Tech

WTF Fun Fact 13249 – ChatGPT Consequences for Creatives

ChatGPT is just a generative language model – a very fancy form of autocorrect, in some cases. And it doesn’t give answers that indicate it’s out to replace human writers. But we don’t yet know what the ChatGPT consequences for creatives are – and neither does the AI. When asked, ChatGPT spat out this answer:

“While AI-generated content may be able to produce work that is similar in style and content to that produced by humans, it is not a replacement for human creativity. There will always be a demand for unique and original human-generated content, and AI-generated content is unlikely to completely replace the work of human writers.”

The word unlikely is a bit eye-opening, but a machine can’t predict how humans may misuse it to replace other humans.

What are some of the possible consequences of ChatGPT for creatives?

ChatGPT is already impacting writers’ ability to make a living. And because it’s not a very good writer, it’s affecting people’s access to good writing.

ChatGPT produces the following argument in favor of itself:

“..there is potential for generative AI to be used in collaboration with human writers, rather than as a replacement. For example, an AI language model could be used to suggest ideas, provide inspiration, or even generate a first draft of a piece of writing, which could then be refined and edited by a human writer.”

It “suggests” that humans will learn to work around it and develop new business models to make room for everyone. Of course, it is quite frequently wrong about things.

“The toasters look like us now”

Plenty of writers are having fun with ChatGPT, however. They’ve never written articles with its help while citing it as a resource. What a way to add to your word count!

And when pressed a bit on its ability to replace humans, it recites the same old line about the potential for collaboration before producing the following paragraph:

“Overall, it is important to approach the development of AI in creative fields with caution and a recognition of the potential risks and benefits. While AI has the potential to transform the creative process in many ways, it is important to find ways to ensure that it does not have a negative impact on the livelihoods of human artists and writers.”

Of course, that last part is up to humans. — WTF fun facts

Source: “ChatGPT isn’t putting me out of a job yet, but it’s very good fun” — TechCrunch (paywalled, sadly)

WTF Fun Fact 13248 – The Wind Phone

Itaru Sasaki’s wind phone (“kaze no denwa” in Japanese) is a telephone booth located on a hill in Otsuchi, Japan. The booth is a way for people to connect with loved ones who passed away in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami devastated the area. The wind phone has become a symbol of hope, healing, and connection for people worldwide.

What’s the story behind the wind phone?

Sasaki was inspired to create the booth after he lost his cousin in a tsunami. He wanted to create a space where people could talk to their loved ones who had passed away. The goal was to help them feel a sense of connection and comfort. Sasaki constructed the phone booth on property which overlooks the Pacific Ocean and installed a disconnected rotary phone inside it.

The phone booth is designed to be a quiet, peaceful space where people can reflect and connect with their loved ones. It is open to the public. The booth has become a popular destination for people from around the world. They come to leave messages for their loved ones and to listen to the wind.

The wind phone has become a symbol of hope and healing for many people. The sound of the wind blowing through the phone is an important element. It creates a sense of connection with the natural world and the spirits of dead loved ones. People who have visited the phone have described feeling a sense of peace and comfort after leaving messages.

The legacy of the phone booth

The phone has also become a symbol of resilience for the people of Otsuchi. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami were among the worst natural disasters in Japan’s history. They caused widespread destruction and loss of life. The phone is a reminder of the power of human connection and the importance of finding ways to heal and move forward after tragedy.

The phone booth has inspired people worldwide to create their own versions of the phone booth. There are installations in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

The wind phone has also been the subject of a documentary titled “The Phone of the Wind: Whispers to Lost Families.” It explores the history and significance of the phone booth. The film includes interviews with Sasaki and people who have visited the phone and left messages for loved ones over the years. — WTF fun facts

Source: My Wind Phone

WTF Fun Fact 13244 – The Dangers of Paying Ransom

A 2021 study from Cybereason found that 80% of organizations targeted with ransomware attacks and that paid a ransom were later targeted by a second attack. This adds to the evidence that paying ransom may not always be worth it for companies.

Ransomware and paying ransom

According to experts at Kaspersky, ransomware attacks doubled in the first ten months of 2022 compared to the previous year. This included individuals, government entities, and businesses. They also noted that most attacks originated with phishing emails imitating legitimate agencies to access personal information or credentials.

While companies subject to ransomware attacks face enormous pressure to pay a ransom to protect customer data, this carries risks. The FBI has warned some companies that paying ransom isn’t necessarily going to protect them.

Ransom demands are also rising – in fact, the amounts have increased by 500% in the last two years. The average ransom demand from cybercriminals is now half a million dollars. And while some insurance companies offer cyber insurance, it does not make up for the private data that gets leaked on the dark web.

Cyber insurance may soon become a thing of the past since many companies seem incapable of mounting a secure defense against hackers, and lawsuits pile up as a result.

