Generative AI is probably coming for my job and maybe even yours eventually, but in the meantime, its dumber cousins amuse me by barfing up unintentional howlers while transcribing human speech. A recent example was “Akita success,” which did not allude to an accomplishment attributable to a handsome, dense-coated dog with pointy ears and fold-over tail. It was a botched translation of “a key to success,” and by the time I realized that, my train of thought had derailed badly. It’s all yours, robots.
Speaking of handsome dogs, here’s our Pete hanging over the side of the sofa. I think it’s a cooling off technique he uses when he returns indoors overheated from playing in the yard; otherwise, I can’t account for the odd behavior.
He looks a sophomore on spring break who recently discovered tequila shots in a big way and is now about to puke over a cruise ship railing. Also, the vet says he’s too fat, so I’m dispensing fewer treats and am therefore a monster. Also, I need to trim his damned claws, which is a nightmare.
Open thread!
cope
Our pooch needs a nail trim as well. Our old vet in FL said, after an initial attempt at cutting her nails failed, that she would have to be sedated. I said no.
One of the pet big box stores here has walk-in nail trim service and I keep meaning to take her there. Maybe later today after I meet with my dentist to discuss the upcoming extraction of #18.
Jerzy Russian
Our cats often hang their heads over the edges of boxes they are in. It does not look comfortable to me, but I am not in a position to judge.
Pete is a good boy. I assume you have reclassified everything he does as good behavior so that he always remains a good boy?
JustRuss
Pfffft, AI. I was listening to the radio this morning, they were interviewing some expert about self-driving cars, and he was explaining how their system will monitor your face to make sure you’re watching the road…while your car’s driving itself. If I had a friend who said “I’ll drive, but I kinda suck, so you need to watch the road at all times and be prepared to take the wheel”, I’d tell them, yeah, no thanks, you’re shotgun
The interviewer was refreshingly skeptical.
patrick II
I searched for Youtube videos about the Ukrainian counteroffensive and saw a couple of reliable reporters I have seen before, but in addition some Russian propaganda and a couple of clearly AI-generated videos that aren’t quite there yet, but it is scary what they will be able to do. One professed to be an attack on Russian positions by some Leopard tanks and Ukrainian soldiers. The Ukranian tanks, however, had big white “Z”s painted on them. The smoke trail from a hit enemy vehicle would lengthen and shorten unnaturally and a vehicle partly hidden behind a distant treeline would appear and disappear. I am pointing out the shortcomings, but much of it was remarkably realistic.
Some of these efforts are better than others. One video showed Ukrainian fighter aircraft landing at an airfield after a confrontation — one of them was a WWI biplane, so that kind o gave away the game.
They are getting to be ubiquitous and will only become more sophisticated.
Elizabelle
Akita success. LOL. I will substitute that phrase everytime I hear “AI”, which is the Next Big Thing, from all the media attention.
Pete is adorbs.
Butch
My golden retriever does the same thing on the couch.
Baud
So cute.
And you are a monster!
sab
Like every Sci Fi book I ever read. The protaganist thinks his mission is slightly different from what the reader thinks.
Roger Moore
@JustRuss:
Most of the stuff we hear about self-driving cars is marketing hype from car companies. I’ll believe we have an actual self-driving car when they start selling cars where the only driving control is the navigation system.
Ann Marie
Aw, poor Pete, you are mean, not giving ALL the treats! My cat Hugh used to take this same position and I just assumed he had been hitting the catnip too hard.
zeecube
Only anecdotal but might work with Pete. It was always a battle to trim our young aussie’s claws. Then we put a soft muzzle on her and she became very docile and gave up fighting.
zhena gogolia
Pete is adorable!
Juice Box
Baby carrots for treats! They slide right through without leaving calories behind and yet they are sweet and delightful to chew. Plus they make poops easier to see and pick up since they come out decorated with bright orange flecks.
Hob
I can’t help sympathizing with machine transcribers, because I did the human equivalent of that job for many years, and even though I was better at understanding context and knowing that “a key to success” would make sense more than “Akita success”, I and my co-workers did sometimes make mistakes that in hindsight were pretty embarrassing. At one point the agency had me transcribing doctor’s notes even though I didn’t in those days have any medical background, and based on my somewhat bot-like approach of “if I don’t know what this is about, try to use a pattern that superficially resembles other things I’ve seen”, I decided that “Cohen biopsy” must be a thing because there are lots of procedures named after people. The correct term is “cone biopsy” and the doctor wasn’t too happy with my guess, although it sounded like she was at least amused.
