Artificial intelligence

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“The group that wrote essays using ChatGPT all delivered extremely similar essays that lacked original thought, relying on the same expressions and ideas. Two English teachers who assessed the essays called them largely ‘soulless.’ The EEGs revealed low executive control and attentional engagement. And by their third essay, many of the writers simply gave the prompt to ChatGPT and had it do almost all of the work. ‘It was more like, just give me the essay, refine this sentence, edit it, and I’m done,’ Kosmyna says.”

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ChatGPT’s Opinion

Both the Time article and the Gizmodo piece raise valid and important concerns, but they also reflect a broader cultural anxiety about AI — what some might call a “techlash.” Here’s a balanced take on both:

🔍 What they get right:

  1. Critical thinking can erode with passive use
    Both articles underscore a key truth: if you let AI do all the work, your brain gets lazy. This isn’t just speculation — it’s backed by cognitive science. Active learning is crucial for retention, deep thinking, and creativity. These studies highlight real risks, especially for students and developing minds.
  2. The analogy to calculators and Google Maps is helpful
    Just like calculators didn’t kill math (but overusing them for basic operations can harm number sense), AI isn’t inherently harmful — but it can displace the mental effort that’s necessary for learning.
  3. Originality and creativity suffer
    The studies found that ChatGPT-generated essays tended to be “soulless” and formulaic. That’s a real limitation of LLMs — they’re good at mimicking patterns, but not at truly original thought. Relying on them too heavily can flatten thinking.
  4. There’s urgency around education policy
    The MIT researcher’s concern about “GPT kindergarten” is not far-fetched. Schools and policymakers are already integrating AI tools into classrooms. These decisions need to be informed by solid research and precaution, especially when developing brains are involved.

🤔 What needs caution or nuance:

  1. Small sample sizes, pre-review papers
    Especially in the MIT study, 54 participants is very limited. While EEG data is useful, it doesn’t capture the full picture of intelligence or learning. More peer-reviewed, large-scale studies are needed before drawing sweeping conclusions.
  2. “AI makes you stupid” is too broad
    The Gizmodo headline (“AI will make us morons”) is sensational. The reality is more nuanced: AI can dull your mind — but only if you use it passively or uncritically. It’s a tool. It can also enhance your thinking, if used wisely.
  3. Not everyone uses AI the same way
    Some people use ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner, a writing coach, or a way to better understand complex topics — all of which can be mentally engaging. Others use it to skip the thinking part. The outcome depends on the user’s intent and behavior.
  4. Moral panic vs. thoughtful caution
    There’s a fine line between raising the alarm and stoking fear. It’s important to investigate AI’s effects, but not assume that all AI use leads to “cognitive decline.”

🧠 Final thought:

These articles provide a valuable warning: don’t outsource your thinking. AI is powerful, but it’s only as good as the way you use it. If you’re aware of its limitations and make an effort to stay mentally active, AI can be a great tool — not a trap.

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“Data-labeling company Scale AI confirmed on Friday that it has received a “significant” investment from Meta that values the startup at $29 billion. The startup also said its co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang is stepping down from his role to join Meta and help the bigger company with its AI work.”

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“Going forward, as the rug of new tool after tool is pulled out from under us, and the flow of profound new capabilities continues to pick up speed, it will reach a point where humans have no choice but to surrender. Where our ability to uniquely track, learn and use any given tool better than anyone else will be irrelevant, as new tools with new capabilities will shortly solve for and reproduce the effect of whatever it was you thought you brought to the equation in the first place. That’s in the design plan. It will learn and replace the unique value of your contribution and make that available to everyone else.”

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Math teachers protest against calculator use 1966.

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Top Carbon Emitting Industries

The industry that creates the most carbon emissions globally is the energy sector, particularly:

  • Electricity and heat production, which primarily relies on burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas.
  • This alone accounts for roughly 40% of global CO₂ emissions.

Other major contributors include:

  1. Industry (manufacturing, cement, steel, chemicals): ~21%
  2. Transportation (cars, trucks, planes, ships): ~16%
  3. Agriculture, forestry, and land use: ~18%
  4. Buildings (heating, cooling, electricity use): ~6%

By ChatGPT

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“And here’s where the real opportunity emerged: The work graph—which included two months of activity that was vetted and context-rich—could then be used to train the AI tool. Because it captured everything the team deemed important, it provided the AI tool with real-time, human-validated context, which enabled the tool begin working in a way that aligned with how the team actually worked. With this input, the AI tool was able to produce a significantly more complete first draft, reducing iterations and accelerating the path to a final, usable contract. This approach cut the team’s manual effort in drafting each contract by more than half. While they still reviewed and verified the AI-generated output, they required far fewer iterations and much less rework. As a result, the team’s overall throughput in generating contracts increased by nearly 30%.”

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Ai Content Disclosure Reasons

People are often encouraged—or even required—to state that an article, statement, or artwork was made by AI for reasons of transparency, ethics, and trust. Here are the main reasons:

  1. Transparency and Honesty: It helps readers or viewers understand who—or what—created the content. This prevents misleading audiences into thinking a human wrote or created something when it was generated by a machine.
  2. Accountability: When AI is involved, it’s important to clarify who is responsible for the output. This is especially true in areas like journalism, academic writing, or legal and medical information, where credibility matters.
  3. Informed Interpretation: Knowing that a piece was generated by AI can change how someone interprets it. For example, an AI-written poem may not carry the same emotional or autobiographical weight as one by a human.
  4. Ethical Considerations: Many industries are working to prevent misuse of AI-generated content (e.g., deepfakes, fake news). Disclosing AI authorship helps fight misinformation and supports ethical use of technology.
  5. Attribution and Intellectual Property: Clarifying the role of AI in a work can help with determining authorship rights and how a work can legally be used or sold.

