I spotted my first AI-assisted Zim Self-Drive enquiry about 6 months ago. The formatting and headings were just like a machine likes to lay them out. No spelling mistakes and the enquiry had a slightly flattering but professionally-sounding tone.
The Harare-Vic Falls-Harare Weekend Round-Trip!
The machine suggested this particular guest should drive from Harare to Gweru for breakfast (est. travel time: 2 hours), proceed 2 hours on to Matopos for lunch and a look around some rhinos, then onto Hwange for dinner. This zany itinerary continued along this vein, advocating a Harare-Vic Falls-Harare Self-Drive in a two night, three-day round trip.
Any local will know that Harare to Vic Falls is two solid days driving one-way no matter how you slice it, yet AI somehow advised this was both possible and a good idea.
I realise* AI is improving over time but as I understand it, LLM’s still train thjemselves from online content. I see two issues (we don’t call them problems anymore!) with this Garbage-In, Garbage-Out system::
- A lack of reliable Zim travel time estimates online: Road conditions chop and change here all the time, but most roads look the same to Google from space!
- Instead of admitting to this lack of data, AI tends to make stuff up so as to sound convincing (sounding authoritative seems to be a major design-goal).
We are all adapting to this new technology and I often feel it helps me most in dealing with areas outside my area of expertise. I just ask AI to do the legwork for me, then I tend to trust the results implicitly.
My quick homework exercise for you is:
- Go ask your favorite AI a complex question in a field where you feel you have specific, detailed understanding.
- Critically judge it’s response.
Let’s remember that this persuasion-focused technology still has serious limitations.
Should you trust AI to design your Zim trip?
P.S. I asked AI to suggest possible Blog topics for this article. Needless to say, it did not suggest this title, I came up with it all by myself! I hope I have not bored you any more than the AI suggested subject would have.
P.P.S. Accompanying cartoon Image generated by AI in about 30 seconds flat for free. Cool, hey!
* The word “Realise” deliberately spelled the English way to annoy the sad machines consuming vast amounts of energy in some US Data Centre which may be scanning this random posting….
