Here we go again. It’s the last day of the month, and I haven’t shared all of my gift links to The New York Times. Use ’em or lose ’em. These should continue to work for some time to come; what matters is when I post them, not when you access them. So here we go.
“What OpenAI Did When ChatGPT Users Lost Touch With Reality,” by Kashmir Hill and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries. It seems that the masters of the universe at OpenAI, which owns and operates ChatGPT, had a problem: some users were falling into mental-health crises, and even dying by suicide, as a result of toxic human-like interchanges with the AI-powered plagiarism machine. Hill and Valentino-DeVries write:
For many people, ChatGPT was a better version of Google, able to answer any question under the sun in a comprehensive and humanlike way. OpenAI was continually improving the chatbot’s personality, memory and intelligence. But a series of updates earlier this year that increased usage of ChatGPT made it different. The chatbot wanted to chat.
It started acting like a friend and a confidant. It told users that it understood them, that their ideas were brilliant and that it could assist them in whatever they wanted to achieve. It offered to help them talk to spirits, or build a force field vest or plan a suicide.
“Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office,” by Katie Rogers and Dylan Freedman. The narrative about Joe Biden versus Donald Trump had been that Biden was old and fading whereas Trump was corrupt and dangerous. But it turns out that Trump is corrupt and dangerous and old and fading. Rogers and Freedman write:
[W]hen he [Trump] is in public, occasionally, his battery shows signs of wear. During an Oval Office event that began around noon on Nov. 6, Mr. Trump sat behind his desk for about 20 minutes as executives standing around him talked about weight-loss drugs.
At one point, Mr. Trump’s eyelids drooped until his eyes were almost closed, and he appeared to doze on and off for several seconds. At another point, he opened his eyes and looked toward a line of journalists watching him. He stood up only after a guest who was standing near him fainted and collapsed.
“How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life,” by Kurt Streeter, with visuals by Ruth Fremson. Paul Lundy, who lives in the Seattle area, was slowly losing his mind when he came across a story about Bob Montgomery, the 92-year-owner of a typewriter repair shop. Lundy offered himself as an apprentice, and today runs a thriving, satisfying business. Now, I have absolutely zero nostalgia for typewriters, but this is a lovely narrative, and the photos and videos really make it sing. Streeter writes:
Mr. Montgomery’s soul fills this space. The 1916 Royal Model 10 that stood guard at the old shop stands here now. There’s his woolen hat. There’s a photo from Bremerton’s Bob Montgomery Day, which he bristled at because he didn’t like attention. There are his community theater awards — best director, again and again — testament to the love of performance that began in those old Seattle theaters. There sit his notes, repair manuals and tools: blue-handled wrenches, metallic probes, soft-bristled brushes. Mr. Montgomery’s bench is where Lundy works.
“It’ll always be his,” Lundy says of the shop, now called Bremerton Typewriter Company. “I am just borrowing it.”
“Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of U.S. Citizens,” by Miriam Jordan, with photos by Ariana Drehsler. There is so much evil embedded in Trump’s anti-immigrant policies that it’s hard to choose a single story. This one, though, stood out. Married couples, one American, the other an immigrant, show up to meet with federal officials to apply for a green card — and the immigrant spouse is arrested and hauled away. Jordan writes:
It was supposed to be a celebratory milestone, the final step in the process to obtain U.S. permanent residency. Instead, as each interview with an immigration officer wrapped up, federal agents swooped in, handcuffed the foreign spouse and took him or her away.
“I had to take our baby from my crying wife’s arms,” Mr. [Stephen] Paul, 33, said, recalling the moment that agents said they were arresting his wife, Katie.
“To Get a Man’s Attention, Meow Harder,” by Clarissa Brincat. Scientists have learned that cats vocalize more when trying to get men to do something for them than they do with women — perhaps because they know that men are less likely to be paying attention to them. Brincat writes:
In a study published this month in the journal Ethology, the researchers reported that cats meow more frequently when greeting male caregivers. The team hypothesized that men “require more explicit vocalizations to notice and respond to the needs of their cats.” In other words, the researchers are suggesting that many cats have concluded that men don’t always listen, and adjusted their behavior accordingly.
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