ChatGPT's response to our 3rd question: "What do I have to learn in order to become a competent user of applications based on large language models?"

Last update: Monday 4/10/23 

On 4/10/23 the editor of this blog posed the question in the title of this note to ChatGPT running its GPT-4 model.  In the editor's opinion, the chatbot's detailed response lays out a realistic learning program; it is not a "hallucination".

Note that this is the editor's second revision of a question he originally posed to ChatGPT on 4/8/23, revised yet again because this third version is a simpler, more effective "prompt" to ChatGPT to produce guidance for obtaining the knowledge and skills that most non-AI experts really want ... :-)

"Pandemic Survivor" -- Does anybody still watch that show?

Last update: Tuesday 7/26/22 

Is that show still on? Does anybody really watch it anymore? I haven't watched since last Christmas. Who are the main characters now? Remember way back in 2020 when  "Masks" and "Other Mitigations" were the good guys and we all tuned in every week to watch them flatten the curves?... "Masks" and "Other Mitigations" were pushed out in early 2021 by "Vaccines" and "Herd Immunity". When ratings began to sag, CDC Productions replaced them with bad guys, "Delta" and "Breakthroughs". Nobody like them, so CDC tried to bring back "Masks"and "Other Mitigations", which didn't work out. After Christmas they replaced "Delta" with "Omicron". He was supposed to be a good guy because he was less lethal than Delta, yet somehow he killed more people. I remember feeling confused and bored and suddenly noticed that I had gained 15 pounds from watching too much TV; so I decided to go out more and get more exercise and fresh air. That's when I learned that Netflix announced that it would cancel its contract with CDC Productions before the fall 2022 season began. Meanwhile, is anybody still watching the show?

Biden says Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks or not

Last update: Wednesday 4/20/22 

Here's the first paragraph of an article in the NY Times on 4/19/22. "President Biden said on Tuesday that Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks, undercutting efforts by his administration to urge Americans to keep wearing face coverings on airplanes, trains and buses even after a federal judge struck down a nationwide mask mandate on public transport."

Maybe it's time to #DefundTheCDC

Last update: Wednesday 2/16/22

We don't propose to literally shut down all of the CDC's operations. Our intention is to impose a pause on the CDC's issuance of new guidance while Omicron's current surge subsides in most states. Ideally the CDC should be an agile developer of reliable public policy; but too often its guidance has been too early, then flip-flopped, or too late to have substantial impact. 

Some merry happy seasons greetings

 

... Merry Xmas!!!

...... Seasons Greetings!!!

......... Happy New Year!!!

We wished everyone a Happy New Year two years ago 

    and look what happened in 2020 #!@!#

We wished everyone a Happy New Year last year 

    and look what happened in 2021 #!@!#

Although everyone knows that the third time is the charm, 

   we're hedging our bets this year. 

         So here's to wishing that you won't have to learn more than 

         two new letters in the Greek alphabet in 2022 ... :-)