John Healy's Tech Blog

Category: News

News, annoucements

  • 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 remember in the coming years as, presumably, the four horsemen…

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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 conversing with AI chatbots or even turning over whole paragraphs…

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  • The Fediverse – Mastodon for Twitter refugees?

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    The saga of Twitter disruption continues this week. Twitter troubles. Whether you’re staying on the platform or considering moving to another service, this article is an excellent overview of distinctions and options. If you’re active in digital social groups, does everyone pack up (all their shared messages and media) and move to Mastodon? Twitter refugees. • PCWorld > “How Mastodon and federated services put social…

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  • VR spacewalk – ISS walking tour premiere

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    At my 2019 college reunion, there was an exhibit room which celebrated physicist Richard Feynman’s life and work: “The Mind’s Eye: Richard Feynman in Word and Image.” In a small area of that room, there were a dozen or so chairs for viewing a multimedia presentation by donning a VR headset. Well, this latest space station VR tour sounds more interesting and immersive (high definition,…

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  • iPhone system updates – 2021 iOS flurry

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    Are you getting annoyed at the constant nags to update your iPhone? Is it worth all the time it takes to process – to download-check-install and reboot your device? If you’re getting notices the last month or so that yet another iOS update is available for your iPhone, then you’re not alone. I was getting tired as well with the flurry this year: iOS 14.4,…

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