Just a bit of folderol this morning, but it's on technology that's been in the news a lot lately, so I thought it worth bringing up. The other day, I sent a quip in an email to my friend Myles Berkowitz. It was something I think I had even posted here -- "If Trump is convicted by jury vote in the E. Jean Carroll case, I wonder if he'll call the jury foreman and ask him to find the few votes he needs for acquittal. 'Come on, just three votes, give me a break.'" Myles wrote back that he was trying out a new AI software from a service called Grammerly, wondering if it would help him write emails quicker. So, instead of writing me his own reaction, he thought instead that he would send along the AI response that the Grammerly AI came up with. You must understand, if it hasn't been clear in my other references to Myles here, that the good fellow has very few subtle bones in his body. Coming from New York, he's really more of an in-your-face kind of guy. He is, in fact, an incredibly nice guy who can be low-key, endearing, impressively thoughtful, and extremely gracious, but I get the sense it annoys him to be so too often. To put him in more perspective before getting to how his AI software should sound for coming from him, Myles occasionally coached his daughter's basketball team when she was in a kids league, which was impressive since he readily admitted he doesn't know all that much about basketball. (Football is his sport.) Other than telling the girls to hound the best player on the other team and also giving them Al Pacino's big locker room speech from the movie Any Given Sunday -- using a Pacino impersonation -- yes, really ("We're in hell right now, ladles. Believe me"), which mortified his then 11-year-old daughter, he basically told them to just run around. Myles is also the guy who wrote, directed and starred in the mock-documentary 21 Dates that followed him on his attempt to find true love over the course of his goal of going out on 21 dates. Though it was loosely written and fictional, it was mixed in with real footage, including some hidden footage from a few of his actual, failed dates. And actual phone calls from his producer yelling at him, as well as intercutting real material of some of his friends talking directly to the camera explaining how annoying Myles could sometimes be, after being told by Myles to be totally honest. Which is the kind of guy he is. It was all very funny. (If you're interested, he gave me permission a while back that I could embed the movie on my site. It's a lot of fun. If you're interested, you can find it here.) Okay, that then is who the guy is. And this is the response to my joke that the Grammerly AI thought would make me assume it was from Myles Berkowitz. Hello Bob, I acknowledge your worries about the potential outcomes if Trump is found guilty by the jury vote in the E. Jean Carroll case. It's understandable to be concerned that he may attempt to sway the jury foreman to secure the votes he needs for acquittal. This is certainly a stressful possibility. Let's hope that justice prevails and that the verdict is reached solely based on the presented evidence. Thank you for keeping me updated. Sincerely, Myles I wrote back to Myles, "It sounds SO much like you that it's eerie." As horrible as the response was to my quip, the funniest giveaway was that it was signed "Sincerely." I have never received an email from Myles signed "Sincerely." Funny, too, is that Myles wrote back to explain that when choosing what style the AI software should response with, he was given several options, like "Business." He chose the option for "Friendly"! Yes, this was what AI thought was friendly -- from Myles Berkowitz. In fairness, it was nicely written, and AI is still in the early stages. But it was so awful for being "Myles Berkowitz" that I got one sentence into the response and burst out laughing. The reality seems that for AI to be as accurate as possible, the person using it has to put a great deal more input into to. However, I did suggest to Myles that he nonetheless might want to consider studying what Grammerly AI wrote on his behalf for future reference. His response was one that I suspect goes over very well in New York, Though not so much elsewhere.
2 Comments
Myles Berkowitz
5/12/2023 12:05:52 pm
I was going to thank you for your kind words and make a small correction in that I went out on 20 dates, not 21. I think even one more date might have killed me.
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Robert Elisberg
5/12/2023 06:24:14 pm
Dear Mr. Bekrowitz and your AI pal,
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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