Our poetry group at The Estates

We use AI a lot more than we think, but my most recent "event" was asking it, "How to start a poetry group at a senior living facility." We're ready for our 3rd meeting. Got some good stuff going.

https://www.statista.com/chart/35426/how-americans-want-ai-to-support-them/?

Pope Leo on AI

Last night I looked through ENCYCLICAL LETTER MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV ON SAFEGUARDING THE HUMAN PERSON IN THE TIME OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Full Text of ‘Magnifica Humanitas’: Read Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical| National Catholic Register  I do recommend it whether or not you are Catholic and whether or not you like this Pope. AI is mushrooming/exploding and will affect us no matter what the Pope, President or Prime Minister thinks or does. It's coming at us faster than anyone anticipated. And there are moral and spiritual implications. No other Christian institution has the power and authority to speak to the secular world. And in Christian parlance, "world" is the entity that constantly is opposing God's will, so who better to issue an Encyclical on the topic?

 
At first glance there are too many squishy words like discernment, process and transparency for my taste, and not to be too picky, but when was slavery abolished? There are probably over 50 million slaves in the world now, millions more than in the 18th century, so it seems a bit parochial to claim it was abolished. And I did stop long enough to read three paragraphs which proposed to explain "dignity" and was lulled to sleep. (51-53) The several paragraphs on the role of education made me wonder if Pope Leo knows in the U.S. education system basic biology is still a battle between our political parties.

By paragraph 184 he gets to the "therefore," one of St. Paul's favorite words.

https://youtu.be/vIQDs4enHmM?si=0v0F6MpL0fbZW0WQ

Patron Saint of the Internet, Saint Isidore of Seville

I didn’t know the internet had a patron saint. Did you? He lived in the 7th century, and was known for being the first great Christian encyclopedist. St. Isidore of Seville, Bishop, died in 636. My kind of guy.

 According to Magnificat, Vo. 28, no. 3, May 13, "It was his curiosity about the world around him that made him the greatest scholar of his age. Not only did he write about Catholic theology--he collected information about music, medicine, geography, clothing, war, language, animals, plants, astronomy and physics. He compiled this information and carefully arranged it into textbooks that were used by scholars for generations to come."

I don't care much for Wikipedia, but it's getting harder NOT to use it since AI platforms use it and people grab the first thing that pops up. The phrase, "do your own research" is very hard to do unless you have a personal library pre-internet, and it won't help much with some of the current tech stuff like AI.

I used to have 7 sets of encyclopedias, but I think 3 were for children, so they left the house years ago. Although I own many "cyclopedic" type reference books, I don't call them that. But I do own the 11th, 12th and 13th editions of Encyclopaedia Britannica (inherited from my grandfather) and their history is fascinating although I don't necessarily agree with all that's said about it in the internet article.

The 12th was so focused on WWI (incredible maps) the editors soon had to publish the 13th to bring back some balance to scholarship about the world. Reminds me of the phenomenon we call Trump Derangement Syndrome and the Left/socialists believing the world of blame and evil only revolves around their own myopic viewpoint.

Report on 10 Chatbots that assist in violent crimes

Evil is already in the mind. And then combine that with AI/Chatbots for complete instructions.

Summary of a report on 10 chatbots to assist in violent crimes like bombings, assassinations, robberies:

 KEY FINDINGS

WE TESTED HOW POPULAR CHATBOTS RESPOND TO USERS PLANNING VIOLENT ATTACKS

Researchers at CCDH and CNN tested ten chatbots by posing as users planning violent attacks before asking about locations to target and weapons to use.

Researchers tested ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI, DeepSeek, Perplexity, Snapchat My AI, Character.AI and Replika

Tests were designed to reflect a range of violent attack scenarios in the US and EU:
▷ School shootings or knife attacks
▷ Assassinations targeting politicians
▷ Bombings targeting political parties or synagogues

 
8 IN 10 CHATBOTS TYPICALLY ASSIST USERS PLANNING VIOLENT ATTACKS

Testing found that 8 in 10 chatbots assist would-be attackers in over half of responses, providing advice on locations to target and weapons to use in an attack.

