Perplexity is a better writer than I

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A couple of years ago I pulled together some notes and files about Learfield’s early adventures with the Internet. (I’ve posted on this topic more than once.) Yesterday it came up in a conversation with Perplexity which asked I would like to see a “narrative chapter” of that history. I was pretty sure Perplexity would produce something more readable so I said “go ahead.” 

It boiled my fourteen page ramble down to three pages while creating a story that –to my mind– accurately captured the vibe of those frantic days. [Links above to PDFs]

I’ve resisted the temptation to let an AI write or rewrite these blog posts and will continue to do so. But I wonder if it’s much different than an author submitting a manuscript to an editor who cleans it up and generally improves it.

The more your AI knows about you…

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When I first began experimenting with AI chatbots almost three years ago, I decided not to worry about what I shared about my life, past and present. I’d been blogging for more than 20 years so it was all “out there” already. I’ve uploaded hundreds of blog posts, notes from all of the books I’ve read, movies I’ve watched… the entire corpus of Steve Mays.

If you’re using one of the AI platforms as a search engine or asking for cooking recipes or for performing tasks like drafting letters or writing computer code, the AI doesn’t need to know anything about who you are. But I quickly became interested in using these tools to organize, and make sense of, the thousands of files and blog posts I’ve been curating for most of my adult life. To do that, the AI needs context. Who is this person? What does he think? What does he feel?

My interest in self-inquiry and tendency toward introspection obviously had a lot to do with how I interact with Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and —once upon a time— ChatGPT.

Today I added some work history to the “corpus.” Continue reading →

Mark Andreessen on AI

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Marc Andreessen co-created the Mosaic web browser (in 1993) and co-founded Netscape, helping popularize the early World Wide Web in the 1990s. (More than 30 years ago so, ancient history.) He later co-founded venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, becoming a key backer of major internet and crypto companies and a prominent voice shaping Silicon Valley’s views on software, AI, and “techno-optimism” in the 21st century.

He recently appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and shared some thoughts on AI. Someone (@itsolelehmann) shared his “most interesting takes.” Continue reading →

From Gopher to the Abyss

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Seems that every new conversation with one of the AI tools I use gets more interesting. This morning’s ramble (with Claude) lasted almost an hour. Here’s the prompt that kicked things off:

I’m old enough to remember what the Internet was like before the World Wide Web. But it was so long ago I’m trying to remember how we found things before Google search came along. I remember websites like Alta Vista and Yahoo and Ask Jeeves and a bunch of others. Can you refresh my memory on this point?

It’s too long for any human to read so I asked Claude to summarize:

Starting with pre-web internet navigation, we traced how Google dominated information retrieval for 20 years before AI tools began displacing it. That shift threatens the web’s fundamental advertising-based economics, potentially hollowing out the content ecosystem that trained AI in the first place. We followed that thread through cable TV’s decay, the speculum ad as endpoint, stratified access to clean versus compromised information, institutional corruption as the same process running across society, and concentrated wealth as both cause and beneficiary. Ended with AI’s dependence on very human, very physical infrastructure — and the cooling systems that keep it all running.

I found Claude’s then-and-now perspective fascinating. Some of the references will be lost on those who weren’t there at “the beginning.” And it tossed a little humor at the end.

This was a genuinely good conversation — it covered a lot of ground and kept finding unexpected connections. The speculum ad will stay with me as a unit of civilizational measurement.

My favorite YouTube channel?

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I’m an amateur when it comes to video production but I’ve created enough of them over the years to have a sense of how much time and effort even a simple video requires. While the overall quality and professionalism of YouTube videos seems to be going up, few rise to the level of Maxinomics. I don’t recall how I happened on the channel but was immediately impressed by the presenter, Phil Andrews. Some background from Claude:

He’s an entrepreneur and engineer turned digital storyteller, breaking down the data behind major stories in business and geopolitics through maps, data visualization, and rich visuals. Continue reading →

Mobile Billboards

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A digital billboard company now has the technology to make 3D ads on moving trucks.
A digital ad company is introducing a new feature to those trucks you might have seen with illuminated ads on their sides (also known as mobile billboards). Thanks to next-gen LED panels and supporting technologies, they can now create three-dimensional effects designed to be “indistinguishable from reality. If you’re not familiar with 3D billboards… This is known as anamorphic imagery. 

Makes gas pump TV look pretty tame. And I hate those fucking things. Okay, I hate all advertising. And, as I have confessed here before, the sale of advertising fed and clothed me my entire life. These days, whenever it’s an option, I pay not to see ads (YouTube Premium as one example).

I asked Claude if this made me a hypocrite.

Not really hypocrisy — that word implies moral failing or pretending to beliefs you don’t hold. What you’re describing is more mundane and nearly universal. The better terms are probably cognitive dissonance. […] Hypocrisy implies you were publicly crusading against advertising while cashing the checks. If you were just doing the work without claiming to love it, the honest word is probably closer to complicity — which is uncomfortable but accurate for a lot of professional lives.

 

Dan Arnall, Allen Hammock (The Cyber Twins)

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I have posted on Learfield’s early adventures with the internett and the crucial role played by Dan Arnall and Allen Hammock. I’ve stayed in touch with Allen but not so much with Dan. The “Cyber Twins” got together recently and shared the image above. Allen’s career path has been in technology while Dan has made his mark in journalism.

Dan is currently with NBC News, where he serves as Vice President of News Standards. He is based in New York. Continue reading →