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Maybe I'm live
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This week a mini interview I did about cooperatives for a popular newsletter called Dense Discovery was released. I also recorded an episode of the OEGlobal Voices podcast with Alan Levine – an open educator and inventor whose work I've learned loads from for over a decade. I also made a video and wrote a post summing up a bunch of data stuff. We'd been working on it the last couple of weeks, so I essentially tied a bow on it for the year. These things injected a bit of energy into my week, as I was feeling rather SAD from the oppressive grey of German winter.
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A warm welcome to all the new subscribers! Fair warning: this newsletter is a reflection of my brain state. Sometimes I'm quite articulate and sound like I know wtf I'm doing, sometimes you will see behind the curtain and realise that I, like all of you, am making it up as I go along.
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Maybe I'm fluid
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The chat bot. We've got to talk about ChatGPT, the amazing AI that all the internet is freaking out about at the moment. For those of you who haven't heard:
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screenshot of ChatGPT explaining itself
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It is amazing. Academics (and others) are freaking out because this thing can write an essay that reads pretty well. It can write functional code and describe what you do for a living in seconds.
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Also a bunch of white men are upset that it isn't racist and now they're starting to yell about how "the left" is censoring AI.
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But it's not fluid or floral, delicious or smacking with the unbelievable taste of firing human neurons. It's not creative, my dears, it isn't lyrical. And, as many have seen as they've been testing its limits this week, it's not infallible. Not. At. All.
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Still, AI engineers are building sophisticated stuff that will change the way we do knowledge work. It's going to change the fabric of the internet, the fabric of society.
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It's robot brains gone wild. For some people it's outright scary. Not me, though. the Vox article below ends with a brief anecdote about someone's 8th grade math teacher telling them not to rely on a calculator because "you won't always have one in your pocket".
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Maybe I need help?
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I know the technology is changing quickly, and I know it is terrifying sometimes. Just yesterday we replaced the rotary phone on the hallway table with a fancy new cordless that let us go all the way into the kitchen. But have no fear, friends, your gigantic human brain will continue to find new ways to kill time before you die.
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So...what have you been up to?
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