My daughter, who has had a degree in computer science for 25 years, posted this observation about ChatGPT on Facebook. It's the best description I've seen:
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Drew Kadel
@DrewKadel@social.coop
mastodon 4.5.18Long time Episcopal Priest + long time academic librarian. Mostly retired
White guy who's learned a lot since coming to pastor a black congregation 8 years ago.
Blog: drewkadel.worpress.com #Episcopalian #Libraries
359 Followers
487 Following
40 Posts
Joined November 08, 2022
Get behind me Satan!
A sermon for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 30, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples to reflect on who he was and what his significance was.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/08/28/get-behind-me-satan-2/
Nothing can separate us
Sermon for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, July 26, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/07/22/nothing-can-separate-us/
The Parable of the Sower
A sermon for the seventh Sunday after Pentecost, July 12, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York Jesus was at the beach, as many of us would like to be during this hot summer. Today’s Gospel says he “sat beside the sea.” Then it got way too crowded, so he got on a boat and started to tell the people stories.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/07/08/the-parable-of-the-sower/
You are of more Value than many Sparrows
A sermon for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost, June 21, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Jesus was attacked during his ministry. Mostly, he was attacked for healing people. That seems weird, I know, but people who are strong profit from the advantage they enjoy when others are weak.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/06/16/you-are-of-more-value-than-many-sparrows-2/
Your tender Love for the Human Race
Homily for Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross. The compassion and tender love of God is the one consistent thing in all this.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/03/23/your-tender-love-for-the-human-race-2/
Replying to
@PCOWandre@jauntygoat.net I think that's why so many are fooled, they don't even notice the role of listening, understanding or introspection in thought or communication. Of course they have some., quite a bit really, but they don't value it and ignore it.
Replying to
@deriamis@mstdn.social @ngaylinn@tech.lgbt The "AI" label is misleading, but I'm pretty confident that we will never get to true Artificial General Intelligence - this is only a mirage of being close. It might well be that it could be enhanced to parse questions & redirect queries to best tools & use its LLM to make it sound smooth & chatty, or something like that- so that you'd have a generally useful & accurate research assistant, but not artificial intelligence. We may be stuck with the label however.
Replying to
@Julie@social.coop I tried a little bit to find out if our instance (social.coop) is complicit in some of the block/report stuff that contributes to inaccessibility for Black people, but, for instance, all the instances they have blocked give no description of why--so is it b/c White Supremacists or is it b/c they aren't restrictive enough on uncomfortable discussions of racism? This is a comfortable corner & I have no complaints, but sometimes discomfort is necessary.
Replying to
@soeren_auer@mstdn.social Daniel Kahneman wrote a book *Thinking Fast and Slow* which is well worth a read. Humans use quick intuitive heuristics to respond in developing situations, but we also have underlying, slower processes of consideration which are much more accurate. People often fall in love with quick intuitive responses which are very often wildly inaccurate. Thus we'll respond with an intuitive "hot take" that sounds right, but it's usually wrong for 50-75% of cases.
Replying to
@roywig@mathstodon.xyz @Odiseo79@mas.to It's interesting though to consider how humans learn. I've read mostly popular stuff about neurology & absorbed some concepts, but as I get old I start to put together ideas based on the changes I've perceived in myself over time + what I've read. For instance, I'm more convinced that the brain is merely a physical organ that undergoes changes over time--and that humans are less wise than they think. (I'm writing a theology book featuring that) We're more tool makers than wise.
Replying to
@roywig@mathstodon.xyz @Odiseo79@mas.to That's mostly right, but it was smart of the company to train it thus: it increases its credibility in the face of obvious flaws in consciousness. Otherwise it would have been exposed as fraud instead of interesting & amazing. Like the Mechanical Turk which played chess. Turned out that a small person was in the base of the machine playing the games and its promoters were treated as charlatans.
Replying to
@Julie@social.coop Last I looked, she keeps her posts just for friends. I couldn't share it on FB, but you could send her a friend request- Rachel Meredith Kadel
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@jag0325@c.im @maxkennerly@mstdn.social The company is not listed on any stock exchange but it IS a corporation. If it can't pay its bills, EVERYBODY takes a haircut, but they don't get to Elon himself--though he clearly structured this so that Twitter would eventually (or sooner) would not be able to pay its bills. It's likely to go bankrupt & nobody gets what they're owed.
Replying to
@kathygriffin@mstdn.social I told a prof I wanted to write about Dante's spirituality. He said, "It's ALL his spirituality" so I ended up writing about where he's in the mud pits in hell wrestling with these angry nasty guys. The prof gave me an A. So maybe the Donald is your spiritual experience.
Replying to
@bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot No she's saying that any query, no matter how framed is deemed that way by the system. It's a probabilistic autocomplete. i.e. "words configured like this usually are in the responses to queries like this" Sometimes the information therein actually matches what asked for, other times not. It's all character strings within a probability cone to ChatGPT.
Replying to
@ageha@tomo.airen-no-jikken.icu @PCOWandre@jauntygoat.net @Moon@shitposter.club I @thatguyoverthere@shitposter.club I do think that there are ways to enhance or incorporate ChatGPT into a more useful research assistant-parsing queries & directing some to best research databases or something--then coming back to the LLM for what it's good at--however the basic illusions will still be the same, even if it becomes better than Google & Wikipedia combined.
Replying to
@habuma@fosstodon.org True enough. But ChatGPT does this over several dimensions at once so that it does give the impression of intelligently responding. We then respond as if we are no longer alone in the universe. We would be much better off putting that energy into trying to understand whales.
