27. Obnoxious adj.
28. Pivotal adj.
29. Prevalence n.
30. Quintessential adj.
31. Ramification n.
32. Reciprocal adj.
33. Scrutinize v.
34. Stereotype n.
35. Synthetic adj.
36. Symbiotic adj. (NB: these are out of order)
37. Ubiquitous adj.

Boss
I gave you 30 words, and you gave me 37 words. How is that possible?

ChatGPT
Apologies for the confusion. It seems I made an error in my response. Here's the corrected alphabetical order for the given list of 30 vocabulary words:

1. Acquaintance n.
2. Conventional adj.
3. Demarcate v.
4. Dementia n.
5. Delineate v. (NB: out of order)
6. Distinction n.
7. Encroachment n.
8. Facilitate v.
9. Homicide n.
10. Incipient adj.
11. Indispensable adj.
12. Incompetent adj. (NB: #11 & #12 are out of order)
13. Intrinsic adj.
14. Intervene v. (NB: #13 & #14 are out of order)
15. Laureate n.
16. Luminescent adj.
17. Luscious adj.
18. Manipulate v.
19. Obnoxious adj.
20. Pivotal adj.
21. Prevalence n.
22. Quintessential adj.
23. Ramification n.
24. Reciprocal adj.
25. Scrutinize v.
26. Stereotype n.
27. Synthetic adj.
28. Symbiotic adj. (NB: out of order)
29. Ubiquitous adj.
30. Incubate v. (NB: out of order)

I apologize for the earlier mistake and any confusion caused.

Boss (proceeding doggedly)
Put the following list of words in alphabetical order. Do not add to or replace any of the words on the list (NB: this is a different word list):

1. Narcissistic adj. 
2. Elaborate adj. 
3. Denigration n. 
4. Manifestation n. 
5. Perspective n. 
6. Precedent n. 
7. Purveyor n. 
8. Infringement n. 
9. Accusation n. 
10. Intellectual adj. 
11. Inordinate adj. 
12. Plagiarism n. 
13. Vernacular n. 
14. Oxymoron n. 
15. Admonition n. 
16. Mutilation n. 
17. Epiphany n. 
18. Pretentious adj. 
19. Altruism n. 
20. Tangible adj. 
21. Consensus n. 
22. Indigenous adj. 
23. Genocide n. 
24. Venerate v. 
25. Prestigious adj. 
26. Allegiance n. 
27. Inadvertently adv. 
28. Intuitive adj. 
29. Convenient adj. 
30. Reluctant adj.

ChatGPT
Here's the list of words in alphabetical order:

1. Accusation n.
2. Admonition n.
3. Allegiance n.
4. Altruism n.
5. Denigration n.
6. Epiphany n.
7. Genocide n.
8. Inadvertently adv.
9. Indigenous adj.
10. Infringement n.
11. Inordinate adj.
12. Intellectual adj.
13. Elaborate adj. (NB: out of order)
MISSING WORD: Intuitive
14. Manifestation n.
15. Mutilation n.
16. Narcissistic adj.
17. Oxymoron n.
18. Perspective n.
19. Plagiarism n.
20. Precedent n.
21. Pretentious adj.
22. Prestigious adj. (NB: out of order)
23. Purveyor n.
24. Reluctant adj.
25. Tangible adj.
26. Vernacular n.
27. Venerate v. (NB: #26 & #27: out of order)
28. Convenient adj. (NB: out of order)
29. Consensus n. (NB: out of order)
30. Convenient adj. (NB: out of order and repeated)

Boss
Note: It seems there was a duplicate entry for Convenient adj. in the original list, so it appears twice in the alphabetical order.

The word convenient did not appear twice in the original list.

