THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, JUly 7, 2023 Page 5 ASKS| FROM PAGE 3 of Precinct 7 or not – are welcome to come down to the library and talk with Precinct 7 Town Meeting members informally over coff ee or to ask them questions during the forum, which will be broadcast later on Saugus TV. Highlights of this week’s interview follow: Q: What brought you to Saugus? A: While looking to buy a house, we exhausted everything we could aff ord in Lynn. I picked up the phone and called the building inspector in Saugus – Joe Landry. I was able to fi nd out about a house in Indian Valley. Somebody’s fi nancing fell through. It was somebody who had connections with organized crime and had to get out of town. I was able to renegotiate the price and we’ve lived there OLD SACHEM| FROM PAGE 4 put. Because of this, responses may seem shallow and lack true insight. • Lack of knowledge for data and events after 2021. The training data ends with 2021 content. ChatGPT can provide incorrect information based on the data from which it pulls. If ChatGPT does not fully understand the query, it may also provide an inaccurate response. ChatGPT is still being trained, so feedback is recommended when an answer is incorrect. • Responses can sound like a machine and unnatural. Since ChatGPT predicts the next word, it may overuse words, such as “the” or “and.” Because of this, people still need to review and edit content to make it fl ow more naturally, like human writing. • It summarizes, but does not cite sources. ChatGPT does not provide analysis or insight into any data or statistics. ChatGPT may provide several statistics but no real commentary on what these statistics mean or how they relate to the topic. • It cannot understand sarcasm and irony. ChatGPT is based on a data set of text. • It may focus on the wrong part of a question and not be able to shift. For example, if you ask ChatGPT, “Does a ever since. Q: How did you get involved in local government? A: We moved to town in 1977. Charlie Aftosmes was the chair of the Finance Committee. As soon as we moved, he told my wife he wanted to get me on the Finance Committee. I got on in 1979. They were closing schools during Proposition 2 ½. Q: Bob, what is your biggest accomplishment in local government that you are most horse make a good pet based on its size?” and then ask it, “What about a cat?” ChatGPT may focus solely on the size of the animal versus giving information about having the animal as a pet. ChatGPT is not divergent and cannot shift its answer to cover multiple questions in a single response. While ChatGPT may be helpful for some tasks, there are some ethical concerns that depend on how it is used, including bias, lack of privacy and security, and cheating in education and work. One of the biggest ethical concerns with ChatGPT is its bias in training data. If the data the model pulls from proud of? A: The one I’m very most proud of is when a former manager allocated zero money for the library budget, and I took to the Town Meeting fl oor and I made a quote like “When did I move to a Third World Country that we don’t have a library?” I said it was unconscionable and we had to fi nd the money to keep the library open, at least a minimum, so we could maintain the programs. has any bias, it is refl ected in its output. ChatGPT also does not understand language that may be off ensive or discriminatory. The data needs to be reviewed to avoid perpetuating bias, but including diverse and representative material can help control bias for accurate results. As technology advances, ChatGPT may automate certain tasks that are completed by humans, such as data entry and processing, customer service and translation support. People are worried that it could replace their jobs, so it’s important to consider ChatGPT and AI’s eff ect on workers, using ChatGPT as support for job functions Q: And that sort of turned the tide? A: It did actually. I think a lot of people in the local government respected that I said that. We had so many people come over and support the library after I said that. Q: And you were Finance Committee chair at that time? A: Yes. That started a wave. People came to see the way and that they needed the ASKS | SEE PAGE 6 and creating new job opportunities to avoid loss of employment. ChatGPT uses text based on input, so it could potentially reveal sensitive information. The model’s output can also track and profi le individuals by collecting information from a prompt and associating this information with the user’s phone number and email. The information is then stored indefi nitely. (Editor’s Note: Bill Stewart, better known to Saugus Advocate readers as “The Old Sachem,” writes a weekly column about sports – and sometimes he opines on current or historical events or famous people.)
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