Today’s links I assure you, an AI didn’t write a terrible “George Carlin” routine: The Mechanical Turk would like to have a word with all of us. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading I assure you, an AI didn’t write a terrible “George Carlin” routine (permalink) On Hallowe’en 1974, Ronald Clark O’Bryan murdered his son with poisoned candy. He needed the insurance money, and he knew that Halloween poisonings were rampant, so he figured he’d get away with it. He was wrong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Clark_O%27Bryan The stories of Hallowe’en poisonings were just that – stories. No one was poisoning kids on Hallowe’en – except this monstrous murderer, who mistook rampant scare stories for truth and assumed (incorrectly) that his murder would blend in with the crowd. Last week, the dudes behind the “comedy” podcast Dudesy released a “George Carlin” comedy special that they claimed had been created, holus bolus, by an AI trained on the comedian’s routines. This was a lie. After the Carlin estate sued, the dudes admitted that they had written the (remarkably unfunny) “comedy” special: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/01/george-carlins-heirs-sue-comedy-podcast-over-ai-generated-impression/ As I’ve written, we’re nowhere near the point where an AI can do your job, but we’re well past the point where your boss can be suckered into firing you and replacing you with a bot that fails at doing your job: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-brainworms/#four-hour-work-week AI systems can do some remarkable party tricks, but there’s…Pluralistic: I assure you, an AI didn't write a terrible "George Carlin" routine (29 Jan 2024)