Is AI a tool, a gimmick, or the death of us all? Part 2

In my previous post I posted a travel log that I had created for me using Bing's AI Chat. As good as the result is, it is also completely flawed and I'm about to explain why. But first, let's look at the parameters I used to create that travel log:

write a travel log of a trip to the Coromandel from the perspective of someone from the South Island of New Zealand in 1500 words.

So what it produced was correct. It wasn't what I asked for though. This highlights one of the problems that AI has, it doesn't understand language. It doesn't even understand geography.

It mentions NOTHING about Coromandel as a town for starters. It only mentions Coromandel as a region. There is no region/province/state in New Zealand called Coromandel. What people reference is the Coromandel Peninsula to describe the area. So here's what the AI wrote:

I have always wanted to visit the Coromandel Peninsula, a place of natural beauty and cultural significance on the North Island of New Zealand. As a South Islander, I have heard stories of its golden beaches, lush forests, and rich history from my friends and family who have travelled there before. So when I had the opportunity to take a week off work and fly to Auckland, I decided to rent a car and drive to the Coromandel for a few days of exploration and relaxation.

I do realise that I may have caused this as I used the phrase "the Coromandel" but did not say "Coromandel". So on this level it is correct. But as you read through the entire article the first town we come to is Thames:

I arrived at Thames, a historic town at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula, around noon. Thames was once a bustling gold mining centre in the 19th century, attracting thousands of prospectors from around the world. Today, it is a charming town with heritage buildings, museums, art galleries, and cafes. I stopped at one of them for lunch and enjoyed a delicious fish and chips with a view of the harbour.

Once again correct. But not one mention of the old gold mine that you can walk through. Not one mention of where they got the F&C and what made them delicious. Not even a mention of what time they were eating. The trip from Auckland to Thames is not a short one. It's an hour and a half and that's without counting the flight from the South Island.

What's weird is the next paragraph:

After lunch, I continued my drive along the coast on State Highway 25, which follows the contours of the peninsula. The road was narrow and curvy, but also very scenic, with stunning views of rocky cliffs, sandy bays, and green hills. Along the way, I saw signs for various attractions and activities that tempted me to stop and explore: hot water beaches, hiking trails, kayaking tours, wineries, etc. But I decided to save them for later and focus on reaching my destination for today: Whitianga.

So remember how I said that there is no mention of the Coromandel township in this travel log? The route this "writer" took goes through Coromandel. Coromandel is not a small town. In fact it's the largest town in the area and yet no mention of it despite going through it. There's heaps to do in Coromandel as well. Such as fishing for snapper off the Mussel Barge or visiting the Gold Stamper. There's cool places off the beaten track such as Water Works. No mention of any real sites etc.

Then the formatting gets weird. In amongst that is the only detailed accounts of eating and places they visited.

So for writing purposes AI fails. How anyone has ever passed essays using this system is beyond me. It says more about the teacher than it does about the student.

The failure of AI to write a proper dialogue is due to many things. I'll pick on two. Shared experiences. When you and I go somewhere and see something we have an experience. It's impossible for an AI to have that experience sitting on a server in America. Our experiences explore everything about the environment. The visuals, the sounds, the smells, the feel of the environment, and the taste of the foods. An AI can experience none of these, except sight and sound through cameras I guess.

This all shows in the travel log the AI produced.

The second failure has to do with language. In my brief to the AI I asked for this:

from the perspective of someone from the South Island of New Zealand

Here's the utter failure of the AI. There is no colloquialisms is this text. We're talking about people separated from the North Island by the Cook Strait. This has led to different speech patterns developing. We see nothing of this. In fact, I'd say this would translate anywhere in the world which was not what I was looking for. I wanted it to show the colloquialisms that someone from this area would use. I wanted it to be informal. I wanted it to give the impression this was someone visiting from the Mainland for the first time.

So AI cannot take over from humans in this instance because the AI cannot experience what humans do. The processing power needed for the human experience is huge. Back in the 90s I remember watching a show that showed a computer that could operate like a single brain cell. It was about 11 feet long and about 3 feet high. They calculated that a computer network that could operate like an entire brain. It would be roughly the size of Tokyo six stories high. We do it in a 3 kilogram lump of fat between our ears. AI isn't even close to what we humans can do.

But the power of AI is starting to get interesting and I'll explore that in the next article.

Disclaimer: Please note, that this is part of a wider social profile and has been published elsewhere on the Net. I - Loweded Wookie - own all rights to this material or have credited, as much as I am able, any material not created by myself.