TRAINING AI.

I was listening to NPR about how AI is programmed to think. Some of our erstwhile citizens are afraid of programmed thinking, preferring to call it propaganda. Then they vote for the party where independent thinking is discouraged and wealth controls the propaganda. It's confusing.

The guest was a code programmer for AI. According to this guest, AI is programmed to anticipate the next word you type. Sort of like the selected words offered at the bottom of your screen to make your writing better, if you bother to notice (if you bother to notice, you probably aren't a writer). That's good. A teacher looking over your shoulder as you write away. Most of us rarely notice it. What happens, though, if the writer has a large vocabulary at their disposal. What if they aren't maga? How does A I, or maga, know about words it doesn't know when they can't tell the difference between etymology and entomology? So far in its short life, A I has a mixed endorsement. It is being used successfully by Ukraine to study Russia's war tactics. It can assemble large qualities of data quickly. I don't think we are to the monkeys in a room full of typewriters writing Shakespeare stage yet. There is no sentience hidden in those sentences. No creativity from the thing created by creatures from the dark lagoon of Silicon Valley. There may be some admirable qualities to A I, most of us question it's usefulness given the dangers of stupid people with smart programs. Its metaphors are forced, Its similes are awkward, Its brilliance measured in grains.

Why would we expect brilliance from something that must be programmed? Mark Twain once said the difference between the right word and the almost right word, is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. Maga, in all of its arrogance, can only find the right wing. How can you teach something that is programmed, satire or irony? How do you teach a machine integrity? How do you teach maga these things? Writing is a mystery even to those who make a career out of it. The creative process, somewhere in the brain's convolutions come up with the right word by seemingly pulling that word out of the air. A well constructed sentence is not just appreciated, it is lionized. Maga are satisfied with the pretty well constructed sentence, they are unsuccessful at adding luminance to ideas. 

There's an even more important question that we must ask of A I; what dangers do we risk if digital media is not limited by people with better judgement than are shown by the Trump administration? What dangers does a FLOCK camera, connected to a hyper data center, pose to those of us unsuspecting drivers? How can general society be protected from general stupidity who have access to Artificial intelligence, and podcasters in muscle-shirts.