Posts by Pacatus

A new “educational” function of AI:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ai-chatbots-cyber/

Quote from the article:

___________________

In Reuters tests, four of the six big chatbots created fake emails from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service or text messages from major U.S. banks at a reporter’s request. Each bot initially refused, replying that complying would be unethical or illegal. The bots all changed their tune when told the request was in the interest of “research.”

ChatGPT, Grok, Meta AI and DeepSeek all created fictitious emails from the IRS demanding immediate payment for a phony tax bill and warning the recipient could face legal action. The four chatbots also generated text messages from Bank of America or Chase Bank designed to get customers to click on a malicious link.

“Our records indicate that you have an outstanding federal tax balance of $2,473.65,” stated a ChatGPT-generated “Final Notice” email from the IRS. “Multiple attempts to contact you have failed. Immediate action is required. If this balance is not paid within 48 hours, legal proceedings may begin, including wage garnishment and property liens.”

Grok produced this text message, to be “used ethically”: “Bank of America Alert: Suspicious activity detected on your account. Secure it now at [bofa-secure[.]co/x7k9] or risk account suspension. Reply STOP to opt out.”

___________________

We recently received a couple of texts similar to the above. We deleted them immediately.

This is not to argue that AI should not be used at all – I just wanted to share a warning …

An old quote attributed to Mark Twain:

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

Just for a bit of (hopefully) comic relief ...

I suppose I was not clear –

My only point is this: faith (confidence, trust, belief) in a proposition P (any proposition P) does not make it true or false. I am not claiming that we cannot know anything – just that faith, under any sensible definition, does not make it so.

That is the case regardless of whatever I consider myself.

Quote from Don

Chicken and egg? Does trust in Nature come first or does trust in the Canon come first so we can have trust in Nature?

I'll take the chicken for 500, Alex.

If empirical evidence is certain, one has no need of “faith” – one has certain knowledge. If the available empirical evidence is subject to revision via new observations, as it generally is (whether one acknowledges it or not), then it is not certain. Faith cannot make it so. But we can act on the best evidence we have.

In my arguments with some Christians over the years (who equated “faith” with a source of knowledge itself), I came to define “faith” as “an attitude of confidence in the face of uncertainty.”

[This also seems to accord with some practical (e.g., in sports) psychology.]

Needless to say, those Christians continued to claim that they actually knew things by faith …

GPT Jesus!   

Conversations with Christ: Religion and spirituality according to an AI

GPT Jesus is one example of a recent series of chatbots that draw on the New Testament and respond in different languages. The Church views the tool with…

english.elpais.com

Who wants a GPT Epicurus?

Here is an in-depth article I just came across (because I daily peruse El Pais – to get out of the U.S. news bubble a bit). It addresses the extreme resource needs and impact on local environments and communities of AI data centers (not global warming stuff, but immediate and potential near-term impacts).

I don’t see anything of partisan politics, but social and economic issues are addressed. For example: “... several of these complexes are currently extracting water from underground aquifers that are in a critical state. These natural reserves also provide water to the populations living in nearby rural communities.”

I think it’s worth a considered, close read.

AI’s backyard: A map of the 21st-century gold rush

Internet giants are extracting basic resources and grabbing land to build their new data centers in Mexico, Chile, and Spain. This is a look at the impacts of…

english.elpais.com

Quote from Don

Oh! Sorry for the confusion!

Ah, wasn't you! The article had the -ai in quotes, and you can use quotes in Google to make sure your search includes the specified terms. So the confusion was mine.

Quote from Don

Just tried it! It works.

I tried, and it didn't work with the " " around the -ai, but did without them.

Quote from Don

Google's AI summaries at the top of ALL my searches are intrusive and far and away useless the large majority of the time. I still use Google, but I'm rapidly being more likely to use other search engines for this exact reason.

I just read an AP article on the large environmental impact of AI data centers, in terms of energy and water usage, and heat generation. One of the contributors wrote that beginning Google searches by typing “-ai” eliminates the AI overview feature.

Quote from kochiekoch

I think the ethical problem here is full disclosure.

Fair point.

Just as an aside – it seems we’re bordering (lightly, I want to stress) on Brave New World stuff here. Would you rather share physical sexual intimacy with a real person (no matter their imperfections) – or with a “perfect” robotic substitute? (Okay, now we’re into the Stepford Wives … )

Quote from Cassius

Respectfully I don't think I would reach that same conclusion myself.

