Tag: writing

CANADIAN NEWSPAPERS FILE SUIT AGAINST ChatGPT AND OPENAI

It’s come to light that a group of Canadian newspapers have banded together to launch a lawsuit against ChatGPT and OpenAI, two entities that specialize in using artificial intelligence to generate what could be called “creative’ materials.  By creative materials, I speak mostly about text, or writing applications, and artificially-generated images, although the technology will soon expand to include other artistic endeavours, like video, music, and, well, you name it.

These entities are also referred to as large language models, or LLM’s, and get their capabilities from scouring the internet in the most precise detail and “learning” from what they scan, both in terms of content and style, to the point where they can replicate the work of a real person, and do so in seconds.

The implications, and ramifications of this, are huge.  And to a large degree totally unfair to those people and those organizations who generate creative content the old-fashioned way:  through talent, hard work, and much self-sacrifice.

The reason it’s newspapers leading this particular charge is two-fold.

First, it’s been the news media generally that has been stolen from on an egregious scale, victimized by the big tech companies who would allow that original content to be posted and re-posted on their various social media platforms and other platforms.  Given the rise and popularity in social media, it was only a matter of time before the advertising dollars followed suit, the same dollars that newspapers relied on to provide their product and pay their salaries and bills.  After all, when you advertise in a newspaper, your messaging gets thrown in the trash after a day or a week, depending on the type of publication.  When you advertise online, algorithms ensure that your message will remain alive, and pop-up conveniently everywhere a potential consumer may go, since the algorithm has already determined your surfing and interest patterns.  A much better bang for your advertising buck.

The kicker is that the place that created the original content is forced to lay off staff, downsize its operations, or close completely, thereby sniffing out the source of all that creative work.  So there go of all those writers, reporters, graphic artists, editors, and advertising sales people, all victims to voracious American big tech companies who have literally come in and stolen everything from you to fuel their own breath-taking growth.

Continue reading “CANADIAN NEWSPAPERS FILE SUIT AGAINST ChatGPT AND OPENAI” →

MY VERY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH DRIVE-BY RACISM

You meet a lot people along the way when you walk regularly, as I do.  People like myself, stretching the legs and trying to keep Grandfather Time at bay, people out for the fresh air, people shuffling off to work or shuffling back from it, people out hoping to clear their heads from the weighty matters of life, and people walking their dogs.  The common denominator, of course, is people.

These people come in all shapes and sizes, colours and hues, and are all carrying their individual backgrounds with them as they walk, some in the same direction as yourself, others coming towards you and passing by in the opposite direction.  Some even on the other side of the road.

In the vast majority of cases, an interaction, albeit brief, takes place, often in the form of a wave, wishes for a good morning, a simple “hi, how are you,” Nothing too crazy.  Nothing too involved.  Just the kind of stuff you’d see in an old Norman Rockwell painting of a time seemingly gone by — and I appreciate many of you would have no idea who Norman Rockwell might be — but a time that, in that sense never really left us, that basic interaction with strangers along the way, something small towns are supposed to be noted for.

One such stranger is a man with two dogs, a regular along my route for a few weeks, although I’ve not seen him recently.  I first interacted with him when he was walking his dogs on a path perpendicular to mine.  Owing to the size differential of the two dogs, and owing to the angle upon which I was viewing them, the two dogs actually appeared to me to be one dog.  A dog that seemingly had more legs to it than God might have intended.  Legs that moved in a way that defied my ability to make sense of the whole thing.  Obviously, as we got closer to one another, it became apparent that I was just viewing the two dogs at an angle that made them appear as one, some hydra-legged beast from an ancient Greek tragedy.  But no, two dogs, one owner, and everything was as it should be in the world again.

Continue reading “MY VERY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH DRIVE-BY RACISM” →

AN OBITUARY THAT LEFT ME IN STITCHES

When I was younger, I took note of how often my mother would check the obituaries in the daily paper and periodically call out to my dad that so-and-so had passed away and what a shame that was. For me, it always seemed to have a bit of a ghoulish feel to it, and I felt confident that it was something that I wouldn’t do myself when I got to her age, which would be never, so far away into the future as it seemed to me, a teenager at the time.

Over fifty years later, here I am doing that very thing, every single day. I do it online, and I check out the notices in the windows of print shops and flower stores. I think it has to do with the inevitability of things coming to a close in this realm. Sort of reminds me of a story in a literature book called Cranes Fly South, a story of an older gentleman coming to grips, in his way, with the inexorable march of time. Sad and poignant is what it was.

When I walk by the shop windows, I’ll always check out the obituaries displayed there, seeing who might have passed, whether I knew them, and generally making sure that they don’t have me up there. So far so good.

Continue reading “AN OBITUARY THAT LEFT ME IN STITCHES” →

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