Me, Myself, and AI

“The chatbot instructed him to give up sleeping pills and an anti-anxiety medication, and to increase his intake of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, which ChatGPT described as a ‘temporary pattern liberator.’ Mr. Torres did as instructed, and he also cut ties with friends and family, as the bot told him to have ‘minimal interaction’ with people.” Kashmir Hill in the NYT (Gift Article): They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling. “People who say they were drawn into ChatGPT conversations about conspiracies, cabals and claims of A.I. sentience include a sleepless mother with an 8-week-old baby, a federal employee whose job was on the DOGE chopping block and an A.I.-curious entrepreneur. When these people first reached out to me, they were convinced it was all true. Only upon later reflection did they realize that the seemingly authoritative system was a word-association machine that had pulled them into a quicksand of delusional thinking.” (I’m old enough to remember when I was the internet’s premiere word-association machine…)

+ NYT (Gift Article): Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT. “OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has a plan to overhaul college education — by embedding its artificial intelligence tools in every facet of campus life.” (All that will left of tradition college life will be fake IDs and kegstands.)

+ Want to sit back and think about this AI stuff for a minute? Forget it. The AI arms race is only accelerating. The Verge: Meta is paying $14 billion to catch up in the AI race.