Friday, December 29, 2023

AI writing Legislation

 This sort of thing could easily lead to legislators having to cancel their email accounts. Following the example of the councilman in Brazil who had ChatGPT write a city ordnance, which bypassed all the usual governmental roadblocks and passed unanimously on first reading, 

Not specifically gun related, but closely connected. I asked ChatGPT to write me a bill to establish an audit process, and here's what it came up with. Just needs someone to carry it. Yes, I know, it won't get anywhere in Colorado, but we can at least make an effort. Cut and paste to your rep or senator. It's specific to Colorado, but it should be easy to get one for other states by just changing the state in the request section. Don't send the request section, shown in the next paragraph. I'm not going to worry about some AI becoming an evil overlord, the things are programs, and do what you ask them to do. Usually. Proofread their work and treat them like unpaid interns.

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Compose a bill for a law, in the format of bills in the Colorado state legislature, to amend the Colorado revised statutes to require an audit of statewide biannual elections. This audit should confirm that every ballot cast represents a specific voter, that all voters tested are current legal residents at their stated address, and that all voters tested are legally entitled to vote in the Colorado elections. Sampling size should be sufficient to be statistically significant, and this audit should be completed and a summary report issued not later than 15 January following the election being audited. The audit must be performed by a private party or business competent to perform such actions.

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BILL NUMBER: H.B. XX-XXXX

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE [Your Name]

A BILL FOR AN ACT

CONCERNING AUDITS OF STATEWIDE BIANNUAL ELECTIONS IN THE STATE OF COLORADO.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Biannual Election Integrity Act."

SECTION 2. LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS.

The General Assembly finds and declares that ensuring the integrity of statewide biannual elections is fundamental to a healthy democracy. To enhance public confidence in the electoral process, it is imperative to implement measures that verify the accuracy and legitimacy of every vote cast in these elections.

SECTION 3. AMENDMENT OF THE COLORADO REVISED STATUTES.

(a) Section XX-XXXX, Colorado Revised Statutes, is hereby amended to add a new subsection (XX) to read as follows:

(XX) AUDIT OF STATEWIDE BIANNUAL ELECTIONS.

(i) Following each statewide biannual election, a comprehensive audit shall be conducted to verify the accuracy and legitimacy of the votes cast.

(ii) The audit shall be designed to confirm the following:

(a) Every ballot cast represents a specific voter.

(b) All voters tested are current legal residents at their stated address.

(c) All voters tested are legally entitled to vote in Colorado elections.

(iii) The sampling size for the audit shall be sufficient to achieve statistical significance and shall be determined in accordance with recognized statistical principles.

(iv) The audit shall be completed, and a summary report issued not later than January 15 following the election being audited.

(v) The audit required by this subsection shall be performed by a private party or business competent to conduct such an audit.

SECTION 4. IMPLEMENTATION.

(a) The Secretary of State shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this act.

SECTION 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.

This act shall take effect upon passage.

Friday, December 22, 2023

QOTD - The Modern Left

Shamelessly taken from the WSJ, who also felt this worthy of repetition:

Thus does the glacial pace of the American legal system, and the helpless timidity shown by most liberal judges . . ., enable Trump’s attack on democracy. . . . Even most liberal judges, facing an existential threat to their entire profession, as well as serious threats to their own safety, can’t bring themselves to give Trump a taste of his own medicine. [Tanya] Chutkan at least is less tolerant of his lying garbage, but she did pause his trial. And the D.C. appellate decision rescinding part of her gag order, written by three Democratic appointees, reads like a parody of anxious liberal hand-wringing. “Mr. Trump is a former President and current candidate for the presidency,” it reads, “and there is a strong public interest in what he has to say.”
Even granting the dubious idea that the public interest is served by Trump’s semiliterate screeds on Truth Social, there is a far more obvious and compelling interest here. Whether he becomes president again will be highly influenced, and perhaps determined entirely, by whether these cases can be resolved in a timely and fair fashion. That interest is directly and seriously undermined by letting him speak about the trial in any way whatsoever. Indeed, if anyone has ever deserved pretrial detention, it is him.

Ryan Cooper writing for the American Prospect, Dec. 20: 

This should give you a bit of a foretaste of what to expect when the left finally grasps the brass ring of uncontested one-party rule.

