Date: 9/16/26 4:31 pm From: Carson Noble <mango.tux...> Subject: [ia-bird] Re: AI - Funny Not Funny
Thanks for bringing these things up!
While I've seen people make competent use of these tools, it's important to
acknowledge that they are first and foremost a language model - they're
really good at producing content that sounds (more or less) like the type
of stuff that fluent speakers would create, but that's only because they're
trained on a corpus that's been written by real people. This *can* mean
they produce statements and claims that are accurate, but it's certainly
not a guarantee.
Vigilance is required when using AI systems because they will almost always
*sound* cohesive and confident, even if the content of the output is
incorrect.
On Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 5:43:29 PM UTC-5 eaubrey wrote:
> Birders, please indulge me. I watch Bald Eagle cams on the internet and
> participate in Facebook groups that monitor and comment on breeding
> activities at various nests. Last February, I watched a Bald Eagle female
> at a nest in Fort St. Vrain, Colorado lay her first egg of the season. The
> nest has 2 live streaming cameras pointed at the nest, one of them above
> the nest giving a more-or-less overhead view, the other on a limb adjacent
> to the nest, giving a side view. Each cam includes a timestamp. Viewers
> of Bald Eagle nests on the internet know all this. I was watching the side
> cam view when the female (whom we call “Mom”) laid her egg, and I posted
> the news in the Fort St. Vrain Eagles Facebook group, telling viewers which
> cam I was watching, and what timestamp they could rewind to so they could
> watch:
>
>
>
> "Mom has laid her first egg, 2/23/2006, at 20:03 on the side cam."
>
>
>
> Immediately, Facebook’s AI offered readers of my post a question that they
> might like to ask about this, which made clear its complete
> misunderstanding of my post, and included its own answer to its own
> ridiculous question:
>
> [image: May be an image of text that says 'OMet Meta AI Why is the egg
> laid on the side cam? X That's a great question! Eagles often choose
> nesting sites based on safety, comfort, and visibility. In this case, the
> side cam might provide a suitable spot for the eagle mom to lay her egg,
> possibly due to the angle offering some protection from potential threats
> or harsh weather conditions. It could also simply be a preferred spot for
> her to nest. Why is the egg laid on the side cam? Ask something else... How
> long will the mom ir > tt']
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Over the next half hour, Meta AI edited its answer to its idiotic
> question, maybe because it got some feedback that it wasn’t quite getting
> the context right (not to mention some critical thinking, perception of
> grammar in my original post, and propensity to just make things up). Here
> are some of its “corrected” answers to its question:
>
> [image: May be an image of text]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [image: No photo description available.]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Meta AI finally gave up, ending its last attempt with the observation Mom
> “likely” laid her egg in the nest, not on the cam. It stopped offering the
> question “Why is the egg laid on the side cam?”
>
>
>
> IMO AI is a menace.
>
>
>
> Elizabeth Aubrey
>
> Iowa City
>