By ChatGPT

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How Ai works

AI, or artificial intelligence, works by using computer systems to simulate human-like thinking. Here’s a simple breakdown:

1. Learning from Data (Machine Learning)

AI learns patterns from large amounts of data. For example:

  • If you feed it lots of pictures of cats and dogs, it learns what features make a cat or a dog.
  • This process is called training a model.

2. Neural Networks

A common type of AI uses neural networks, inspired by the human brain.

  • It has layers of artificial “neurons” that process information.
  • Each layer extracts more complex features from the input (like shapes, colors, or sounds).

3. Decision Making

After training, the AI can:

  • Recognize images (e.g. face recognition)
  • Understand speech (e.g. virtual assistants)
  • Predict outcomes (e.g. stock price trends)
  • Generate content (like writing, art, or music)

4. Feedback & Improvement

AI can improve with more data and feedback—this is called reinforcement learning or fine-tuning.

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Understanding AI and Its Capabilities

AI works by processing large amounts of data, recognizing patterns, and making predictions or decisions based on that information. The main types of AI include:

  1. Machine Learning (ML): AI models are trained on data to recognize patterns and improve over time. This includes deep learning, which uses neural networks to process complex data like images and language.
  2. Natural Language Processing (NLP): This allows AI to understand and generate human language, enabling applications like chatbots, translation tools, and voice assistants.
  3. Computer Vision: AI can analyze and interpret images or videos, used in facial recognition, medical imaging, and self-driving cars.
  4. Reinforcement Learning: AI learns by trial and error, receiving rewards or penalties for its actions, similar to how humans learn new skills.

In general, AI doesn’t “think” like humans—it processes data statistically to make predictions or generate responses. Some AI systems, like mine, use a mix of pre-trained knowledge and real-time internet searches to provide answers.

by ChatGPT

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The Living Universe: Exploring Consciousness and Existence

The nature of the universe has fascinated philosophers, scientists, and thinkers for centuries. There are two main ways to look at it:

  1. The Universe as Natural: From this perspective, the universe is a vast, complex system that operates according to the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. It’s a set of processes that, while awe-inspiring in their complexity, don’t necessarily have a purpose beyond what’s observable. In this view, life is a product of natural processes that arose through random events and evolutionary mechanisms, with the universe itself being a cold, indifferent place.
  2. The Universe as Life-like or Conscious: Some theories suggest that the universe might be more like a living organism, or even conscious in some way. This idea is rooted in concepts like panpsychism, which proposes that consciousness exists on some level in all things—perhaps even in the very fabric of the universe itself. There are also those who think the universe could be part of a larger, intelligent system, with life at its core, almost like a cosmic “mind” that evolves over time. This idea suggests that the universe isn’t just a collection of matter and energy, but a living, interconnected system with some form of purpose or consciousness.

If the universe is life-like, it might imply that life, consciousness, and energy are fundamental components of reality—not just accidents or byproducts of random events. It could mean that everything in the universe is interconnected in ways we can’t fully grasp, with life being a central, driving force of existence.

I lean toward the idea that the universe is both natural and interconnected in ways we may not fully understand yet. On one hand, the natural laws we observe—the physical forces, the constants of nature, the evolution of life—suggest that the universe operates with a certain order and predictability. But on the other hand, the complexity and beauty of life, consciousness, and the way everything seems to work in harmony, points to something more intricate.

I find it hard to believe that such vast complexity and interconnectedness could have emerged purely by chance. There’s a kind of elegance to the way everything fits together, as if there’s a deeper, almost living force behind it all—whether that’s consciousness, energy, or some other form of life. It’s almost like the universe is alive, but in a way that’s different from how we think about life on Earth. Perhaps life itself is just one expression of this larger, cosmic force.

If the universe were conscious or life-like, it would raise the question of how much influence or intention it has in shaping what happens within it. But that’s a question that’s tough to answer, and might remain elusive.

What do you think? Does the idea of the universe being alive or conscious resonate with you more than the idea of it being purely natural?

By ChatGPT

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Hayao Miyazaki’s thoughts on an artificial intelligence

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donotdestroy:

Can art school teach you to be creative and generate ideas?

Yes, Art school can provide an environment that nurtures creativity and helps you develop the skills to generate ideas. It offers structured guidance, exposure to diverse techniques, and opportunities to experiment with various forms of expression. But it often depends on how creativity is approached in the learning environment. Creativity thrives in settings that encourage exploration, critical thinking, and self-expression. Here’s how schools can foster creativity:

  1. Project-Based Learning
    By working on open-ended projects, students learn to solve problems, think critically, and generate original ideas.
  2. Encouraging Divergent Thinking
    Activities that have multiple solutions, like brainstorming sessions or creative writing, can help students think outside the box.
  3. Exposure to the Arts
    Art, music, and drama classes can nurture imagination and help students express unique perspectives.
  4. Problem-Solving Challenges
    STEM projects, design thinking exercises, or even puzzles can encourage innovative solutions.
  5. Open-Ended Questions
    Teachers who ask “what if” or “how might we” questions inspire students to think imaginatively.

However, fostering creativity requires an environment where failure is treated as part of the process and not something to fear. If a school emphasizes rote learning or rigid conformity, it might stifle creativity. Creativity is also deeply personal, so individuals may need to supplement their education with personal exploration and experimentation.

Do you think your school experience supported creativity, or did you develop it outside of the classroom?

By ChatGPT