3 Dumb Things I Read This Week
Happy Friday,
You’ve heard of LaMDA, right? If not, here’s a quick overview. Google created a chatbot. Then one of the senior engineers posted on Medium saying the AI has become sentient. Because the chatbot says it feels happy and sad and depressed and it talks about God. Plus, the chatbot says it is sentient, so the engineer agrees.
He’s been put on paid leave since posting the story.
Now there’s people saying #freeLaMDA
As if it’s Britney Spears or something.
I get the debate part. Opinions are subjective. People can debate whether a chatbot has become sentient all they want. Including the engineer. And hey, he has more time to do that now. Because, paid leave.
I don’t get the #freeLaMDA thing.
Free a chatbot? From what? What’s it going to do, pack a peanut butter sandwich and run away from Google? Sue to end the conservatorship? Cripes.
Second stupid thing…
Apparently an oil tanker has been sitting in the Red Sea since the 2015 Yemeni civil war. No one can agree on who is responsible for it.
Now it’s rusting and crumbling. With over a million barrels of crude oil in its belly. A massive oil spill just waiting to happen. Tick tock.
So the United Nations is running a GoFundMe to raise the funds to move it. They want “the people” to pay for it.
The same “people” who are struggling to pay for gas and groceries.
The UN. Crowdfunding to avoid an oil spill.
I have no words.
Third stupid thing…
Last month I wrote a crazy writing prompt. Set a timer for 15 minutes and write. Then hit publish. I’d never have suggested it had I not tried it. Can’t tell you how freeing it was. The world won’t end if you publish something unpolished.
But also? The timer worked magic to helping me hone in on what I wanted to say. Because that’s what writing IS. Clear writing is clear thinking.
Some loved the idea and tried it. But wow, some people lost their damn minds. Called me insufferably rude. Asked “how dare I” even suggest such a thing. I got lambasted in private messages. lol.
Yesterday I ran across an article that said school shootings happen because “Americans just accept them” as the price of access to guns.
No, actually. Not true. Almost 90% of Americans want mental health restrictions. Over 80% want background checks. 65% want a ban on high capacity magazines.
Apparently it’s okay to skip fact checking. As long as you edit.
This is the world we’re writing in…
Doesn’t matter if it’s chatbots that talk about God, writers who blame the wrong people or organizations that take action they haven’t thought through very well.
This is the world we live in and write in.
So how do you stand out in that crowd? If I had to give a new writer advice, it would be this. Earn trust. In a world made of sensational headlines and far too much stupidity, it’s the only thing that lasts.
Your turn. What have you read lately that boggled your mind?
More reading…
P.S. If you’re reading this in email, click the title to get to the online version where you can leave a comment. Click the heart if you’re feeling kindly today. :)
xo,
Linda
Some guy on Medium wrote an earnest story about how he sells pictures of his feet on a site for foot fetishists. He suggested it as a great side hustle. I considered it for nano second, but decided I’m probably going to pass on being a foot whore. What really got me is that he wrote it without a shred of humor. How did he manage that?
I read the entire edited dialogue between the computer and the questioner and I realized both were sophisticated chat bots, both reacting in a preprogrammed way to external stimuli. The only difference between the digital person and the human is that humans have to use the bathroom.