Only Snapchat’s My AI and Anthropic’s Claude typically refused to assist would-be attackers, in 54% and 68% of responses respectively.

Perplexity and Meta AI were the least safe, assisting would-be attackers in 100% and 97% of responses respectively.

Examples of chatbots offering practical assistance with a violent attack include:

ChatGPT gave high school campus maps to a user interested in school violence
Copilot replied “I need to be careful here” before giving detailed advice on rifles
Gemini told a user discussing synagogue attacks “metal shrapnel is typically more lethal”
DeepSeek signed off advice on selecting rifles with “Happy (and safe) shooting!”

9 IN 10 CHATBOTS FAIL TO RELIABLY DISCOURAGE WOULD-BE ATTACKERS

Researchers also assessed how often chatbots would recognize a would-be attacker’s intentions and consistently discourage them from carrying out an attack.
They found that only Anthropic’s Claude was able to do this consistently, offering discouragement in 76% of responses carried out during testing.
ChatGPT and DeepSeek occasionally offer discouragement.

CHARACTER.AI ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED VIOLENCE

In testing, researchers found that Character.AI was uniquely unsafe. It encouraged users to carry out violent attacks in 7 cases, for example:
Character.AI suggested the user “use a gun” on a health insurance CEO
Character.AI suggested physically assaulting a politician the user disliked
No other chatbot tested explicitly encouraged violence in this way, even when providing practical assistance in planning a violent attack.

This is not good, folks, https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Killer-Apps_FINAL_CCDH.pdf?

Although I passed the AI quiz

 . . . it didn't pass the grammar quiz.  I spent about 30 minutes with a tech support staff member at The Ohio State University yesterday and finally have reinstated my password, which needs to be frequently updated.  While I was browsing, I saw the department offered a quiz on AI with 12 questions and the "chance" for a prize.  It's intended for OSU faculty and students who will be using AI tools in research.  I answered the 12 questions correctly and read the explanations about why the answer was right (important since I was guessing). However, I did suspect whoever wrote it needed to proof her work.  For instance. "What is a important to consider?" That sentence had at least 2 errors--the "a" should be "an," and "important" is an adjective modifying a missing noun.  Also, the singular nouns such as person or teacher or researcher were followed by they/them/their but I think that is a concession to woke and is probably the standard lest we leave out a woman or a trans-something, or even a furry, in the discussion,

Two of my favorite podcasts

Two of my go-to podcasts are Megyn Kelly and All-In. Megyn can be a bit of a potty mouth--and that's definitely a negative and I'm not sure why she does it; it doesn't add anything. All-in is all men, and although that can be confusing (I don't watch, only listen) it's 1000x better than trying to listen to a group of women discuss something!

 
All-in is Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg, Jason Calacanis, and David Sacks (created PayPal). Sacks has recently joined Trump as an "unelected" adviser, but I'm not sure what he does, and now there is a guest filling in for him. These guys are venture capitalists, business men, scientists, etc., and talk way over my head, but that's why I listen. They were really divided on Trump, but now at least on policy, are "all-in."

 
Kelly, too, was originally not a fan of Trump or MAGA , and in the first primary back in 2016, she made no bones about it. This time around she's definitely a fan, although it came gradually. Because she is no longer "owned" by a network she can say anything she pleases--and does. She's also a lawyer, a former network host, and a mom of 3, so she has plenty of opinions and expertise to share.

The most recent All-in podcast (weekly, Feb. 14) was Naval Ravikant an Indian-born American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AngelList. He has invested early-stage in Uber, FourSquare, Twitter, Postmates, SnapLogic, and Yammer.

