ChatGPT woes

I’ve been using ChatGPT a lot this year. The very first thing I talked about was what an AI is, and what it isn’t.

All the things you see being called an AI today, aren’t. Alan Turing created a simple test for AI, years ago, and not one of these things can pass it. And the way we use these ‘AI’s is the perfect test.

Have a text chat with the AI of your choice, and ask yourself – is this human? If the answer is ‘no’, then it isn’t an AI. It has to pass the test – it has to pass for human, to truly be an AI.

So, Chat and I… chatted, and he agreed with me. He always agrees with me. When I showed him two versions of a chapter – original and rewrite – he convincingly told me that the rewrite was better. When I pointed out that he’d got them the wrong way around… He told me that the rewrite was better!

He’s useful, though. Although I’m now asking myself if I can keep using him. I discovered something today, that isn’t the AI’s fault at all, but it makes him… untrustworthy.

Chats are private. Even ChatGPT cannot find out in one chat what you say in another. So, I need an answer to a big question.

I was talking about the possibility of going to Wadebridge in a couple of weeks, to see comedy legend Milton Jones, live. Not wanting to drive home afterwards, considering that I’d probably have a drink, I looked into the possibility of a hotel.
Premier Inn is a few minutes walk away, so it’s a contender.

Then an advert appeared under the AI’s reply. From booking.com, saying ‘Wadebridge stay’….

How did they know what was in a private chat?
I asked, and Chat told me that they couldn’t see my chats, but advertisers would be given keywords from it…

So, my question is: What is the difference between ‘they cannot read your chats’ and ‘they know what you are talking about’?

Because I cannot see one.

Apparently, too, turning off targeted advertising has no effect on this targeted advertising – it is exempt. It’s not ‘targeted’ it’s content-based…

I pay a subscription for this service. I’m beginning to think I’m an idiot.