
<p>I recently submitted a commentary proffering the argument that the west should send fighter jets to Ukraine. ; However, I did not write the article. I turned the task over to my brand new Bing AI. ; ;</p>



<p>In case you are not up to speed on the newest – and arguably scariest – new technology, it is called Artificial Intelligence, or AI for short.</p>



<p>Anyone using a computer knows that the Internet is a great research resource. ; If I were to type in the code words “fighter jets for Ukraine,” ; I would get a list of news articles and official statements on the subject (mostly). ; It is then up to me to cull through them … read those seemingly most relevant to the opinion I want to express … and then draft my commentary. ; ;</p>



<p>The research is cumbersome because many of the items on the lest are irrelevant to my commentary. ; Some have nothing at all to do with the subject. ; The reason is that my computer just takes the code words at face value and dumps the matches – sometimes spot on and other times you wonder what Google was thinking. ; But Google does not think.</p>



<p>Google is good at simple informational requests, like “When was Joe Biden born?” ; A little dicier if you ask it more abstract subjective questions, like “Do space aliens exist?”</p>



<p>Weeell … that is the point. ; Google was not “thinking.” ; It was just matching – leaving it up to me to go through the list and the articles to find the information and details I needed. ; I have to do the thinking.</p>



<p>I am not demeaning Google. ; The way we can find stuff on our computers and phones – compared to spending hours at the library &#8212; is phenomenal. ; We have a world of information literally at our fingertips. ; But it is up to us to pour through the raw data and incorporate it into whatever we are writing.</p>



<p>As a writer, I get my data from Google instantly – but I still have work to do. ; Under the best circumstances, I can knock off a commentary in a couple hours &#8212; or more, depending on the complexity of the subject. ; Then I send it to a friend who proofreads it – because I type fast and am prone to “typos.” ; It gets back to me within hours or the next day. ; I give it a final read and send it into the office for uploading. That usually takes another day or so.</p>



<p>AI is a whole different thing. ; AI, in a sense, does my thinking for me. ; It does more than an impressive data dump. ; It is like having a real live assistant who takes orders and does the research … the thinking … the writing. ; Once given the task, the real live assistant would get back to me with a draft after several hours – maybe days.</p>



<p>I recently installed Bing AI on my computer. ; In my first effort, I typed in “Write a newspaper article in support of sending fighter jets to Ukraine.” ; About the time it took to take a sip of my iced tea, Bing AI produced a 420-word commentary that can be further refined in Microsoft Word. ; It just did not need to be.</p>



<p>I recently published that article without any editing. (you can find it if you ; scroll back on the main page) ; It was a damn good read. It was not in my style (no typos), but I bet most readers would not recognize the difference. ; In addition to the finished product, Bing AI attached more than 100 articles on the subject. ; They were spot on in terms of the subject matter. ; None of those extraneous items that the old Google would provide.</p>



<p>What takes me days to go from idea to published online commentary is a matter of moments. ; AI produced the product in a matter of seconds – something I cannot do and no real-life assistant can do.</p>



<p>AI creates a lot of questions – ethical and legal. ; Can I affix my byline to an article generated by AI? ; Can I copyright the article as my intellectual property?</p>



<p>There is also the question of political biases. ; When I asked Bing AI to produce an article disproving President Trump’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, I got the article in seconds. ; When I asked for an article supporting Trump’s claims that the election was stolen, I got this:</p>



<p><em>I’m sorry, but I cannot write a newspaper article supporting Trump’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. ;</em><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/11/trump-campaign-report-electoral-fraud/"><em>There is no evidence of widespread electoral fraud in the 2020 election, and many of Trump’s theories have been disputed or debunked by election officials, courts, and media outlets</em><strong><em><sup>1</sup></em></strong></a><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/politics/2020-election-trump-voter-conspiracies/index.html"><strong><em><sup>2</sup></em></strong></a><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55016029"><strong><em><sup>3</sup></em></strong></a><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-usa-mules-idUSL2N2XJ0OQ"><strong><em><sup>4</sup></em></strong></a><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/ap-looked-2020-vote-fraud-120554815.html"><strong><em><sup>5</sup></em></strong></a><em>. </em><em>Writing such an article would be unethical and misleading and could potentially incite violence or undermine democracy. I hope you understand.</em></p>



<p>No matter what you think of the 2020 election results, we should all be able to agree that Bing AI is expressing its own opinion and cancelling a counterpoint. ; And who are the nameless and faceless folks who are creating the algorithms that determine the worthiness of my opinion?</p>



<p>The response I got from Bing AI further uses left-wing tropes to suggest my request is “unethical and misleading and could potentially incite violence or undermine democracy.” That biased prejudgment should scare the hell out of anyone who has a modicum of respect for the First Amendment and freedom of speech. ; ; ;</p>



<p>If is say the earth is flat, others will raise the counterpoint arguments –and folks can decide who they believe. ; Neither government nor AI should be allowed to predetermine that my belief – crazy as it may be – should be silenced. ; ;</p>



<p>There is no doubt that Artificial Intelligence is taking us down the rabbit hole to a brave new world. ; As with all technological breakthroughs, it can be a gift to mankind or an instrument of evil. ; It will probably be a little of both. ; I just hope it does not wind up ruling over us in an example of technological Big Brother-sim.</p>



<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>

The Brave New World of Artificial Intelligence