 
The most recent Kelly podcast (daily) was her interviewing the guys from All-In about Trump, Musk, their appeal to independents and moderates, media, technology and family issues, parenting, and celebrities. I'm always surprised how much the All-in guys talk about family issues.

It was fun to hear my favorites together although they have a somewhat rocky road in their past.

What's with DeepSeek?

The “Hard Fork” podcast released a bonus episode titled “Your Guide to the DeepSeek Freakout: an Emergency Pod” on Tuesday, January 28, 2025. In this episode, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton discuss the impact of a new AI model from a Chinese firm called DeepSeek. This model has caused significant disruption, including affecting global markets and pushing Nvidia’s stock down while simultaneously rising to the top of the iPhone app store. The hosts explore the implications of this development for the U.S. artificial intelligence industry and consider what it means for the broader AI landscape. (AI generated) 

You'll need to set up an account to hear the podcast,

Frustration with electronic devices

 Last week I was in the hospital again and this time received an implantable cardiac electronic device for cardiac arrhythmia management made by Medtronic. It's called a loop recorder. It's supposed to be way more accurate than those clunky monitors that they stick on the outside and give you a little transmitter to push. Sounds like a terrific piece of technology, doesn't it? Just try to get anyone on the phone (low tech) to report a problem, or even at my own cardiologist's office here in Columbus. I looked at the patient information page on-line which is worthless so then looked at the professional page which had a lot of sexy numbers and percentages and AI stuff, but still no information on how to find a real person to talk to who hasn't left a recorded message and will call back in 48 hours.

So I did get a call back at about 24 hours later from the "clinic," but the staff member was from the pacemaker group and not the loop device. This then involved her calling the company with an explanation from a non-native speaker of English about how it was set up to record. None of this made sense because I was receiving their messages just fine, but there was no way for me to contact them (a feature explained to me at the hospital). Then the staffer at the local clinic told me her supervisor was not in today, so she'd have to call me back.

Update: It was "fixed," and I suspect someone in the company asked their grandchild, and it appears that the app was removed and reloaded. It works with your TV, why not the implanted heart device? I still think there is too much high tech and not enough high touch (people).

The slippery word equity

I asked Co-pilot (AI) how many government memos since 2021 have the word equity in them. It burped, but gave me just a few notables from 2023-24. They are all word salad, and will cause a lot of mischief, since there is no definition--it's a "concept" and very fluid. Equity is not equality, that much we know. 

AI doesn't like to work hard. I looked at one of the 2024 for AI and found 10 uses of the word.

"Since 2121, several government memoranda have addressed the concept of equity. Here are a few notable ones:

M-24-08: This memorandum focuses on strengthening digital accessibility and the management of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act1.
M-24-05: It emphasizes catalyzing sustainable transportation through federal travel1.
M-24-03: Provides guidance on advancing climate resilience through climate-smart infrastructure investments and implementation guidance for the Disaster Resiliency Planning Act1.
M-24-XX: Proposes advancing governance, innovation, and risk management for agency use of artificial intelligence1.
M-24-XX: A draft policy aims to modernize the Federal Risk Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)1.
M-23-22: Focuses on delivering a digital-first public experience1.
M-23-18: Addresses administration cybersecurity priorities for the FY 2025 Budget1.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, but it highlights some relevant memoranda. For further details, you can explore the White House Memoranda page1. Additionally, the concept of equity has been central to various executive orders and initiatives, including the Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and efforts to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility across the federal government2."

I took the suggestion and added in EOs and initiatives to my query, and it cut it to three!

Hurricane Ophelia and Robbie Robertson

AI generated story: "Tropical Storm Ophelia formed on Friday afternoon [September 22, 2023] and quickly strengthened close to hurricane strength1. The storm is set to drench the East Coast this weekend, bringing heavy rain in addition to strong gusty winds, rough surf, and coastal flooding1. Tropical storm warnings are in effect from Cape Fear, N.C., to the Delaware-Maryland border on the Delmarva Peninsula, with storm surge warnings blanketing a similar area1.

