In which the pond is left with just Polonius and the Ughman ... enough about the genocide already ...

 

The pond is going through a peak period of ennui induced by reptile overload, and so won't be featuring Dame Slap on the ICC or any of the other reptiles rabbiting on in defence of genocide, or attacking courts for daring to notice the genocide ...

There was enough of that yesterday, and it means that there are so many things that slip through the reptile net ... and things will only get worse if they go down the AI rabbit hole even more ...

Funniest line of the week comes from T.J. Thomson and James Meese in The Conversation, deep into What OpenAI’s deal with News Corp means for journalism (and for you).

Where you get your news matters. More people may use AI services for news in the future, but right now it is an underwhelming source of reliable information. Signing content-sharing agreements with companies like News Corp may help improve the quality of answers and increase the relevance of ChatGPT outputs for Australian users.

Thank the long absent lord they slipped in a "may". If News Corp is the solution to AI, or AI the solution to News Corp, then we may all be on the fast track to hell ..

The pond rarely drops in on Axios, but there was this yarn, Google's AI summaries cause headaches and spawn memes:

The blowback to Google's AI Overviews is growing now that they are showing up for all U.S. users — and sometimes getting things glaringly wrong.

Why it matters: The search giant's addition of AI-generated summaries to the top of search results could fundamentally reshape what's available on the internet and who profits from it.

• Many users habitually use Google searches to check facts, particularly now that AI chatbots deliver sometimes suspect answers. Now these search results are subject to the same mistakes and "hallucinations" that plague the chatbots.

Driving the news: Google last week announced that it was making AI-generated summaries the default experience in the U.S. for many search queries.

• People quickly began highlighting scores of glaring errors, from dangerously incorrect advice on what to do if bitten by a rattlesnake to a summary that had Google's AI suggesting it has kids and serving up their favorite recipe.
• Google seemed to have particular trouble with data about U.S. presidents, getting wrong how many presidents there have been — and, more troublingly, repeating the baseless conspiracy theory that President Obama is Muslim.
• In another well-publicized example, Google's summary suggested using glue to keep cheese on pizza — a comical notion seemingly taken from a Reddit post.
• Adding to the problems, AI has a hard time distinguishing fact from satire, leading Google's summaries to state The Onion content as fact, as highlighted in this thread by the site's new CEO.

The story provided a link, but the pictures at the link tell the story ...teh Onion and teh Google, and teh Google using AI to channel teh Onion ...

The good news is that you can turn off the AI if you like. 

As usual, there are stories about how to do it all over the full to overflowing intertubes ... as in this story in The Verge, You can get rid of AI Overviews in Google Search ...

Of course you might just prefer to use a different search engine, just as you might prefer to take your daily intake of reptiles by leaving them to lurk behind their paywall, and sampling them via the pond.

The trouble is that the reptiles, and so the sample, are getting increasingly narrow.

For example,  the pond was entranced to watch live Rish! call the election, emerging into the rain without umbrella, or without aide with umbrella, and at the end scampering back inside like an almost drowned mole fresh out of Wind in the Willows ...

You won't find the reptiles paying attention, you'll have to read the likes of Marinda Hyde in full Hydeing mode ...Sunak seems convinced that Who Dares Wins. Spoiler alert: sometimes they lose really badly

A drowned-rat PM, a blank page contender and a frit Farage refusing to stand – all in the first 48 hours. Are you not entertained?

Well yes, the pond was vastly entertained, and this added to the entertainment ...

... please note, we’re already into the phase of election berserkery in which you can always find a sympathetic party thinker to tell you that, actually, the bad thing you just saw with your own eyes will play so, so well where it matters. “Rishi did not look like someone who is ready to compromise, and I think that’s really good,” judged the Mail’s Sarah Vine of his election announcement. “I thought his vibe was really good.” Mm-hm.
Literally no obvious setback is resistant to this treatment. Word of advice, and sorry if I sound like Lee Twatwater: if you are ever in a position where you’re explaining that, actually, there are election points and respect to be earned from looking sad and droning on while your Gentleminion suit gets trashed by rain: YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST THAT ELECTION. The prime minister looked like a guy who doesn’t even need to leave a note saying there is no money. Rishi Sunak is waterlogged.
Or, as Michael Gove apparently told him in the emergency cabinet meeting earlier that day: “Who dares wins. You dared, and you will win.” Collectors of moments where Michael Gove just says any old deadpan shit for a laugh are going to have a huge cataloguing exercise on their hands in the coming weeks. I myself have a memory palace full of such treasures, which I plan to open to the public on 5 July.

Then came news that the Govester himself was standing down, as were 78 Tory MPs, beating 1997's record number...

Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom have joined the now record-breaking exodus of Conservative MPs from the Commons, with the former saying it was time for a “new generation” to lead the party.

