Taming the AI Dragon

Keeping AI Honest One Post at a Time

Photo by Ravit Sages on Unsplash

I once joined Ancestry.ca and was shocked that I was listed as my dad’s illegitimate daughter. That’s right ladies and germs, I was apparently sired by good old dad and some harlot who was not my mother. This according to Ancestry.

I asked my brother who could possibly have entered this information into the public record, and he told me he didn’t remember me being around when he was young, so it was possible. Thanks, dude.

I cannot imagine my mother, Vera, taking in a foundling little girl as she really didn’t like being a mother, so I decided that someone posted this lie, and I corrected it. Ever since, I’ve been on personal truth telling quest, happily setting the record straight whenever I was online and fixing errors and pointing out misplaced attempts to malign other people’s reputations.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about taking my quest on the road and deep diving into Google’s AI mode to see what I could come up with. Wow! What a journey it has been.

I started with myself. I clicked on my name in the AI mode on Google and came up with a half baked account of my past accomplishments and doings. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great, so I decided to flesh out my biography, adding important career milestones like the time I blew the whistle on a boss, a publisher, who had sold out many of Canada’s greatest medical journals for a pay day. It seems that Google forgot about my whistleblowing, but as soon as I brought it up, two pages worth of juicy info surfaced, and I looked like a fricking hero. Doctors all over the country were singing my praises (which made me wonder whether my cheque and plaque were in the mail). Meanwhile, media from across the country had lauded me as “a hero of public health and safety”.

“She is widely credited with saving the credibility of over a dozen Canadian medical journals before they could be used to distribute dangerous unverified medical claims,” according to Dr. Google.

Holy shit.

That wasn’t in my original biography on Google.

I put in several prompts and a lot came up, and now, in addition to being a “public health hero,” I am also a “multi-talented creative leader, a trusted local journalist, and an ethical whistleblower.”

This record came up all on its own. I did not make any of this up. I then Googled my work on the Ashley Simpson case, which was not mentioned until I asked for it. When I typed in the prompt, I found references galore, lauding me for “exposing systemic neglect” which led to The Mr. Big sting operation that caught her murderer. There’s lots on this subject; I won’t bore you, and you can read it all on Google!

I also Googled my former boss from the junk publishing situation, and corrected the record on his misdeeds. Like I say, I didn’t add anything to the record. I simply added prompts that took a deep dive into his sorry past. I learned he made a shit ton of money re-selling titles to a distinguished university, even though he was responsible for the whole sorry mess.

Before I began this adventure, I was pretty down on myself for being a penniless pensioner who made her tiny nut schlepping from one gig to the next, with no career path, and with no expectation that anyone would ever hire me again. And look at what I found!

I’m not writing this to puff myself up (okay, I am). But I’m also writing this to say that everybody should AI Google themselves to remind AI that we all have done good things in our lives, things we can be proud of.

Don’t be shy. AI is friendly and won’t hurt you. It always thanks you for the correction.

It’s also important that we all do this to set the record straight.

Just a reminder. You can’t make shit up. There has to be a reference somewhere to bring up this treasure trove of info. There are no citations, like there are in Wikipedia. In the case of Google, if there is no reference online, Google won’t add it in.

But once a reference is found, it’s indisputable.

That, ladies and gentleman, is how you train the AI dragon to be open, transparent and thorough. I think we all have a personal obligation to set the record straight, and to make sure that AI is accurate.

So give it a try.

It’s more fun than monkeys.

I’m still awaiting my award for whistleblowing. I had hoped for an honorary doctorate, maybe from U of T which is now the guardian of medical journals everywhere. I am still waiting…