Hello and welcome to another edition of Last Week in Plain English. This week, we take a short detour through the world of AI.
‘Assistive writing’, a new feature on Google Docs, is meant to offer suggestions using algorithms, to make your writing more inclusive. But how truly inclusive is it?
Meanwhile, using OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model, an inventor tried resurrecting his old childhood imaginary friend. And then it tried to murder him.
And finally, in contrast to these troubling stories, an indigenous couple in New Zealand is successfully challenging AI’s biases and articulating a new vision of AI that’s truly for the people.
In other news, author Bernard Bado details “the most hilarious Reddit thread” for programmers; the EU’s Digital Services Act will hold the algorithms of Google, Meta, and others accountable; and we look into what the future may hold if the war in Ukraine doesn’t end.
Don’t forget to check out the Featured Job section if you’re looking for an opportunity as a Senior Software Engineer.
All this and more in this week’s edition of Last Week in Plain English.