Posts by grammargirl@zirk.us
(DIR) Post #AtOch5luWFwhuczIpc by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-04-23T21:19:11Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
I have some resources to distribute in my community, but I'm not very well connected here, so I'm not sure where to start.So I stopped by the library and had a quick chat with the librarian, who was amazingly helpful!This is just a librarian appreciation post. All hail librarians!
(DIR) Post #AtQlXWyFpJSfHDCGoK by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-04-24T22:19:51Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Google's AI Overview is so bad! Pat just referred to it as "the fifth dentist." 😂
(DIR) Post #AtQlXeocf0VhbekguO by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-04-24T22:29:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
You can prevent the AI Overview from showing up in your search results by adding "-AI" to your search. I need to try harder to remember to do that.
(DIR) Post #AtgiUFVqrY3SANa7Q8 by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-05-01T22:10:58Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
The federal government seems to be liquidating its supply of COVID tests, and you can get 300 or more free. That's supposedly the minimum, although I ordered 300, and they sent me 360 because they come in boxes of 120.I'm now essentially "that lady in a hat who keeps trying to give everyone free COVID tests."The tests I got expire in July, and the page says the program was still active as of yesterday, so get some for your community!https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1cm3L20wSAkVpvm3YufXEyX7j3viaeGZSwCIOz2_eunY/mobilebasic
(DIR) Post #AtgiUNcshIQnKUvqUK by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-05-01T22:12:33Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
It was funny because I wasn't sure the program was real when I submitted the form, and I forgot I had ordered them, so when a bunch of big boxes came two weeks later, Pat and I were looking at each other like "Did you order something? "No, did you?"And then I opened a box and got so excited! "The tests!!!"
(DIR) Post #AtljCJDABh7r9QH1kW by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-05-05T01:41:37Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
This story about ChatGPT causing people to have harmful delusions has mind-blowing anecdotes. It's an important, alarming read.https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spiritual-delusions-destroying-human-relationships-1235330175/
(DIR) Post #AtlkE4rabVGZBWad4i by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-05-05T01:57:37Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird Maybe it would have been something else for some people, but I saw someone say that it's like everyone who is susceptible to cult thinking now has 24-7 direct access to a cult leader, and for every person it is designed to reel them in specifically. And that felt true to me.
(DIR) Post #Au1P3oeL2fD9Uk14L2 by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-05-12T15:07:34Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
This whole article about who can and can't detect AI writing is fascinating! The average person essentially does no better than chance, but a panel of 5 people who use AI for writing every day got only 1 in 300 wrong. The screenshot describes how they look at the writing differently. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.15654
(DIR) Post #Au1P3wrOW0PMxYBbnc by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-05-12T15:12:28Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Here's an absolutely wild detail! To use paired articles on the same topics, they started with human-written articles and then had AI generate articles of the same topic and length, so it had to make up names for people in the stories, and it used the same names ... a lot:"Annotator 1 is the only one to pick up on 'AI names': in fact, 63.3% of GPT-4O and 70% of CLAUDE-3.5-SONNET articles include either the name Emily or Sarah."
(DIR) Post #AvoqfphRyRxkkxvQtU by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-07-05T01:31:47Z
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OK, I am a very specific kind of nerd, but I laughed until I almost cried reading this story:tl;dr: There's a band on Spotify called Velvet Sundown that is almost certainly nothing but AI generated songs, and some guy who is good at social engineering essentially took over their identity on Twitter. https://medium.com/@andrew.frelon/i-am-andrew-frelon-the-guy-running-the-fake-velvet-sundown-twitter-fcab2b7e471b
(DIR) Post #AxprRwPL5kqC9nJExc by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-09-03T14:28:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Have you heard the Vonnegut quote about not using semicolons? That using one does nothing but show you've been to college?That statement has always bugged me, so I looked into it and found a lot more in the article where it appears. For example, he used a semicolon himself in the piece and said Shakespeare was a bad storyteller! Here's the whole story:Listen: https://pod.link/173429229Read: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/vonneguts-semicolon-age-chocolate-donut/transcriptWatch: https://youtu.be/bziXQJ5pmkA#GrammarGirl #podcast
(DIR) Post #AxuJZs7cU7McWwQmau by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-09-05T19:51:08Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
The first details on the Anthropic copyright settlement just came out:$1.5 billion dollars. Covers 500,000 books that were pirated and used to train AI models. ($3,000 per book.)https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-to-pay-at-least-1-5-billion-in-landmark-copyright-settlement-with-authors-bfcdd57b?st=EKqJRf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
(DIR) Post #AzgAFvBssx68ph43aC by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-10-28T19:07:19Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Shoutout to all the people who interact on Mastodon! I didn't get to all your questions in my interview with Peter this morning, but I got to a lot of them, and because people here engage quicker and at such a higher rate than my followers elsewhere, the episode will be a steady stream of "So-and-so from MASTODON asked ..."
(DIR) Post #AzrteMfizlRNgsbvzU by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-11-03T00:10:21Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
I just got tricked by Gatorade. 🤢 I grabbed the only green version from the shelf, thinking it would be the original flavor, and when I got home, it was cucumber-lime. Who wants CUCUMBER? That was worse than biting into a raisin cookie thinking it was chocolate chip.
(DIR) Post #B1YCE7xFXJDlJAD8qm by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-12-23T16:26:16Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Well, this was an exciting thing to wake up to! I'm on a list of the best podcasts from women over 50 — alongside amazing women like Amy Poehler, Katie Couric, Michelle Obama, Kara Swisher, Gretchen Rubin, Mel Robbins, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and more!I'm also thrilled because it feels like the writer has actually listened to the podcast. Sometimes these lists are thrown together, and they just grab the description from Apple, but this one feels thoughtful.https://www.theflowspace.com/lists/best-podcasts-female-hosts-over-50/good-hang-with-amy-poehler-2/
(DIR) Post #B1YCEGu2Gczv3nmCae by grammargirl@zirk.us
2025-12-23T16:26:51Z
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And this is one of my favorite recent podcast episodes. It's about the origin of words for tableware, which makes for fun holiday dinner conversation: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grammar-girl-quick-and-dirty-tips-for-better-writing/id173429229?i=1000738305995
(DIR) Post #B2HmpeJTD3hnteJAw4 by grammargirl@zirk.us
2026-01-14T19:04:40Z
3 likes, 0 repeats
I'm helping an elderly person with a patient portal, and wow, there are about 4 different problems ranging from unclear instructions to pages that don't work well when the phone is zoomed in enough for an older person to actually read the text.Plus, the iPhone keeps popping up unhelpful gunk.This person isn't particularly afraid of technology either, but they literally can't do it.I now think every web developer should be forced to walk through their processes with an 85-year-old.
(DIR) Post #B2WUD5Kbf1lqKaFayW by grammargirl@zirk.us
2026-01-21T21:14:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Yesterday, I interviewed a tech guy who told me something too important for me to wait until the podcast comes out for you to hear it:Many free AI detectors have especially high false positive rates because they make money selling software that "humanizes" writing. 1/2
(DIR) Post #B2WUD6sftqcH8XCJiS by grammargirl@zirk.us
2026-01-21T21:14:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
They tell students papers sound like AI — even when they're the students' own writing — so the company can scare them and sell them a product.This goes beyond the general problem that even good AI detectors aren't perfect and shouldn't be the sole reason to accuse someone of writing with AI.
(DIR) Post #B2WiXSJHKqgckQElHs by grammargirl@zirk.us
2026-01-22T00:44:48Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Welcome and thanks!