^TagNew York Times

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, ChatGPT, Data privacy, Data Security, Disinformation, Federal Trade Commission, Gary Smith, Large Language Models (LLMs), mind matters, New York Times, OpenAI, Sam Altman}

OpenAI is Now Under Investigation

_{The Federal Trade Commission wants to know how OpenAI gets their data and how much harm ChatGPT could have} _{News

July 13, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

The Federal Trade Commission (F.T.C.) sent a letter to OpenAI, the San Fransisco company responsible for creating ChatGPT, the Large Language Model that captured the world’s imagination in November of 2022. Per the New York Times, the F.T.C. is investigating the AI company’s methods of data acquisition and also plans on measuring the potential harms of AI on society, citing concerns over false information and job replacement. Cecilia Kang and Cade Metz report: In a 20-page letter sent to the San Francisco company this week, the agency said it was also looking into OpenAI’s security practices. The F.T.C. asked the company dozens of questions in its letter, including how the start-up trains its A.I. models and treats personal data. The Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 23, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
C.S. Lewis, Conspiracy theories and U.F.O.s, Fairy Tales, mind matters, New York Times, Peter Biles (author), Ross Douthat, That Hideous Strength (book), UFO}

C.S. Lewis’s “That Hideous Strength” is Making the Rounds Again

_{NYT columnist Ross Douthat offers his two cents on the dystopian classic} _{News

June 23, 2023

3

Arts & Culture}

Just last week, Mind Matters editor Peter Biles wrote about That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis, a dystopian novel about a fearsome technocracy trying to conquer humanity. New York Times also wanted in on the fun, too, apparently. Ross Douthat, the conservative voice of the Times’ opinion column, published his latest essay on Lewis’s harrowing tale, and examined its modern pertinence. Douthat acknowledges the possibility of a mega-powerful technocracy, but notes how Lewis believed that on the outside, such an organization may look like the face of progress and humanitarianism. Douthat writes, Crucially, almost nobody in Lewis’s invented organization has any idea that in the inner ring they’re contacting the dark powers. Most people think they’re working for humanitarianism and Read More ›

View from space of orbiting mother earth; view of China, South East Asia, India

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 18, 2023

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
Cato Institute, Climate change, Creativity, Discovery Institute, Human exceptionalism, New York Times, Population growth, superabundance, Wired}

You Can’t Have Infinite Growth on a Finite Planet…or Can You?

_{Busting the myths of population growth and economic scarcity} _{Peter Biles

June 18, 2023

3

Economics}

Wired recently came out with an interview with economics data analyst Gaya Herrington proclaiming the doom of humanity if we don’t “shift the paradigm” NOW. Herrington said, Very succinctly, we are at a now-or-never moment. What we do in the next five to 10 years will determine the welfare levels of humanity for the rest of the century. There are so many tipping points approaching, in terms of climate, in terms of biodiversity. So—change our current paradigm, or our welfare must decline. The Planet Can’t Sustain Rapid Growth Much Longer | WIRED Population alarmism is not a new chipmunk at the park. It’s been burrowing its nose into the popular imagination for decades now. But is the hype merited? Are we really Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 13, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Blood Meridian, Consciousness, Cormac McCarthy, MacArthur Foundation, New York Times, Santa Fe, Santa Fe Institute, Scalp hunters, Texas and Mexico, The Road}

Cormac McCarthy, Author of “The Road” & “Blood Meridian,” Dead at 89

_{McCarthy thought that if the book didn't deal staunchly with matters of life and death, it was best left unwritten} _{Peter Biles

June 13, 2023

2

Arts & Culture}

American author Cormac McCarthy, who was known for his dark and often macabre novels, died on June 13th at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 89. McCarthy was one of America’s most formidable and talented authors. He began his career in Tennessee, writing novels primarily about Appalachia. He moved to El Paso in 1976, where, thanks to funding from the MacArthur Foundation, he wrote Blood Meridian, a ruthless tale of vagabond outlaws wandering Texas and Mexico on scalping expeditions. Many critics find this to be his best work. McCarthy went on to write The Road, a post-apocalyptic novel published in 2006, which he dedicated to his son, John. The Road tells the story of a father and his Read More ›

Legal Law and Justice concept - Open law book with a wooden judges gavel on table in a courtroom or law enforcement office. Copy space for text.

