Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

Bye bye, Google

Thanks to the generosity of the California State University system, those of us within it (staff, students, teachers, etc) are gifted with a free license of ChatGPT education. Since our own campus IT has rolled the service out, I’ve been using ChatGPT for all sorts of queries that would have otherwise gone to Google.

Because why slum through Google’s intractable ads just to click on the first result that may have the correct answer? For very specific questions, such as “Is 0.4 of an inch of rain considered heavy?”, ChatGPT simply rules. The service returns only the correct answer, super legibly, with not an ounce of advertising distraction. (I do realize I am essentially using the paid version. Surely the free version will eventually have ads.)

Is Google on the roller-coaster ride downwards? Not on my account. I still use it for more open-ended questions, such as inquiring about the qualities of a particular product. Soliciting multiples of results - to gather varying experiences and testimonials - is still better done with the traditional search engines.

What I do find interesting with partnership between the CSU and OpenAI is that it is a de-facto endorsement for students to use ChatGPT for their schoolwork. A few months before that would still be considered cheating. Obviously, students have been and are using AI LLMs since they’ve become available. They just have to be smart enough to edit the output and make it their own. It’s the stupid ones who don’t that get caught.

I do carry reservation about English students using it to write. That’s suppose to be purely the student’s own inspiration (and perspiration), isn’t it?

As well we should!

I don't need it

Speaking of Google Photos Magic Eraser: Adobe released an update to its Lightroom editing software touting a similar feature. Users like me can now harness the power of AI - as is seemingly everything these days - to remove unwanted objects from photographs. That’s nothing for me to get excited about, because I’ve largely stopped editing my pictures. (The most I do now to my photos is straighten the horizon. Dutch angles absolutely grinds my gears.) I am a straight-out-of-the-camera kind of photographer now. Those Fujifilm film simulations are just that amazing and convenient.

In my opinion, the best way to implement AI is to make it invisible. Don’t tell me it’s AI at all. Let AI do all the magic in the background. The user should only see the end result. Take this new Lightroom feature for example: AI removal should be integrated into the existing cropping and cloning tools. The program has always had the capability to crop things out of photos. It’s obviously more powerful and easier thanks to generative AI, but why mention AI at all? Simply say the crop tool is now way better.

I don’t care that Grammarly is using AI to make its writing assistance software better. I only care that the software works, and works well.

Of course, the cynical take would be all these companies are hopping on to AI in order to upsell (hashtag profits). Adobe is adding AI to Photoshop and Lightroom so they can easily justify increasing the monthly subscription fee in the future (mark my words). Microsoft adding Copilot AI to its Office apps is merely an excuse to charge more on the subscription. Extra computing power is not free, am I right? But what if I only want simple Microsoft Word - without the fancy AI stuff? I doubt there’s going to be an AI-less tier for a cheaper price.

What I would not be surprised is Microsoft adding an ad-supported tier of MS 365 for a lower price. Have you used Windows 11 lately? Ads are creeping in already

And round and round it goes.