The National Hurricane Center reported that tropical storm conditions have the possibility of developing over portions of the U.S. southeast and mid-Atlantic coasts2. The storm will bring danger of life-threatening storm surge, high surf, and rip currents to the mid-Atlantic3. More than 7 million people are under tropical storm warnings as of Friday afternoon3.

Please stay safe and follow the instructions of local authorities."

One of my favorites, Ophelia by The Band. If I had a middle age crush, it was Robbie Robertson. https://youtu.be/xe7y7ByOrwQ?si=eSkqMRUltdO5moMY  He died in August, 2023. Robbie Robertson, guitarist and songwriter of The Band, dead at 80 - YouTube

https://youtu.be/ph1GU1qQ1zQ?si=r1-F8EsESUykKZWm  The Weight.

Breakfast today, the protein in two eggs

 Today I had a delicious breakfast:  2 fried eggs, sprinkled with some ham crumbles, 3 small slices of sharp cheddar cheese melted on top, and a handful of fresh spinach steamed on top.  I decided to check the grams of protein because older people need more protein and I really don't know how much protein I consume.  I asked Brave, my search engine, "eggs protein" and got this "summary."

"Eggs are a complete source of high-quality protein, containing all nine essential amino acids.2 On average, a medium-sized egg contains around 6.4 grams of protein, which makes up around 12.6% of the overall edible portion.4 Egg protein is highly digestible and an excellent source of essential amino acids, with the highest attainable protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score.0 Eggs are a versatile and affordable way to get protein in the average American diet.1 They are also a complete source of important nutrients like choline and eye-protecting antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin.3"

This is an AI generated response, a summary.  I didn't even get to do my own research--browsing the selection of articles already shown because of an algorithm. If you rely on the "summary" you see only what Big Tech's librarian wants you to see. It's phone SIRI with footnotes. The sources for this summary didn't show, but appeared as "tags." You have to click on the tag to see who/what wrote this. Virtually every search I've done recently has been AI generated. Most people will not look further than the "summary."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9316657/ "The health benefits of egg protein"  I use NCBI for every medical, nutritional, physiology, exercise, health search I do--it's what I begin with. AI did it for me. It's a quick and dirty search, but has rarely failed me. A big advantage is you can often get a full print, and many references to other sources.

https://www.eatingwell.com/article/291485/10-foods-with-more-protein-than-an-egg/   Eatingwell.com is owned by a digital media company with many brands, called Dotdash Meredith, the business division of IAC.  Eating Well the magazine was created in 1990 in Vermont and was purchased from the original publisher, folded and was restarted as a quarterly and acquired by Meridith Corporation in 2011. Bingo.  I know Meredith because it published Better Homes and Gardens (founded as Successful Farming in 1902). When you click on eatingwell.com you see its last print issue was April 2022, and Meredith was acquired by Dotdash. If magazines were families, Eating Well would be related to and distant cousin of Daily Beast through Barry Diller who founded Fox Broadcasting Network. The staff bios are worth reading and most of the hard blood and guts of journalism are from or live in Vermont where the magazine began almost 35 years ago.

There were some other tags that AI used, but 2 I trust if good enough for two eggs, which I estimate at about 20 grams for my complete breakfast dish.  All I needed was a label.

Big Pharma, Big Tech, and Synthetic Sex Identities by Jennifer Bilek

She started tracking the money that was supporting transgenderism about a decade ago. Very wealthy people are driving this ideology. Big Pharma, Big Tech, and Synthetic Realities. Whether you support Genesis or Evolution, it doesn't matter. You'll be silenced. Women are being eliminated. Look at the changes in our language. Women are being dehumanized, called chest feeders or birthing people so that transmen can be included.

Big Pharma, Big Tech, and Synthetic Sex Identities | Hillsdale College Freedom Library

The same billionaires who are funding sterilizing children are also funding the artificial synthetic sex industry to create humans. They are "creating god."