We’ve probably all encountered AI by now. Some large language model (LLM) AI programs are among the fastest and most comprehensive information tools on the Internet, and arguably, the most “stupid.” Have you ever been harassed by an AI-powered telephone service whose programmer neglected to include the concept of wrong numbers? Or been fed incorrect political information by an AI program that did not know which party or Prime Minister was in power? However if you want to check something like medieval canon law, to ensure the attitude of a character in the novel you’re writing accurately portrays the times:  it can take seconds with ChatGPT. Everything has to be fact-checked and sources verified, but tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude remain remarkable and they’ll improve as the glitches are addressed. 

My guest this morning is Dr Vered Shwartz, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, a CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, and the author of the book “Lost in Automatic Translation.”