An easy answer

Why Do AI Chatbots Have Such a Hard Time Admitting ‘I Don’t Know’?

Wrong answers [from AI bots] are known as hallucinations because AI apps like ChatGPT and Gemini express them with total confidence. As AI is integrated into our workplaces, schools and personal lives, they pose increasing risks for the people who use the technology. Researchers who once dismissed hallucinations as a relatively minor problem are now working on numerous potential fixes.

Why? Because the geeks who design them can't admit they don't know.

Believe me. I've spent a lot of years working around geeks — professional geeks, even geekier than I am (I know that's a stretch but hear me out) — and almost (note that ungeeky word) all have an unshakable belief they're right about everything (no backing down on that). 

You can see that playing out right now on the national stage. Hallucinations everywhere. 

You might see it as kind of cute — precocious — in a six year-old.

Until they figure out a way to fix that it's up to the rest of us to do the knowing.

Can't wait for the movie

A New Spy Unit Is Leading Russia’s Shadow War Against the West

Known as the Department of Special Tasks, it is based in the Russian military-intelligence headquarters, a sprawling glass-and-steel complex on the outskirts of Moscow known as the aquarium. Its operations, which haven’t been previously reported, have included attempted killings, sabotage and a plot to put incendiary devices on planes.

 Who'd stand in line for a movie named DOGE?

When you set out to burn it down you might burn it down

Trump funding freeze halts wildfire prevention work

Feb 14 (Reuters) - The Trump administration has halted funding for federal programs to reduce wildfire risk in western U.S. states and has frozen hiring of seasonal firefighters as part of broad cuts to government spending, according to organizations impacted by the moves.

Seems it was a bad idea to let the kiddies have the matches.

A penny here, a penny there

The Donald, as you no doubt know, has instructed the mint to quit manufacturing pennies. But not to worry. It appears there are hundreds of billions of them already in circulation. A couple thousand of them, maybe more, are in a bowl on my chest of drawers. And I am willing to sell them, if you are running out, for a mere three cents apiece. They cost 3.75 cents each to mint, apparently, so that's a bargain. You're welcome.

In other cost-saving news, Elon's hit squad has a web site now. Gaze upon it and feel enriched.

It's here.

(How it winds up with a .gov URL I can not say.

(But I can guess.)

A cautionary tale

A humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker in Chilean Patagonia — and it’s all captured on camera

“I thought I was dead,” Adrián told The Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”

Try not to get too tasty. 

The last (possibly very last) word on common cents

Is Trump’s order to the U.S. Mint penny-wise or pound-foolish?

Tracking Trump

 Somebody's gotta do it.

Actually, a lot of organizations are.

Here's one.

Starting to seem a little James Bondy here

Why Dealers Are Flying Gold Bars by Plane From London to New York

Security firms shuttle bullion to the airport in London in high-strength vans. Comex contracts require a different size of bar, so traders need to send gold to Swiss refiners to recast it before flying on to the U.S. Sometimes, they cut out the first European leg by handing the refiner gold in London in exchange for the right size of bar, or flying bullion in from Australia instead.

And a few molecules might wind up in your next smartphone.

When everything else is out of control, this seems ho-hum

Mewing, Beta Maxing, Gigachad, Baddie: Parents Are Drowning in New Lingo

Parents have taken to wearing noise-cancelling headphones to drown out what they consider nonsense chatter. Others simply wish they could decipher whether they’re being insulted. The bravest among them have taken an “if you can’t beat ’em join ’em” approach, diligently researching the latest vernacular and becoming fluent in young-people speak.

This too shall pass. Groovy, right? 

 

Meanwhile, in culinary news

How Dave’s Hot Chicken Beat Rising Labor Costs

For customers seeking cheaper eats, Dave’s started selling bites of chicken starting around $6.99.

Rising costs for whom? 

Trump tariffs aluminum and steel; EU fights back with hogs, pants, and peanut butter

EU vows countermeasures to US tariffs; bourbon, jeans, peanut butter, motorcycles easy targets

Well, also booze.

Nobody seems to know where all this will end. It's not clear, even, if anybody wants to find out.

Worth remembering…

Inside Trump’s hectic day-to-day schedule

Musk is leading a team of young high-IQ whiz kids at the new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE.

…the last time we had whiz kids transfoming the government.

 Guess who:

History mostly knows him as the disgraced architect of the Vietnam War, but McNamara first made his mark in the corporate world with his mastery of numbers before it was as fashionable as it is today.

Yep, this guy.