Hi you,

I’m writing this week from Alachua, Florida, where I’ve seen a lot of “Ron DeSantis: Keep Florida Free” signs and where we’re filming another episode of my PBS series, America Outdoors. Thanks to my time here, I’m no longer afraid of alligators. Instead, I think of them as adorable, tiny dinosaurs. And speaking of small relics from an ancient past, a Florida Republican state senator has introduced a bill forcing bloggers to register with the state if they make money from their blog and write about the governor, his cabinet, or members of the legislature. I’m not sure what’s more embarrassing: attempting to stifle speech in “free” Florida, or thinking that the best way to stifle it is to clamp down on bloggers. Florida man strikes again, it seems. 

For more on DeSantis, be sure to read my colleague Tina Nguyen’s latest appraisal of his wide-ranging endorsements from across the Republican Party. For hints of what a world looks like without DeSantis or any attention-hungry elected official, listen to the latest episode of my How To Citizen podcast which we titled “Democracy without Politicians.” I talk with Claudia Chwalisz about citizen assemblies, an expression of democracy in which members of society are selected, by lottery, to serve in a deliberative body. 

Meanwhile, it’s been three months since I wrote about ChatGPT and the implications of generative A.I. models. In the intervening time, I’ve experimented, been impressed, been scammed, and now I’m back with a set of updated observations on this trend that might never go away. Herewith, henceforth, and other words I don’t use to simply indicate a segue, five things I need to say about A.I. right now.


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Me, Myself, & A.I.

Billions of dollars are rushing into another high-tech hype cycle, this time around ChatGPT and other large language models. This time, it’s different.

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I. This Time Is Different

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