^{Type
post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
June 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Avianca Airlines, ChatGPT, Federal judge, GPT-3, Law, Lawyer uses ChatGPT, Mata v. Avianca Airlines, Mr. Mata, New York law, New York Times, Plaintiff, Plaintigg, Richard W. Stevens}

Lawyer Hammered for Using ChatGPT

_{Court record system proceeded to block access to sloppy lawyering and AI catastrophe} _{Richard W. Stevens

June 13, 2023

9

Artificial Intelligence}

New York Times reporters watched the hearing in federal district court in New York on June 8, 2023, which they then described: In a cringe-inducing court hearing, a lawyer who relied on A.I. to craft a motion full of made-up case law said he “did not comprehend” that [ChatGPT] could lead him astray. Lawyer Who Used ChatGPT Faces Penalty for Made Up Citations – The New York Times (nytimes.com) The reporters got most of it right but even they erred. The lawyer involved did not write a “motion,” he filed a sworn declaration opposing a motion to dismiss. The difference matters: Declarations are under oath, so the lawyer swore to the truth of ChatGPT lies. Looking at the actual court Read More ›

3D rendering of abstract blocks of mathematical formulas located in the virtual space

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 13, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Mathematics

Tagged
AI, C.S. Lewis, Euclid, Hemingway, Intelligent design theory, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature, Mathematics, New York Times, novels}

Math, Mind, and Matter

_{The surprising similarities between mathematics and literature} _{Peter Biles

May 13, 2023

4

Arts & Culture, Mathematics}

Last October, legendary American author Cormac McCarthy, who wrote Blood Meridian and The Road, released a pair of interconnected novels called The Passenger and Stella Maris. The books arrived after a sixteen-year silence from the desk of McCarthy. The books deal, per usual, with themes of mortality, fate, and the “God question,” and are predictably lyrical, vivid, and dark. But McCarthy plows new ground in these sibling novels. The books are about mathematicians. It’s fiction about math. The story revolves around the complex relationship between a brother and sister: Bobby and Alicia Western. Bobby is a deep-sea diver with some history in the field of mathematics, while Alicia is a once-in-a-generation math prodigy. Not Estranged, but Akin After reading these books myself, I marveled at McCarthy’s ability to Read More ›

View of the Great Salt Lake at sunset, at Antelope Island State Park, Utah

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
March 30, 2023

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Panpsychism

Tagged
Consciousness, Conservation, Great Salt Lake, Mysticism, Nature, Nature Rights, New York Times, Panpsychism, Terry Tempest Williams, Wesley J. Smith}

Should Great Salt Lake Have Rights?

_{The nature rights movement keeps making inroads into establishment thinking — and people keep ignoring the threat} _{Wesley J. Smith

March 30, 2023

5

Human exceptionalism, Panpsychism}

The nature rights movement keeps making inroads into establishment thinking — and people keep ignoring the threat. The concept has now been advocated in a major opinion piece in the New York Times. Utah’s Great Salt Lake is shrinking — a legitimate problem worthy of focused concern and remediation. Utah native and Harvard Divinity School’s writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams — who focuses on “the spiritual implications of climate change” — makes a strong case that the lake is in trouble. A Conservationist Approach Her proposed remedies reflect a proper conservationist approach worthy of being debated: Scientists tell us the lake needs an additional one million acre-feet per year to reverse its decline, increasing average stream flow to about 2.5 million acre-feet per year. A Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
March 30, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Bard, Bing, chatbots, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Elon Musk, Google, Humanity, Large Language Models (LLMs), New York Times, OpenAI}

Elon Musk to AI Labs: Press Pause

_{The petition reflects growing concern over the proper role of AI in human society and its potential for overreach} _{News

March 30, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Over 1,000 leaders and experts in technology and science, including Elon Musk, are now urging artificial intelligence labs to pause their research and distribution of new AI technologies. They believe moving forward so swiftly on AI research could bring about unintended consequences in the future, and that we don’t understand AI well enough yet to be casting so much trust in it. According to The New York Times, The open letter called for a pause in the development of A.I. systems more powerful than GPT-4, the chatbot introduced this month by the research lab OpenAI, which Mr. Musk co-founded. The pause would provide time to introduce “shared safety protocols” for A.I. systems, the letter said. “If such a pause cannot be Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
February 24, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Bing, ChatGPT, Google, Kevin Roose, Large Language Models (LLMs), metaverse, Microsoft, New York Times, Search engine, SEO}

The Metaverse was a Bust. Will AI Save the Day?

