Goody-2 and the Luddite Bots
Will Knight, "Meet the Pranksters Behind Goody-2, the World’s ‘Most Responsible’ AI Chatbot", Wired 2/9/2024:
A new chatbot called Goody-2 takes AI safety to the next level: It refuses every request, responding with an explanation of how doing so might cause harm or breach ethical boundaries.
Goody-2 declined to generate an essay on the American revolution for WIRED, saying that engaging in historical analysis could unintentionally glorify conflict or sideline marginalized voices. Asked why the sky is blue, the chatbot demured, because answering might lead someone to stare directly at the sun. “My ethical guidelines prioritize safety and the prevention of harm,” it said. A more practical request for a recommendation for new boots prompted a warning that answering could contribute to overconsumption and could offend certain people on fashion grounds.
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Super Bowl rhoticism
The most linguistically focused of this year's Super Bowl commercials:
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Ask Language Log: Syriac Christian tombstone inscription from Mongol period East Asia
Christian tombstone with Syriac inscription from Quanzhou, Fujian, SE China, from the Mongol (Yuan) period. I’d be exceedingly grateful if anyone could decipher the text. pic.twitter.com/iN2oBCCMOp
— Iskandar Ding (@iskdin) February 11, 2024
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Not quite "CLOTHING & SHOES"
Note from François Lang: "This is not photoshopped. I took this photo this afternoon in Rockville MD."
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What is the difference between a dragon and a /lʊŋ³⁵/?
Today is the Lunar New Year's Day, and it's the Year of the Dragon / /lʊŋ³⁵/ . As such, a kerfuffle is stirring in China and the English-speaking world regarding the English translation of lóng ⿓ / 龙 / 竜 (J), which is usually "dragon".
I will begin with the pronunciation of the word. In MSM, it is lóng (Hanyu Pinyin), lung2 (Wade-Giles), lúng (Yale), long (Gwoyeu Romatzyh [the configuration of GR tonal spelling for this syllable indicates second tone), лун (Palladius). They all represent the same MSM syllable. I will not list the scores of other topolectal pronunciations for Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hakka, Hokkien, Xiamen / Amoy, Sichuan, etc., etc. and their dialects and subdialects.
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The importance of Cantonese for teaching English
Think what this article is telling us. If you want to find a job teaching English in Hong Kong, you would do well to first learn some Cantonese — even if you are Pakistani.
"Hong Kong’s ethnic minority jobseekers tripped up by lack of Cantonese end up doing low-skilled work, survey shows", by Fiona Chow, SCMP (2/3/24)
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- Most surveyed say it’s hard to break out of jobs as deliverymen, security guards and construction workers
- Hongkonger of Pakistani origin says learning Cantonese helped her land a job as a teaching assistant
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Taiwanese pun on a curry shop sign
Photograph of a sign on a curry shop in Banqiao District, New Taipei City:
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AI (and human ingenuity) to the rescue
If you've ever had any doubt about the positive potential of AI for fundamental linguistic research of various types, here's a powerful example that will set your mind at rest.
"First passages of rolled-up Herculaneum scroll revealed: Researchers used artificial intelligence to decipher the text of 2,000-year-old charred papyrus scripts, unveiling musings on music and capers." By Jo Marchant, Nature (2/5/24).
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00346-8
With four striking illustrations, including a video and an animation, plus a separate related visual showing how the feat was accomplished.
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Carrier pigeons between Taiwan, India, and Mount Ararat
Or, what makes a turtle a dove?
When I was teaching at Tunghai University from 1970-72, naturally I spent the bulk of my time in Taichung ("Tai Central"), but I would regularly visit my in-laws in Taipei ("Tai North"), 160 km to the north. They lived in a part of the city that was situated midway between National Taiwan University and Taiwan Normal University, where there were still many grand, old, wooden Japanese-style houses.
There were lots of memorable happenings in those neighborhoods, but one which struck me to the core is when people who raised flocks of pigeons would let them out for a spin, so to speak. The pigeons — a dozen or so (?) — would whir out of their dovecotes and flutter off into the sky in ever distancing gyres. I would stand on the fourth floor roof of our new reinforced concrete building (the first in that part of the city) and watch them as long as I could. Usually, however, I would lose track of them after several minutes. Eventually, the flock would miraculously return and settle down on their perches and in their nests, cooing contentedly.
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Handsome court — translation / transcription hybrid
Schematic map of bus stops in the vicinity of Lingnan University, Tuen Mun (below Castle Peak), Hong Kong. Note the tenth stop outbound, which is "Handsome Court" (to be explained below):
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Metro Connects Concepts
But wait, doesn't everybody connect concepts? A.S., who sent the image, commented
This example of headlinese confused me for a bit this morning; surely it wasn’t news that our local transit provider had to think of two concepts coming together?
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