Category Archives: computers
There’s Little I in AI
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th November 2025I previously touched this subject several times; the last piece was a couple of years ago, but its ever-increasing shadow made me think an encore might be appropriate. Everybody is talking or writing about AI, though the level of comprehension about the subject seems inversely proportional to its ubiquity. You certainly won’t get any deep…
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Adventures in AI
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th September 2025I’ve been test driving a couple of AIs over the past few weeks. They’re quite proficient at assembling facts, dates, lists, and other information that would take a human a considerable amount of time to compile. But when it comes to opinions and judgments, it lacks proficiency and wisdom. The latter is tough to encode….
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Autonomous Cars VS Autonomous Drivers
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd November 2023The problem with human intelligence is that its normal range is too broad. The difference between the lower limit of normal compared to the upper point of the normal range is so wide that the average comes in at such a low number that the ordinary performance of typical human functions is beyond the capacity…
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A Few Thoughts about Artificial Intelligence
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th September 2023AI is on the lips of just about everyone, including those who don’t know what the two letters stand for. Many seem to share the concern of the philosopher Nick Bostrom that we may create AI systems that will be so powerful and so much smarter than we are that they will take over the…
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Another Failure of AI – Man Beats Best Computer Go Program
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th February 2023This is a flow up to the article I wrote here five days ago in which I described the failure of Open AI’s ChatGPT to handle medical material. Obviously, the AI program has not had much exposure to medicine accounting for its poor performance in that field. Specialized AI programs have done as well or…
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The Perils of AI
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th February 2023I’ve recently read several articles describing the incredible output of openai. Samples of its work were presented as equivalent to the columns of newswriters or the advice emails by writers with large numbers of readers. So I decided to try it out. I asked for the biographies of a number of well known and important…
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California Bans High End Computers
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th July 2021California is not only our most populous state, it’s also our goofiest. As a consequence of an energy bill passed in 2017, the state has banned the sale of high end gaming computers. Not to be outdone Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have issued the same ukase. “The state had recently published a paper looking into…
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Lead Browser
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th December 2020Like much of humanity, I use Chrome as my internet browser. I started out using Netscape as did almost everybody in the 90s. Microsoft bullied Netscape out of existence by bundling its late to the game browser Internet Explorer with its operating systems which were included on OEMs. In a few years Netscape was fit…
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Bring Back The Abacus
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th July 2018The complete ingestion of the modern world by the computer has putatively made life easier and allegedly added to the variety and plenty of life’s pleasant experiences. Except when it hasn’t. Yesterday Walgreens informed me that I had a prescription ready for pickup. To make life easier for me they gave me a link to…
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Robot Reaches Milestone, Passes Medical Licensing Exam
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th December 2017The following is from Becker’s Hospital Review – November 21, 201. It was bound to happen. Draw your own conclusions. An artificial intelligence-powered robot in China took the country’s medical licensing examinations and passed, becoming the first robot to do so, Futurism reports. The robot, Xiaoyi, not only passed the tests, but it did so with flying colors —…
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