Hickory Algorithm Newsletter

Is ChatGPT getting dumber? Have you noticed it? I take a personal dive into what I am seeing from the only AI, I use. Six? 🤷 Seven?

Ai getting Dumber?

By: Chris Goldby

Skibbidy Rizzie Fam.

I have three teenage boys. One that turned 15 on Monday. My wife and I often talk about how their whole life, whatever they have learned, goes out the window when they hit their “factory reset.”

Puberty is the factory reset.

The things we’ve taught them seems to be thrown into a blender and left for dead somewhere no one can find. Sometimes it feels like we are talking to a completely different person. I can relate very much to comedian Josh Wolf when he talks about his teenage boys as well.

Here’s a comedy skit by Josh Wolf talking about his teenage boys:

Warning adult words and themes. A plus skit though!

Was there a “factory reset” with Ai?

Or? Am I asking stupider questions? That is also a possibility.

I haven’t ruled that out.

My ChatGPT seems to have gone through a lot of updates over the past few months, like, an alarming amount. Has yours?

I was on LinkedIn updating my work status when I needed a new 500 character description. I didn’t want to just take out the part I didn’t want. I wanted to make a whole new description. One that features my new title, Head of Documentaries and Docu-series for Akula Literary Partners. One that showcases the things I’m most proud of like coaching, showcasing businesses, and youth development.

I deleted the old description and started playing around on Sunday afternoon with ChatGPT to create a new 500 character profile.

I enjoy messing around with ChatGPT. I don’t use it for my writing but, I do enjoy a good problem solving adventure sometimes while I’m waiting for the 3pm football game to start. 🏈

I sent the rough draft through my GPT.

Before I even looked at it I noticed it was substantially longer than what I had typed initially. I checked my prompt thinking, I didn’t add the under 500 character part.

But, I did.

I asked Ghost (yes, I named my ChatGPT bot), how many characters it just returned to me and Ghost, hits me with 644 characters.

Huh?

Have you ever yelled or degraded your Ai? Of course you have! It’s just you and me here. I didn’t though, I wanted to send mean words into the system but I didn’t. I was good. 🤣

“Let’s run in back but, under 500 characters.”

Beep bop boop.

Sends me back another description.

How many characters, Ghost?

Ghost responds with “573.”

In the words of my 15 year old.. BRUUH! 💀

What am I missing? I send it back through.

“551”

I’m starting to turn into Herb Brooks from the 1980 USA Hockey Team.

After a couple more times. I finally get something under the characters but, there were more dashes than some of these girls lashes.

Thinking, I am losing my mind at this point, I go back into my Ai and ask for the top 5 pizza places near me within 5 miles of Viewmont. Give the machine a little lay up. Just an underhanded kind of question to put a little faith back into this whole machine.

Nope, I got another teenager response.

Top 5 places? 3 of them were outside of Hickory, Conover, Newton, and no where near the places in that radius. One was Little Cesars in Bethlehem across the bridge at the gas station. The other was Good Pizzas which, good for Good pizzas making the list.

Also, the sources were REDDIT AND DISCORD!?!

What on earth? Message boards? Where are the sources? Like, actual news sources.

WHAT IS HAPPENING 👹

Wasn’t your Google SEO suppose to help bring your business up the ranks? You're paying for it every month and I bet you're paying over 200 dollars per month. SEO is suppose to help you in AI searches too right? That’s what I’ve been told.

How would AI getting dumber?

Is the mountains of daily data, updates daily, and the questions melting all the information into one common voice or denominator? If so, like, how dumb are we as a general population? Is our Ai already starting to become obsolete?

Has technology been fast tracked so much that this is already over?

Remember, Google searching is down. Once, that fact came to the surface, look how fast Google pushed Gemini to the front of the search bar, once that information hit it was almost the next day. Gemini was on all our google search bars, front and center.

Remember, trying to find someone on Facebook or trying to find a page? You would type in the name/business you wanted, hit send, and their AI would send you what it thought you wanted. A nightmare. That was changed a couple weeks after they tried forcing that down our throats. Now, Meta is pushing it out again.

Look, all I’m saying is pay attention.

I don’t know what all this means or how to react to it and that’s sorta the point. I just know this ain’t the machine we lose to.

I have full confidence that John and Sarah Conner got this.

I just know AI ain’t what it was a couple months ago.

Hell, I’m having a hard time even giving it another capital letter.

From now on I’m gonna call it…

Ai and not AI.

Undeserving of a second capital letter. 🍻

Maybe it’s just going through a factory reset?

Leave a comment below or feel free to talk to me about what you’ve experienced recently with Ai when we see each other out and about around Hickory, NC.

#fortheloveofthegame

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Hilarious.

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This Month’s Creator Spotlight

Brandon Flowers

“Maybe I can vouch for the hopeless dreamer, when you look at me.”

On the Hickory Algorithm stories and Substack notes during the month of January will feature the words of Brandon Flowers. One of my favorite singer songwriters and front man of The Killers. His writing has only gotten better as he has aged.

as he creates, he helps me create.

Thank you Brandon Flowers.

Favorite Killers/ Brandon Flowers song? Leave a comment.

Here are some links to YouTube music of the two most recent albums. Each one is a link to the album with the name, music by The Killers, written by Brandon Flowers and the band.

Imploding the Mirage

Imploding the Mirage is about coming to grips with returning to he and his wife’s hometown.Brandon Flowers sets the down the “magical power of the glow” and spotlight from Las Vegas down. To realizing the most powerful magnet in his life is the relationship with his wife and that he will travel anywhere to make sure he keeps it.

“We got everything we need, baby we’re a dying breed.”

Pressure Machine

Now, back living in his old home town. The Killers, known for their sonic rock anthems but on this record their sound is twisted and bent into more fundamental practices. Harmonicas, slow guitar strumming, and songs about the ‘getting by’ shine of a small town, with small town values, and how he missed it more than he ever thought he would. Simple things like family, relationships, faith, our relationships with our community and life being a pressure machine.

“Maybe it’s the getting by, that gets right underneath you, it’ll swallow up your ever step if it could, but maybe its the stuff it takes to get up in the morning, and put another day in, son - that keeps you standing where you should.”

Next week, we lean into Brandon Flowers for one final time with a playlist for your listening pleasures.

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Last week’s post:

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The Hickory Algorithm

The Hickory Algorithm is personal.

Chris Goldby is a writer, marketer, and multimedia storyteller based in Hickory, North Carolina. He owns The Hickory Algorithm, a multichannel marketing agency, and is a contributing writer and Head of Documentary/Docuseries with Akula Literary Partners.

CONTACT ME:

chris@hickoryalgorithm.com

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Content that Connects. Connections that matter.

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#fortheloveofthegame