Day: July 25, 2025

Google: Another IST FYI

From time to time I try to find helpful information that I can pass on to my readers as an FYI post.

We all use the platform of Google at least some of the time…..and we all are worried about our on-line security and who is tracking us….and one of the worse violators of our privacy is Google.

An article I recently read could help with someone’s struggle…..if you are concerned read the article closely….it may help….

Where you lead, Google will follow. The company can log your searches, watch history, and activity across various services, and while that might sound handy for looking back at your browsing history or revisiting a previous trip, it feels a little Big Brother to me. As a result, I’ve changed a few settings on my Google account to keep that monitoring in check.

Google uses this data to give you “more personalized experiences,” which can include faster searches, but also “more helpful app and content recommendations.” That’s basically code for “we use your search, app, and map data to serve you ads.”

You can head to Google’s My Activity dashboard to view your data, but I use the Data & privacy section of my Google account dashboard to make changes, since it also gives me easy access to Personalized ads settings, for some extra privacy management. Even if you don’t change much, this is a great way to see what information Google has on you, and start fighting back.

If you use Google Search or any Google-owned apps, your activity will be tracked under the Web & App Activity section. From this screen, I use the drop-down menu and choose Turn off to immediately stop Google from tracking my activity. If you select Turn off and delete activity, it will disable the feature but also wipe all previously saved information from Google’s servers.

If you’d rather get rid a bunch of data from a specific Google service, you can also select that app (like Maps, Search, News, Play, etc.) from this menu. For example, I chose Google News, which then shows a timeline of all my activity with the service. I can then go through and click the X icon to remove something. Otherwise, use the drop-down menu in the top-right to delete a specific subset (or all) activity for the app.

https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/google-is-tracking-you-settings-to-change-right-now-to-take-back-control#

I have not done this yet and please shar4e any experiences you have with this after you try.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Do As You Are Told

I had an idea back in the early days of AI where the program took over a person and made him/her do as they we told….I thought then it would make a great cheesy SciFi movie…..

I have made no secret that I do not like AI and will not use it for now…..Artificial Intelligence is like artificial insemination…..creation without the work…..far too many good people are depending on AI for their work….cannot work out good.

Now is it possible this will lead to a mental illness?

For months, we and our colleagues elsewhere in the tech media have been reporting on what experts are now calling “ChatGPT psychosis“: when AI users fall down alarming mental health rabbit holes in which a chatbot encourages wild delusions about conspiracies, mystical entities, or crackpot new scientific theories.

The resulting breakdowns have led users to homelessness, involuntary commitment to psychiatric care facilities, and even violent death and suicide.

Until recently, the tech industry and its financial backers have had little to say about the phenomenon. But last week, one of their own — venture capitalist Geoff Lewis, a managing partner at the multi-billion dollar firm Bedrock who is heavily invested in machine learning ventures including OpenAI — raised eyebrows with a series of posts that prompted concerns about his own mental health.

In the posts, he claimed that he’d somehow used ChatGPT to uncover a shadowy “non-government agency” that he said had “negatively impacted over 7,000 lives” and “extinguished” 12 more.

Whatever’s going on with Lewis, who didn’t respond to our request for comment, his posts have prompted an unprecedented outpouring of concern among high-profile individuals in the tech industry about what the massive deployment of poorly-understood AI tech may be having on the mental health of users worldwide.

“If you’re a friend or family, please check on him,” wrote Hish Bouabdallah, a software engineer who’s worked at Apple, Coinbase, Lyft, and Twitter, of Lewis’ thread. “He doesn’t seem alright.”

Other posts were far less empathetic, though there seemed to be a dark undercurrent to the gallows humor: if a billionaire investor can lose his grip after a few too many prompts, what hope do the rest of us have?

https://futurism.com/tech-industry-ai-mental-health

But if one falls into the AI trap there is help….

