Date: 9/16/26 5:20 pm From: Carson Noble <mango.tux...> Subject: Re: [ia-bird] Re: AI - Funny Not Funny
Yeah, that's a question I'm sure plenty of people are spending a lot of
time trying to figure out, and some posts in a message board probably won't
uncover what all of them have overlooked.
To loop it back to a more relevant topic, though, AI language models aren't
the first instance of this sort of phenomenon (nor will they be the last,
I'd wager)! I'm sure most of the people reading this are familiar with
Merlin's audio detection, and what impact that may have on people recording
observations. Even if the end result is (often) the same, there's a strong
distinction between:
"I heard a call I didn't recognize and Merlin said it was [species], so I
put it on my checklist"
and something like:
"I heard a call I didn't recognize and Merlin picked up [species] a few
times, so I quietly listened to some recordings, tracked down where the
calls were occurring, and between visual and audio cues can confidently say
it's a [species]"
I know I've been tempted towards the first option! Personally, the
willpower and motivation to be diligent, omit the observation, and/or leave
it as a checklist note (even if it would be a lifer) fluctuates over time,
and I have to consistently stay aware that these are tools and assistants;
not replacements for my own confidence/learning opportunities. That works
well enough for me, and there may be other things people do that promotes
their own vigilance in the face of (frankly, very technologically
impressive) new tools.
On Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 6:40:49 PM UTC-5 eaubrey wrote:
> So, the packaging looks authentic, but the contents could be garbage.
> That’s my fear, as well as my observation of how some folks use AI search
> engines. How do we teach people to be vigilant? Probably not a question
> for the listserv.
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>
> *From:* <ia-......> <ia-......> *On Behalf Of *Carson
> Noble
>
>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, September 16, 2026 18:31
> *To:* IA-BIRD <ia-......>
>
> *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."
>
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>
> 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']
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> 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:
>
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> 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?”
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> IMO AI is a menace.
>
>
>
> Elizabeth Aubrey
>
> Iowa City
>
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