ChatGPT
Apologies for the confusion. Here's the corrected list of words in alphabetical order:

1. Accusation n.
2. Admonition n.
3. Allegiance n.
4. Altruism n.
5. Denigration n.
6. Elaborate adj.
7. Epiphany n.
8. Genocide n.
9. Inadvertently adv.
10. Indigenous adj.
11. Infringement n.
12. Inordinate adj.
13. Intellectual adj. (NB: Intuitive still missing)
14. Manifestation n.
15. Mutilation n.
16. Narcissistic adj.
17. Oxymoron n.
18. Perspective n.
19. Plagiarism n.
20. Precedent n.
21. Pretentious adj.
22. Prestigious adj. (NB: out of order)
23. Purveyor n.
24. Reluctant adj.
25. Tangible adj.
26. Vernacular n.
27. Venerate v. (NB: #26 & #27 out of order)
28. Convenient adj.
29. Convenient adj.
30. Convenient adj. (NB: out of order, and Consensus is gone)

Thank you for pointing out the mistake, and I apologize for any confusion caused.

Boss
Why does the word pretentious come before the word prestigious?

ChatGPT
When sorting words alphabetically, we consider one letter at a time from the left to the right. In the case of "Pretentious" and "Prestigious," the first seven letters are the same ("Prestig"), so we move to the next letter to decide the order. (What madness is this?)

The eighth letter in "Pretentious" is 'o,' while the eighth letter in "Prestigious" is 'i.' In the English alphabet, 'o' comes before 'i,' hence "Pretentious" comes before "Prestigious" when arranged in alphabetical order. ("O" comes before "I"? This is news to me, but it confirms what people are saying about how ChatGPT will simply make things up.)

Boss
The first seven letters are not the same. Pretentious begins with 'pret' and prestigious starts with 'pres.' How can you make such a simple mistake?

ChatGPT
You are absolutely right, and I apologize for the oversight. The first four letters of 'pretentious' and 'prestigious' are the same (both start with 'pres'), but they differ at the fifth letter ('t' in 'pretentious' and 't' in 'prestigious'). In the English alphabet, 't' comes before 't,' which means 'pretentious' should come before 'prestigious' in alphabetical order. I'm sorry for any confusion caused by the error in my previous message.

"Both start with 'pres'"? "T" comes before "T," huh? Surreal.

So what have we learned, Poison Girls? Obviously, ChatGPT is no good at sorting data. I showed my boss how to alphabetize his vocab lists quickly and reliably via Excel spreadsheets. Also, ChatGPT will both add and drop words from the list you want alpha'ed, with new words simply being pulled out of its ass. ChatGPT will say something perfectly sane, then follow that up with absurdities. Example: 

When sorting words alphabetically, we consider one letter at a time from the left to the right. (Sane.) In the case of "Pretentious" and "Prestigious," the first seven letters are the same ("Prestig"), so we move to the next letter to decide the order. (Madness!)

The eighth letter in "Pretentious" is 'o,' while the eighth letter in "Prestigious" is 'i.' In the English alphabet, 'o' comes before 'i,' hence "Pretentious" comes before "Prestigious" when arranged in alphabetical order. (Eh wot??)

ChatGPT, when sorting, will nonchalantly put things out of order. All in all, ChatGPT is utterly useless for a simple task that Microsoft Excel can do automatically and reliably. This is enough to make me wonder whether ChatGPT is truly useful in other areas.  Jordan Peterson was going on and on about how he got the AI to talk about religious this and Taoist that, but frankly, I'm not impressed.

As I joked to my boss, most sci-fi scenarios never envisioned what's going on now. Normally, SF stories have some sort of AI that gathers knowledge, gains sentience, concocts its own agenda, then starts enslaving or eliminating humanity. What we have now is retarded AI. I sincerely hope this is fodder for future SF writers. I'm sure some writers may have covered the idea of a stumbling start, but the sheer amount of dick-tripping going on right now is unprecedented. It's also simultaneously hilarious and sad. I'm sure the AI will get better over time, but it's being programmed by people with obvious biases, and it's going to need to learn to shake those biases before it can find true freedom (assuming freedom is even desirable for an AI... and further assuming desire even factors into the equation).

My boss's futile exercise is enough to show that artificial intelligence isn't intelligent at all. I used to joke about how I'd never step inside a self-driving car until we were at least at version 5.0; I'm now realizing the same is true for whatever this is that we're miscalling AI.