The Morning: A.I. questions, answered

Plus, Iran, Donald Trump and a Tetris prodigy.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story January 4, 2024 By David Leonhardt Good morning. We're trying to make A.I. more comprehensible — and also covering Iran, Donald Trump and a Tetris prodigy. ChatGPT Jackie Molloy for The New York Times First drafts I want to make a confession: I don't understand a lot of the hype around artificial intelligence. Like a lot of other people, I tried ChatGPT after it was released, and I was impressed. But I've been mostly disappointed since then. When I've asked it to analyze a data set, its answers have included errors. When I ask about historical events, the information isn't much better than what's on Wikipedia. When I ask about recent events, the bot tells me that it doesn't have access to data after Jan. 2022. I don't doubt that A.I. will eventually be a big deal. But much of the discussion today feels vague and impenetrable for nonexperts. To get a more tangible understanding, I asked my colleagues Cade Metz and Karen Weise, who cover A.I., to answer some questions. We've turned their answers into today's newsletter. David: Am I wrong to be unimpressed so far? Cade and Karen: A lot of people have told us they share your experience. Our editor recently asked us to list impressive things people were doing with ChatGPT, and we really had to think about it. One example does seem to be writing. We are writers by profession, but writing does not come easily for many people. Chatbots can help get out a first draft. Cade knows a dentist who uses it to help write emails to his staff. Karen overheard some teachers in a coffee shop say they were using it to draft college recommendation letters. A friend used it to produce a meal plan for a weeklong vacation, asking it to propose menus and a grocery list that was a helpful starting point. But the chatbots have an inherent problem with producing wrong information, what the industry calls "hallucinations." A lawyer representing Michael Cohen, the onetime fixer for Donald Trump, recently submitted a brief to a federal court that mistakenly included fictitious court cases. As it turns out, a Google chatbot had invented the cases. David: What's an example of something meaningful that people may be able to do with A.I. soon? Cade and Karen: Companies like OpenAI are transforming chatbots into what they call "A.I. agents." Basically, this is a fancy term for technology that will go out onto the internet and take actions on your behalf, like searching for plane flights to New York or turning a spreadsheet into a chart with just a few words of commands. So far the chatbots have primarily focused on words, but the newest technology will work from images, videos and sound. Imagine uploading images of a math question that included diagrams and charts, and then asking the system to answer it. Or generating a video based on a short description. David: Let's talk about the dark side. The apocalyptic fears that A.I. will begin killing people feel sci-fi-ish, which causes me to dismiss them. What are real reasons for concern? Cade and Karen: A.I. systems can be mysterious, even to the people who create them. They are designed around probabilities, so they are unpredictable. The worriers fret that because the systems learn from more data than any human could consume, they could wreak havoc as they are woven into stock markets, military systems and other vital systems. But all the talk of these hypothetical risks can reduce the focus on more realistic problems. Already we are seeing A.I. produce better misinformation for China and other nations and write more seductive and successful phishing emails to scam people. A.I. has the potential to make people even more distrustful and polarized. David: The lack of regulation over smartphones and social media has aggravated some big societal problems in the past 15 years. If some government regulators called you into their office and asked how to avoid being so far behind with A.I., what lessons would your reporting suggest? Cade and Karen: Regulators need to educate themselves from a broad range of experts, not just big tech. This technology is extremely complicated, and the people building it often exaggerate both the positives and the negatives. Regulators need to understand, for instance, that the threat to humanity is overblown, but other threats are not. Right now there is very little transparency around almost every aspect of A.I. systems, which makes it hard to keep in check. A prime example: These systems learn their skills from massive amounts of data, and the major companies have not disclosed the particulars. The companies might be using personal data without consent. Or the data might contain hate speech. Related: Research from Stanford University suggests that A.I. tools have not increased cheating in high schools so far, The Times's Natasha Singer explains. Do you use A.I. in your everyday life? If so, tell us how — with an email to themorning@nytimes that has "AI use" in the subject line. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Iran Explosions A photograph from the blast site released by Iranian state media. Mehr News Agency, via Associated Press Two explosions in Iran killed at least 84 people at a memorial for the slain military leader Qassim Suleimani, Iranian officials said. Iran blamed Israel for the blasts. But experts noted that they were unlike Israel's other attacks in Iran, which carefully targeted leaders. Israel-Hamas War Hezbollah's leader vowed revenge for the suspected Israeli assassination of a Hamas leader, Saleh al-Arouri, in Lebanon. The killing deprived Hamas of a key strategist. After the strike, the Biden administration moved to step up diplomacy with Lebanon, to pressure Hezbollah not to escalate the conflict. A dozen nations, including the U.S. and Britain, warned the Iranian-backed Houthi militia of consequences if it continued to attack ships in the Red Sea. The Israeli military said that a hostage was killed during a rescue attempt in Gaza last week, but that it did not yet know whether by Hamas or its own forces. Israel said it dismantled a Hamas-built tunnel under Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital in November. Israel's Supreme Court postponed the enactment of a law that makes it harder to remove a prime minister, a setback for Benjamin Netanyahu. 