So this is how those Newsletters get written - you use AI to 'bump them out'.

By Pepper Parr

February 8th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Council was debating the problems and costs related to the Information Technology (IT) the city uses.

Chad MacDonald the top dog in that world was explaining where the problems existed and what it was going to take to solve the problems – it amounted to time and money.

Did the Ward Councillor write this or did she just “bump it out” using Artificial Intelligence ?

Lisa Kearns, who was serving as Chair of the Workshop that was discussing the budget, made some comments that gave the public a look at how she uses IT – Kearns, the person with the best brain on this city council is known for some real zingers. At times you never know where she is going to go or where she is coming from.

Her latest interest is AI – Artificial Intelligence and seems to want the city Communications department to use the technology.

Kearns said: “ We don’t have the visibility for bolding AI. My office recently undertook an AI initiative and I’ve been able to bump out speeches that are 700 words in the matter of about 90 seconds.

“I type in about five words, how many paragraphs I want, and the length and it scours the web and bumps out fresh content non plagiarized.

“I’m able to do social media posts within 30 seconds, and they are about 350 words. That’s amazing. And that’s just at the very basic level.”

Ward 2 Councillor and Deputy Mayor Lisa Kearns: She just bumps it out – in 30 seconds no less

She actually said that. Truly amazing – astonishing actually

The Councillor doesn’t think about it; doesn’t appear to do a first draft and massage that draft to ensure that she is “communicating” with the people who elected.

Nope – she just bumps it out.

Ya gotta love these people.

Kearns went on to say: “I can’t even tell you on my examination of the number of different broken pieces of IT infrastructure they’re not talking to each other and they’re falling apart.”

There is more than Information Technology that is broken.

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8 comments to So this is how those Newsletters get written – you use AI to ‘bump them out’.

  • Stephen White

    I teach at a community college, and some of my students use bots such as ChatGPT, QuillBot and Chegg to write essays. The end product is garbled, stilted and bordering on the ridiculous.

    The following is an actual example. (No…I am not making this up!)

    “In expansion, custodial workers have been mentioning joint prosperity and security leading groups of legal administrators to drop their developments on the influenced wards and in the trauma centre due to a neurotic apprehension about transparency.”

    BTW…doesn’t the City have a Communications Department? Shouldn’t they be assisting in drafting messages for the Councillor?

    • Joe Gaetan

      Stephen: Several weeks ago, 1010 radio personality Jerry Agar read aloud a piece produced by himself using A.I. Had he not identified the fact in advance I would not have known so. Are City Newsletters being “bumped” out? Lets hope not. Beware of things that go “bump” in the daylight.
      “I’ve never been one for being afraid,
      Or running away from a fight,
      But I shiver with fear, whenever I hear
      Things that go bump in the night.”
      By “Unknown”

  • Keith Demoe

    I can’t believe an elected official actually said this?? If I’m going to be speaking to a group of people, my ideas are going to be on that page or cue card. It’s what I think, what I and others may believe and want to champion…NOT to be produced by a machine. Also, I work in business intelligence and not sure of limitations at this time regarding accuracy and consolidation of information produced by AI. If something is being produced, it likely has to be tweaked considerably.

  • Hilarious. Is Lisa Kearns being honest when she claims as we have to at times. “I am not a robot” and who completed the course work for the honour she received from her class mates AI or Kearns.

  • Joe Gaetan

    With A.I. GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3.) there is no need for councillors or for that matter M.S.M. Full disclosure I wrote this without using GPT-3. Can you tell???

  • David

    We are turning out a society of drones who follow each other without question. Having worked with HMI (human machine interface) I would advise those scurrying off into a world of AI never forget who controls who, the dumbest person on the planet is infinitely smarter and more diverse in their thinking than any software developed gadget, the only reason it looks smarter is because you are getting dumber.

  • Sharon H.

    If AI is the way of the future then the budget should be half of what it is coming out at today. (30 seconds for 350 words and 90 seconds for 700 words), is telling me only half the staff is needed to come to any concensus moving forward. Brilliant!

  • Penny Hersh

    Artificial Intelligence is a slippery slope. Universities are dealing with this as students use AI or artificial intelligence to write their reports and their thesis. It has become such an issue that universities are looking for ways to be able to detect this.

    Why bother going to university and attending classes if AI is going to be doing the work the student is supposed to be doing.

    People say that AI is the way of the future and we have to accept this. In reality an algorithm is turning out information and reports.

    The person using this technology has not necessarily taken the time to research or understand the material.