Side Note: The paranoia sets in. As I re-opened this doc to finish it in Word on my desktop, I had a popup letting me know that it will be shared across all my apps and everything connected to my 365 account, since I’m logged in. I tried logging out, and a popup (or the AI monster) said that if I do, the apps will be removed from my desktop, and I’ll have to reload them when I log back in. WTF? And correct me if I’m wrong, but the little symbol in the popup seems like the one I saw in Bing for the Chat GPT. Also, is it just me, or once Google and Bing released AI, you’re trying to search something and something pops up for AI info.
Are you copying my work? Hello? Same thing when I was going to test out Bard on Google. It gave me a box to check saying I agree that it has access to all my google docs, etc. Google docs that might have scripts I’ve written, others have written and sent to me, letters, medical reports, etc. I quickly backspaced out of it. Is this where they’re generating their writing from? Live writers?
Libre Office and your painful work arounds, we might be dancing a tango again.
Now onto what I’d intended to discuss… Around 2013-2014 there was a rocky spot where I wasn’t finding much work, so I was doing little writing jobs for websites, that I found on freelance sites. I was an ‘expert’ in so many departments and learned that I didn’t have to show evidence that I knew a lot about this field. As long as I’d generate an article, I was hired. Once I got out of that situation, I began noticing so many websites that have identical articles and doing a web search has become harder and harder to get to the damn point of what I typed in.
For example, “what are the healthiest foods containing iron?” Loads of websites I’d never heard of, not run by a nutritionist or such, will begin the article with “iron is a nutrient that gives you….”. It would have several paragraphs before you get to the nitty gritty of what you wanted, and by this time, you realize it’s the same list you read on the previous unheard of site. We were already at the point that we can’t believe what we read on the internet, obviously getting their info from another article and tweaking a few words. It’s all about the word count, SEO, and constant content.
Last week I threw in the towel and decided to give Chat GPT a go after creating a jaw dropping photo from Bing’s desktop AI photo creator. All I did was simply type in ‘chihuahua and chow chow mixed dog wearing a leather jacket’ and within a minute, BAM! Four crisp JPEGs of what I spontaneously typed into a box.
I’d been told that AI, Chat GPT, Bard, etc., could write anything – poems, articles, scripts (oh hell no!), and more.
I have a long list of topics, ideas and points I want to make on Big Role, yet I struggle at times to get it all done. I pulled out my thick stack of notes on my clipboard and began plugging it into Bing’s AI generator to see what happens.
It was very helpful in the arena of generating a list for “The Best Sunglasses For Low Vision”. If I were gonna add that to Big Role Media, it would save time. It produced a variety of glasses along with links to them. Ecstatic, I plugged in several article topics I had on my list. As I went to revise the sunglasses post in Big Role’s tone, I noticed that they were not all sunglasses. Some were low vision glasses – the new technology type that are making a test run for low vision and blind folks, that weigh a pound and don’t block the sun. These are not sunglasses. So, I’d edit that out. There were actually only two pair on the list that were glasses for the sun.
It did give an impressive list of recipes for a topic, however, I would need to do a lot of research to see if everyone discussing this particular topic would have the same recipes. Again, I’ve always hated researching something and finding the same information on 10 different sites. I feel like this is what will be happening.
Spoiler alert: Another topic I wanted to write about was one of my fish recently having swim bladder and I’d found out online that I could give them peas and a couple other veggies in their diet. I was amazed! I’d wanted to inform BRM’s audience, and it was on my list. The Chat GPT generator wrote an article with loads of things I can feed to my fish that isn’t just fish food from the store. This had me a bit worried. The fish source I learned about peas from only listed four things. Why would I share with all of you things to feed your fish, when there were things on the list that I’d want to research with a veterinarian or fish expert before trusting my fish to ingest?
I decided that after that, AI generated writing is a bunch of crap. It’s just pulling stuff from all over the internet, some that could be from the articles written by me in 2013-2014 in fields I didn’t know anything about.
Now let’s think about the upcoming presidential election. We already know how well deep fake, music, photo shop, and smut articles can be generated, but the things that can happen under AI’s impressive, realistic technology? This can damage lives. Your life, to be exact. If you piss of a neighbor, ex, coworker, child, they can easily generate a photo of you doing something horrific. You no longer need photoshop or audio skills for this.
Who do we believe? Who do we trust? We might actually see a real photo of someone doing something horrific and call it’s bluff. We’ve also heard of instances where a police department arrested the wrong suspect based on AI generated photos.
Then there are jobs being impacted already. I know a few tech folks who were laid off. There are loads of tech folks that I don’t know, who were laid off. I know writers (hello) who are on strike right now, with AI playing a part in that. It’s really scary, to be honest. I love writing. Others love writing. And painting, and photography, and technology, and being creative. If we have this thing writing scripts, graphic design, and so many other creative outlets that bring us joy, everything is going to be as fake as the influencers and reality TV that came about during the last writers strike in 2008 – but that had nothing to do with AI. I’m just on a rant. My point is, there’s no authenticity in that type of entertainment, same as with AI generated art.
Authenticity and creativity feeds the soul. Whether if it’s your career or your hobby, we’re not going to use that creative piece of magic, our soul creating with the universe, pouring out our true emotions onto paper, paint, film, audio, or pixels. And if we do, any connection to an AI source will be stealing it from you to lend to others to reproduce.
This AI monster needs to be caged, monitored, limited, or done away with. I can’t imagine how it can be regulated safely and for certain worldwide. Hopefully I’ll look back on this someday at how scared I was of it?
All I’m sayin is, Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book need to make a comeback. In the meantime, you can bet everything you read on Big Role Media will be authentic and spilled directly from the brains of our writers.
