A curious thing happened today: I received a memo about policy regarding generative AI that the author admitted was partially written by generative AI. We must use it ethically, I’m told. It’s unclear to me how you ethically use an unethical monster. Using it sounds more to me like theft and plagiarism.

Generative AI is simply a tool, say its proponents, no more and no less. It requires copyrighted works for its ‘training’, but its creators, well, they just don’t feel like getting permission or paying for the rights to use the works, since–get this–it would just be too much trouble.

So if it’s a tool, then it’s one that was created by ruthless, conscience-free scum who have pirated millions of words in copyright, not to mention thousands of copyrighted works of art. All those hours of work, and all those lives, steamrolled like they’re nothing. It’s sickening, and I hate to dwell on it, but it seems the situation will only get worse as time goes on.

Even if generative AI had been created ethically and with good intentions, which it surely was not, what damage is it doing to those who outsource all their thinking to such machines? According to the soon to be defunct Department of Education, 54% of adults in the US read below a sixth grade level. Do you think this abysmal number will improve now that we’ve created these machines to do all our reading and thinking for us?

It is hard to be optimistic about where all this is ultimately headed. I look to the future and see people even dumber and worse than the current administration running things. It’s such a sorry state of affairs that it often feels to me that all we can do is take care of our families and hold a candle against the dark.

We saw the Naked Gun tonight. My kids loved it. So we have that. Comedy is important, and we had a good laugh. No one can replace Leslie Nielsen, but Liam Neeson is very funny, and it was the perfect antidote for the times. I loved the old series and I wholeheartedly recommend this new version and hope it does well. There aren’t enough good comedies out there. Lord knows we all need to laugh more often. It’s one of the few ways I have to tune out all the bad news.