Tag: Generative AI

Sunday Paper

Ben Werdmuller experiences burnout from social media and vows to prioritize meaningful tasks. Pi competes with GPT-4 and aims for user progress-based revenue.

To mitigate burnout, I have my Apple devices set to limit my social media, whether web or native apps, to just 1 hour per day. In Social, I love you, but you’re bringing me down Ben Werdmuller realises he's burned out, stressed, and sleepless due to excessive social media use. He considers the overwhelming volume of platforms, the changing nature of social media, and his personal goals. He plans to focus more on meaningful tasks and writing for himself to reclaim his attention and autonomy.

Generative AI is advancing quickly with many players in the market. Pi, an AI assistant by Inflection, now competes with GPT-4, matching quality with lower compute usage. CEO Suleyman cites Pi's growth to 1 million daily users, envisioning a paid model based on user progress. However, he cautions against humanizing AI. Despite AI's progress, pioneers like Suleyman urge cautious advancement amidst potential pitfalls.

Sunday Paper - Brid.gy, ActivityPub and AT

"...there’s a 95% chance it was started by someone who was all to ready to be triggered by anything and everything so they could start some shit on the internet at that moment."

I recently discovered J.L. Gatewood writing but his last blog posts about the GitHub kerfuffle over connecting two social media platforms has been spot on with my thinking about the subject.

The preamble to On The Subject Of Connecting Federate Social Media Networks sets up the rest of his post:

The past few days on the Fediverse have served to remind me a few things:

  1. The internet is as smart and as ignorant (and everything in between) as the macrocosm known as “human civilization” reflects upon it.
  2. Sometimes the victims will become the victimizers in any given situation, usually without them being aware of it.
  3. Upon pointing it out to said type above, instead of working to acknowledge and understand, they will double-down under the guise of righteousness, again unwittingly using the exact playbook that they had been persecuted under at some point in the past.
  4. As usual, any attempt by a rational third party to diffuse whatever situation breaking out on the internet will lead to a wider conflict/argument/brigade session where everyone winds up digging their heels in and missing entirely the point.
  5. And finally, as usual, there’s a 95% chance it was started by someone who was all to ready to be triggered by anything and everything so they could start some shit on the internet at that moment.

Read Ryan’s reflection on the experience:

The scope of the fediverse has been hotly debated recently. Are we a big fedi? Or a small fedi? Are instances just nodes? Or networked communities? Which Camp of Mastodon are we in? How far should our replies travel? How about our blog posts and Bluesky skeets? Should we welcome Threads? Or block them?

Should we open the fediverse to everyone, let them exercise freedom of association, embrace the inevitable Eternal September, and get good at managing the problems? Or should we learn from Twitter that a “global town square” has big downsides, try to prevent those harms from the beginning, and only expand online communities once we have their consent?

Should there be one internet? Or multiple, sometimes separate internets?

What is an oligarch and why has the USA become one? What happened to "...government of the people, by the people, for the people"? In part 7 of his series, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich writes about how concentrated wealth and power are undermining US democracy.

The “OLIGARCHY” comes from the Greek word oligarkhes, meaning “few to rule or command.” It refers to a government of and by a few exceedingly rich people or families who control the major institutions of society, and therefore have the most power over other people’s lives. - How America’s oligarchy has paved the road to fascism (Why American capitalism is so rotten, Part 7)

Writer James Shelly asks a very important question: "What’s the fun in writing on the internet anymore?"

You could copy and paste this article into ChatGPT and say, “Please rewrite and paraphrase this blog post in such a way as to keep its main points and observations, but substantively reconfigure the text to make the original version undetectable.” And then, just like that, you have content for your own blog. So easy.

Or you could just copy the contents of this page and paste it into a site like plagiarism-remover.com so you could, as advertised, “Easily Convert Your Plagiarism article Into Plagiarism Free article.” Or you could use Spinbot. Or Jasper. Or QuillBot. Or Paraphraser. And so on.

Inspiration

I’ve long dreamed of selling everything (except my Mac and digital camera gear) and embracing a digital nomad lifestyle.

I found the image below on Susan T. Braithwaite’s website. Here’s what inspired Susan to create this image.

As with many writers, the thought of being able to write without the constant distractions of everyday life is something I dream about. Being able to completely immerse myself in my world of romantic suspense, free from mundane responsibilities…

The fantasy of a wee campervan transformed into a roving office also flits through my mind. Imagine jumping in the van and heading off to inspiring locales, penning stories against the backdrop of nature or bustling cityscapes.

Image generated by DALL-E
Image generated by DALL-E

I uploaded it to ChatGPT and asked for a description. ChatGPT responded:

This photograph depicts a serene scene with a vintage camper van parked in a woodland area during what appears to be a sunset. The van's side door is open, revealing a cosy interior with bookshelves, a small desk, and a chair, resembling a compact mobile office or study. Outside the van, there is a typewriter on a small table and books scattered around, suggesting a creative or scholarly pursuit amidst nature. A lantern hangs on the van's side mirror, and another is placed on the ground, enhancing the warm, ambient glow of the scene. The path and the trees are bathed in the golden light of the setting sun, adding to the tranquil and inviting atmosphere of the setting.