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Council of Guardians Disqualifies Trump

 After years of accusing Republicans of wanting a theocracy, the Dem controlled Supreme court of Colorado has declared Trump guilty of fomenting an insurrection and disqualified him from appearing on the Republican primary ballot. This is in perfect alignment of the Iranian practice of having a Council of Guardians, appointed 50% directly and 50% indirectly by the supreme leader, to reduce the hundreds of wannabe presidents there to an acceptable 3 or so.

Here's how candidates are selected in a theocracy. In Iran, it's 12 Ayatollahs in black robes. Here it's 4 high priests in black robes.

This is probably why the Dems badgered the Republicans to switch from a party specific caucus system to a more easily manipulated primary system. 

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Robots On The News

 As I predicted some 8 years ago,  and again 6 years ago  TV stations have moved from hiring overpaid pretty faces to robots to read the news, weather, and sports. The only difference is that instead of complex animatronic faces on upper body models with changeable wigs, they're using full body AI generated 3D models that look and move like real people. Or at least mostly like real people. The examples here  have repetitive hand movements that need a bit of variation added to make them a bit more realistic.

Visualize 3 AI models: The news is read by a 40-some male with a bit of gray at the temples in a nice suit. The sports can be read by a blond haired white gut with a good outdoorsy tan, or a black fellow who can be wearing the hairstyle of whomever is leading the sports stories today. (Dennis Rodman today.....) The weather girl can be modeled after the one a channel in Mexico found who can give the weather in such a way that notice of an impending extinction-level meteor strike goes completely unnoticed.

Notice that this will do nothing whatsoever for the veracity of the output. The models say whatever they're told to say so that the anonymous fake news writers become more important than the fake news readers.

Max Headroom, call your office. Your full body upgrade is now available.

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

QOTD - Sex

 Found this gem on Scott Adams' twitter page.


He's not entirely wrong. Combine a Musk robot endoskeleton with a RealDolls body, and there you are. The bot could also likely manage your money, pay your bills, watch your favorite news, buy your groceries, etc. The bots are currently a bit stilted and clumsy, so I wouldn't trust one just yet to cook meals, but I'm sure it could recommend some nice recipes.

Monday, December 4, 2023

NICS November 23

Barreling into the first decline in NICS checks since 2005!


 

Saturday, December 2, 2023

AIs Writing Law

 

Can AI be used to write legislation? You would think so, since the AI learns from existing examples. Problem might be that existing examples have given us laws with unintended consequences.

It's been done, and the legislation passed, unanimously, in Porto Alegre, a city of 1.3 million in Brazil. 

It is obvious that if the AI is asked correctly, it can produce legislation, written in correct legalese, to get some action enacted with a minimum of feather ruffling. I expect is would be equally easy to get the machine to include some pork into any bill it writes, in the parts where accountability is discussed. EX: “The city of Metropolis shall obligate itself to allocate the sum of $20M/year for the next 5 years, toward the construction and startup of a <insert project here> “.

OK fine. Now include justification, supervision, reporting, etc, etc, to include a standing study/audit committee consisting of cronies to be appointed by the bill sponsor, to hold seats, accountable to no one but the bill sponsor, to monitor expenditures and prepare an annual progress report. At a generous salary, 10% of which will find its way to the bill sponsors reelection campaign.

Legislation of this nature can get to be quite lengthy, and can wind up being added to some other unrelated legislation which will serve to attract less attention than the original might if submitted by itself. The AI is essentially just an editor, and humans will need to read anything it produces to catch any included fairy tales. AI work is known to include from 3-25% made-up “facts”, so check its work. Ex: “This project is estimated to save the taxpayers of Metropolis some $100M over the estimated cost of <insert political rivals project> thus paying for itself over its <insert random number here> year life span in addition to preventing the sky from falling and wiping out humanity.”

The average legislator couldn't write a thank you letter to Santa Claus that a 4th grade English teacher would give a passing grade to, so people who know how to write requests to AIs are getting paid $200-250K/year to do this. Could turn into the most lucrative job in government. As to jobs lost, imagine that if legislators use AIs to write their proposals, we will need to hire proofreaders, math checkers, economists, and possibly physicists. There are certain laws that cannot be rewritten.


The unintended consequences are an important part of any legislation proposed, so I have to wonder if getting the AI to spot these and address them is, at this point, even possible. Certainly they are not visible to humans.