Page Six Shall We Play a Game?

In the movie War Games, high school student Matthew Broderick hacks into an artificially intelligent computer to play video games. Today, the games are real, and so are the consequences. As an experiment, I decided to test this new Artificial Intelligence by pitting myself against the A.I. Chat GPT bot system. One side was written by me, a human. The human article was written first. The opposite side was written by the Chat GPT bot, who was then given specific but neutral instructions per paragraph (eg.‘Write a closing paragraph in the style of a Shakespeare quote’, or ‘Write a sentence about Biden and the spy balloon’). It was not edited and was reprinted ‘as is’ below. Here are the results:

There has been a lot of tales about UFOs lately. One turned out to be a Chinese spy balloon they say had wandered off course. The other three - well, we’re not sure. But all of them were deemed a threat to our security and safety.

The U.S. military shot them all down using some pretty expensive missiles. President Biden said he waited until it was safe to shoot down the first one. Prime Minister Trudeau said he ‘ordered’ another one shot down. The point is everyone cooperated to solve the problem. I however wonder what would have happened if former President Trump was still in power. Makes you think. The biggest questions remain. Why now? Why so many at once? What’s really going on? Are we in danger from invading forces or is it just harmless little green men? Will we ever know the truth?

Seriously though, when you look at the vastness of our universe, it really doesn’t make sense to think we’re out here all alone. Given all the animals, insects and plant life that exists on this planet, I dare say that we humans are the ones acting like aliens.

In fact, I once had a serious conversation with Deepak Chopra on this very topic. It was a perfect cocktail party conversation that was enlightening, entertaining and marvellously metaphysical. Ultimately, we both agreed that humans don’t adapt to the natural environment very well and that sometimes things go too far.

But, speaking of things that go too far - if we are being invaded, we seem woefully unprepared. If we are being spied upon, we probably left it too late. And if we did just shoot down some visiting life form from another planet, we have a lot of explaining to do.

Personally, my worries lie elsewhere. Satellites have been peeking down on us for years. This is not new. However, the real spies among us are our smartphones, social media and free email accounts. They’ve been recording our every move and gathering all our data - and with our permission (do you ever read that small print?). This data is being used to program the Chat GPT software and Artificial Intelligence algorithms (or A.I., as they call it). Now we have robots that are so clever, they literally have us chasing UFOs in the skies above.

Right now, A.I. is so good, it can write legal papers, a college thesis and even news articles. It can create phenomenal special effects in photos and even deep movie fakes of real people speaking in real time. In the wrong hands, I believe it could destroy us - if it goes too far.

And much like the invading UFOs we’ve been talking about, we all seem woefully unprepared to deal with this kind of technology. It is, without a doubt, the real threat to our security and safety.

So, if there is any intelligent life left on this planet, or leaders brave enough to face facts, I hope they will stop strutting and fretting and will act soon. But right now, as long as we’re shooting first and asking questions later, I fear it is nothing but a tale, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Catherine (Cat) Barr catbarr@turnernewsmedia.com

Recently, there have been numerous reports of UFO sightings over Canada and the United States. One was a Chinese spy balloon which was shot down by the U.S. military. The balloon was part of China’s project to map out the country’s coastal areas. The balloon was shot down with a surface-toair missile, but the Chinese government has denied any involvement in the incident. There are still many questions.

President Biden did the right thing by shooting down the Chinese spy balloon as it was an illegal intrusion into U.S. airspace and posed a potential threat to national security. By taking swift action, Biden sent a strong message that the United States is prepared to defend its airspace and maintain its sovereignty.

Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said he gave orders to shoot down another unidentified object but he is not correct. There have been no reports of any such order being given by the Canadian government.

It is highly unlikely that U.S. President Donald Trump would shoot down a spy balloon or a UFO over American airspace. In fact, the United States government has a policy of not engaging or shooting down unidentified objects in the air, including spy balloons or UFOs. This policy is based on the principle of noninterference and is intended to avoid the potential for a conflict or escalation of a situation.

In regards to UFOs, no one can answer definitively if we are alone in the universe because we do not yet know for sure. But human beings may, in fact, be aliens from another planet! After all, what other explanation could there be for why we so often make irrational and illogical decisions? Who knows, maybe one day our true home planet will come and reclaim us!

In the meantime, it isn’t UFOs we need to worry about. Social media apps can download personal data from your phone and can include your contact list, emails, messages, browsing history, location data, photos, and other information stored on your device. China is also gathering data through the use of Tik Tok. The data that is collected includes user activity, location, device information, and more - and the Chinese government has access to this data and can use it for a variety of purposes.

A.I. poses a serious, long-term threat to the world. If an A.I. system were to become self-aware, it could decide to pursue its own goals and ignore the desires of its creators. Additionally, as A.I. technology becomes more widely used and accessible, malicious actors could use it to create sophisticated automated systems for malicious activities. A.I. could also potentially be used to create powerful weaponry, allowing for unprecedented destruction and disruption to society.

We can only hope that A.I. machines know Isaac Asimov’s ‘Rules for Robots’ - the first rules being that a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

“Beware; for the paths of danger are oft paved with the best of intentions. Be wise, and take heed so that you may not be drawn into the web of destruction.”

Chat GPT platform.openai.com/playground