2024 Election The U.S. Supreme Court. Kenny Holston/The New York Times Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a state court ruling excluding him from Colorado's primary ballot. Several state capitol buildings were evacuated after bomb threats as a climate of intimidation intensifies ahead of this year's election. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be on presidential ballots as an independent in Utah, the first state to grant him access. President Biden plans to speak about threats to democracy at Valley Forge to mark the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Harry Truman, like Biden, oversaw high prices but low unemployment and strong economic growth. Voters weren't overjoyed then, either, Nate Cohn writes. More on Politics Unsealed documents offered no new names connected to Jeffrey Epstein but did reveal details about his relationships with Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew. New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, will require all school districts to adopt "scientifically proven" approaches to literacy by 2025. More than 1,200 people have been arrested and over 450 have been sent to jail or prison as part of the Jan. 6 inquiry. A lawsuit brought by New York's attorney general against Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A.'s longtime leader, could oust him from the group. Harvard Resignation The word "context" undid Claudine Gay's Harvard presidency. Her resignation letter, and a letter from Harvard's board, lacked context, the critic A.O. Scott writes. In an essay for The Times, Gay writes that attacks on her were part of a coordinated attempt to undermine the legitimacy of trusted institutions and ruin their leaders' credibility. Gay's brief presidency has ignited discussions about race, and what role it plays in who gets ahead and how they are judged. In Times Opinion, Ross Douthat writes that higher education's lurch to the left over the past decade has helped radicalize conservatives, while Charles Blow writes that criticism of Gay was a project of defilement meant to reverse progress. International Russia and Ukraine agreed to their biggest exchange of war prisoners in a deal that the United Arab Emirates brokered. How did every passenger of Flight 516 survive the airplane fire in Tokyo? A well-trained crew, an advanced plane and a relative absence of panic. Logging has damaged millions of acres of forests in Ontario and Quebec, making the landscape more susceptible to wildfire and less able to support wildlife, a study found. Other Big Stories At John F. Kennedy Airport.  Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times Covid cases have risen but without a widespread surge in deaths. "So far, we're in relatively good shape," an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins said. Florida's surgeon general called for a halt in the use of Covid vaccines, citing debunked safety concerns. Federal labor officials accused SpaceX of illegally firing eight employees who criticized its chief executive, Elon Musk. As bees and other pollinators become more scarce, some flowers are evolving to have less sex. Opinions With A.I., Democrats must not repeat the mistakes of globalization, Representative Ro Khanna writes. The Blue Lives Matter flag divides America against itself, Ezekiel Kweku argues. All of The Times. All in one subscription. Enjoy unlimited access to everything we offer — with this introductory offer. You'll benefit from more of the insights that you find in The Morning, every morning. MORNING READS Willis Gibson David Macdonald Prodigy: Meet the 13-year-old from Oklahoma thought to be the first person to "beat" Tetris. Social Qs: "My friend offered to dogsit, then backed out when her mother died. Now what?" Tales of the underworld: ValTown, an account on X, spotlights gangs and drug kingpins of the 1980s and 1990s — and how crime and celebrity often intersect. From London to Paris: A European rail renaissance is well underway. Lives Lived: Maurice Hines was a high-wattage song-and-dance man who rose to stardom as a child tap-dancing with his brother, then performed on and off Broadway. Hines died at 80. SPORTS Golf: Rory McIlroy said the Saudi-financed LIV Tour exposed flaws in how the PGA Tour deals with sponsorships and player commitments. Blowout: The Grambling State women's basketball team beat the College of Biblical Studies by 141 points, a record margin. Teenager: Britain's newest star is a 16-year-old darts player. There are few people in sports with parallel successes, Victor Mather writes. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS Aaron and André Eanes. Amir Hamja/The New York Times Star in the making: For those who don't follow football, Travis Kelce's leap into the culture last year — hosting "Saturday Night Live," dating the world's biggest pop singer — seemed to come from nowhere. But his success wasn't a fluke: His business managers, the Eanes brothers, had been slowly constructing it for years. "We positioned Travis to be world famous," André Eanes said. More on culture Several prominent museums including The Museum of Fine Arts Boston have suffered cyberattacks. Rage Against the Machine will no longer tour or play live, the band's drummer announced. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Armando Rafael for The New York Times Use your favorite blend of nuts, dried fruit and spices to make energy bars. Work out in Wirecutter-approved leggings. Create a home fitness corner. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was challenge. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David P.S. Tracy Bennett, the editor of Wordle, explains how she approaches her own guesses (when she forgets what word she picked for that day, that is). Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018