AI, For Better or Worse

Correct answer, Siri

I have used several field guidebooks over the years to assist me in identifying birds, flowers, trees, fungi, butterflies and moths. Lately, Siri has been my guide more often than not. The handy "i" icon quickly retrieves the bird's or flower's name and adds a link to an article that provides everything I want to know about my photo. But Siri is not infallible! Siri could not tell the difference between a juvenile swamp sparrow and a song sparrow in a recent picture I took. I found a group of small red mushrooms and Siri thought they were poppies. "She" also sometimes struggles to identify family members with similar facial features. 

Sorry, Siri, you are wrong

Image recognition is the ability of software to identify details in digital depictions. Computers use machine vision technologies with a camera and artificial intelligence software to recognize images. This recognition is almost instantaneous but I have learned that Siri's (or Android's) knowledge needs to be verified. My print guidebooks are still useful. 

Artificial intelligence has become helpful and very troubling in recent years. I use a free version of Grammarly when I write in order to catch silly typos and grammatical errors. Grammarly now has the ability to generate text and re-write entire sentences for clarity. It can be very intrusive when I compose a letter or a blog post.  Universities and colleges offer premium Grammarly programs to students, a move that seriously compromises the ability of a student to learn to write succinctly on their own. Grammarly is just one of several AI writing generators. Generative AI scrapes the internet for images and generates novel artistic images that people can pass off as their own. Copyrighted content can be altered as well as plagiarized with ease. The same technology that assists me in identifying something in my digital photo is also used unethically in ways that compromise the livelihoods of artists, writers, teachers, designers and more. It is not surprising that this is one of the concerns of striking Hollywood writers. 

False information from AI-generated writing and photo manipulation deceives unwary observers. Social media has the ability to spread misinformation almost as quickly as AI produces it. I still have a couple of social media accounts as they are very useful for keeping in touch with family and a few friends. But I have decided to renew subscriptions to responsible newspapers and magazines after relying on the internet for news and commentary for a number of years. I want to support ethical journalism and the people who make a living as original writers, photographers and artists. 

It is important for educators, parents and the concerned public to ensure that children and youth are discerning about the media they consume. The borders of truth and fantasy are increasingly difficult to identify online. Communicating information accurately, developing original, well-informed opinions and becoming skilled in writing, reading, and other creative endeavours must be encouraged. 

More thoughts on Truth

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind –

Emily Dickinson

We are deceptive by nature. Most people easily alter a story to project a better personal image, to protect the listener or simply to get away with deceiving others. We tell lies to small children, exaggerating the consequences of bad behaviour, pushing them to believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny and trying to protect them from bad news and death. Young children tend to be truthful as are some adults who lack or ignore their frontal lobe filters. Bluntly stated truth can be unsettling and socially inappropriate. One of my daughters, at the age of five or six, innocently asked me in a loudly projected voice at the grocery store, "Is that person fat?" We cringe and laugh at memories like this!

Emily Dickinson understood the impact of revealing too much truth at once. In her poem, she wrote,

 "Tell the truth but tell it slant- success in Circuit lies...

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind-" 

Truth can be blinding so we become adept at telling partial truths, even deceiving ourselves as we ignore obvious evidence relating to our personal situation. 

Moral truths can be shared in the telling of fictional stories. Every culture has legends, parables and historical stories that illustrate societal and spiritual truths. Jesus taught spiritual truths effectively using parables as did other prophets in the Old Testament. To this day, people debate the meaning of some of the more obscure parables demonstrating that truth is not always easy to understand. Problems arise when people try to make the entire Bible into a book of literal scientific and historical facts rather than a spiritual guidebook and description of God's relationship with humankind.

Emotions, life experiences, and cultural differences affect how we perceive truth. One person's parent may be their best friend and another's parent their worst abuser. "Parents are trustworthy, caring and keep us safe," is not a truth that all people share. Anxiety, fear and delusional thinking may keep the truth from being recognized.  I know people who see the world in black and white, right and wrong, who are always looking for the correct, concrete answer to dilemmas in their lives. Artificial intelligence may be able to scrape facts and concrete truths, but humans, with their physical, emotional and spiritual sides are nuanced, layered and hued. We may never find proof for everything we believe, but faith is the assurance that there is evidence for things hoped for but not yet seen. 

Is the truth worth pursuing?  Absolutely! We must seek truth diligently and responsibly. It is important to listen to the stories and perspectives of others as we cannot assume to have all the answers ourselves. When there is truth to be spoken and shared, it is important to speak the truth with love and respect. Deceiving others, even in jest is hurtful as the victim becomes the one who is mocked for believing a lie. There should always be room for respectful debate when there is a disagreement. We do not win people to our way of thinking by attacking their beliefs. 

A few weeks ago my daughter and I signed up for a free iPhone photography lesson at our local Apple Store. (highly recommended btw), The instructor asked if he could take a picture of my face to demonstrate the various modes available for the camera. Like most people in their upper-middle 60s, I remember my face as it was in my upper-middle 40s. The details captured by a high-definition camera are too truthful. I almost refused but agreed to see my unfiltered face blown up on a large screen. Yes, the truth hurts sometimes! But I am thankful for the years I have had to learn and grow in knowledge and truth and want to keep pursuing wisdom as long as my years allow.

Swampy Observations

 

I visited a local swamp more than once this month looking for birds and whatever else nature had to offer. 