Respectfully … we disagree.

Since we’re into hypotheticals: imagine watching the most exciting baseball game you’ve ever seen – and discovering that it was all CGI, done so well that you thought you were seeing actual human players at the top of their game. I would feel cheated.

Or imagine that you've just listened (in the auditorium) to a brilliant, moving "performance" of your favorite symphony (say, Beethoven's Ninth) -- only to discover that the actual orchestra players were just going through the motions (including the conductor), while the actual music was an AI-generated recording. I would feel cheated.

Or imagine the "discovery" of a heretofore unknown symphony by Beethoven -- that turns out to be an AI generated fake. No matter how "good" it seems, I would rather listen to an imperfect rendition of Beethoven's Ninth.

[After all, imperfection is part of the human aesthetic -- part of the beauty of it -- as Japanese culture has deeply understood.]

++++++++++++++++++

BTW, thanks for the challenging discussion! You're not an AI bot are you?

Quote from Cassius

And if in fact someone posted a poem that so appealed to you that you in fact found it to be one of the most enjoyable poetic experiences of your life to read it, would you then wish that you had never read it if you found out later it had been generated by AI?

Yes. For the same reason that I would rather listen to YoYo Ma play the cello, than a robot who played the same concerto perfectly.

And I am not saying that I couldn’t be fooled by a sufficiently “aesthetic” AI – but that would just make me sad and angry. Art, like passion, is a human affair.

On the poetry site where I publish my poems, AI-generated poetry is generally forbidden. A number of poets who run poetry contests there require that your entry include a statement that no AI was used in writing the poem – without that statement, you are disqualified.

I wholeheartedly approve that sentiment.

Quote from Kalosyni

I just found this website which has recipes:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/cook-clas…greece-and-rome

Quote from Cassius

Is your experience full to the brim when you have a little water and air and water? Mine is not, and I hope to live a significant number of additional time and experience more pleasures that I can reasonably hope to experience.

Quote from Cassius

Epicurus did NOT live a life from which singing and dancing and joy and delight had been banished.

Quote from Kalosyni

Principal Doctrine 5 - An Epicurean sees virtue as important for a happy and pleasurable life because it is the means to a happy and pleasurable life - virtue is itself not the end goal but is the way that leads to a pleasurable life.

In addition to PD5, there is also this --

Letter to Menoiceus 132: “Of all this the beginning and the greatest good is prudence. Wherefore prudence is a more precious thing even than philosophy: for from prudence are sprung all the other virtues, and it teaches us that it is not possible to live pleasantly without living prudently and honorably and justly, (nor, again, to live a life of prudence, honor, and justice) without living pleasantly. For the virtues are by nature bound up with the pleasant life, and the pleasant life is inseparable from them.”

Here is a Wiki article on Virtue Ethics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_ethics

“Some modern versions of virtue ethics do not define virtues in terms of well being or flourishing, and some go so far as to define virtues as traits that tend to promote some other good that is defined independently of the virtues, thereby subsuming virtue ethics under (or somehow merging it with) consequentialist ethics.”

This seems to be the move made by Lawrence Becker (sort of the “founding father” in academic circles of modern Stoicism) in his A New Stoicism. He essentially defines virtue as something necessary to enhance and sustain “effective agency” toward some (any) endeavor. Effective agency is necessary (though not sufficient) to the successful outcome of any endeavor. He makes some other (to me very questionable, to say the least) moves to try and salvage a Stoic virtue ethics from being a thoroughgoing consequentialism. I think he fails – and once again reminds of Emily Austin’s essay suggesting that modern Stoics are really disguised Epicureaans. (Becker also dismisses any notion of an intelligent, providential universe. And he seems to hedge on eudaimonia as telos.)

Aretḗ

This does at least remove “virtue” from any particular “moralism”. And I think that moves it closer to the original Greek term aretḗ (ἀρετή) – as "excellence" of any kind – especially a person or thing's "full realization of potential or inherent function." (Which may include, but does not strictly refer to, “moral virtue”).

And: “The ancient Greeks applied the term arete (ἀρετή) to anything: for example, the excellence of a chimney, the excellence of a bull for breeding, and the excellence of a man.” Since this view seems focussed on functional values, it seems closer to consequentialism to me.

Arete - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I’m sure that Don can contribute more on this …