The Leading Edge of a Massive Future Problem

[georged]

A local (to me) example illustrates the situation perfectly.

A high profile and respected "foodie" news operation called the Food Network recently published a list of what they thought was the best pizza restaurant in every state in the USA.

But the winners of both Kansas and Missouri have been out of business for several years.

How does something like that happen?

When AI is used by "reporters" to do their leg work, of course.

The fun part? I'm aware of the errors only because I live two blocks from what was the Missouri "winner", and a friend of mine was a longtime fan of the Kansas one.

Meaning every city's winner could be wrong/fictitious/bullshit for some reason, but unless you have personal knowledge to the contrary you'd never know.

Now, multiply that situation---you don't know what you don't know---by many millions to cover all subjects in all situations, from frivolous to world-ending serious, and THEN feed THAT bullshit back into the "knowledge pool" in a never ending loop...

The "knowledge pool" that the AI's never stop referencing, every microsecond of every day.

Put another way, if knowledge is the lumber, and Man's progress since leaving caves is the house, AI is a swarm of termites.

 

[Servant King]

Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show, I say!

 

[Scrapyard Ape]

So who's to blame here? The AI for having faulty data or the lazy-ass reporter for passing along the faulty data?

 

[wyfbane]

Pfft. That is the case with 75% of anything you read nowadays, on the web or in print. SO much Bullshit and SO little time taken to verify before it is spewed out on the public.

 

[georged]

So who's to blame here? The AI for having faulty data or the lazy-ass reporter for passing along the faulty data?

Blame doesn't apply. Humans are hardwired to be as lazy as circumstances allow while being as greedy as circumstances allow.

The emerging situation is a consequence of that hardwiring.

 

[brian64]

A high profile and respected "foodie" news operation called the Food Network recently published a list of what they thought was the best pizza restaurant in every state in the USA.

But the winners of both Kansas and Missouri have been out of business for several years.

Maybe that just means Kansas and Missouri have really shitty pizza.

 

[georged]

Pfft. That is the case with 75% of anything you read nowadays, on the web or in print. SO much Bullshit and SO little time taken to verify before it is spewed out on the public.

It's not just the fluff that the public sees.

AI is everywhere. Structural engineers use it, medical doctors use it, economists use it, and on and on.

And the "base of knowledge" those professions work FROM is becoming corrupted.

 

[georged]

Maybe that just means Kansas and Missouri have really shitty pizza.

Good point.

Hadn't thought of that...

 

[brian64]

My favorite AI story was a couple of years ago I think...the one where the lawyer used it for a court filing of some kind, and it made up completely bogus, fictional case citations that he just assumed were real.

The Judge was not happy...I think the lawyer may have been disbarred over it...or at least sanctioned in some way.

 

[georged]

My favorite AI story was a couple of years ago I think...the one where the lawyer used it for a court filing of some kind, and it made up completely bogus, fictional case citations that he just assumed were real.

The Judge was not happy...I think the lawyer may have been disbarred over it...or at least sanctioned in some way.

Ditto scientific research papers.

The catch is there's no way to know how many aren't caught.

Same thing with student work at every level, from elementary school to post doc. Unless they go back to spaced-out desks, paper pads and pencils, and patrolling "cheat sentries", there's no way to know whether the guy who just got his diploma/certificate/etc. actually knows the subject or not.

 

[sardonicus87]

So who's to blame here? The AI for having faulty data or the lazy-ass reporter for passing along the faulty data?

Human to blame no matter what.

AI is a machine trained by humans on human data, so of course AI gets stuff wrong all the time... most humans aren't even as smart as a box of rocks. "Garbage in, garbage out" comes to mind.

But unquestionably, journalist's fault. Can't claim to have integrity if you don't do your own work or even check what's given to you.

there's no way to know whether the guy who just got his diploma/certificate/etc. actually knows the subject or not.

To be fair, that was a problem before AI... there's plenty with degrees that make you wonder how they even got accepted to a university in the first place.

 

[Servant King]

The Judge was not happy

Probably because of not enough dry time...

 

[jpberg]

Maybe that just means Kansas and Missouri have really shitty pizza.

That was my assumption.

 

[georged]

Speaking of pizza, how did (does) Chicago get away with calling a foot-thick slab of oil-soaked bread with an inch-thick layer of gloop smeared on the top of it pizza, anyway?

That's just wrong.

 

[Brendan]

Yeesh. That pic looks like an AI generated attempt at a cherry pie or something...

 

[sardonicus87]

Nobody's going to bring up Altoona-style "pizza"?

While originally topped with Velveeta, Altoona-style pizza is popularly topped with yellow processed cheese known as American cheese. The yellow squares of American cheese are a staple of this dish, used instead of the mozzarella or provolone common to other styles of pizza.

Altoona-style pizza - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[huntertrw]

AI: Absent Intelligence!

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

My wife does what she can do about students using AI to avoid the responsibility of certain assignments.

"Journalism" in the traditional sense is largely dead because way too people accept the clickbait world and whatever they encounter on the internet as gospel, and "journalists" aren't interested in real reporting. But preaching to the choir on that one I'd guess.

I know someone who now exclusively uses some form of AI to write press releases, comments he needs for events and so forth for a non-profit he runs - I've been on him since the first time he told me. He thinks I'm calling him lazy, lol, and that's not it at all - he refuses to understand he has progressively surrendered part of his ability to do some (admittedly low level) critical thinking, that constructing a speech, for example, involves thought processes he doesn't need to let get away, so to speak, and so on. He's not lazy, he's just giving up on using his brain, little by little --- but enjoying the ride (yikes).

 

[ssjones]

This place won 1st place in 2022 at the International Pizza Expo (Pan division). This was right around the corner from my MD home (and part of the Cushwa Brewery). We bought pizza there once, you couldn't pay me to go back.

The world’s best pan pizza is in … Williamsport, Maryland?! - WTOP News

The guys from Rad Pies headed to Vegas for the International Pizza Expo hoping to pick up some tips on making a better pie. It turns out they already had some of the best.

wtop.com

 

[huntertrw]

In 1869 Isa Blagden wrote (perhaps foreshadowing AI?) that, "If a lie is only printed often enough, it becomes a quasi-truth, and if such a truth is repeated often enough, it becomes an article of belief, a dogma, and men will die for it."