Once a company pays a ransom, they seem to be a target for new attacks. Up to 80% are targeted a second time.

As of 2021, between 50 and 75% of ransomware targets were small businesses.

The importance of cybersecurity

Recent hacks have had devastating consequences. For example, Australia’s Medibank medical insurance company was hacked in 2021. As a result, people who had sought resources for mental health and addiction had their names and data published on the dark web. Medibank now faces a class action lawsuit. It’s unclear if they considered paying ransom demands.

New Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices are at the center of security discussions. It appears these are popular targets for hackers. For example, many recent hacks have targeted unsecured printers that people fail to update. If these are part of a company’s network, cybercriminals can gain access to a printer and move into a company’s entire network. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Ransomware” — NAIC

WTF Fun Fact 13242 – An AI Discovery

An AI discovery stunned literature enthusiasts in early 2023. An artificial intelligence (AI) technology being used to transcribe anonymous historic works at Spain‘s National Library managed to identify a play that was actually written by Felix Lope de Vega, one of Spain’s great playwrights.

How did the AI discovery come about?

According to CNN: “The National Library said on Tuesday that experts later confirmed that the Baroque playwright — one of the most prominent names of the Spanish Golden Age — wrote “La francesa Laura” (The Frenchwoman Laura) a few years before his death in 1635.”

The manuscript in the library’s archives is a copy. However, no one knew there was an original. That may have been destroyed.

Researchers from universities in Vienna and Valladolid used AI to digitize 1,300 anonymous manuscripts and books at the library. This allowed a machine to scan the text and transcribe it without requiring years of human labor.

The algorithm was also designed to compare traits of the previously anonymous plays to known plays in order to find similarities. And that’s precisely how La francesca Laura was identified as one of Felix Lope de Vega’s plays.

The National Library said the words used in the text were “closely aligned with Lope’s, and not with those of the other 350 playwrights who were part of the experiment.”

According to CNN, “Experts then used traditional philological research resources to corroborate the findings.” In other words, they went through the known history of the author for hints that he wrote such a play.

A new classic

CNN summarized the play:

“The plot focuses around Laura, the daughter of the Duke of Brittany and wife to Count Arnaldo. The heir to the French throne is captivated by her, and although she rejects him, her jealous husband tries to poison her. Ultimately, Laura’s righteousness is proven and happiness is restored.”

The play will be published by Gredos publishing house later in 2023. — WTF fun facts

Source: “AI reveals unknown play by one of Spain’s greatest writers in library archive” — CNN

WTF Fun Fact 13240 – ChatGPT Medical Exam

There’s been a lot of speculation and panic around what the AI tool ChatGPT can and can’t do and whether it’s going to replace/destroy us all. But it looks like it’s not going to be replacing doctors any time soon, even though it may be a semi-reliable source for those studying for the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE).

Did ChatGPT pass a medical licensing exam?

In a word, no. ChatGPT did not “pass” a medical licensing exam, though there will probably be some sensational headlines to the contrary.

A study published February 9, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS Digital Health by Tiffany Kung, Victor Tseng, and others at AnsibleHealth found that:

“ChatGPT can score at or around the approximately 60 percent passing threshold for the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE), with responses that make coherent, internal sense and contain frequent insights…”

In other words, ChatGPT can generate human-like responses to certain types of questions on the exam.

According to a press release about the study:

“Kung and colleagues tested ChatGPT’s performance on the USMLE, a highly standardized and regulated series of three exams (Steps 1, 2CK, and 3) required for medical licensure in the United States. Taken by medical students and physicians-in-training, the USMLE assesses knowledge spanning most medical disciplines, ranging from biochemistry, to diagnostic reasoning, to bioethics.”

However, they had to remove all image-based questions, so the AI could only attempt 350 of the 376 questions (that are available for public viewing) that appeared on the June 2022 exam.

How well did AI do on the medical exam?

There’s a joke people tell that goes a little something like this:
What do you call the person who graduates first in their medical class?
Answer: Doctor.
What do you call the person who graduates last in their medical class?
Answer: Doctor.

In other words, you’re never going to know if your doctor aced their exam or barely passed.

But if ChatGPT is your doctor, you will know it’s incapable of doing really well on the exam (though in some cases, it did pass). After the researchers removed all “indeterminate responses,” “ChatGPT scored between 52.4% and 75.0% across the three USMLE exams. The passing threshold each year is approximately 60%.”

It was good at producing novel and clinically significant insights the vast majority of the time, however. But if you can’t pass, that doesn’t really mean much.

What’s also interesting is that “ChatGPT exceeded the performance of PubMedGPT, a counterpart model trained exclusively on biomedical domain literature, which scored 50.8% on an older dataset of USMLE-style questions.”

