Andersons of Colonial N. Carolina

I have two trusted friends and we email when confronted with dilemmas.  Been doing it for years…  This is not a problem to be fixed… or trifled with.

One of those friends has confronted me with an ultimatum: “Don’t bring that demon to the party”.  When she talks… I listen. She does not stutter.  She did not use the term “demon” but I think that is a justifiable analogy.  The demon in this case, of course, is Artificial Intelligence.  She has put up a fence to keep the demon out.  I respect that. I truly do.

I on the other hand have let the damn thing loose in my yard and treat it like a dog. (I do love my analogies).  I have this idea that you can train a dog.  You can make a sheep dog look after sheep and not eat them.  My odd intent of that statement belies the fact that, perhaps, sheep dogs evolved from wolves (who do eat sheep).  Not stated on the surface is the older idea that sheep dogs did not evolve from wolves. That is all to state the obvious that there are two schools of thought, you know, Creation vs Evolution.  In some circles, those are fighting words.

Conscientious Genealogists truly believe in telling the facts as truthfully as possible.  They have formed a club and set down rules…  The main rule is “don’t play with the truth”.  My friend is a “Conscientious Genealogist” and she will brainwrestle you like an armwrestler in a drunken bar contest.  She is like a female Superman explaining Truth, Justice and the American Way to Cub Scouts.  I’m pretty sure she likes apple pie also.

I have caught AI “playing with the truth”.  But I think it can be trained.  But like a dog that has bitten me before, I will always keep that fact in the back of my head.  Hence I will not attempt to train a wolf to guard sheep.  Perhaps I am just trying to train a dog to hunt and will keep it penned up.  That is where I think I am.  Time will tell.

But I have been warned and will keep it under advisement…

Update…

I have realized it is foolish to think AI will “think” like a human.  But as AI develops, it sort of “reasons” in its own fashion.  An example is it’s ability to “analyze” data… I can take a lengthy article full of charts, graphs, quotes and even politicians outright lies and subtle obfuscations and tell it to “Summarize at a 6 grade level:”.

With that simple command, the AI Does Its Thing…  and it does it very well (in my opinion).  Try it.

Find a truly complex, scientific article that is miles above your pay grade… (DNA articles just slay me, make my eyes cross and put me to sleep)… but I can ask my AI chatbot to “Summarize at 6 grade level:” then copy/paste the article in the chat box and hit enter.  The damn thing spits out a truly understandable paragraph or two that even I can understand and make sense out of.  For true.