AI blunder: US newspaper's summer book list recommends non-existent books
US content distributor King Features says it has fired a writer who used artificial intelligence to produce a story on summer reading suggestions that contained books that didn't exist.
The list appeared in “Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer," a special section distributed in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer last week.
More than half of the books listed were fake, according to the piece's author, Marco Buscaglia, who admitted to using AI for help in his research but didn't double-check what it produced.
Another 'AI got it wrong' story and it seems to be accurate. Why wouldn't it be accurate? It should be but just in case, I checked the Chicago Sun-Times apology which is still there.
It raises a familiar point though. Information popping up in the online world has to be checked if some kind of conclusion depends on it - or possibly a career in this case.
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"Cheap and Green" by Ed Miliband
"Britain First" by Keir Starmer
"Make it Add Up" by Rachel Reeves
Some years ago, our department was joined by a new colleague with an odd quirk; if she didn’t know the answer to a question, she would make one up and deliver it with absolute certainty. Within her first few weeks, she had misdirected numerous visitors to the school - including a confused visiting Music examiner who ended up at the swimming pool - given parents incorrect school holiday dates and sent numerous classes to the wrong room or building.
She didn’t last long but it took months after her departure to re-educate the September intake of staff who, not realising she arrived only two terms before them (and had never listed to what she was told in the first place), had relied on her confident assertions about report-writing guidelines, exam entry requirements or disciplinary procedure. For years afterwards ‘doing a Jessica’ became staff shorthand for giving wrong or misleading information, especially when it led to dire consequences.
I have a horrible feeling that AI will inevitably ‘do a Jessica’ on a monumental scale.
Ask AI to draw up a capable government . When it got to the UK, it would report that there was one, but it didn't exist.
Perhaps the book and author suggestions are just 'seeds' that you input to your own AI program to produce you own personal book?
Sam - all good books for holiday reading but they must be popular because they are so difficult to find.
Macheath - that's very interesting and quite difficult to deal with I imagine. I've never come across anyone that bad, although our son knew someone at school who frequently constructed lies about himself. His was more fantasy lying, making up aspects of his life which were often blatantly untrue but designed to enhance his perceived status in some way.
Tammly - that would be an interesting question.
DJ - it's possible that the question was interpreted in that way. From what I've seen so far, users of AI systems have to phrase their requirements carefully and it can be worth experimenting with different ways of doing it to see how the output varies.
Many years ago I worked in a large defence engineering company. My first real job. With me was an ex-Chief Petty Officer of the CPO Pertwee type of Navy Lark fame. He gave me two pieces of advice which had stood him in good stead both in Navy and in civvy industry.
A. If a senior officer asks you a question, immediately give an answer. Any answer. The officer will remember who that knowledgeable person that have a quick reply. It will be much later, if ever that he will find out the answer was wrong, but he will have forgotten who have him the cuff gen. B to follow.
B. If an officer asks you to perform a task explain to your superior that you are overloaded with work and much as would like to oblige it is just impossible. Your superior will be impressed that so many others trust this man to carry out tasks.
I was present when our CPO and my colleagues were sipping coffee, enjoying a smoke, and playing cards. I said that was a few years ago. The phone rang out for him and he seamlessly segued into his overworked routine.
One could not help but like the man.
The Bible: the Third Testament.
Doonhamer - I've known one or two people with a tendency to followed advice A, although I think it came naturally to them, or maybe it was pausing to think for a moment that didn't come naturally to them.
Advice B is not uncommon in the public sector, and that one also seems to come more naturally to some people than others. It creates an effect where some do at least twice as much work as others even if they are paid the same.
dearieme - that one stirs up a few thoughts about other possibilities.
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