But all that means is that ChatGPT is a really good AI language model. It doesn’t mean it’ll be replacing your doctor any time soon. And since it’s not always good at producing correct information, you may not want to use it to get medical advice.

What ChatGPT can be used for is helping to distill jargon-heavy medical writing into language that non-experts can understand. So if there’s a scientific study you’d like to know more about, you can plug that into ChatGPT and get a fairly reliable summary. — WTF fun facts

Source: “ChatGPT can (almost) pass the US Medical Licensing Exam” — EurekAlert

WTF Fun Fact 13237 – A Vibrating Pill for Constipation

Constipation is common, but one company has come up with an uncommon solution for it – a vibrating pill for constipation. The pill is called Vibrant.

Vibrant – the vibrating pill for constipation

Don’t like the thought of taking pharmaceuticals for your constipation? No worries – there are no active ingredients in this little pill.

The vibrating pill is designed to stimulate the muscles in the digestive tract to help move stool through the intestines, promoting regular bowel movements and relieving constipation symptoms. The product is marketed by Vibrant Gastro and the information is available on their press releases and news section of their website.

According to HealthNews (cited below), the pill was announced on February 8, 2022. It was cleared by the FDA (which is different from approval, which means the pill is similar to an already-marketed device.

How does it work?

According to Vibrant’s press release:

“The idea behind the treatment is that a single vibrant pill is taken around bedtime every day. It then travels the same route as food does, through the stomach and small intestine, finally reaching the large intestine about 14 hours later. Then, it goes to work.

The pills stimulate specialized nerve cells in the gut called mechanosensory cells. These help trigger peristalsis, the undulating muscle contractions that help squeeze food through the gut.“

The vibrations run for three seconds, then stop for three seconds. Before swallowing the pill, it must be activated in a small pod. The pill is then active for two hours, then off for six hours before activating again for two hours.

The idea is that you will eventually poop them out and they will clean out and loosen stool along the way. They are not considered a cure, but a maintenance treatment that people with constipation would take regularly. Each pill gets flushed, so treatment requires a new pill each time (thankfully!).

Constipation is generally defined as having fewer than three bowel movements in a week and affects 10 to 20% of Americans.

In the clinical trial, only a small number of participants could feel the pill vibrating. 40% of those taking Vibrant reported having at least one extra bowel movement a week and felt they were able to more completely empty their bowels. Only 23% of those in the placebo group reported an extra bowel movement.

23% of the participants given Vibrant reported two or more additional bowel movements a week.

That’s progress! — WTF fun facts

Source: “Drug-Free Vibrating Pill for Constipation Now Available by Prescription” — HealthNews

WTF Fun Fact 13235 – Pacemaker Recycling

All kinds of people from all walks of life can develop heart disease and need a pacemaker. But not everyone can afford them. That’s why pacemaker recycling projects are popping up around the country to ensure that people of all incomes can have access to this life-saving technology. As a bonus, they also help the environment.

What’s the point of pacemaker recycling?

The main goal of pacemaker recycling is to reduce waste and conserve natural resources, as well as to provide access to medical devices for individuals who may not otherwise have access to them.

Pacemakers are small, implantable devices that are used to regulate the heartbeat of people with heart conditions. They are typically made from a combination of metal and plastic components and can be expensive to produce.

When a pacemaker is no longer needed, it can be difficult to dispose of properly. That’s because the materials used to make the device are not biodegradable and can pose environmental and health risks.

Pacemaker recycling helps to mitigate these risks by collecting used pacemakers and other medical devices. Then, they’re refurbished for reuse or broken down into their component parts for recycling. This reduces waste and conserves natural resources. It also provides access to medical devices for individuals who may not otherwise have access to them.

Do people use these recycled items?

Yes, absolutely. And they’re life-saving.

In many developing countries, access to medical devices, including pacemakers, can be limited due to high costs and a lack of infrastructure. Pacemaker recycling programs can help to address these challenges by providing refurbished medical devices to patients who need them, at a fraction of the cost of a new device.

This can improve access to medical care for individuals who may not otherwise have access to it, and can help to improve health outcomes for patients who require these medical devices.

Pacemaker recycling programs are becoming increasingly common in the US.
Recycled pacemakers are refurbished to ensure that they meet the same safety and quality standards as new devices. Then, they’re made available at a significantly lower cost than a new pacemaker.

Recycled pacemakers are subject to the same regulations and standards as new pacemakers. That means they must be thoroughly tested and evaluated before they are made available for use to make sure they’re just as safe and effective as new devices.

