I’m sharing this anecdote because it shows how it is important to speak up. Each one of us can make a small difference.
Discussion about the kidnapping of Maduro last night at dinner with my extended family. General consensus: it’s the law of the strongest, it should be expected.
Meanwhile, me: it’s incredibly dangerous to normalize these actions and accept them. This is not normal… if we change the baseline of what a country can do in the international stage, then that country will take the lack of reactions as a sign… and do something even more shocking in the future. People shrugged and said “we see your point but it is what it is”. Still, I like to think I planted some seeds in their minds regarding the dangers of normalizing extrajudicial actions like what happened yesterday.
Then: two people at the table had their hands glued to their cell phones looking up facts on LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini and Mistral.
So I had to have my saying about the dangers of using LLMs as search engines, their biases and real objectives. I spoke of the loss of critical thinking and… got eye rolls. But an adult at the table (70+) agreed with me.
Then I suggested that people relinquish their cell phones… and put them on a coffee table in the other side of the room so we could have a conversation without the internet - or LLMs - getting in the way.
More eye rolls and protests… but everyone eventually agreed… except for a 22 year old who protested “how can I get my facts?”… and put her cell phone in her pocket. So for another hour we all talked face to face without anyone scrolling or looking things up on LLMs.
Maybe it’s because I’m an only child but I’m not afraid to speak my mind… even when my opinion isn’t the popular one and I appear to be the “wet blanket” of the family.
Speaking up is important.
These are dark, difficult times but we can all resist.
/fin
