Artificial Intelligence
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From Cyclone Chaos to 26 Days on Quantum of the Seas | Australia & New Zealand
I flew more than 9,000 miles to Brisbane, Australia for a bucket-list adventure — and landed just before a massive cyclone shut the city down. What followed was 26 days at sea across Australia and New Zealand: three back-to-back cruises carrying me from the Great Barrier Reef to the fjords of Fiordland, from coastal bike… Continue reading
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An evolution of this blog
The aperture of Past Yonder is expanding. Continue reading
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Algorithm and blues: The challenge of detecting AI-enabled cheating in education
I was a child when Texas Instruments unveiled the TI-81, its first graphing calculator. This was no normal calculator. For a fledgling nerd like me, who proudly wore a Casio wristwatch that had more features than I could count, it was an item of lust. Its face was adorned with dozens of buttons in varying… Continue reading
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Bleeding the grid dry: AI’s insatiable appetite for electricity
If you ask ChatGPT to explain the impact AI is having on the electric grid, it cheerfully (and without a hint of irony) explains all the ways AI consumes vast amounts of power. Training models? Yup, that takes a few electrons. Answering questions – such as how much electricity is used to answer a question?… Continue reading
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The latest parlor betting game: when will AI kill all humans?
The theme of technology betraying its creators has been revisited time and time again in novels and movies such as Neuromancer, The Matrix, and of course the Terminator franchise. These plots have sat firmly in the land of science fiction, but more and more experts are warning that recent advances in AI could shift them… Continue reading
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Adversarial AI: Can the training be tricked?
Modern AI systems continue to wow us with their ability to produce creative works of text, choose the right exposure for a photograph, or keep our car centered within the lanes of a winding highway. But can we really trust them to do the right thing in every circumstance? What if a nefarious actor tried… Continue reading
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From algorithms to albums: can AI generate music?
Words, images, and video. Generative AI is becoming increasingly competent at producing works that rival the output of human writers, photographers, and videographers. But what about music? According to a recent story in Rolling Stone, audio and music have lagged behind other forms of generative content creation. Audio is considered “unfathomably more complex” than words,… Continue reading
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ELIZA, the original chatbot
Before ChatGPT, Gemini, and even Siri, there was ELIZA, the original chatbot. Created in 1966, ELIZA is one of the earliest examples of a natural language processing program, or what we now call chatbots. While modern chatbots aim to converse on virtually any topic, ELIZA had a much narrower focus. She was designed to simulate… Continue reading
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AI Weekend Bits: April 7, 2024
Some developments in the world of AI from the past week are summarized below. DALL-E Improvements OpenAI’s Dall-E image generator received a few upgrades last week, enabling users to edit images directly within ChatGPT and accept preset style suggestions recommended by the tool. According to a story in The Verge, the updates aim to make… Continue reading
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Reaching the end of the Internet
In a 2002 television commercial for DirecTV’s blazing fast DSL Internet service, a man is seen aimlessly browsing the Internet, clicking link after link. Suddenly, his computer informs him that he has “reached the end of the Internet” and has “seen everything there is to see.” He stares at the screen in amazement. Going back… Continue reading
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AI image generators could use a hand
In an episode of the TV sitcom Seinfeld, George Costanza almost becomes a hand model after an agent notices his “beautiful” hands. This exciting career possibility is abruptly cut short after his hands meet the heat of a clothes iron, causing his modeling dreams to slip from his (charred) fingertips. Ironically, the fictional character George… Continue reading
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AI worker shortage leads to talent war, high salaries
Unemployment remains below 4% in the United States, but workers in the tech industry are still experiencing layoffs at rates greater than other professions. According to an NBC News story, heading into 2024, tech remains one of the few soft spots in an otherwise strong labor market. Brian Cheung quotes one tech worker: “There was… Continue reading