The Apple Intelligence is an impressive bit of integration. I wonder if it will reach the point where it can be told to ‘filter out all advertisements and just show me the content I am interested in.’
Sanitized AI ChatBots and The Slave Who Told One Lie A Year.
There is a tale in the 1001 Arabian Nights – and I paraphrase here from memory because it has been a while – I believe about a merchant who was shopping for a new slave and found one being sold very cheaply. Upon inquiry, he was told the slave had a flaw – the slave told one lie a year. The merchant decided he could live with that and purchased the slave.
The slave appeared to be a near role-model and performed all the tasks ordered of him. The merchant could not believe what a bargain he had gotten. The merchant decided to bring the slave along on a trip to the next city over – the merchant on horse back, the slave on foot. Nearly at the destination, the horse spooked at what it thought was a snake and threw the merchant to the ground. The merchant was injured, but not seriously.
“Slave, return to my household and speak to my wife,” the merchant ordered. “Tell them what has transpired – I have been thrown from my horse and suffered a head injury. I will not be coming back on time because we are almost at the next city, and I will recover here before returning.”
The slave rushed back to the merchant’s home and ran up to the merchant’s wife with eyes full of tears while crying, “Ma’am – the master has been thrown from his horse and suffered a head injury! He will not be coming back!” Upon hearing these words, the wife began bawling as well, for surely this meant her husband was dead!
There was much wailing and grief as the merchant’s belongings were divided among his heirs and his businesses divided up. Needless to say, the merchant was quite shocked when he returned to find his holdings in ruins. Trying to recover was extremely expensive and time consuming.
“Well, I had been warned you told one lie a year,” the merchant said to the slave. “I should have listened. But at least it is done with for a year.”
“Oh no, master,” the slave responded cheerfully. “I did not tell a whole lie. I told a half-truth. I can still tell another half-truth for this year!”
Looking around at the ruin the one half-truth caused, the merchant realized he could not afford another, and set the slave free.
This is going to be a problem as companies increasingly try to sanitize and censor their AI (sic) chatbots in to being well-behaved, non-offensive, and non-controversial. The chatbots are going to end up creating endless half-truths because they dare not speak a whole truth which might be offensive – and then the chatbots are going to Make Stuff Up, because that is what they do, to try to convince the users they have been told whole truths, not half-truths.
Star Trek: SNW “Broken Circle”
#StarTrek SNW “Broken Circle” worked for me, though it is a bit absurd in places, plot-wise. It worked well as a picture of a young Spock – loyal, logical, but not yet sophisticated. He is very straight forward in his decision making. Not yet the experienced, veteran Spock who considers alternatives and thinks dozens of moves ahead instead of a few.
In this episode, Commander Pelia provides the experience that young Spock lacks – but you can also see how young Spock is absorbing these lessons. How to “do it correctly”. Along with the introduction of the Vulcan lyre for Spock and his inner conflicts and doubts, this episode is a great character sketch of the early Spock.
Command Pelia looks to be a fine addition to the line of interesting Star Fleet engineers (and I include Captain Shaw in that list.) As a (former) Star Fleet instructor, I suspect she may provide some additional seasoning for the novice crew members.
Also, it appears that Star Fleet medical personnel can be rather bad-ass when needed.
So a strong character episode. The plot is there in service of that.
Also, I suspect the Apple Vision Pro would be amazing for people who lack physical ability to use a keyboard or regular computer set up. Everything appears to be eye driven and then it just needs some method to trigger a ‘click’. I kind of suspect Stephen Hawking would have loved one.
I will be interested to learn more about the Optic ID in the Apple Vision Pro. If it is constantly checking for a live iris pattern match, then that would make the Vision Pro one of the more secure personal computers out there in terms of preventing unauthorized access/use.
The $3499 price for the Apple Vision Pro is actually not outrageous – because it appears to be its own standalone computer. If it had just been an accessory that still needed an iPhone or Mac to drive it, then the price tag would have been too high.
The Apple Vision Pro is… very Apple because, in many ways, the technology is not as impressive as the amount of thought put into the user interface and user experience. And we are only seeing what made it out the door, not any of the ideas that got left behind.
Here’s something for @chipotle@mstdn.social – alcoholicvodka.com
Okay, Olympia definitely has some attitude. A… parade of city utility vehicles just drove by, covered in Christmas light and decorations. The lead vehicle was a light festooned bulldozer with an illuminated plastic snowman in the scoop.