If you or a loved one have a pacemaker, you can even make arrangements for it to be recycled after your death. Check out Project My Heart Your Heart below for an example. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Recycle your pacemakers!” — Project My Heart Your Heart

WTF Fun Fact 13231 – The Downsides of ChatGPT

ChatGPT may seem like the answer students, coders, and writers have been looking for, but it’s far from perfect. In fact, the generative AI can be riddled with misinformation that’s likely to get you caught. And the downsides of ChatGPT are easy to discern since you can just ask the chatbot itself.

What is ChatGPT?

Chat GPT is a chatbot built by Open AI. Just go to chat.openai.com and see for yourself. You can ask it anything.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you’ll get the right answer. Sure, it may be the answer you want to hear. It may be grammatically correct. It may even seem elegantly stated. But look a little closer, and you’ll find it’s relatively simplistic and repetitive. And it can be downright incorrect and misleading.

What are the downsides of ChatGPT?

We went right to the source to find out how the AI might come up short. According to ChatGPT itself (when asked “what is one of the major drawbacks of chatgpt?”):

“One of the major drawbacks of ChatGPT is its lack of context awareness and the possibility of generating biased or incorrect responses.

Since ChatGPT is trained on a large corpus of text data from the internet, it may sometimes generate responses that reflect the biases and inaccuracies present in that data. This can lead to the generation of incorrect information or responses that perpetuate harmful stereotypes or beliefs.

Additionally, ChatGPT operates on a token-by-token basis, meaning that it doesn’t have an overall understanding of the context of a conversation. This can lead to responses that are not fully relevant or coherent, especially when the input is complex or requires a deep understanding of a particular subject.

To mitigate these issues, it is important to carefully evaluate and curate the training data used to train language models like ChatGPT, and to use appropriate post-processing techniques to ensure the quality and accuracy of the generated responses.”

We’re impressed the AI went the extra mile and suggested some more shortcomings!

The future of ChatGPT

Yes, the chatbot is a viral sensation. And it absolutely has the ability to do some good and save some time. But it also has the ability to be used to fill the Internet (and your homework assignments) will all sorts of confident-sounding information that’s factually incorrect. And the kicker is that it may someday be trained on the same incorrect websites it helped create.

Of course, there are some pretty ominous things ChatGPT can be used for. And to be fair, Open AI has been…well, open about the downsides of ChatGPT. According to Bleeping Computer (cited below), “OpenAI has been upfront about the AI’s shortcomings including its ability to ‘produce harmful instructions or biased content and continues to fine-tune ChatGPT.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “OpenAI’s new ChatGPT bot: 10 dangerous things it’s capable of” — Bleeping Computer

WTF Fun Fact 13215 – The First Smartwatch

Credit for the first smartwatch concept doesn’t go to Apple. Long before the Apple Watch, Microsoft and Fossil introduced the first standalone smartwatch.

If you want to get more technical, you could claim that the 1982 Seiko TV watch was more similar to the first smartwatch. But it needed an adapter and a large receiver box. And it only showed grainy greyscale TV images.

Another watch that paved the way for the Apple Watch and modern smartwatches was the 1998 Linux Wristwatch, created by Steve Mann and launched by IBM. According to the fact sheet, it was “Designed to communicate wirelessly with PCs, cell phones and other wireless-enabled devices, the ‘smart watch’ will have the ability to view condensed email messages and directly receive pager-like messages.”

What’s the story behind the first smartwatch?

In 2004, Microsoft released its “Smart Personal Object Technology” (SPOT). This allowed users to access services such as news, weather, and stock information from their wristwatches. It was more personalized and independent of other technology than previous “smart” watches.

Microsoft’s Smartwatch quickly became a hit among tech enthusiasts and professionals alike. The device was packed with advanced features, allowing users to stay connected while on the go. It had a wide array of sensors, allowing it to monitor heart rate, steps taken, and other important health metrics.

Furthermore, it was one of the first smartwatches to feature a touchscreen display, making it easier to interact with apps.

Microsoft and Fossil actually collaborated on the first smartwatch. The Microsoft SPOT Watch had a monochrome 90×126 pixel screen and was accessible through a yearly subscription that cost from $39 to $59. The watches featured customizable watch face displays and were built on a new technology platform designed to improve the functionality and usefulness of everyday objects.

Not long after, watchmakers Citizen, Fossil, and Suunto all joined the project to create the first smartwatches.

What happened to Microsoft’s smart watch?

The device was well-received by users, who praised its versatile design and advanced features. It was also praised for its long battery life, which allowed users to stay connected for extended periods of time.

The Microsoft smartwatch was also quite easy to use thanks to an intuitive interface that made it simple to navigate.

Despite its success, the device was not a commercial success and was eventually discontinued in 2010. This was primarily due to the fact that it was too expensive for the average consumer and was unable to compete with the lower-priced rivals that had entered the market.

However, the device paved the way for the smartwatches that we have today. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Smartwatch timeline: The devices that paved the way for the Apple Watch” — Wearable