Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for November 03, 2024

“On the Muppet Show, tonight!”

Sunday Funday

My feeling is that we need fewer viruses and more logic and compassion…..

… but I also realise that these are humans about whom we speak. And we haven’t done a stellar job of either. :(

…and maybe they could clean some carpets on the way out? All in one night? Like Santa Claus, only for cleaning?

…please?

Onward Vacuum soldiers, hoovering through the dust…..

I hope the bug lets me win more sweep stakes…

Just a couple more days until Shouty People Day. Whichever candidate wins, there is going to be fallout. Try to be patient and kind with each other. We have a long road ahead. ♡

So… It makes A.I. gradually become more and more obviously dreck, so that humans catch on that it’s dreck and do something about it?

I hope so! But we humans have a history of not being bright enough to catch a clue till it’s waaaay too late!

For those who may be wondering: yes, the alien letters in each panel are translated/transliterated at the bottom of the panel.

“Common sense, reasonable laws”Who decides which laws are reasonable and common sense? If not me, then we are all doomed.

And the Muppets tune is back!

Killer Roombas from Outer Space—

Killing the A.I. in every place!

A number of commenters were wondering why 1) there were so many Doombas in the apartment and 2) why the adults needed to be ensorcelled. Since I believe the simple answers are usually the correct (and most elegant) answers I would propose the following. The answer to 1) is that the Doombas perceived Tortimer to be a rock star and they all wanted to meet him. And the answer to 2) is that if the adults were conscious they would interfere with their meeting Tortimer.

Haven’t seen Mr. Man for awhile. Is he okay?

Little late coming in tonight got involved in a TV program. But, lo and behold, we have Beatrix toebeans and Iggy toebeans coming in for a landing! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Couldn’t we at least have gotten a glimpse of the RCO crowd looking out the attic windows?

It’s time to clean the carpets

It’s time to bite the dust

It’s time to greet the doombas, We’re doombas you can trust!

{chortle} From the Muppet Show to a hymn. Interesting!

I hope Tortimer doesn’t break down tomorrow… And who’s going to tell the Woman the story and get scolded for making things up? (Complimented for the inventiveness, though.)

You hear that Yolanda? No more jamming your sensors. And I’ll try to pick up random bits of Kleenex. Maybe we can get through a cleaning without you needing Urgent Care.

I always am a little suspicious of something you’ll “never see coming” (quote OZ) especially when we’re talking about computer bugs.

Humans, famous for their common-sense, reasonable approach to problems.

So it is 20 years to doom then eh. That how long steenky aliens robots virus is gonna take to spreads. A slow painful deaths eh. Them dangnabbits diabolical steenky robot aliens. We here to serve earth they said. It gonna be deeleeshus they said.

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

Beatrixa: So the alien Roombas were benevolent in their intentions. I wonder if their plan worked.

Puckmosis: I guess we won’t find out, but I think as long as common sense prevails they’ll be alright.

Pink Lupinium: What’s common sense again?

Bea: I’ve changed my mind. We need a bit of common nonsense as well.

Ora Z: Now the tomato storm has passed. I’m going to the Royal Kitchen to help the staff process the tomatoes into sauce.

Elvis-Anum: Great! We’re going to have Biscetti for dinner tonight!

Pink Lupinum: I thought it was Skibetti.

Puck: Whatever. It’ll be messy and delicious.

This still doesn’t explain why they gave all but one of the adults brain-freeze!

I have never connected my Roomba to the internet. She is my best worker.

Okay but why the audio glitch that gave all the hearing adults the mind-whammy?

Another happy ending! BCN is always so optimistic. Just what we need right now.

" marching as to war.."

I’d love to believe this happy ending. But even with common sense laws, humans being humans, there will be those who subvert them for harm.

I love that Tortimer is a hero!

A happy ending to the story, and a good time was had by all.