I then asked ChatGPT to use the description it had just provided to create a DALL-E prompt to create a new image. Here is the detailed prompt used for the DALL-E generation:

A vintage camper van is parked in a peaceful woodland area during sunset. The side door of the van is open, revealing an interior setup with bookshelves, a small desk, and a chair, creating an impression of a cosy mobile study space. Outside, a typewriter rests on a small table with books around it, suggesting a space for writing and reading amidst nature. A lantern hangs from the van’s side mirror, and another stands on the ground, both emitting a warm light. The surrounding trees are illuminated by the golden hues of the setting sun, contributing to the serene and welcoming environment.

The result.

DALL·E 2024-01-07 10.30.03 - A vintage camper van parked in a tranquil woodland setting during sunset.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 10.30.03 - A vintage camper van parked in a tranquil woodland setting during sunset.

I asked DALL-E to create a few variations using the same prompt.

DALL·E 2024-01-07 10.30.45 - A vintage camper van parked in a tranquil woodland setting during sunset.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 10.30.45 - A vintage camper van parked in a tranquil woodland setting during sunset.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 10.32.21 - A vintage camper van parked in a tranquil woodland setting during sunset.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 10.32.21 - A vintage camper van parked in a tranquil woodland setting during sunset.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 10.20.52 - A vintage camper van is parked in a peaceful woodland area during sunset.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 10.20.52 - A vintage camper van is parked in a peaceful woodland area during sunset.

I had a lot of fun with this. It was so much fun that I exceeded the daily maximum number of images for DALL-E!

I’ve long dreamed of selling everything (except my Mac and digital camera gear) and embracing a digital nomad lifestyle alongside my wife, Bhavna. I imagine sitting in the quiet glow of a campfire beside an Airstream camper van parked under a star-studded sky. The crackling flames mirrored the spark in Bhavna's eyes. We'd wander through the vast landscapes of the Americas from Canada to Costa Rica, from the rugged Rockies to the serene coastlines of Patagonia, our laptops connecting us to a world of opportunities. With each sunrise, a new adventure. I would work on information technology projects from the heart of nature, my office changing with the seasons. We'd capture the beauty of every place through my photography, creating memories that last a lifetime. Just thinking about it, I feel the wanderlust pulling me closer to a dream I hope will become our reality.

I was inspired by Susan’s original prompt to write a new prompt to create my own imaginary dream space. I used variations of the following prompt.

During sunrise, an Airstream camper van is parked in a peaceful tropical woodland area. The van’s side door is open, revealing an interior setup with a two-person bed, creating an impression of a cosy mobile bedroom space. Outside, an open Apple MacBook and a compact ILC mirrorless camera rest on a small table with a chair, suggesting a space for writing and photo editing amidst nature. A camera backpack and open tripod are on the ground just outside the side door to the camper van. The surrounding tropical trees are illuminated by the golden hues of the rising sun, contributing to the serene and welcoming environment. Generate a large 3:2 ratio image.

DALL·E 2024-01-07 08.58.59 - During sunrise, an Airstream camper van is parked in a peaceful tropical woodland area.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 08.58.59 - During sunrise, an Airstream camper van is parked in a peaceful tropical woodland area.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 09.22.08 - During sunrise, a large Airstream camper van is parked in a peaceful tropical woodland.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 09.22.08 - During sunrise, a large Airstream camper van is parked in a peaceful tropical woodland.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 09.15.17 - A peaceful sunrise in a tropical woodland setting with an Airstream camper van parked among the trees.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 09.15.17 - A peaceful sunrise in a tropical woodland setting with an Airstream camper van parked among the trees.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 09.14.32 - A peaceful sunrise in a tropical woodland, with an Airstream camper van parked among the trees.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 09.14.32 - A peaceful sunrise in a tropical woodland, with an Airstream camper van parked among the trees.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 09.12.50 - During sunrise, an Airstream camper van is parked in a peaceful tropical woodland area.
DALL·E 2024-01-07 09.12.50 - During sunrise, an Airstream camper van is parked in a peaceful tropical woodland area.

So, what’s the greatest gift someone can give me? Inspiration. Thank you, Susan T. Braithwaite!!

From what I've learned about U.S. copyright laws, artwork created entirely by AI, without any human input, can't be copyrighted. My conversation with DALL-E suggests that things are more complicated.

To be clear:

I, Khürt Williams, hereby release all of my images created using DALL·E under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). This means that anyone is free to share, copy, redistribute, and adapt these images, even commercially, as long as they provide appropriate credit to me, indicate if changes were made, and distribute any modified material under the same license as the original. By applying the CC BY-SA 4.0 license to my DALL·E-created images, I am promoting open and accessible use of these works, while ensuring that I am credited for my original creation.