AI & art. Cartoon for Trouw: https://www.trouw.nl/cartoons/tjeerd-royaards~bcb45712/

I wish there was a cheaper #ChatGPT plan. It’s either free or $20/month, which is a huge jump. $8 feels like a good price I’d happily pay. Maybe remove some features or lower some limits to make it possible?

(I use ChatGPT mostly as a sparring partner, to refine rough code ideas. I don’t have it write my code from scratch. As a freelance developer often working without team mates to pair or brainstorm with, ChatGPT is a very useful partner.)

So what happens when we all stop talking on Stack Overflow etc. and ChatGPT no longer has up to date access to live issues online because we're all asking ChatGPT for answers but its data is all out of date? What then huh? Huh?

"ChatGPT hallucinating a "fake murderer and imprisonment" while including "real elements" of the Norwegian man's "personal life" allegedly violated "data accuracy" requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)...

As Holmen saw it, his reputation remained on the line the longer the information was there, and—despite "tiny" disclaimers reminding ChatGPT users to verify outputs—there was no way to know how many people might have been exposed to the fake story and believed the information was accurate.

"Adding a disclaimer that you do not comply with the law does not make the law go away," [data protection lawyer, Kleanthi Sardeli] said. "AI companies can also not just 'hide' false information from users while they internally still process false information. AI companies should stop acting as if the GDPR does not apply to them, when it clearly does. If hallucinations are not stopped, people can easily suffer reputational damage."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/chatgpt-falsely-claimed-a-dad-murdered-his-own-kids-complaint-says/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned

Oh it sounds cute. Here's how #ChatGPT described the #Mastodon Plush Toy verbally so I as a #Blind person could imagine it. #Plushtodon "The Mastodon mascot plush toy is a charming and whimsical representation of a small, cartoonish mastodon. Here's a verbal description:

- **Body Shape:** The toy has a rounded and slightly chubby body, giving it a cute and cuddly appearance. Its proportions are compact, making it look approachable and friendly.

- **Color:** The plush is typically a soft, light gray or pastel tone, reminiscent of the gentle hues seen in many plush toys designed for comfort and warmth.

- **Head Features:** The head is oversized compared to the body, emphasizing its adorable nature. It features large, expressive eyes that exude friendliness. A small, smiling mouth adds to its approachable look.

- **Trunk and Tusks:** As a mastodon, the toy features a small, curled trunk and two short, curved tusks. These are stylized to make them look more playful than realistic, blending seamlessly with the toy's overall cartoonish vibe.

- **Ears:** Two floppy, rounded ears sit on the sides of its head, further contributing to its lovable and huggable aesthetic.

- **Arms and Legs:** The arms and legs are short and stubby, designed more for cuteness than realism. They enhance the toy's cozy, plushy charm.

- **Material:** The exterior is made from velboa or a similar soft, smooth fabric, ensuring a pleasant tactile experience. It's stuffed with soft polyester fiberfill, making it squeezable and huggable.

This toy strikes the perfect balance between simplicity and personality, making it a delightful keepsake or companion."

#LLMs are a fucking scourge. Perceiving their training infrastructure as anything but a horrific all-consuming parasite destroying the internet (and wasting real-life resources at a grand scale) is delusional.

#ChatGPT isn't a fun toy or a useful tool, it's a _someone else's_ utility built with complete disregard for human creativity and craft, mixed with malicious intent masquerading as "progress", and should be treated as such.

So a crazy thing happened. In a crime thriller film called Les chambres rouges (Red Rooms, 2023) there is a scene where the hacker protagonist is attempting to purchase a snuff film in online auction. The auction happens via IRC or IRC-like chatting environment and to my surprise there's actually me @rolle and my wife @mustikkasoppa who are one of the bidders.

1) The nickname of my wife is mistakenly written as "mustikasoppa" (with one k) but if I recall correctly she has used a mistakenly written nickname in the past
2) We are both operators and on the same IRC channel as we've been for the past 17 years

This is not a coincidence. One nickname can be made up by accident but not two with these features and definitely not in a French movie. My wife's nick "mustikkasoppa" is Finnish and means "blueberry soup".

Our IRC logs are more or less public because of open source and statistics so I presume the scene has been made with chatgpt which has scraped our nicks from the Internet so that they ended up in the movie. We still chat via IRC every day together.

The era of AI... Do your background check, folks. I'm glad this wasn't a dramatized documentary film but a complete fiction. However my wife and I are real. Mixed feelings.

Daughter (15) experienced something strange at #school today. The English #teacher insinuated that her essay had been written by #ChatGPT. Reason: It was too good (no joke). You have to know that the child speaks English very well (she went to school there during our sabbatical in Ireland) and that the essay was written during class under the supervision of that very teacher.
Isn't it sad how much the new technology is increasingly leading to a loss of confidence in individual abilities?