There was also an infamous incident at one of my jobs where they’d been asked to transcribe some old interview tapes from the ABC News vaults, of Barbara Walters interviewing Richard Pryor. They wanted these transcripts to be as accurate as possible, because they were (I think) considering airing some outtakes that hadn’t previously been used, and given that Richard Pryor was Richard Pryor, they wanted to be sure he wasn’t saying anything objectionable. The transcriptionist on duty at the time (not me)—due to carelessness or naivete or prudery, I don’t know which—mistranscribed one of Pryor’s comebacks like so: “Barbara, are you being country?”
john b
From downstairs:
@AM in NC:
The Cotham thing is especially troubling as the district she represents is urban and would absolutely not have supported her if she had been honest about her intentions. She did a 180 on abortion (and so much else) just a few months after her election to the state legislature. Her mom is my county commissioner and both of her parents are longtime democrats. Makes me really question if I can support even her mom anymore.
On Cooper though, I’ve been impressed at his ability to hold back the tide from the GOP as long as he can. This ill-gotten supermajority is really tough though — as is the gerrymandering for state and federal elections he’s had to deal with throughout.
dexwood
I took Maggie to see her vet this morning for a follow up on her ear infection, some bloodwork, and 4th of July tranquilizers. She told me it would cost around 500. I asked if they could toss in a complimentary nail trim. She agreed to it without hesitation. Yay! Saved 34 bucks.
Betty Cracker
@john b: Has the mom addressed the turncoat daughter issue?
Jay
Casey (PitX), Digger(Belgian), Mellow(Mixed Tabby), Capra(Gorgeous Tabby), all loved having their nails trimmed. Foot rub time, scooches, smushes, extra attention, treats afterward.
L’il Bit (Mixed Tabby) however spent the entire time very loudly threatening to kill me.
Fraud Guy
Most of our dogs do this, with either their head and forepaws on/over the edge, or the head and most of their front legs. Everyone from the Boston, to the Rat Terrier (large), to the Dachshund/Chihuahua/Dachshund/Terrier triplets, to the Pomeranians, to the Yorkie, to the Chin, to the Shih Tzu. Heck, even the cats do it now.
geg6
Our Lovey does that hanging off the edge thing summer, winter, spring and fall. On the bed, on the couch, on a chair. I thought it was just another weird habit of hers, but maybe not now that I see Pete.
Miss Bianca
Peeeeeeete!!
Hob
@Betty Cracker: This Charlotte Observer article is paywalled, but I paid $1.00 because I was curious and then unsubscribed. Short version: Pat Cotham makes all of the same excuses for Tricia Cotham that the latter made (frustrated due to being “sidelined” by other Dems in the legislature, and also the party has changed and become too mean so it’s “not the Democratic Party I grew up in”), and supports her daughter’s decisions unconditionally, but doesn’t herself plan to switch parties. Because, I guess, nothing really matters except personal feelings, which shouldn’t be a basis for political decisions except when they should be.
Hob
Note, as I understand it, the “she was a freshman even though she served 10 years” thing is because TC decided to quit the state legislature and run for Congress, lost, and then five years later decided to try being in the state legislature again. I wouldn’t have expected to retain any seniority privileges if I did that, but that’s just me…
Ken
Uh-oh, the robots have learned how to pull the “I am lying” trick on us.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Speaking of speech-to-text errors, whatever happened to TFG lawyer Patsy Baloney? I haven’t heard his name recently. Is he another lawyer who ended up on the witness list?
I guess he’s more on the 1/6 list than the stolen documents list, and nobody is currently reporting rumors on the 1/6 grand jury.
Betty Cracker
@Hob: Thanks for the insight! What a puling infant Cotham is. If I lived in that district, I’d vote for the mother’s primary opponent too. A mom can support her grown kids without making excuses for inexcusable behavior.
karen marie
@Juice Box: Baby carrots, cherry tomatoes – any vegetable scrap (except for onions and garlic) that would go into the trash instead goes into the dog bowl as a treat. She’ll eat spinach and green or red leaf lettuce but draws the line at iceberg lettuce – it’s all water! Asparagus ends? GIVE THEM TO ME, she shouts! She even likes celery!
My Lucy throws a fit when I have cherry tomatoes on the counter instead of giving them all to her. I had to give up on having a tomato plant on my patio because as the fruit starts to ripen, she sits on the patio and barks at it.
She’s now 13 and has maintained her girlish figure nicely. Vets are always shocked to see a spaniel of her age without a weight problem.
Quinerly
Best dog I ever had was half Akita, half Chow. Buddy was gorgeous, and he knew it.
90 lbs the day he died with the very, very rare cancer of the tear duct. Lived less than 30 days after being diagnosed. Spread very quickly to his brain. Dog of a lifetime.