Has the noise of the day ever bombarded you with one too many injustices and you just need to sound off? We have all come to accept a number of the upsetting nuisances associated with living in the electronic world. A couple that have gotten under my skin of late:
Our inboxes are loaded up with e-mails or txt messages daily from a plethora of valid and invalid seller in the virtual marketplace. For example, the other day a bedding provider wanted to make sure my wife knew they were having a sale. So they sent her five txt messages in one day about the same sale. They must have assumed we suffered from dementia and really needed clean sheets.
And the cookies, always with the cookies. The e-world wants our cookies so they can sell them to whatever flavor of NoGoodNick pays the highest price for our data. And if we don’t allow them to gobble up our cookies – No Soup for You! (Ala the Soup Nazi)
Using Google to search for something has become more of an art, than a science. Last month I searched for “Coffee Icing” and the results I received were: Amazon Best Books for February, Today’s Deals, and Editor’s Picks. Note: I just resubmitted my search today – St. Patrick’s Day. It did come back with valid results. So maybe it’s me, which is not out of the question…or is Google listening to my tirade?
And in the vane of who is listening and reporting…very recently General Motors was put on the hot seat. It became public that without driver knowledge, their On-Star communications system was collecting data on driver performance and selling it. So if you happen to brake hard or if every once in a while you get the urge to set the new land-speed record, you can expect your insurance premiums to skyrocket.
But I’m actually more concerned with the blatant thievery that is allowed to happen in the supposed name of free enterprise. Or more accurately, in the name of Greed. As an example, about a year ago, the AI tool called ChatGPT made headlines as it was being used by high school and college kids to get their homework assignments completed more quickly (See ~March 2023 issue of New Jersey Monthly). There was a big debate with proponents for the AI technology saying, we can’t put any regulations on this technology, it would be bad for business. And others saying something to the effect of, “Hey, but this could get out of hand.” Well I recently attended a seminar and heard about how it is in fact getting out of hand. Unscrupulous characters are generating books with AI tools based off original authors’ work. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they’re posing as the real authors selling their AI generated, copyright infringing books on our country’s major on-line bookseller platforms. It only gets better. With today’s modern technology, these booksellers can’t help but know exactly who the fraudsters are. (Guess what tools they use to detect the fraud...wait for it - Artificial Intelligence!) But they refuse to take down the fraudulent books until the original authors, who are being hurt, make a big public stink. So they know fraud is happening, and they even encourage it until negative public pressure is applied. I’m not a lawyer, but it sounds like these large organizations are complicit in fraud. I’m wondering if they’re so bold as to have a breakout category on their income statement with a heading of “Derived by AI Generated Fraud.”
I was thinking the term and technology used to create “Deep Fakes” during the time of the pandemic is now so outdated compared to our new shiny AI creations. It would be like comparing stick figures drawn with crayons to a van Gogh.
And the phrase “crime doesn’t pay” seems like it might be outdated. The Bernardsville News ran a story on March 21st with the headline: Bedminster Twp. Oks an anti-crime ordinance. The purpose of the ordinance is to fight off the numerous car thefts happening in our area. The thefts are being perpetrated by gangs, many of which are coming from Newark. One of the reasons for the increase in thefts is that our county prosecutors have been directed by our state Attorney General’s Office not to prosecute car thieves. So we have brazen gangs of thieves working in an organized crime fashion, and we don’t want to prosecute them? What am I missing here? Similarly, I recently walked into my local bank to transact some business. While I sat waiting, the topic of fraud leached out of me. The person I was speaking to told me how they’re constantly battling fraudsters who enter the bank posing as someone else. She said their security team has a database of these professional thieves. They have their pictures and they are aware of them. She said that when one of the crooks does enter the bank, the staff is immediately put on high alert. Everyone puts eyes on the fraudster trying to get the message across to Joe Fraud that it’s not going to happen here today. Still, the larcenist will look around casing the bank, searching for a weakness. When the scoundrel does go to the counter and tries to cash a bad check they hold his transaction and wait for the crook to eventually feel uncomfortable enough to leave. This can take some time. Often the swindler will chat with the branch manager, giving her compliments to try to get her off the scent. Eventually the cheat does leave and moves onto his next target, hoping for a score. My question is, why are these heinous individuals not being arrested before they decide to up their game and or steal some senior citizen’s retirement savings? P.S. You have to love an on-line thesaurus.