The water here is full of dead trees and stumps and an initial survey of the area doesn't reveal much life. But like this wonderful Tree Face, it is certain that you are being watched by many motionless creatures. Only when you make yourself comfortable on a fallen tree trunk and wait..., you start to see the many birds that call this area home. 

There is a Great Blue Heron nest in this picture. Herons tend to build nests in a colony called a heronry or heron rookery. I have never seen a single Great Blue Heron nest before. A photographer in a local birding group posted a picture of this nest and another birder commented that there couldn't be a solitary nest in this particular swamp! But they were wrong.

Three young birds occupied the nest and while they stood on the tree branches, none of them were ready to fly. These large herons do not fledge until they are about 60 days old and may stay in the nest for up to three months. 

I waited for about an hour and saw one of the parents return with a fish. There was a lot of excitement in the nest for a few minutes before the adult bird flew off again. The nest was quite a distance from the spot of land where I stood and the photos were taken with a lot of zoom.

While I watched the Great Blue Heron nest, I noticed several other young birds who made their home in the same swamp. 

Juvenile Red-bellied Woodpecker

Adult Grey Catbird preparing to feed a very noisy fledgling in the same tree

Juvenile Swamp Sparrow

Juvenile American Robin

The weather in our area has been perfect this month. We had a few warm, humid days with temperatures in the low 30s C but the average temperatures have been moderate. Regular rainfall has kept farmers happy, lawns green and gardens lush. The newsfeed gives another story about extended heat waves, high ocean temperatures, severe flooding, and wildfires in other parts of Canada and the world. Yet there are people I know who mock the science that measures global warming because we have not had record-breaking temperatures or extreme weather locally this year.

I have been contemplating the differences between fact and truth. The Great Blue Heron nest in the swamp was a proven fact. Truth can be based on facts, but it also includes belief. The birder who commented that the nest could not be there based an opinion on their experience and the most common habits of these birds. Their truth did not line up with the facts. Witnesses in court, while telling their truth, may give different accounts of the same event. One may notice details another missed, confirmation or cultural biases may impact perceptions, and memory can be unreliable. Facts, as presented, are deliberated in an attempt to discover the truth. 

It is challenging to discern the truth as we are often bombarded with conflicting data and opinions. Whether it is global warming, Covid prevention and treatment, local or celebrity gossip, political intrigue, health advice, and more, we can be deceived if we are not diligent to check the facts, and open-minded enough to recognize the impact of our biases and beliefs.

People will generally accept facts as truth only if 

the facts agree with what they already believe.

Andy Rooney

My daughter added this comment after reading this post...

“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled”. Possibly paraphrased from this Mark Twain quote— “How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!"

Domestic Bliss

It has been a few years since I first saw nesting Red-necked Grebes at Bronte Harbour. Last weekend we drove to Lake Ontario and stopped at the stunning park and harbour in Oakville. The breeze from the lake was welcome on the hot, humid afternoon. I would love to live on the shores of a large body of water but am thankful that it is an easy afternoon drive to three of the five Great Lakes from our home.

Three pairs of Red-necked Grebes were easily seen from the shore, but only this duo had a nest in a tire that had been anchored for the purpose. The female was sitting on her eggs and the male worked tirelessly bringing her vegetation to adorn the tire as well as feeding her small minnows.

This was another pair of grebes. The photo shows how much larger the female is than the male bird. Grebes have very loud calls and the birds were vocal this afternoon.

This last photo shows the tire nest in perspective with the boats in the marina. The park was busy and the tire was a few metres from the boardwalk but the Grebes have a relatively safe haven from predators. I hope to return in a couple of weeks to see the young birds as they are cared for by their attentive parents.

Pride Month

I am fortunate to work in a very diverse setting. Hospital staff and patients come from many countries and speak various world languages. I have seen rooms shared by a prisoner under guard, a homeless person and a university professor. And I have seen many different expressions of sexuality and gender. None of these differences matter when one is ill and each patient is treated with professionalism and compassion. This may not be the case in every hospital in our country but the staff members at this particular hospital are exceptional! 

Last week this Catholic hospital unveiled a rainbow crosswalk from the parking lot to mark Pride Month. I worked with several LGBTQ staff members over the years and count some of them as good friends. We work together to provide the best possible care for our patients and recognize each person's strengths in the team. We share our humanity with each other and our patients. 

I was 14 years old when homosexual activity was decriminalized in Canada. Over the years since then, several people I grew up with came out as gay. Sadly, some of them died of AIDS before effective diagnosis and treatments were available. Even after decriminalization, people were sometimes fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation. I remember well a charge nurse being fired suddenly for this reason early in my career. We have come a long way in extending human rights to LGBTQ people. Women have also had to fight for equality and rights in Canada and continue to do so in other places in the world. Violence is still directed toward these groups. Three people, a professor and two students, were stabbed last week at a local university in a class on gender studies. 

While I know that my workplace provides care for all people, many churches exclude and persecute people based on gender and sexual orientation. LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups face exclusion while adulterers, abusers and sexual predators have hidden their behaviour behind pulpits and offices of the church. The hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed. We all bear the image of God yet we all struggle with unrighteousness. In Colossians 3, Paul describes the struggle with our earthly nature and names sexual immorality, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander and lies together as works of the flesh. We all can identify with some of these characteristics. In contrast, Paul exhorts the church at Colossae to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love. My Christian faith means nothing if it is not expressed in this way.

I didn't join others who marched around the hospital in a small Pride parade, nor did I wear rainbow stickers or wave a flag. That is not my style. But I want to be known as someone who respects and accepts others, extending friendship and care regardless of our differences.