Things I've asked Grok this morning:
1. Why did Trump write "He who saves his Country does not violate any Laws"?
2. Who originally said "He who travels alone travels fastest but he who travels with a good companion travels best"?3. At what speed is the Earth traveling through space?4. List quotes similar to "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law."
ADDED: In the discussion I had that began with question #1, I came up with this motivation (which Grok had not noticed):
Trump’s motivation to say what he said might have been to inflame his opponents and lure them out on a limb…. maybe get them to commit to limits on the President's power so that the next time they have a President in their party, he will be restrained... or at least their old arguments will be usable against them. Or maybe he's luring them into taking a position that will be inconsistent with preserving the administrative state, which was itself an overreach.
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Who said ""He who travels alone travels fastest but he who travels with a good companion travels best"?
A golfer.
“My idea of good company...is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.'
'You are mistaken,' said he gently, 'that is not good company, that is the best.”
He who flings mud loses ground
Will we get "certified organic" labels on AI fully trained on real data instead of synthetic input? Breath is bated.
"trained on synthetic data" absolutely creeps me out. Yes, of course, with real-world data you can curate what you train the model with and thus achieve some desired slanting, but synthetic data seems like an order-of-magnitude step in the wrong direction.
3. At what speed is the Earth traveling through space?
Shouldn't "Earth's speed relative to what?" be the response?
What is synthetic data? I'm thinking it means using data from AI to train AI, sort of like older humans train younger humans. But I don't know, the word itself suggests too many things.
This is what my AI tells me:
1. Will AI development hit a wall?
AI development will face challenges but not a complete "wall." Advancements in generative AI and large language models (LLMs) will continue, but scalability and energy consumption issues may emerge as bottlenecks. Regulators may also slow innovation through strict data and privacy laws, particularly in the EU and U.S. However, breakthroughs in quantum computing or specialized AI chips may help overcome these barriers.
2. Will AI’s “killer app” emerge?
AI’s “killer app” is likely to emerge in productivity and personal assistants. AI-integrated platforms like Microsoft 365 Copilot, Google Workspace AI, and personal devices powered by AI assistants will redefine workflows and consumer engagement. These tools could serve as the first universally adopted AI applications, with a profound impact on businesses and daily life.
3. Will Nvidia’s GPUs still rule the tech world?
Nvidia will maintain dominance but face growing competition. Nvidia’s leadership in GPUs for AI workloads will persist, driven by continued demand for their high-performance chips. However, competitors like AMD, Intel, and custom-designed AI chips from Google (TPUs) and Amazon could start chipping away at Nvidia's market share by offering tailored solutions. This competition might lead to innovation and price reductions.
4. Will the stock market’s AI boom continue?
The AI boom will continue but at a moderated pace. AI will remain a key driver of stock market growth, particularly for tech giants like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Alphabet. However, high valuations and economic uncertainties, including interest rate policies, may dampen speculative enthusiasm. The sector’s success will increasingly hinge on tangible returns from AI investments rather than hype.
PS: Happy Birkie Week (American Birkebeiner) to all those who participate!
I hope 2025 is a great experience for you!
I asked Grok that first question. As per usual, Grok produced reams of verbose DNC propaganda in response.
Shouldn't "Earth's speed relative to what?" be the response?
Right. A correct answer to Althouse's question would be zero.
Grok produced reams of verbose DNC propaganda in response
Now that media and ‘experts’ credibility are shot and Watergate is back to being a noun I’ve begun to believe the new trick is robot appeal to authority…
Dang Professor, I was doing the same thing with Anthropic’s Claude this morning. Insty’s site had something published about Dr. Birx lying to Trump so she could figure out how to extend lockdowns which made me want to ask “Why?” I think we know, but I wanted to see what an LLM could pull from the broader knowledge base. After some 4 or 5 exchanges with prompts getting narrower, what came back was truly frightening. Now I kinda hope we get ruled by SkyNet.
When you ask for the speed at which the Earth is moving, you must provide a frame of reference- with respect to the Sun, the center of the Milky Way etc.
What they did during Covid was to focus AI on certain words and phrases so that they could block those words and phrases from appearing or being published (while at the same time misleading the people making 'disfavored' speech into believing that their speech was not being censored).
The Biden Administration wanted to take over this capacity for the government only--to control all AI. (Per Mark Andreesen). Obviously the Chinese government is way ahead on this.
Any AI program is subject to this sort of manipulation.
Caveat emptor.
"When you ask for the speed at which the Earth is moving, you must provide a frame of reference- with respect to the Sun, the center of the Milky Way etc."
I want Grok to do that — account for all the movement — and calculate one speed. I just want to know, while sitting here apparently in one place, how fast am I going? In the end, I was given the number 518,282 mph.
