In 1965 my best girlfriends and I (each of us avid readers) took a speed-reading course at the local YMCA. By the end of that course I could read page in seconds, not minutes. And we could not increase speed to a higher level, unless we reached 100% accuracy. This was perhaps the finest educational tool I ever used. Throughout life I have been able to ingest information rapidly and accurately. All because of those weeks of study outside a classroom.
In today’s fast-moving communication era, that skill keeps me informed. Otherwise, it might be overwhelming to even try to stay informed. I might be tempted to turn off the flow of information and just “go about my business.” It can be necessary to emotional health to live in denial. But, it does little good for those in need of our attention, our support, our love. It undermines the concept which is the basis of any democratic republic – the common good. Checking back in is necessary to the common good.
Thus, I suggest, temporary, not permanent inattention. Most of you have discovered this tactic on your own. I guess I am writing this today in response to numerous comments I often hear: She cannot read all this stuff. She cannot find all this information. She must make this stuff up. She could not possibly have read all this. etc. etc. Well, I do read all this stuff! I just speed-read it.
I do not know if such courses are currently being offered. Perhaps it is no longer necessary to those who use A.I. But, as for me, I choose to read directly from the source; or to check the source directly after A.I. tries to tell me what it knows. A.I. is a great speed-reader. But, one must be assured it is reading material based upon real facts and not fiction. A.I. is also good at helping us find proper sources of information. It, however, will never excuse us from the need to be factually accurate. We live in a time when disinformation is deliberate. Propaganda is a tool to undermine our votes, our democratic principles. Judges are beginning to point out lies presented by DOJ attorneys in ways heretofore unseen. A.I. will only give us what it has been fed. And it is fed by factual inputters; but also, by bottom-feeders preying on us with lies.
As Sister Robertine, O.P. taught us in my Catholic high school, “ Be careful what you read. Garbage in…garbage out.”
annarino writes 
AT NOT AI
Artificial intelligence is askew.
It mispronounces names when I try to make a phone call.
I Then must make the same error to chat-up a friend,
or order a pizza or a ride.
It misspells words as I write. No text, no essay, no poem
is safe from un-related words and ideas.
Every few moments I must review or a single word
shifts all those which follow until I forget
where my thoughts were headed,
or as AI just told me my thoughts were “ceded.”
AI has ceded my thoughts to its own.
This is artificial thought- AT; not intelligent at all.
Ads pop-up to block the knowledge I would glean
from newspapers journalling the news.
Scrolling down only un-leashes new ads to view.
To reach family, friends or businesses by phone
I must mispronounce and match AI errors to get through.
AI is training me. I am not training it; or as it states
I am “trailing” it. I trail behind my own ideas and actions
to allow AI to proceed to guide me I know not where.
I soon become unaware of my own brain.
My own thoughts become lost and I, unaware.
I am betrayed in ways I cannot accept.
We underestimate the power of our minds
to override the fault lines of our brains.
AI is not artificial intelligence.
It is artificial thought.
It is a thinking process like a brain.
It is artificial thought or AT.
Like all thoughts within our brain,
our mind knows thoughts must be constrained.
Our minds modulate and regulate our thoughts.
Propriety is the hallmark of sound thought,
the peacemaker and moderator
of any civilized society.
We must correct the nomenclature of AI
and call it AT in order to keep it in its rightful place,
under our control, protecting our community.
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