On our way to the local Labyrinth, my friend (and accomplished wildlife videographer), Gerry Krausse, mentioned that he had just started a new video project on the Killdeer. I asked him, "What's a Killdeer." He answered, "You know, that brown bird with a white stripe across its chest." I didn't know. He went on, "It got its name from the sound of its call, which sounds like it’s saying 'kill-deer! kill-deer!' And it spreads its wings when it calls..."
Still perplexed, I pulled my trusty iPhone out go my pocket and said, "Let me look this up..." in my all knowing FREE app Chat GPT.
I prompted the app to make a picture of a Killdeer, by speaking, "Make a picture of a Killdeer." After a short pause, the below image popped up on the iPhone screen. I showed Gerry, "Yep, that's a Killdeer, all right."
Killdeer
Then he said, "They spread their wings when they call. So I prompted ChatGPT again... see below.
Killdeer spreading its wings
I thought, "Wow, ChatGPT is astounding!"
As we motored along to the labyrinth, I remembered back when I was a kid and came to my Mom with a homework question. She would always say, "Jan, go look it up in the encyclopædia." I hated that... too much work to "look it up." in that heavy tome.
Now, using the miracle of Artificial Intelligence, programs like ChatGPT can describe Killdeers (and a thousand other things) to me, and even make pictures of anything from spoken words. Truly amazing... And, best of all, it's free!
If you are aren't using this app, or one like it (Gemini, CoPilot), you should be. I use Chat almost every day to "look it up".
Just a few recent queries:
"What are Marfa Lights?"
"Carnival Cruise to Japan?"
"Adding cinnamon to coffee?"
"How to add a new background in Photoshop?"
"Best car loan rates?"
"Why do Doppelgängers exist?"
Hallucinations (or, AI ain't perfect)
Mistakes are called "hallucinations". They can take different forms:
• Factual errors: Providing incorrect dates, statistics, or historical events.
• Fabricated sources: Citing studies, articles, or authors that don’t exist.
• Overconfidence: Presenting uncertain or speculative information as if it’s unquestionably true.
Example+: Do cats have a unique fingerprint?
Hallucinated Answer:
“Yes, each cat has a completely unique nose print, much like a human fingerprint. In fact, some veterinary clinics use nose print scanning for identification.” A totally bogus answer!
When you look at this picture do you the hallucination?
A Secret Labyrinth
Later, Gerry showed me where the Labyrinth was, hidden just off the North Kingstown Recreation Center Walking path, near the boat ramp. Kathy, Maggie and I went back later to walk it. I used my drone to record our less than meditative walk around and around and around the Labyrinth. (You should take it for a spin.)
Thanks for visiting today. Please don't forget to invite your photography friends to my "Jan The Photo Man" newsletter by sharing this link: janthephotoman.kit.com.
A few seats are still available at my upcoming iPhone workshop "The Art Of Making Fine Photographs With Your iPhone" at the Wickford Art Association, April 19 http://www.armorphoto.com/the-art-of-the-iphone-copy
I'm presenting at OLLI-URI on May 23, “Picture This: Photography Without a Camera”