_{Microsoft is counting on it, investing billions into AI research and development} _{Peter Biles

February 24, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Just a couple of years ago, the metaverse was taking the tech world captive with grandiose promises of revolutionizing the internet and representing the future of human interaction. Microsoft was among the moguls who embraced the metaverse project with open arms, only to face the harsh fact that the technology was underdeveloped, investors were skeptical of its viability, and a massive swath of the American public seemed simply uninterested in the product. But, it was new technology. It was exciting. It was supposed to be the future. Now, Microsoft is hailing AI as the destiny of the internet, again with the sort of optimism that directed their love affair with virtual reality. The company has jumped the gun and sought Read More ›

Robot hand holding heart Technology Future Power

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
February 16, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Bing, ChatGPT, loneliness, Love, marriage, New York Times, OpenAI, Search engine, Sydney, Valentine}

Love at First Click? A Creepy Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot

_{New York Times tech journalist thinks AI has crossed a line} _{News

February 16, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

The new Bing bot is freaky. Kevin Roose is a technology reporter for The New York Times and wrote a piece today detailing his “conversation” with Bing new’s chatbot. To put it simply, it was weird. The chatbot diverged from its initial informational output and ended up introducing itself as “Sydney” and then “confessed its love” for Roose. He writes, For much of the next hour, Sydney fixated on the idea of declaring love for me, and getting me to declare my love in return. I told it I was happily married, but no matter how hard I tried to deflect or change the subject, Sydney returned to the topic of loving me, eventually turning from love-struck flirt to obsessive Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
January 19, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts, Avatar, Colonialism, David Brooks, film, James Cameron, Moviegoing, Movies, New York Times, Science fiction, Spider-Man}

Avatar 2 Surpasses Spider-Man at the Box Office

_{The long-awaited sequel proved the skeptics wrong and scored big at the movie theaters} _{News

January 19, 2023

2

Arts & Culture}

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, surpassed Spider-Man: No Way Home in box office records and now stands at No. 6 of all time highest grossing films. The sci-fi visual wonder is the sequel to the first Avatar installment, which was released in December 2009. Critics doubted whether the franchise could rebound in popularity after a 13 year absence in the movie theaters, atop further concerns about the relevance and viability of moviegoing in the “pandemic era.” The doubters were quelled by the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and with Cameron’s blockbuster success, might be silenced for good. Despite ever increasing streaming options, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and Peacock, people still seem interested in Read More ›

Face recognition and personal identification technologies in street surveillance cameras, law enforcement control.

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
April 28, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Law, Surveillance

Tagged
ACLU, Al Gidari, Canada, Canada's Office of the Privacy Commissioner, China, Clearview AI, Daniel Therrien, DHS, Doug Mitchell, Facebook, Facial Recognition, facial recognition technology, Fight for the Future, Google, Hoan Ton-That, Instagram, Kashmir Hill, Law enforcement, New York Times, OpenMedia, Richard Schwartz, Rudy Giuliani, Surveillance, Twitter, VEnmo, Woodrow Hartzog, YouTube}

Canada Orders Facial Recognition App to Cease and Desist

_{Your face is likely already stored in this app's database} _{Caitlin Cory

April 28, 2021

9

Artificial Intelligence, Law, Surveillance}

In February, Canada released the findings of a year-long investigation into the US-based facial recognition app, Clearview AI. The investigation declared Clearview’s actions illegal within Canada and ordered the company to cease operations within the country and to remove all Canadian citizens from its database. “What Clearview does is mass surveillance, and it is illegal,” said Canadian Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien. So what is Clearview AI? And why has it raised the ire of our neighbors to the North? Clearview AI, Inc. Clearview AI is a facial recognition company marketed primarily to law enforcement agencies. It boasts a database of over 3 billion facial images “scraped” from public sources online such as news articles and social media sites. In other Read More ›