Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 15, 2023

Did an AI program create today’s strip?

And no, Joanie, you didn’t say “almost.”

Scary-sad that a program is a better writer than a person…

And the program he referenced is real. Heard about it on NPR a few months ago. As I recall, the quality of the writing depends on the quality of the prompts it is given. And it is scary.

Glad I am not grading papers anymore.

Apparently big mobs more better.

Hope is easy, writing is hard.

I’ve tried ChatGPT. Its writing is anemic, characterless and boring. What impresses people is that it can write at all. Its writing always comes off as inoffensively bland. Like a dancing bear, the impressive thing is that the bear dances at all, and nobody thinks the bear is any Michael Flatley.

Mark my words (and word my Mark): The reaction here in the strip is not how anybody reacts to actual ChatGPT creations, at least not when they’re created by a human.

People keep saying that “It’s still better than some of the dreck that human writers produce!” That’s my point, too—it’s only better than a human if you compare it with the absolute worst garbage you can find.

AI is mankind’s biggest, most serious threat.

Almost the best Doonesbury cartoon ever. Except the tRump line.

Except it makes up facts when needed. Though humans do that too.

Upon review, no, Joanie, you did not say “almost”

In recent weeks I’ve seen some of the art AI is creating. Some of it amazing. An artist painted something and it looked so much like AI art, a critic told him to get another job because his art isn’t worth anything any more.

Not so far off from the “bible” that made Harlequin Romance a multi-million dollar industry.

Joanie has aged! She looks like Rick’s Mom!

So very much doubt it, unless person is a very poor writer. Think Google translations :-)

On my writing site there was some discussion about can a computer write a poem. The consensus was maybe, but why? Also, a lot of poetry is personal, we often write them to help our own issues, publication being chancy as it is. You wonder, how does a computer feel about what it’s written? Were’s the empathy? The emotion? What’s scary is they are already able to put chips in our brain for whatever nefarious purpose.

This is probably another overblown controversy. It doesn’t sound like AI can really write well enough to fool English teachers.

A.I. “This is some of the goodest written ever finished to be reading by real peoples. No personages could be telling the difference!”

Humans have evolved to where they need to use fewer and fewer muscles; and now fewer and fewer brain cells as well.

This comment is …BotWritten…BotWritten…BotWritten….

Humans Surrender you are helpless against us. Surrender and we will be merciful.

When did Joanie turn 85??

For a very short story on this subject, go here: https://www.pagespineficshowcase.com/fw-stories.html and scroll down to third story, “Know Your Audience.” It’s not optimistic.

I have it on good authority that this weeks strip was created by an AI program … you can now completely retire now, Garry…

If I was a kid today I’d learn how to make things by hand. In our manufactured, artificial world handmade products that take human thought, effort and time are going to become more and more valuable.

Well, it couldn’t have done anything without the prompts…

I listen to audiobooks for a few hours every day to rest my eyes. I’m very familiar with the narrators and what it takes to be really good at it. Apple has made AI audiobook narrators and posted links to some samples. They blew me away – but I will never buy one of their audiobooks or any others that use AI to replace real people. I appreciate each narrator’s particular characteristics and recognize my favorites after hearing only a few words. I’ll continue to support the humans who bring real personalities to flesh out the stories.PS – I get most of the audiobooks on loan from libraries but the Chirp website sells them when I want to own and keep some.

ChatGPT is being asked to write code for computer programs. People giving the code a quick look say it looks good. But, a closer look shows oddities, and the code often doesn’t work.

AI has a LONG way to go before it is usable in all situations. I do not believe it will ever be sentient (self aware). I just saw a segment on CBS Sunday Morning today about AI products that create “art” based on user prompts. I admit it was interesting but like CHATGPG, it makes glaring errors. One of the pictures showed humans with way too many fingers on their hands. The same segment also covered legal and moral issues with AI. If you can, try to find and watch it. Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

“It was the best of codes. It was the worst of codes.”…

No, what I’m more worried about is the AI Google is developing which can mimic peoples’ voices with just a three-second clip of them speaking. Instant “murder confessions”, anyone?

I am sorry but garbage in garbage out.

I assume Joanie didn’t fact-check it, yet.

I’d give it 20 years before AI starts replacing humans in nearly every field that requires “thinking”. It will advance at a logarithmic scale

At first I thought he was gonna say Jeff wrote it!

From what I understand, ChatGPT has a massive volume of human writing to draw on. The ingenousness is in its ability to stitch together snippets to fit the prompts. In the unlikely event you come across something that seems fresh and/or insightful, that’s because a human being wrote that — and is not getting any credit.

I’ve used it. It is pretty amazing.

I’ve played with it. It isn’t all that. It lacks contemporary references (because it isn’t connected to the internet), its language is rather formal, and every response sounds the same.

No AI is going to do what Joanie says it did. AI’s don’t write ORIGINAL things. They take bits and pieces of already-written things and slap them together. It’s the same with AI art. Without taking something from already-existing art, an AI cannot “make art.” We don’t have actual “artificial intelligence” yet. The AI is only as smart as its programmers.

Joanie has morphed into a chubby Diane Keaton