the remarkable predictable world of ai

There’s no point taking umbrage without exploring some of its potential first. That would be AI, I’m talking about. It’s not so much a case of can’t beat them, you might as well join them, but it’s more about learning about the beast that could or already has started crushing our ownership of thought and copyright of the material. I had a dabble with the ChatGPT and it churned out furiously some generated copy that read well, better than this probably, and evidently without voice. That’s us, our style of communication. It’s the template of chore and bore that poor staff of call centres are set to read aloud. It harvests all that reliable copy and plops it in the AI pot and your essay, article, script, blog, etc is prepared by the time you’ve stirred your tea once. I can see the advantage of dreary copy, and a smattering of cheat before a final deadline but it feels lifeless because it is.

We’ve read all the scary headlines and left it in our passive state that it will happen anyway. Well yes, but below are a few tips on how to protect your copy, courtesy of the Writers Guild Union. There are no guarantees, a ton of loopholes, and it’s early days before something really hideous goes wrong, and the lessons as usual can be learned in hindsight. All pretty depressing stuff for my first blog, which could be harvested right now, and find its way into an AI the pros and cons report before logging off.

It still feels so adequate, middle of the road, without spike, to invite me to use it, knowingly. I tried creating lyrics with an AI beast, and everything it returned passed off as some Bob Dylan tribute act, I couldn’t get any nuance, although Bob is all nuance, but the tribute act might not be. Another stab of tentative curiosity led me to search for some copy about female writing talent, which generated images of men working in film and television. They were also white, around 40, good looking with perfect teeth. That's the sort of transparent equality we all love. There are many fears about AI, and behind every Chatbot, there might just be a prejudicial person creating it, which becomes embedded, which perpetuates the familiar ongoing problems. Created and designed by the patriarch, nothing new there, but hang on to your voice, your personality, and your ambitious ideas, because some code is already waiting to scan your next delivery.

Protecting your data on Twitter

To opt out of your data being used by Grok

· Access your X account via a computer (not your phone or tablet)

· Go to More – Settings and Privacy – Privacy and Safety – Grok

· On the right-hand side of your screen you will see some text titled Data Sharing

· Under that there is a checkbox with the following text next to it: Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning

· Uncheck this box

· Underneath this there is also the option to delete your past conversations on Grok which will clear your previous data.

Protecting your data on Facebook

If your account is not linked to Instagram, or if you don’t have an Instagram account, go to the Settings icon in the top right of the app – Privacy Policy (under Community Standards and legal policies) – click on About your right to object – fill in the form (you will be required to enter an authentication code sent to your email address).

Protecting your data on Instagram

Go to the main menu item (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner of your app – scroll down to About – click on Privacy Policy – in the top box click on Right to object – fill in the form (you will be required to enter an authentication code sent to your email address).

Protecting your data on TikTok

Would you bother?