AI-Yi-Yi!

It is fascinating to explore the implications and applications of AI, GPT and other early iterations of what may become the universal operating system of the future.

It reminds me of a pilot project I worked on in 1980 for TV set-top video delivery of text (videotex)—news/information/resources (headlines, stock info, airline reservations, takeout, entertainment options)— with a mysterious name, Trintex.   Trintex was a collaboration between CBS, AT&T and IBM, but that linkage was not disclosed due to the experimental nature of the effort. 

• Trintex sounded like the name of a girdle!

I answered a classified ad in the business section of the New York Times for writers/editors. No other details were conveyed.  I was hired along with a half-dozen CBS Publishing editors and a handful of newspaper reporters for something called Venture One.

The project operated from a plain vanilla office building in Fair Lawn, NJ.  Why?  It was inconspicuous.  Most important, it was right on the commute route for one of CBS’s highest-ranking executives who could “peek in” and observe our progress on his way to Manhattan.

Very quickly, I discovered an affinity for organizing the “flow” of information within a story and between sections in units called “trees.”  I became known as “The Tree Queen.”    The videotex content was available to about 100 homes in northern New Jersey..

It was an eye-opening and challenging experience that resulted in the creation/launch of Prodigy a few years later.  Prodigy joined CompuServe as one of the most widely used systems until the early 21st century.

In that spirit, I have experimented with ChatGPT’s functionality.  I asked for a lede/preview of a game between the NY Yankees and Cleveland Guardians, including starting pitchers (and their respective records), the best hitters for each team and the location of the game. 

What I got back was revealing: The teams’ pitchers and stadium were correct, but the date of the game was wrong along with a list of stars from each team (included names of people no longer on the team). More disturbingly, there was a gratuitous paragraph at the end about this being a must-watch game between “two struggling teams.”  The teams are not struggling, nor did I request an “ask.” I couldn’t eliminate that gratuitous graf.

Lesson learned.  It’s wise to be open to the possibilities of AI.