Author: Geek Planet

Dr. Dembski made a list of possible contributions and offering some comments on it will clarify what I am trying to say: “Accent and Pronunciation Refinement in Language Learning” A focused speech-recognition “AI” (not a chatbot) could help students learn languages more efficiently. That tech has been around for a while. A very narrowly, ethically trained product could be useful here, but it’s no replacement for human conversation. “Creative Writing with Rhetorical Precision” This is a dangerous proposal. Writing is thinking. AI can’t be trusted to generate coherent content, nor to have a voice that is something students should emulate.…

Remember the “more personal Siri” ad that Apple pulled? Yeah, the same one where you could just say “which person I met at XYZ cafe two weeks ago” and it answered. And pulled a whole bunch of other futuristic tricks because it was armed with deep knowledge of your “iPhone life,” digging everywhere from your mail and messages to location and photos. Well, those plans still haven’t materialized.  But if you’ve been waiting for a similar convenience on Google’s side of the ecosystem, the future has just arrived. Today, Google has announced Personal Intelligence. Think of it as a more…

In the era of synthetic social, where AI slop has flooded timelines, brand marketers and agency execs have largely shrugged off concerns. The low-effort, mass produced, AI-generated content, known as AI slop, could have ripple effects on the marketing industry — misinformation, brand copyright, IP and social media saturation. Still, marketers seem unfazed, according to four brand marketers and agency execs Digiday spoke with for this piece. “AI or otherwise, the key is to make content that audiences gravitate to,” said Haley Schluter, head of North America for Buttermilk influencer agency, in an email to Digiday, later adding, “It’s only…

Editor’s note: Due to seasonal travel issues, the Monday Microsofty could not be published until today. To be a good computer scientist or engineer, you have to be a nerd. Nerds like me are offended by flawed portrayals of mathematics and physics in movies and television.  For example, in the classic 1939 Wizard of Oz Movie, when the Scarecrow got his brain, he said “The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.” This mistake ruins what is an otherwise wonderful movie for me. I…

While LLMs may be “just math” and statistically choose the next word as “autocomplete on steroids,” they aren’t reliably connected to reality. They don’t know the meaning of anything. In fact, they know precisely nothing (Big Tech propaganda notwithstanding). So, the words they generate are not grounded in reality. It’s not just that they hallucinate: it’s that they confabulate, or “BS” And that’s before we consider the emotionally manipulative user interface (UI). The chatbot UI is deceptively created to feel helpful, supportive, encouraging, and intelligent, leading us into forming a relationship and building trust. Big Tech’s signature exploitative strategies optimize…

The festive shopping season is in full swing right now with deals and discounts on almost every storefront. And as usual, electronics gadgets are a hot commodity. Phones, hearables, and consoles are usually at the top of many wishlists, but one item, in particular, that I highly recommend is smart glasses.   I know. I know. The whole concept of putting on a pair of glasses that try hard to look like Ray-Bans, but still spook anyone nearby with conspicuous cameras, is something that many people are still uneasy with. But Meta isn’t the only label out there — with its…

Google is expected to launch its next Pixel A-series device soon, and recent leaks have already revealed quite a bit about the affordable phone. The Pixel 10a is said to bring minimal design changes and could reuse several components from its predecessor. While that may dampen expectations for those hoping for a bigger upgrade, a new leak gives fans something to look forward to. According to a recent post from tipster Arsène Lupin on X, Google could unveil the Pixel 10a on February 17. Leaked retail listings suggest that the device may come in two storage configurations: 128GB and 256GB.…

It started with a standing desk and a Beyoncé lip sync.That was the viral video Bashel Lewis posted to his TikTok account in April that got him thinking about leaving his full time marketing gig at Nielsen to become a content creator. “Everyone from Universal to Hulu to every brand you could think — Mama Tina [Tina Knowles], Gayle King, CBS posted this stuff,” said Lewis, a New York City based lifestyle and comedy content creator, referring to the people who engaged with the video.  That video has since racked up more than 7.3 million views on TikTok and Lewis…

I have shared many examples of the unreliability of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and other large language models (LLMs). Recent examples include evaluating a rotated tic-tac-toe grid, and labeling a possum’s body parts. Some correspondents have objected that no one is going to ask an LLM to evaluate an obviously pointless tic-tac-toe rotation or to identify a possum’s tail and snout. I should have been clearer. The many examples I’ve reported are not just “gotchas” meant to embarrass LLMs. They are intended to demonstrate in a clear and compelling way that LLMs are inherently unreliable. Going back to my Oxford…

After rolling out new Gemini-powered translation capabilities for Google Translate last month, Google now appears to be prepping a new feature that will let users ask for alternate translations. This feature could give users multiple translation choices instead of a single result, which would be useful in a variety of situations. The in-development feature was first spotted by Android Authority while digging through the latest build of Google Translate for Android (version 10.0.36.855137688.3-release). Although it’s not live for end users, the publication managed to enable it while attempting to surface another unreleased feature that would offer users contextual information and…