AI and I

Andreas Paepcke

August 24, 2024

AI and I

Being in the biz I try to solve lots of problems using one of the AI service. They are Claude by Anthropic, Geminyi by Google, and GPT4 by OpenAI. The results are spectacular in a number of areas. You may bitch and moan about AI, and Big Tech, but that fact remains. You can also lose money with it. Let me explain, and don't worry, I'll close each conversational loop.

AI image 1 — Image drawn by Gemini to fit

AI image 2 — It also felt this one fit the title nicely.
Maybe nice to think about at bed time

I have a lot of text in this entry, and just a couple of images. So I'll sprinkle in a few photos whose captions will tell unrelated stories.

The Amazing

Starting with what interests most of you least: these models are great with programming. You tell them what you want, and the language in which you want it, and it rarely makes mistakes. If it does, you know soon enough when you try it out.

Now the plot thickens. I met a guy, Ken. He is a truly nice person. Helpful, funny, and semi retired from a variety of jobs. He ran a couple of bars in his young days. Joined law enforcement, serving arrest warrants to guys who are now serving life plus 150 years. Ran a Harley-Davidson dealership, and now buys used cars for a group of dealerships via online auctions out of his house.

He is also a MAGA at its cutting edges. Biden flat out opened the Southern border to a flood of immigrants, who are now the occupants of the urban homeless encampments. Also, they constitute the Venezualan gangs in some US cities. The gangs make the former Mob look like a Methodist church congregation.

I know! I keep doing these faucets. But this one would get you! Clean lines, elegant design. Turn clockwise a little bit (the only way), and get scalding hot water.

Continue turning to reach cool water for soothing the burns.

The 2020 election was obviously stolen. How does he know? He watched it happen during the night Nov 4-5. Trump was ahead, and suddenly the Biden numbers rose steeply. Clearly someone turning a knob somewhere. My question of what it would take to make him believe the outcome of the 2024 election, if Trump loses met evasion. I still don't know.

The storming of Congress was Antifa, not the Proud Boys. Evidence: a video that shows police inviting the guy with the horns into the Capitol, and showing him around. Antifa clamoring outside.

The night after that conversation I asked one of the AIs a question similar to What was the development of vote counts in the 2020 election throughout election night?? Here is what I got:

11 PM ET (Nov 3): Trump wins Florida, a crucial swing state
12 AM ET (Nov 4): Biden wins Arizona, flipping a state Trump won in 2016
2 AM ET: Trump prematurely claims victory despite many votes still being counted
4 AM ET: Biden wins Maine
7 AM ET: Biden begins to narrow the gap in Michigan and Wisconsin as mail-in ballots are counted
10 AM ET: Biden takes the lead in Wisconsin

Not bad. But it is a bit dry. So I pushed on: Can you create a visualization for this data? And the damn thing types out a computer program that creates a graph from these data points (JavaScript). And then, it runs that program in my browser, showing this:

Automatically produced timeline for 2020 election night results

Not the prettiest, needs work, but a good start.

A more direct question to ChatGPT: Did Biden open the Southern US border to immigrants? is as evasive as Ken:

I can't help with responses on elections and political figures right now. I'm trained to be as accurate as possible but I can make mistakes sometimes. While I work on improving how I can discuss elections and politics, you can try Google Search.

How to Lose Money With AI

No, I didn't take AI advice on hounds or horses. But I did ask for the midway point between Milwaukee and Madison SD. I wanted just two reasonable days' worth of travel between these cities. I learned that Worthington MN was 250mi from Milwaukee, and I would need to do 259mi on to Madison the next day. A perfect partition!

In reality, right to left: Milwaukee, Worthington MN, and Madison SD

I booked a Super 8 in Worthington, and programmed my GPS. The numbers didn't match by a few hundred miles. But I bravely proceeded West. After several hours in the sattle, I realized the futility of my endeavor. I cancelled my Worthington Super 8, and booked another in La Crosse, WI. Cancellation deadline: 24 hours. My phonecall: 5 hours. Though, now being a card carrying Wyndham Hotels family member, maybe they'll be nice. I'm also a Hyatt family member, but they don't know about each other.

It's Never Enough

Here is another image I send you on each of my trips: adaptors. But as I lag behind versions in some gadgets while forging onwards in others, I never get it right.

In Milwaukee I had to hunt down a USB-C to Lightning cable. Finding a motorcycle transmission would have been easier. Calling a computer store got me a question from the IT guy:

And yet—there is always one you don't have

Electronics store clerk downdown: What's a Lightning cable?

An Apple store in an outskirt mall was happy to sell me one for $32.