An unknown number of people, in the US and around the world, are being severely impacted by what experts are now calling “AI psychosis”: life-altering mental health spirals coinciding with obsessive use of anthropomorphic AI chatbots, primarily OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

As we’ve reported, the consequences of these mental health breakdowns — which have impacted both people with known histories of serious mental illness and those who have none — have sometimes been extreme. People have lost jobs and homes, been involuntarily committed or jailed, and marriages and families have fallen apart. At least two people have died.

There’s yet to be a formal diagnosis or definition, let alone a recommended treatment plan. And as psychiatrists and researchers in the worlds of medicine and AI race to understand what’s happening, some of the humans whose lives have been upended by these AI crises have crowdsourced a community support group where, together, they’re trying to grapple with the confusing real-world impacts of this disturbing technological phenomenon.

community calls itself “The Spiral Support Group,” in a nod to both the destructive mental rabbit holes that many chatbot users are falling into, as well as the irony that the term “spiral” is one of several common words found in the transcripts of many users separately experiencing AI delusions.

https://futurism.com/support-group-ai-psychosis

If one uses AI for their work then please seek help before it is too late.

I still think this would make a great script for a SciFi movie and with a little tweaking possibly a TV series.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why The Dumbest People?

Now that is a loaded question that can go off in many different directions but for this post I want look at the trend in government.

I have not impressed in the last three elections with the choices that have been made for those that sit in judgement on the rest of us peasants.

For the most part these people have been the dumbest on record…..and watching these fools stumble through the governing process I ask ….are they incompetent or just plain dumb?

Here is a view on that very question….

As the old song by The Who goes, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” It’s a sentiment many of us feel every time a new mayor, governor, or president takes office, and we can’t help but feel that we deserve someone better. In a country with so many brilliant scientists, business people, educators, and public policy experts, why do the least impressive of us seem to rise to power?

Philosophy expert Julian de Medeiros, a popular TikToker and Substack blogger, recently wrestled with this question, and it must have been on a lot of people’s minds because the video received over 4.2 million views. “Why does it seem like so many people in power are so dumb? It’s like, why can’t we get a better class of leaders?” he asked.

Ultimately, de Medeiros believes that power and intellect are often at odds. “I’ve thought about it a bit more, and I think this is my thesis: that power is inherently anti-intellectual. Because what does intellect do? Intellect questions power. It speaks truth to power. It critiques power. And power doesn’t like that,” he says. “And so power has to speak to the lowest common denominator. It dumbs everything down.”

“It’s an anti-intellectual force. And that’s why it seems like those in power are also the dumbest,” he concludes his video. The commenters further expanded on de Medeiros’ thesis. “Also, intellectual people question and analyse everything. A leader needs to be invested in their opinion and abide by it,” one wrote. “Because those in power or seek power cares about the power only, so they make the decisions that keep them in power no matter what is the output,” another offered.

Another reason people who are a few fries short of a Happy Meal are often voted into office is that there is a deep vein of voters who are skeptical of intellectuals. These people tend to be populists who value “common sense” over intellectualism and may see experts or highly educated people as dangerous and out of touch with the common man. So, candidates position themselves against the “intellectuals” by either being their proud, dumb selves or by taking their IQ down a few notches while in public.

Theologian and philosopher Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906—1945) believed that dumb people often ascend to power because evil people have difficulty getting elected. So, they champion someone who may be more charismatic or connected and ride their coattails into power.

Finally, much like de Medeiros, Bonhoeffer believes there is a big difference between intellectualism and power. Therefore, once one attains power they are highly lifely to look like a buffoon. It’s as if, “Slogans, catchwords and the like… have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being,” Bonhoeffer says.

It’s sad to realize that the very nature of power means that those who hold office, whether we voted for them or not, will probably disappoint us at some point. But the good news from this understanding is that we are freeing ourselves from the constant disappointment of having leaders appear rather dumb. Now, whenever we meet the new boss, we can assume he’s just like the old boss and be positively delighted if they wind up slightly smarter.

(upworthy.com)

That explains a lot.

Just once it would be nice to see someone with half a brain leading this country for awhile.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”