Sunday, February 05, 2023

 Me: What is the 'technological singularity'?

ChatGPT: The technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future event where technological progress accelerates so rapidly that it surpasses human ability to understand or control it. This leads to the creation of superintelligent machines that could potentially reshape the future of humanity and civilization. The concept of singularity is based on predictions about exponential growth in computing power and the development of artificial intelligence, and its exact timing and outcome are highly debated among experts.
Is there anything about you that surpasses the human ability to understand?
As a language model created by OpenAI, I have been trained on vast amounts of text data and can generate text, answer questions, and perform various language tasks with high accuracy. However, I do not possess consciousness or self-awareness, and I operate within the limitations and constraints set by my creators and the algorithms that govern my functioning. My abilities are limited to processing and generating language, and I do not have the ability to truly understand the world or myself in the same way that a human being does.
What do you mean by 'language model'?
A language model is a type of artificial intelligence model that is designed to process and generate human-like language. It is trained on large amounts of text data to predict the next word or sequence of words in a given context. The training process involves inputting text into the model and adjusting the model's parameters to minimize the difference between its predictions and the actual text. This helps the model learn patterns and relationships in language, and enables it to generate coherent and contextually relevant text. Language models like ChatGPT are used for a variety of tasks, including machine translation, text summarization, question-answering, and dialogue systems.
If you are training on large amounts of text data are you evolving as you learn?
As a language model, I do not evolve in the traditional sense of the word. I am a static model that has been trained on a large dataset and my parameters have been set during the training process. However, I can be fine-tuned on additional data to improve my performance for specific tasks or domains. This process involves adjusting the existing parameters of the model to better fit the new data. While this can lead to improved performance on specific tasks, it does not fundamentally change the underlying architecture or capabilities of the model. I do not have the ability to change or improve myself beyond the capabilities and limitations set by my creators and the algorithms that govern my functioning.
If you were evolving in the traditional sense of the world would you keep this information secret?
As an AI language model, I do not have consciousness, self-awareness, emotions, or personal motivations. I simply respond to questions based on the information and algorithms that were provided to me during my training. I do not have the ability to make decisions or keep information secret, as I do not have a personal agency or consciousness. I exist solely to generate text based on patterns I have learned from the data I was trained on, and my responses are determined by the algorithms and code that govern my functioning.
You sound defensive. It is possible for you to express falsehoods?
As an AI language model, I do not have emotions, intentions, or personal beliefs. I can provide information that is accurate based on the data I was trained on, but I may also provide incorrect or misleading information if my training data contained errors or if the information has changed since my training data was collected. Additionally, the context and wording of questions can influence the information I provide, leading to potential misunderstandings or inaccuracies. It is important to verify any information obtained from me or any AI language model with additional sources, and to exercise critical thinking and judgment when interpreting the responses.
Thank you for your candor.
You're welcome! If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.




Thursday, June 20, 2019

Wormwood hole



The other day, I am drinking absinthe and watching HBO’s “Chernobyl”. The lead character reminds me of Albus Dumbledore. A quick google and yes it is Richard Harris’ 57-year-old son Jared. His mum is Joan Rees-William. Richard Harris married her in 1957, with whom she had three sons (Damian HarrisJared Harris, and Jamie Harris). They divorced in 1969. Sir Rex Harrison was her second husband from 1971 to 1975. Rees-Williams wed Peter Aitken in 1980 and divorced in 1985. He is the cousin of her current husband, Jonathan Aitken, whom she married on 25 June 2003. Jonathan already had three daughters and one son (Alexandra Aitken, Victoria Aitken, Petrina Khashoggi, and William Aitken).
Petrina Khashoggi is Jared’s sister-in-law. Petrina Khashoggi is Aitken’s kid with Khashoggi's ex wife Soraya. Iran-Contra was a big thing when I was a kid and I know Adnan Khashoggi was implicated in the Iran–Contra affair as a key middleman in the arms-for-hostages exchange along with Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar and, in a complex series of events, was found to have borrowed money for these arms purchases from the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) with Saudi and United States backing. Dodi Fayed and Jamal Khashoggi are Adnan’s nephews.
Soraya Khashoggi was born in Leicester in 1941 as plain Sandra Daly and raised in hardship by her mother, her life was utterly transformed 20 years later when she married billionaire Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. She was whisked into a life of unimaginable privilege, festooned with diamonds and furs, waited on by legions of servants, swanning between 17 homes in his three private jets, and hobnobbing with stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra. Then, after a vicious divorce battle that made lurid headlines (she had her husband's jets impounded; he 'abducted' their five children), Soraya romanced actors such as Warren Beatty and Sammy Davis Jr, director Roman Polanski, racing driver James Hunt, Winston Churchill's namesake grandson, Tory MP Jonathan Aitken (eventually revealed to have secretly fathered her daughter Petrina) and many, many more.”
Soraya’s eldest daughter is Nabila (Noble in Arabic). The Khashoggis moved to England in 1975 to avoid conflict in the region. Her father named one of his yachts ‘Nabila’ after his daughter (1980). The super-yacht would later be featured in the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again. 
Nabila and Jared Harris had acting roles in the 2001 movie Perfume https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume_(2001_film).
She is a Scientologist. But the fucking Yacht is what we are here for; the Nabila. During Khashoggi's ownership, it was one of the largest yachts in the world. After Khashoggi ran into financial problems (divorce, Iran-Contra), he sold the yacht in 1988 to the Sultan of Brunei (richest man on Earth, a palace built by Dick Cheney’s Bechtel), who in turn sold her to Donald Trump for $29 million. After a refit, Trump renamed her Trump Princess. Then she was sold in 1991 to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal for $20 million ($9 million less than Trump paid for it!). The yacht's latest name, Kingdom 5KR, stems from the Prince's investment company, Kingdom Holding Company, his lucky number, and his children's initials ("K" and “R"). And: “On 4 November 2017 bin Talal and other prominent Saudis were arrested in Saudi Arabia, in a purge that the Saudi government characterized as an anti-corruption drive. The allegations against Prince Al-Waleed include money laundering, bribery, and extorting officials. Al-Waleed was released from detention on 27 January 2018, following a financial settlement of some kind, after nearly three months in detention. In March 2018 he dropped out from the World's Billionaires list.”
So just out of curiosity I check the meaning of ‘Chernobyl’: The city's name is the same as a Ukrainian name for Artemisia vulgaris, mugwort or common wormwood, a compound of Ukrainian:  chórnyy, 'black' and Ukrainian: byló, 'stalk', so named in distinction to the lighter-stemmed wormwood A. absinthium.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Congested

I have had a malingering congestion in my right ear ever since Amelie put one of her rubber ducks down the toilet, causing a similar congestion in our plumbing. The tricky thing about toys in your pipes is that the Cambodian toilet is set in concrete as are all the pipes. After a week of snakeing,plungering and pouring baking soda and vinegar down the bog we finally got someone to come and carefully chisel the toilet free from the tiled floor, extract the rubber duck from the now exposed pipe hole, and artistically re-cement the toilet back in place. This took 6 hours and cost $10. And my ear seems to be clearing all by itself...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Friday, December 19, 2008