Language Log

Google has created an experimental — and free — system called NotebookLM. Here's its current welcome page:

Elle Cordova offers an update from ChatGPT on the number of Rs in "strawberry":

Daysia Tolentino, "Trump shares fake photo of Harris with Diddy in now-deleted Truth Social post", NBC News 9/20/2024:

Amid the recent news of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ arrest, former President Donald Trump reposted a doctored image falsely showing Vice President Kamala Harris with Combs with text questioning if she was involved in his alleged “freak offs.”

The image, which Trump reposted to his Truth Social profile, is an edited version of a 2001 photo of Harris with former talk show host Montel Williams, whom she briefly dated, and his daughter Ashley. The edit replaced Montel Williams’ face with a photo of Combs.

This is not the first time the Republican presidential nominee has posted a fake image in an effort to bolster his campaign. Trump has posted several AI-generated images, including some falsely depicting Taylor Swift and her fans endorsing him, and one of Harris speaking to a crowd of communists in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention.

Apparently not. Given this recent tweet, in which Google AI Overview explains that "October 21 is not a Libra, as the Libra zodiac sign is from September 23 to October 22", I thought I'd try for myself. The result had a different format but the same problem:

So says DeepL CEO Jarek Kutylowski.

"DeepL translation targets Taiwan as next key Asian market:  CEO says AI-based model is aiming to refine nuances, politeness", Steven Borowiec, Nikkei staff writer (September 16, 2024)

DeepL Write is one thing, DeepL Translator is another.  We've examined both on Language Log and are aware that the former is already deeply entrenched as a tool for composition assistance, but are less familiar with the special features of the latter.

The article by Borowiec, based on his interview with CEO Jarek Kutylowski, begins with some not very enlightening remarks about the difference between simplified characters on the mainland and traditional characters on Taiwan, attesting to the truism that CEOs and CFOs often don't know as much about the nitty-gritty technicalities of the products they sell as do the scientists and specialists they hire to make them.

An eminent Chinese historian just sent these two sentences to me:

Yǒurén shuō AI zhǐ néng jìsuàn, ér rénlèi néng suànjì. Yīncǐ AI yīdìng bùshì rénlèi duìshǒ

有人說AI只能計算，而人類能算計。因此AI一定不是人類對手。

"Some people say that AI can only calculate, while humans can compute.  Therefore, AI must not be a match for humans".

Google Translate, Baidu Fanyi, and Bing Translate all render both jìsuàn 計算 and suànjì 算計 as "calculate".  Only DeepL differentiates the two by translating the latter as "do math".

"AI worse than humans in every way at summarising information, government trial finds:
A test of AI for Australia's corporate regulator found that the technology might actually make more work for people, not less."  Cam Wilson, Crikey (Sep 03, 2024)

The transcriptions on YouTube are generally pretty good these days, but sometimes the results are weird.

A notable recent example is the transcription of Donald Trump's 8/31/2024 Fox interview with Mark Levin, where the system renders "Putin" first as "pollutant" and then as "pooch and".

It's been clear for a while that "large language models" can be prompted to fulfill writing assignments, and that LLM detection doesn't work, and that "watermarking" won't come to the rescue. There's lots of on-going published discussion, and even more discussion in real life.

As documented by the MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI, the conclusion seems to be a combination of bringing AI explicitly into the class, and designing some assignments where students need to function without it.

In one recent example, Joe Moxley has posted the syllabus for his course "Writing with Artificial Intelligence – Syllabus (ENC 3370)".

Eric Doty dueling with Grammarly on LinkedIn:

me: in real time
grammarly: in real-time

me: k, in real-time
grammarly: in real time

me: i'm going to smash you in real time
grammarly: i'm going to smash you in real-time

The screenshot I show everyone who tells me they're using AI for anything

[image or embed]

— Chris PG | PapaGlitch (@papaglitch.bsky.social) Aug 26, 2024 at 5:20 AM

Many Language Log readers are probably aware of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, who is one of the leading characters in the famous Ming Dynasty novel, Journey to the West.  I wrote about him in "'Baton' and 'needle' in space" (6/17/21):

In the 16th-century novel, Journey to the West, the simian hero, Sun Wukong ("Monkey Enlightened to Emptiness") possesses a magical staff, the jīngū bàng 金箍棒 ("golden cudgel / rod / baton") that has transformational properties.  One of its forms is that of the dìnghǎi shénzhēn 定海神针 ("numinous needle that stabilizes the sea"), which was actually the original source of the jīngū bàng 金箍棒 ("golden cudgel / rod / baton").  Thus we can see that both of the objects that Martin asked about are attributes of the supernatural simian, Sun Wukong, of Journey to the West.  (Of course, the meaning of "baton" for relay racing is also operative.)

In the context of this post, It is pertinent to note that Sun Wukong is capable of flying 108,000 li / tricents (54,000 km, 34,000 mi) in one somersault.  For this and all manner of esoteric lore about the magical monkey and the novel in which he appears, see the remarkable website of Jim McClanahan, Journey to the West Research.

This continues the tradition of using terms from Chinese legend and myth for names of objects, equipment, places, etc. in space related research and technology.

Deepa Seetharaman & Matt Barnum, "There’s a Tool to Catch Students Cheating With ChatGPT. OpenAI Hasn’t Released It.", WSJ 8/4/2024:

OpenAI has a method to reliably detect when someone uses ChatGPT to write an essay or research paper. The company hasn’t released it despite widespread concerns about students using artificial intelligence to cheat.

The project has been mired in internal debate at OpenAI for roughly two years and has been ready to be released for about a year, according to people familiar with the matter and internal documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “It’s just a matter of pressing a button,” one of the people said.