Gove’s announcement in a letter tweeted on Friday evening had been anticipated by some given the strong Liberal Democrat challenge he faces in his Surrey Heath constituency, but adds to the sense of Tories fleeing in the face of a likely general election loss.

Leadsom released her own letter shortly after, writing to Sunak: “After careful reflection, I have decided not to stand as a candidate in the forthcoming election.”

It puts the total number of sitting Tories saying they will not stand again at 78, beating the previous record of 72 from 1997.

Is there a solution? A visit to a Titanic museum should fix it ...

All this fun was disappeared to the cornfields by the reptiles, together with news of the trial of the century in New York (thus far) and assorted other marvels, such as zany assassination conspiracy theories coming to a conspiratorial Florida judge ...

To be fair, prattling Polonius did at least know there was an election going down in the UK, but expecting comedy from Polonius is like eating a small rock a day and expecting good health ... or should that be choking on a Marrs bar, as an esteemed correspondent noted...the hated enemy, the éminence grise given a slot that Polonius was rightfully heir to, and now all that's left is bitterness and ashes in the mouth ...

There was a a snap of the drowned rat ...

.. but it entirely missed the splendour of an astonishing piece of performance art, a kind of Samuel Beckett turn, a steady drip drip into the fully sodden...

“That’s all right, bless you!” responded the Rat cheerily. “What’s a little wet to a Water Rat? I’m more in the water than out of it most days. Don’t you think any more about it; and, look here! I really think you had better come and stop with me for a little time. It’s very plain and rough, you know—not like Toad’s house at all—but you haven’t seen that yet; still, I can make you comfortable. And I’ll teach you to row, and to swim, and you’ll soon be as handy on the water as any of us.”

Completely sodden ... and meanwhile the reptiles had missed the fun and thrown in a video of Albo ...

It was true to Polonial purpose, which was to ignore the intrinsic delights of the British farce, in six weekly acts without benefit of a TV show ...

...the titchy tetchy does say he wants to have no fewer than six TV debates with the Labour leader – one every week. Rishi Sunak Versus Keir Starmer – arguably the least watchable limited series you could possibly come up with. And I watched She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, so that means something.

The situation between the UK and Australia is entirely different, so why make the leap? Even Polonius could see the futility of his scribbles, and spent his time meandering about in the reptile thickets ... you know, Penbo of the south and dense Joe ...

There's a world out there, with things happening ... (NY Times paywall)

...and the pond should ignore these riches and instead be spending its time wondering what constitutes an early election? How much pedantry can a koala bear? 

Blathering on about the calling of an election is the first refuge of the idle reptile scoundrel with nothing much to scribble about, except as a way to parade all the faults and failings of the government ...

How low can Polonius go? When the pond saw a link to Mein Gott, in a matter already covered by the pond, the pond knew it was pretty low ...

All that just to dress up Captain Spud in his finery and do a listicle of government flaws, and yet no mention of the nuking of the country, and yet elsewhere it wasn't hiding in the reptile cornfield ...why even the reptiles had noticed ...

Awkward ..

The pond was so irritated that it turned to the Ughman simply because he was taking a note of the war in Ukraine.

This should be the bromancer's turf, but he was off ranting about the ICC and the ICJ and the need to maintain the genocide, as he seems to be doing on a daily basis ...

If the bromancer had been tending to his pastoral duties, the pond could have had a good chuckle about the great wafer fight of '24, a bit like the great food fight that 6th class staged as its end of year farewell to Tamworth Primary, and then trotted off to high school in complete disgrace ...

You see? There's all sorts of fun out there, and instead the pond must deal with the Ughman, even though the pond agrees with him when it comes to dealing with Vlad the sociopath ...

Well yes, but why is it left to a recent reptile blow-in to pay attention? Why have the bulk of the reptiles abandoned the fight?

Europe v. Russia is a local war?

At this point the reptiles interrupted the Ughman with a couple of badly lit snaps ...

Meanwhile, the Ughman serves only to remind the pond of the isolationism and the rabid genocide fixation of the bulk of the reptile pack ...

Uh huh, but if the pond wanted an update on the actual state of the war, it would be better off at the Graudian with its listicle of proceedings headed by Ukraine war briefing: US-supplied glide bombs struggle against Russian jamming ...

When it's not being banned by Israel, Al Jazeera runs a list of events ...

And so on and on, as Vlad the sociopath goes on about his murderous business.

Where are the daily reports in the lizard Oz?

All we get is the Ughman blathering on about how he visited in October...

It's not as if this hasn't been brewing for a long time in Faux Noise GOP world ...

That came from 2022 and nothing much has changed ...

Tell that to the lizard Oz editorial team. If the reptiles embrace AI, the pond can imagine the headline: Eat a beetroot a day to end the war in Ukraine...

Meanwhile, the pond keeps missing out on the best moments ...

Still,  there's another election brewing, fastidiously, studiously ignored by Polonius and it promises all the fun of the fair, or a Kubrick movie or perhaps a movie about The Apprentice ...