John Healy's Tech Blog

Category: Computer

Posts related to computer hardware and software

  • Meet Bard – an early experiment by Google

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    Today, via email, I received an invitation to try Google’s new Bard Chatbot. After a limited, cautious demonstration in 2020, there’s now a limited public beta test. Because that protocol is the way to collect “valuable data” – at public scale. Sort of like a large clinical trial of a new medicine, eh [1]. Meet

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  • AI tech and society’s slippery slope

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    Steven Levy commented this week on those heralding a “worst-case scenario” for AI – “how artificial intelligence might wipe out humanity.” At a gathering in New York City organized by the Center for Humane Technology (CHT) [1], a “doom-time presentation” evoked an apocalyptic tone: We were told that this gathering was historic, one we would

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  • Chatbot redux – synthetic coherent ‘Stochastic Parrots’

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    [List of articles in progress] Here’s a bunch of recent articles re AI-powered chatbots: ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, Microsoft’s Bing, … Here’s a useful context by Wired’s Steven Levy. • Wired > email Newsletter > Steven Levy > Plaintext (Feb 17, 2023) Hi, folks. Are your news feeds, like mine, loaded with “stories” consisting of reporters

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  • When your Mac or MacBook won’t turn on?

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    As premium devices, Apple computers generally are reliable and last for years. But there can be times – hopefully rare – when your MacBook, for example, won’t power on. Or at least not bootup. This Macworld article is a useful recap of troubleshooting tips. And, yes, it can be humbling to realize that the problem

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  • Smartphone safety – Find My and Find Device apps

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    This Malwarebytes (MWB) blog story is interesting, but the information afterwards is useful: setting up Apple’s / Android’s Find My / Find Device service on your smartphone. • Malwarebytes > Blog > “iPhone user watches as stolen phone travels from UK to China” (December 13, 2022 by Christopher Boyd) In practical terms, this meant that

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