About that Vanderbilt post-shooting email: ChatGPT feigns sympathy poorly, but so do humans
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About that Vanderbilt post-shooting email: ChatGPT feigns sympathy poorly, but so do humans

Associate deans at the Vanderbilt University office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) sent an email to the whole Peabody College community after a man shot eight people at Michigan State University. The deans made the ill-considered choice to use ChatGPT to write the note. But regardless of that choice, such post-shooting sympathy notes are…

The dishonesty of The Dawn Project’s anti-Tesla Super Bowl ad
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The dishonesty of The Dawn Project’s anti-Tesla Super Bowl ad

An advocacy group called “The Dawn Project” aired an ad challenging the safety of Tesla’s Full Self Driving feature during the Super Bowl. The ad is a good example of dishonest fearmongering. Before I analyze the ad, let me clarify two things. First, this ad appeared, not nationally, but in local markets like Washington, DC…

Ask Dr. Wobs: How do you get people to read to the bottom?
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Ask Dr. Wobs: How do you get people to read to the bottom?

I recently received this query from a loyal reader: In an era where merit is accorded on the basis of social media ‘likes’ and increasing numbers of TLTR [too longer to read] messages I would like to (read) your comments on how to get the audience to ‘read to the bottom.’ Good question. Is “read…

Funny machines

Funny machines

I’m obsessed with the question of whether machines can ever be funny. I’ve already shared how ChatGPT just “doesn’t get it” about what a joke is. It seems to understand the structure of a joke, but never quite gets what makes jokes funny. (The last of these ChatGPT jokes is so stupid that is a…

The terrifying, gruesome, incriminating web searches of Brian Walshe

The terrifying, gruesome, incriminating web searches of Brian Walshe

Trigger warning: this post is full of gruesome stuff. The police have charged Brian Walshe of Cohasset, Massachusetts with murdering his wife Ana. They have physical evidence including blood stained items, towels, rags, a Tyvek suit, Ana’s vaccine card, a hacksaw, and cutting shears, but no body. But the Google searches on his son’s iPad…

Even if phone calls are possible on airplanes, it’s still rude

Even if phone calls are possible on airplanes, it’s still rude

According to the Washington Post, European regulators and airlines are now investigating ways to enable 5G mobile phone calls on airplanes. Right now, you can’t do this because mobile phones on planes need to be in “airplane mode” — that is, not connected to mobile antennas. The ostensible reason is that mobile phone frequencies interfere…