Better Offline

The Academics That Think ChatGPT Is BS

In a paper released earlier this year, three academics from the University of Glasgow classified ChatGPT's outputs not as "lies," but as "BS" - as defined by philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt in "on BS" (and yes I'm censoring that) - and created one of the most enjoyable and prescient papers ever written. In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by academics Michael Townsen Hicks, James Humphries and Joe Slater in a free-wheeling conversation about ChatGPT's mediocrity - and how it's not built to represent the world at all. LINKS: Paper: <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5</a> Michael Townsen Hicks: <a href="https://www.townsenhicks.com/">https://www.townsenhicks.com/</a> Joe Slater: <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/joeslater/">https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/joeslater/</a> Newsletter: wheresyoured.at Reddit: <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline">http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline </a> Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at Ed's Socials - http://www.twitter.com/edzitron instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social <a href="https://www.threads.net/@edzitron">https://www.threads.net/@edzitron</a>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

Better Offline is a weekly show exploring the tech industry’s influence and manipulation of society - and interrogating the growth-at-all-costs future that tech’s elite wants to build. 
Combining narrative-form storytelling, one-on-one interviews and panel-based discussions, Better Offline cuts through the buzzwords and obfuscation of the tech industry, investigating and evaluating the schemes and scams of everyone from cryptocurrency scumbags to the greediest of the venture capital elite. Tech industry veteran Ed Zitron and a dynamic coterie of guests will help listeners understand the who, how and why of how tech’s most powerful players are changing the world - for better or for worse.