Hmm. I think I’ll Stick with Google for Now

Supposedly, Microsoft is integrating ChatGPT artificial intelligence technology into its search results. I’m not sure how far along the tech giant is in this process, but what I’m seeing so far is not impressive.

Just for yuks, I posed the following query to Microsoft’s Bing search engine: “What is causing the breakdown in discipline in Virginia public schools?”

Here was the answer:

According to a report by Bacon’s Rebellion, the root causes of disproportionate exclusionary discipline in Virginia public schools are bias and schools and their principals and teachers not aligned with progressive thinking¹. A 2020 report by Virginia Commonwealth University and Penn State found that school segregation by race and income was deepening in Virginia and that Central Virginia, including the Richmond metro area, reported “severe school segregation”³. Implicit bias is heavily implicated as a contributing factor when we analyze the causes of racial disproportionality in school discipline⁴.

Wait, what? According to Bacon’s Rebellion (!!!), of all sources, disproportionate application of discipline is due to “bias” and “non-alignment with progressive thinking?”

The query linked to a post by Jim Sherlock. Bing’s summary was pretty much the diametric opposite of what Sherlock wrote. As for the rest of the response… don’t get me started.

No mention of any of the multitude of other reasons that Sherlock and I have cited as reasons for the decline in discipline. Come to think of it, Bing didn’t even answer the question I asked. Rather than address the causes of the decline in school discipline, it answered a woke question I didn’t ask: What accounts for racial disparities in discipline?

Perhaps this response was a bizarre fluke. Or perhaps Microsoft’s algorithms are impregnated with leftist bias. I don’t know. Let’s just say for now that I don’t give high marks to the current incarnation of Bing’s natural English language search tool.

— JAB


Source: Conversation with Bing, 4/15/2023(1) School Discipline – Part 5 – How and When Democrats Broke Virginia …. https://www.baconsrebellion.com/school-discipline-part-5-how-and-when-democrats-broke-virginia-public-schools/ Accessed 4/15/2023.

(2) Desegregation in Public Schools – Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/desegregation-in-public-schools/ Accessed 4/15/2023.

(3) Racial Disproportionality in School Discipline: Implicit Bias is …. https://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/article/racial-disproportionality-school-discipline-implicit-bias-heavily-implicated Accessed 4/15/2023.

(4) Virginia moves forward on school discipline reforms. https://publicintegrity.org/education/virginia-moves-forward-on-school-discipline-reforms/ Accessed 4/15/2023.

(5) Statistics & Reports | Virginia Department of Education. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports Accessed 4/15/2023.

(6) Virginia Compilation of School Discipline Laws and Regulations – ed. https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/sites/default/files/discipline-compendium/Virginia%20School%20Discipline%20Laws%20and%20Regulations.pdf Accessed 4/15/2023.


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Comments

13 responses to “Hmm. I think I’ll Stick with Google for Now”

  1. Carolyn Blakelock Avatar
    Carolyn Blakelock

    I think that they have broken AI in much the same way that HAL was broken in 2001. The left’s philosophy is not internally consistent and they have programmed that philosophy into their AI, making it, essentially, crazy.

    1. Lefty665 Avatar

      Remember, HAL was a killer.

  2. Lefty665 Avatar

    Wow! Guess that’ll show all those bitching about BR being on the wrong side of CRT/DIE. You can wear that on your sleeve at cocktail parties with the Equity staff at UVa. You could have some fun with this in addition to being an object lesson that AI ain’t ready for prime time quite yet. Has Microsoft engaged Dylan Mulvaney in BingGPT marketing? sHe apparently has some availability after the Bud Light debacle.

    FWIW, Duck Duck Go as a search engine is less pernicious than Google about tracking your every click.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Please. IT knew exactly who was asking and how to make the person asking happy. IT would have given Eric or Nancy a different answer. Which in a way is worse.

    2. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Please. IT knew exactly who was asking and how to make the person asking happy. IT would have given Eric or Nancy a different answer. Which in a way is worse.

      1. Lefty665 Avatar

        Makes calling it “intelligence” something of a misnomer doesn’t it? The “artificial” part is pretty clear.

        Goofy as current examples like this are, I’m terrified of where AI is going. As soon as this stuff trips over the threshold of self perpetuating “learning” the jig is up for us people.

        The answer did not seem to make JAB happy, although I would encourage him to find a way to enjoy it, perhaps by tweaking the wokesters, for the brief period before we’re all toast.

        I don’t doubt different answers for different questioners, or the value judgement that is not better.

        Asimov’s 3 laws for robots were unfounded optimism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics (who’d a guessed it, those are now 80 years old, time flies)

        Be afraid, be very afraid.

    3. vicnicholls Avatar
      vicnicholls

      DDG a few years ago was noted for tracking you. I moved to Brave.

      1. Matt Adams Avatar
        Matt Adams

        Both Brave and DDG are a lightyears better than Chrome at blocking adds. Typically ads on mobile viewing cause the device to lockup, unless you’re using an adblocker.

  3. James McCarthy Avatar
    James McCarthy

    The query to Bing employed the term “breakdown” contrasted with an evaluative response that employed the term “declined.” AI algorithms may simply not be capable of nuanced distinctions. Y’all knew what you meant in the query but Bing reported what it understood of Sherlock’s piece. Breakdown in discipline? Decline? That is the question.

    1. Lefty665 Avatar

      Commenting on intelligence. You’ve found a new way to achieve a Jim McCarthy silly walk. Very nice.

  4. Kathleen Smith Avatar
    Kathleen Smith

    I think I’ll stick with Google too!

    1. Lefty665 Avatar

      Google’s pervasive tracking and use of every keystroke, click and question you give it is as distressing as Microsoft’s foray into AI. I’d suggest using a 3rd party search engine and otherwise avoiding interacting with Google.

  5. Charles D'Aulnais Avatar
    Charles D’Aulnais

    Uh oh, could this result in an infinite loop of increasing sarcasm that creates an event horizon that destroys the world?
    https://www.iflscience.com/south-park-creators-use-chatgpt-to-co-write-episode-about-ai-68059

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