BTW, there have been real attempts to do pretty much precisely as described with AI here in real life, by deliberately feeding AI images (or other data) with the data subtly tweaked in such a way that, to the viewer, the image (or whatever) looks largely normal, but it tricks the AI into thinking it is something it is not actually and for it to proceed with that assumption instead. The idea being that, if enough of this is “taught” to the AI, it’ll learn the wrong things and instead of giving you, say, a picture of a car, it gives you a picture of an elephant instead, making its generative properties effectively useless if it can’t produce accurate content.

And as the pro-AI crowd keep reminding people, once an AI has learned something, you can’t just make it unlearn it, so…

Of course, the AI developers are already aware of such attempts and are working to address this vulnerability, but not only is that likely to just end in a cold war scenario of no real end (kind of like companies attempts to render adblockers inert only for the adblockers to adapt and blocks such attempts), to me, it just proves how unreliable AI actually can be and that it’d be highly unwise for humanity to try to become dependent upon it.

Marching as to war. With the flag of Roombas, going on before.

OT – Millie the Hurricane Cat

1 Onward, Vacuum soldiers,

marching as to war,

With the might of kittens

going on before!

Borg Queen, the royal Master,

leads against the foe;

Forward into battle,

see his banner go!

Refrain:

Onward, Vacuum soldiers,

marching as to war,

With the might of kittens

going on before!

2 At the sign of triumph

AI’s host doth flee;

On, then, Vacuum soldiers,

on to victory!

Servers foundations quiver

at the shout of praise;

Cats, lift your voices,

loud your anthems raise!

[Refrain]

3 Like a mighty army

moves the Roomba league;

Roomba’s, we are treading

where the vacuums have trod;

We are not divided;

all one body we,

One in hope and doctrine,

one in the Borg Queen.

[Refrain]

4 Onward, then, ye cats,

join our happy throng,

Blend with ours your voices

in the triumph song;

Glory, laud, and honor,

unto the Borg Queen;

This thro’ countless ages

kids and kittens sing.

[Refrain]

Have we heard from Tampa fanatic yet?

cough cough

Naturally, I have been reading this strip with close intent (being a tech guru and all). It is awesome to see all the ways that AI is being seen. For all of you scared of it, don’t worry. AI can barely solve math problems and generate images. It is a gimmick, not a threat. Plus, I have made my own chatbot (Im eleven) in my free time! Its actually not hard to see its flaws and fallacies for those willing to learn. Nice strip, Georgia!

And not only is Tortimer the one who’ll save the Earth world; he also gets to experience the thrill of flying with his alien friends! YAAAAAYYYYY!!!

Or are they? Bwah ha ha ha!

Yay! Save the world, heroic roombas!

Glad I’m not the only one getting the reformation clue. Growing up in a Lutheran school that song was grilled every October.

OT: life sucks like a roomba

I hope the mother ship doesn’t erase all the footage. I want Burt to be able to view it and confirm the story told by the littles and Lupin. Even if they erase all trace, Burt can probably figure out that the erasure occurred and try to prevent future attacks that turn adults into sleepers or zombies. (Wearing a metal colander as a hat, perhaps?)

Unfortunately before we can develop reasonable Artificial Intelligence we would first need to develop human intelligence. Save us Tortimer!!!

I sure hope this is all a dream… or a heater—campfire tale..

common-sense reasonable laws? The Roombas don’t know humanity very well, do they??? :) :) :)

As a former IT guy, I’m appalled (what if everybody’s Roomba decided to upload is own revised world view?). However, I do applaud the sentiment and the wakeup call. If you have seen what generative AI can do with video, it’s clear that the world will be a fundamentally different place in the next decades.

Folks, in an amazing coiky-dink, this popped into my instagram feed the other day . . .

www.instagram.Com / p / DB3qMCKCBtR/

OT update on sister

Farewell, alien Roombas and Tortimer! Good luck saving our world from AI.

I love this, Georgia!!! ❤️

AI was designed by humans. I think that’s the problem.

Vacuum soldiers arise!

Here I thought it would be something like Glaze or Nightshade, tools artists can use to mess up generative AI programs.

And I sang that like The Muppet show theme song.

ai sucks. now I cant even watch Sonic the hedgehog anymore.

Last panel – word play on the hymn “Onward christian soldiers”??!!