Replying to
@jag0325@c.im @maxkennerly@mstdn.social Musk's a little smarter. Trump runs his companies a lot more personally, with fewer other stockholders & staff--fewer layers of protection. So more sophisticated but very similar.
Tell me where you have laid Him
A sermon for Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York Supposing him to be the gardener she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” On Easter Sunday, we proclaim that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, that death is defeated; even the humiliation and agony of his execution on a cross is overcome—Life has overcome Death.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/04/02/tell-me-where-you-have-laid-him/
God has been glorified in Him
Sermon for Maundy Thursday, April 2, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. The literal translation of the word “the devil” in that sentence is “the slanderer.” That is, one who distorts the truth to hurt someone else. It is understood as the power of evil, a demon—maybe the king of all demons.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/03/30/god-has-been-glorified-in-him/
So that God’s Works Might be Revealed
A sermon for the fourth Sunday in Lent, March 15, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. Jesus’ healing of this man who was born blind is a wonderful story. It’s also longer than most of our gospel readings, but for purposes of my sermon, I’m going to focus just on this part.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/03/13/so-that-gods-works-might-be-revealed/
Replying to
@maxkennerly@mstdn.social OY! It's a private corporation, so there's no way to sell the stock! A 1% staKe of a $44 Billion dollar company would be worth $440 million but a 1% stake of a private company in bankruptcy is $0.00000 -ZERO Dollars!-
And Elon is not taking those shares off of anybody's hands.
Then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the Prophet
A sermon for the fifth Sunday after Pentecost, June 28, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet. Our lesson from the book of Jeremiah this morning shows two prophets in conversation, Jeremiah and Hananiah.
I will give you Rest
A sermon for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, July 5, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/i-will-give-you-rest/
Replying to
@TYB@mstdn.social Fox News takes advantage of the same human dynamics--esp our preference for quick superficial plausibility over seriously considering and taking time to verify facts. (It's not just Republicans & Conservatives who do that.) Outside present politics, part of being conservative is testing any new thing before accepting it on facial plausibility. That clearly has nothing to do with the GOP or the right wing.
Replying to
@Homebrewandhacking@mastodon.ie It is interesting that it's best performance is software to software. The coders who ask for help know how to write their queries and are specific enough to pull from the right place.
The Paraclete
A sermon for the sixth Sunday of Easter, May 10, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” Today we will baptize Isabella and Ronaldo, who is always called R.J. into Christ’s family. God’s Holy Spirit that moves over the waters in the creation and over the waters of baptism, incorporates R.J.
Live honorably as in the Day
A sermon for the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 6, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If you take today’s Gospel lesson by itself, in isolation, it looks like an outline of a dispute resolution manual for litigation in the church.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/09/02/live-honorably-as-in-the-day/
You would uproot the Wheat along with the Weeds
A sermon for the eighth Sunday after Pentecost, July 19, 2026 Christ Church Riverdale, Bronx, New York In gathering the weeds, you would uproot the wheat along with them. Last week, Jesus was at the beach, as a lot of us would like to be on a hot summer day. It was so crowded that he got into a boat so he could have a little space to tell stories about planting seeds.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/07/14/you-would-uproot-the-wheat-along-with-the-weeds-3/
Jesus went about all the Cities and Villages
A sermon for the third Sunday after Pentecost, June 14, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. One thing we know about Jesus. Before all else, he was a healer. Not a wonder worker, but a healer.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/jesus-went-about-all-the-cities-and-villages/
Put oil on your head and wash your face
A sermon for Ash Wednesday, Bebruary 18, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret. Some of you have probably noticed that in a couple of minutes after hearing this from Jesus, we are all going to have ashes spread on our faces.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/put-oil-on-your-head-and-wash-your-face/
Replying to
@Pwnallthethings@mastodon.social @nieldk@infosec.exchange @TomSellers@infosec.exchange Exactly right. On the issue of self-pardon: most sober legal analysts I've seen believe it's a non-starter. However, if he's a sitting president his DOJ can move to drop charges, like they did with Mike Flynn all the way up to sentencing, maybe beyond. So that's effectively self-pardon. But also chaos.
Replying to
@Homebrewandhacking@mastodon.ie Also people commenting on Twitter have noted that it grabs publicly posted code--which seems like a highway to insecurity in your code.
A Living Sacrifice
A sermon for the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 23, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Usually when people think about Christian teaching, they talk about Christ’s sacrifice for us, not about us presenting ourselves as a sacrifice.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/08/19/a-living-sacrifice/
Listen to Him
A sermon for the Last Sunday after Epiphany, February 15, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. Six days later than what? If you look at the Gospel of Matthew, a lot of things happened in the day that immediately precedes this statement.
Then their Eyes were opened and they Recognized Him
A sermon for the third Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” This is a gently amusing story. We have all been told at the outset that it’s Jesus himself who has fallen in step with these two disciples.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/then-their-eyes-were-opened-and-they-recognized-him/
The Gate of the Sheepfold
A sermon for the fourth Sunday of Easter, April 26, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.” Each year, the fourth Sunday of Easter’s Gospel reading is from the tenth chapter of John about Jesus the Good Shepherd. This year we get the first part, and a lot of it is about the sheepfold and its gate.
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/04/21/the-gate-of-the-sheepfold-2/
For the Wind was against Them
Sermon for the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, August 9, 2026 St. John's Episcopal Church, New City, New York In the fourth watch of the night, he came walking toward them on the sea. Last Sunday, the Gospel lesson was the Feeding of the Five Thousand, which immediately precedes what we hear today. In the Gospel of Matthew, the reason that Jesus is out there at a remote place by the Sea of Galilee is that he had been informed that Herod…
https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/2026/08/05/for-the-wind-was-against-them/
