The digitally connected world has become a large, swirling sea of information stripped of context.
Artificial Intelligence: ChatGPT's Astonishing Fabrications About Percy Ludgate
Shortly after ChatGPT burst into the public spotlight in late 2022, Brian Coghlan, Brian Randell, and Noel O'Boyle were intrigued by the repeated claim that ChatGPT would excel at supporting historical research. They had done extensive research on Percy Ludgate, a little-known computer pioneer who designed an analytical engine in 1909. Coghlan et al. put ChatGPT 3.5 to the test. They were astonished at its alacrity in producing authoritative-sounding but false answers to questions about Ludgate—questions whose answers they already knew through their own research. They concluded that the hallucination problem was much deeper than suspected. As part of our Symposium on AI, the editors of Ubiquity are pleased to publish this full technical report (lightly edited and reformatted) so that you can see for yourself. And as a bonus, you can learn a little about this amazing pioneer of computing. ...
Teens and Screens: The Siren Song of Social Media
The effect of the internet on children is not well understood, but the evidence is that the mental health of the young has been deteriorating since about 2012, and that between 2004 and 2020 there has been a doubling of teens reporting depressive episodes. Social media platforms use algorithms that amplify minority views, impose conversation topics, lead to social division, and spread anxiety-making misinformation and disinformation. The peer pressure on children to have an internet-enabled mobile phone is enormous. Many parents would like the state to be proactive in protecting their children. Behind the internet platforms are billionaires running trillion-dollar companies with strong interests in preventing such regulation. It is uncertain how the ongoing struggle between the tech giants and governments will play out. Effective regulation and eternal vigilance are required to keep our children safe in a bewildering online world. ...
