Why, you arrogant little …

So, the computer attached to the server at The Blanket Fort defaults to Microsoft’s Bing for a search engine.

One of the … features of Bing is an AI-powered assistant called “Copilot”.

I discovered this last night, and — as one does — I was indulging my curiosity by asking the AI questions about LawDog. Turns out the AI had me fingered as an author, and knew about the books I had written, right down to their names.

What put the fox into the hen-house was when I asked the question: “Is there a specific story from ‘The Africa Files’ that stands out?”

‘The Africa Files’ is, for those new to my page, an actual book that I did write and currently publish.

You can see where I asked that very question right here, as well as the AI’s response:

I have very few issue with AI — for one, I understand that the second letter in the acronym should be an ‘S’* — but this one set my teeth on edge.

See, the Artificial Stupidity Intelligence wrote a garbage story … and then claimed in at least two places that I was the actual author; and that said garbage story was actually from a book that I wrote:

“One of the standout stories from “The Africa Files” is LawDog’s encounter with a mischievous monkey. Let me share it with you:”

It can’t be a standout story from ‘The Africa Files’ because I didn’t write that garbage; and I damned sure didn’t include it in my book.

It ends with:

“I hope you enjoyed this delightful tale from ‘The Africa Files’! LawDog’s ability to weave such vivid stories makes his book a treasure trove of memories and adventures.”

It’s not from ‘The Africa Files’, because I neither wrote it, nor included it in that book.

I don’t have a  problem with Artificial Stupid writing a story in “the style of LawDog” … I damned sure have a problem with Artificial Stupid writing a story, then telling strangers that I was the one who wrote it. And not only claiming that I wrote it, but that I put it in one of my books.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it — or if anything can be done about it — but I’m not bloody well happy about some algorithm writing garbage, and telling everyone that I wrote it.

Not bloody well happy at all.

LawDog

*For “Stupid”.

Mood:
Hail the victorious dead!

11 thoughts on “Why, you arrogant little …”

  1. Should this not be considered legal fraud by the controlling body of that AI?

  2. And Bing Copilot cops an attitude with you when you try to correct it.
    ChatGPT is worse though. It *agrees* with you.

    1. So,
      I asked Robert Barns last night about this and he thinks that the may be actionable and as it turns out there are several cases being worked up to address exactly this issue. So I’d stick a pin in this for later, it may be of use to you in the future.

  3. It’s copyright fraud I do believe.
    But a lawyer would know for sure.

  4. I’d always wondered what the triggering event was that caused you to hate monkeys so much. It was probably when the cheeky monkey started using AI to write stories and tell everyone you wrote them.

  5. Oh how cute, the AI thinks it’s people. Lying, cheating, poorly educated people.

  6. reads like a little golden book written for pre-literate 5 year olds.

  7. It’s a load of excrement and it should be actionable. This is not the first instance of this kind of thing about which I have heard.

  8. Like several other commenters here, I recommend looking into your options for legal action against Microsoft in this case. And I share your opinion of Artificial Stupidity. That is, I find Ulrich Walter’s comments from a few years ago still trenchant: “AI: What’s artificial about it isn’t intelligent, and what’s intelligent about it isn’t artificial.” (translated from German by author)

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