Microsoft AI Suggests Food Bank As a 'Cannot Miss' Tourist Spot In Canada 50
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Late last week, MSN.com's Microsoft Travel section posted an AI-generated article about the "cannot miss" attractions of Ottawa that includes the Ottawa Food Bank, a real charitable organization that feeds struggling families. In its recommendation text, Microsoft's AI model wrote, "Consider going into it on an empty stomach." Titled, "Headed to Ottawa? Here's what you shouldn't miss!," (archive here) the article extols the virtues of the Canadian city and recommends attending the Winterlude festival (which only takes place in February), visiting an Ottawa Senators game, and skating in "The World's Largest Naturallyfrozen Ice Rink" (sic).
As the No. 3 destination on the list, Microsoft Travel suggests visiting the Ottawa Food Bank, likely drawn from a summary found online but capped with an unfortunate turn of phrase: "The organization has been collecting, purchasing, producing, and delivering food to needy people and families in the Ottawa area since 1984. We observe how hunger impacts men, women, and children on a daily basis, and how it may be a barrier to achievement. People who come to us have jobs and families to support, as well as expenses to pay. Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach."
That last line is an example of the kind of empty platitude (or embarrassing mistaken summary) one can easily find in AI-generated writing, inserted thoughtlessly because the AI model behind the article cannot understand the context of what it is doing. The article is credited to "Microsoft Travel," and it is likely the product of a large language model (LLM), a type of AI model trained on a vast scrape of text found on the Internet.
As the No. 3 destination on the list, Microsoft Travel suggests visiting the Ottawa Food Bank, likely drawn from a summary found online but capped with an unfortunate turn of phrase: "The organization has been collecting, purchasing, producing, and delivering food to needy people and families in the Ottawa area since 1984. We observe how hunger impacts men, women, and children on a daily basis, and how it may be a barrier to achievement. People who come to us have jobs and families to support, as well as expenses to pay. Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach."
That last line is an example of the kind of empty platitude (or embarrassing mistaken summary) one can easily find in AI-generated writing, inserted thoughtlessly because the AI model behind the article cannot understand the context of what it is doing. The article is credited to "Microsoft Travel," and it is likely the product of a large language model (LLM), a type of AI model trained on a vast scrape of text found on the Internet.
Accidentally funny? (Score:4, Insightful)
Looks like our new AI/LLM overlords may have figured out the third list item is the perfect place to insert irony.
I laughed because letâ(TM)s be honest: This could be a great way to raise awareness and funds for the disadvantaged.
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More likely a bunch of free campers will turn up wanting handouts.
Re: Accidentally funny? (Score:2)
Is it better to just throw out the overproduced 30% of food?
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It also is some good humourist writing, even if it didn't realize it.
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I guarantee you it did not do this. It's a language model, not a
But let's say they did actually do this. Imagine allowing your AI to use location data which it then uses to tell everyone you're using a food bank? LAWSUIT!
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Microsoft job ad (Score:3)
Don't judge (Score:4, Funny)
Homeless people deserve to travel too. Plus have you seen the cost of Air-BnB these days? Travellers may find themselves unable to buy food after paying the cleaning fee, service fee, reservation fee, towel fee, cameras temporarily disabled in the shower fee, washing fee, drying fee, what the fuck do you mean I need to give you a key fee, and an accounting fee because keeping track of all these fees requires effort.
The AI is just more aware of the plight of the average tourist, that is all.
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Real reason (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe Microsoft AI is down on its luck and needs something to eat
I Can Predict Future Slashdot Stories! (Score:4, Funny)
Amazing, you say? Not really, now you can do it too! Safely and securely from the comfort of your home or office! Use my new fool-proof method!
Simply go to Ars Technica and pick any headlined story. Like magic, it will appear here on Slashdot within hours!
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yeah but thankfully we dont have to read those elitist snooty Ars commen.... oh.. wait...
Re: AI tells the truth (Score:2)
How much oversupply is destroyed to create an artificial impression of scarcity?
Bored now (Score:2)
Half of content is AI-generated. The other half is critiques of AI posts, probably written by humans.
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Pierre Poilievre is just another former alleged U.S. president who runs down Canada and promises the sun, the moon, and the stars. He's just another bunko artist.
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> who runs down Canada and promises the sun, the moon, and the stars. He's just another bunko artist.
You just described Justin Trudeau to a T.
He runs on a platform of affordable housing then turns around and says housing affordability isn't a federal responsibility once he doubles house prices.
"As housing prices spike, Trudeau now says it's not a 'federal responsibility'"
https://nationalpost.com/opini... [nationalpost.com]
"Every Housing Promise Trudeau Made Ahead of His Re-Election"
https://storeys.com/trudeau-re... [storeys.com]
And tha
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Trudeau is correct. Housing is a provincial issue.