It combined 3 forms of movement: rotation on the axis, orbit around the sun, and movement with the solar system through the Milky Way.
Anything else? Isn't the Milky Way also moving?
Isn't the universe also moving?
"Anything else? Isn't the Milky Way also moving?"
The "best" frame of reference is the entire universe. There's actually a robust answer to the question. You can determine the Earth's motion w.r.t. the universe from the dipole anisotropy of the cosmic background radiation distribution. It is 370 km/sec (0.1% of the speed of light) in the direction (in galactic coordinates) of l = 264-degrees, b = 48.5-degrees, which is on the border of the constellations Crater and Leo.
"Isn't the universe also moving?"
By definition, no.
The fact that all motion is relative is the key to understanding the relativity of time and space. Nothing is still, except by arbitrary definition.
ADDED: In the discussion I had that began with question #1, I came up with this motivation (which Grok had not noticed)
@Althouse, you and I reached nearly identical conclusions. How the Hell did that happen?!?
Kate, but that guy turned out to be a villain, despite his appreciation for social subtleties. Or perhaps, because of it.
Synthetic data is data that has been artificially enhanced with more silicon(e).
And speaking of AI and of Data, Grok has made Mr. Spock redundant and ready for replacement by Mr. Data, who I believe is an android.
Questions 2 and 3 (and with a little tinkering, question 4) could have been answered by a half-way competent search engine. It's the "why" judgment in question 1 that Google or a competitor might have trouble with (also, question 4 is vague -- similar in form or similar in content? -- and common search engines might have trouble with the form question).
Original Mike, that would also be my choice of frame. But Grok absolutely should not have given Althouse the answer it did.
As for the speed at which the Earth is moving:
1. Establish a start moment for a particle that will collide with the Earth moving directly and linearly towards it.
2. Throw away the particle and its subsequent motion after the start moment. Retain the particle's absolute position in space-time.
3. Calculate the speed of the Earth in relation to the start moment's particle's absolute position. (And ignore all of the fluff speeds of the galaxy, universe, et al because they really don't matter in this hypothetical reality. [Laughter])
Relative to the cosmic microwave background radiation base point, probably better than just saying the “fixed stars”. The earth has a speed of 390 kilometers per second. About 872,000 miles per hour.
Regarding earth speed, I see there was a previous comment, my reference seems to be 20 km per sec higher, oh well.
“What is synthetic data?“
Synthetic data is a term for data produced by a model that is trained on real data. The purpose is largely the same as filtering or smoothing to make a model trained on the synthetic data perform better in some way than a model trained on the real data.
To a statistician it is somewhat offensive, because you are trying to apply statistics to a process where statistics is not going to work, but in data science, if it improves prediction, or covers up data that is making the LLM go crazy, it is ok. I don’t really argue too much about it.
I would ask Althouse, did the earth move?
Does the universe rotate? That can be checked, and seems to be no up to the accuracy of the measurements.
Gronk, I know. Gronk, I get. Grok and Grok, Jr., not so much.
What one real person believes, celebrates, laughs at, puzzles over and laments is interesting to me (depending...).
Instantly knowing results of a survey of EVERYONE may be uaeful to marketing departments, campaign managers and people who wish to influence or manipulate others but holds no personal satisfaction for me.
"Knowing everything may, in fact, lead to losing eveything.
Whatever the answer to, 2. Who originally said "He who travels alone travels fastest but he who travels with a good companion travels best"? is, I dispute the premise.
I travel a lot; sometimes as an explorer, sometimes as a seeker; sometimes as a fugitive, sometimes as a restless soul and sometimes as just another fucking touurist.
I see and understand far more as a solo traveler (one who is not adverse to lingering for weeks in the same area).
I have many rewarding experiences with locals and 'other' travelers. Not all great "one night stands" are about sex.
Some are about boring train rides, long hikes on trails more challenging than expected, rescues from confusing circumstances, drinking and dancing to exhaustion, exchanging truths and secrets with someone who won't judge or be seen again. Shelter from the storm... Not to mention local pub owners and innkeepers. I've stayed in touch and become close to some of those I was lucky enough to cross paths with as long as 45 years ago.
Traveling 'with' a companion is more about a relationship than a trip, IMO.
"He who saves his Country does not violate any Laws"?
If your country is lost, there won't be any laws other than the ones imposed by whatever power conquered your country.
From a practical sense, better to violate any number of laws to preserve law itself.
The best quote, which is similar to Trump's would be, ""the Constitution is not a suicide pact.""
If a president needs to take action to repel an invasion she has emergency powers. Someone can sue and ask a court to allow the invaders in, and then it is up to the courts. If SCOTUS decides that the invader’s rights have been violated, they can order a remedy.
The problem with emergencies is that Rahm Emanuel won’t let them go to waste.
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