(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Even Stupid AI Is Smart Enough To Debunk Climate Disinfo [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-27 Back on Valentine's Day, we talked about the latest round of overly-credulous AI reporting, in the context of some ridiculous disinfo about EVs . We made it clear that we're unimpressed by the very-much-artificial "intelligence" displayed by chatbots, but now it turns out that even these unthinking regurgitation machines are too clever for climate disinfo! Or, to put it in terms that don't anthropomorphize overblown copy+paste machines, climate disinformation is so profoundly at odds with the overwhelming scientific consensus, and has been so repeatedly and resoundingly debunked, that even AI knows denial's dumb. But Fox News is all too happy to prove that it's even dumber and its readers are even more gullible than a machine that literally cannot think. On Friday, Fox News’ piece on ChatGPT (which for starters originally referred to it as “ChatGTP” in the headline) claimed the AI confessed that warming has paused since 2016. Except it didn't, really. Your first hint that something may be amiss in the story is that its source is "Junk Science's Steve Milloy." Now, it's always interesting to see Milloy on Fox spreading climate disinformation, because he was fired as a Fox columnist for not disclosing that his pro-smoking advocacy was funded by Big Tobacco. Do current Fox staff not know his history of using them to advance the interests of his clients? Or do they not care? We'll leave it to AI to answer that question (at least until Fox staff gets sued and everyone finds out that they know they're lying ). Anyway, the story here is that Milloy badgered ChatGPT about a supposed hiatus in warming since 2016, which is the new version of the old disinformation about a supposed pause before 2016's record heat, which was also never real . It's the sort of thing that's been debunked quite often , for like the past decade . And Milloy's (mis)use of a NOAA graph has also been fact-checked recently , so the AI had plenty to draw from when responding. So when Milloy asked ChatGPT about “CO2 warming,” it first regurgitated the many, many available debunkings of the claim that global warming has supposedly paused and gave an accurate-looking answer: "While it is true that global average surface temperatures have not increased as rapidly since 2015 as they did in the previous decade, this does not mean that global warming has stopped. In fact, global temperatures in recent years have been some of the warmest on record, and the five hottest years on record have all occurred since 2015." When pressed, it acknowledged that NOAA data "for the period 2015 through 2022 show that the rate of warming has slowed down and that there has been little net warming during this period." This, and a follow-up parroting Milloy's prompt, are what justify Fox's headline for the piece, which declares, "ChatGPT confession: Global warming? Not much since 2016." But since that confession only came after multiple paragraphs explaining why Milloy's question is inherently deceptive, this was probably not the clean win he was looking for. Which is not to say Fox doesn't know how to spin a story! For example, their dedicated climate disinfo writer Thomas Catenacci reported (to use the term loosely) that the ChatGPT bot has "recently changed its response to a question asking it to formulate an argument in favor of fossil fuels as a way of increasing human happiness." Back in December, ChatGPT would apparently give the AI version of Alex Epstein's propaganda , responding to the prompt (by essentially repeating) that it's "important to recognize the potential benefits that the use of fossil fuels can bring to human happiness and well-being." But now, it says it "cannot provide an argument in support of using more fossil fuels as it goes against the principles of promoting sustainability and reducing the negative impact on the environment," Catenacci says the bot "told Fox News Digital." In addition, the chatbot cobbled together text accurately describing fossil fuels as "a significant contributor to the issue of global climate change, which poses a threat to the health and happiness of both current and future generations," and then recommended renewables that "can provide power and energy security while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and minimizing the risks associated with climate change." Wow! Looks like the robot learned, which means that AI, as flawed as it may be, is already smarter than climate deniers! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/27/2155218/-Even-Stupid-AI-Is-Smart-Enough-To-Debunk-Climate-Disinfo Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/