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I wouldn't expect anything less than a mis-understanding of the factors at play and a knee-jerk response from ArchieBunker. Thank you for highlighting what people not familiar with what is happening might be thinking so we can address them:
Trudeau has mandated record and unmanageable immigration at the federal level that outpaces Canada's ability to house, feed and support and build infrastructure for them.
Basic math would suggest the pace you are able to build houses shouldn't be outpaced by the number of
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Canada's fertility rate is 1.5, which is considerably below the population replacement rate of 2.1. In fact the last time Canada's fertility rate was 2.1 was in 1971 Nonetheless, thanks to a combination of population momentum [wikipedia.org] and immigration Canada's population has slowed only very gradually, from 1.5% in 1971 to around 1.3% in the years leading up to the pandemic.
As frightening as immigration is to political nativists, a 1%-ish growth rate is pretty good economically; way better than a population contract
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I was waiting until someone with Trudeau Derangement Syndrome piped up. You can't throw a rock in rural Canada without hitting some yahoo's Fuck Trudeau sign.
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I hate those assholes for turning my flag into their symbol of tribal hate.
But at least it's easy to spot a pickup truck with oversized tires and two giant flags mounted on it.
regulation of political speech (Score:2)
almost like (Score:2)
It's almost like calling it "AI" in the first place is so wrong as to be beyond marketing hyperbole into 'blatant lie' territory.
As far as I'm aware, (and I think we'd know *very quickly* if I was wrong) there is NO ACTUAL AI IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.
Stop fucking using the term. It doesn't (apparently) mean what you think it means.
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Perhaps you should go to an univrsytiy and starts studying computer science.
Sooner or later you will learn what the term AI - aka artificial intelligence - actually means.
Hint: it does not mean what you think it means. And Generative AI is what is is: Generative AI regardless what you think about AI or believe to know about AI.
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Hint: you don't get to redefine words just to fit your faddish memes.
Autocomplete is NOT AI.
Iterative weighted culling of queries and blended search results (which is really what 'generative ai' is doing) is not intelligence.
Although your reply does make me realize that as human intellect falls to near-vegetable levels, at a certain point autocomplete is functionally about as creative and intuitive as the humans that use it.
In that context I concede that as "I" recedes, eventually these systems will equal i
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What intelligence is and what not: has nothing to do with AI.
You could call it Trabums ... no one would argue about Trabums, because it is just a word.
You argue about some AI things, and don't realize: it is just a word or a term.
No idea what the rest of your post is about, Autocomplete? You got hurt by Autocomplete, too?
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It's almost like calling it "AI" in the first place is so wrong as to be beyond marketing hyperbole into 'blatant lie' territory.
Not if AI stands for autocomplete insanity.
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there is NO ACTUAL AI IN THE ENTIRE WORLD
Now that I think of it, is there an actual Non-artificial Intelligence in the world? Doesn't seem like it when i look around. We should call what humans use as Non-artificial Nonsense for IEEE standardization purposes.
Automation and the 4th Inudstrial Revolution #IR (Score:2)
When the machine overlord takes over, the food bank will be considered a cannot miss spot for any tourists as it might just have the very thing everyone is looking for: hope.
Sounds like... (Score:2)
Well, it looks like OpenAI & Microsoft have indeed managed to reproduce human-like intelligence but PR & marketing people isn't setting the bar particularly high.
"One day, machines will exceed human intelligence." - Ray Kurtzweil
"Only if we meet them half-way." - Dave Snowden
MS assholes or MS idiots? (Score:2)
Why not both?
A real WTF (Score:4, Funny)
I think what the AI meant to say was: "Life is hard enough; imagine life on an empty stomach." but of course it worded it as an absolute howler.
There's no such place in Ottawa as "Omega Park". There is a place in Quebec called "Parc Omega", and the purported photo of "Omega Park" was actually a photo of the Rideau Canal. The purported photo of the Rideau Canal is actually a photo of the Rideau River.
The caption under the photo of the Canadian Museum of Nature reads: "Canadian Museum of Nature is considered to be a national natural history museum and is located in Canada." Gee, thanks for clearing that up!
SIGH
Sorry. 1 star. (Score:3)
I went there. The waitress was rude - even went so far as to say they didn't want me there. Then they had the temerity to try to give me instant ramen noodles, even though I clearly asked for freshly hand-pulled. I'm pretty sure everything was from packages. I told them they were in danger of a scathing online report, and they ignored me. Would not return.
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Data isn't knowledge (Score:2)
I'm sure next we'll hear that the California DMV offices are also great tourist spots with people spending up to two to three hours there per visit. The correlation between where people go and their activity when there are two different things. That doesn't mean a grocery store suddenly becomes a tourist haven any more than mile marker 57 on IH35E in Dallas is at rush hour.