A.I. is learning from N.L. authors without their consent
Meta's artificial intelligence is able to write stories and essays in mere seconds, even in the style of someone else. Authors in Newfoundland and Labrador like Trudy Morgan-Cole were horrified to learn that their works are being used without their consent. The CBC's Maddie Ryan explains.
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CBC
5 hours ago
- CBC
No, Google AI, Cape Breton doesn't have its own time zone
Janel Comeau managed to trick Google and Meta with just her words. The Halifax-based writer had penned a satirical article for The Beaverton, a Canadian parody news site. It said that Cape Breton, the island off the northern coast of Nova Scotia, was adopting its own time zone in a cheeky plea for attention from the rest of the Maritimes. "We are tired of being ignored. And that is why we will be making the incredibly irritating step of moving the entire island to the new Cape Breton Time Zone, where we will be 12 minutes ahead of mainland Nova Scotia, and 18 minutes behind Newfoundland," Comeau wrote. But what came next was no joke. While reviewing her past work, Comeau noticed something odd on Facebook: Meta's AI-generated prompts were appearing under her article — as if it were real news. "It was like, 'Find out more information about when this time zone change will take effect,' [or] 'How will this affect businesses?'" she told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I realized very quickly: Oh, it's treating this as a real article." Curious, Comeau asked Meta AI directly, and searched on Google with the question of whether Cape Breton would indeed be getting its own time zone. Both said that yes, it would. "[I felt] in-between, this is very funny and oh no, what have I done?" she said. Unpacking search engines and AI Jian-Yun Nie, a professor in the department of computer science at the University of Montreal, says this incident reflects how artificial intelligence and search engines process content, without necessarily evaluating its truthfulness. And in Google's case, says Nie, search rankings are driven by a mix of factors: the use of keywords that match a query, how often an article is linked to other content, and its overall popularity — like user clicks. " So if you ask what is the time zone of Cape Breton and whether there is a new time zone, [Comeau's] article may appear at some top position," said Nie. Nie says AI systems typically scan multiple related articles to synthesize an answer, but that only works well if the sources are correct, and if the system can distinguish between reliable and unreliable information. Without understanding context — or satire — they can mistake humour for fact. According to Nie, AI systems primarily assess reliability based on the source of the information — favouring trusted outlets like reputable newspapers over less credible ones. However, he says there's no universal standard for determining what's reliable and what isn't. "How do you trust one person and not another [person]?" Nie said as a comparison. "It is quite difficult to make an algorithm to mimic exactly the same behaviour of human beings, but the algorithms are trying to do the same thing at this stage." How do we avoid being misled? Since the incident, both Google and Meta have corrected their systems. At the time of writing, Meta AI now responds: "No, Cape Breton Island does not have its own time zone. It follows Atlantic Standard Time and Atlantic Daylight Time, the same as the rest of Nova Scotia." According to Osmar Zaiane, a University of Alberta professor specializing in AI and data mining, that kind of swift correction is standard procedure, and part of the growing pains of emerging technologies. "Each time they find a hole like this, they try to fix it," said Zaiane. "You can't think of all possibilities; there's always something that some people discover." CBC reached out to Google and Meta for comment, but have not yet received a response. Both companies have language in their terms and services disclaiming responsibility for the accuracy of their search or query results. To avoid being misled, both Zaiane and Nie urge people to cross-check AI-generated answers with multiple sources. "We should use our own judgment to see whether it can be plausible," said Nie. "In this case, if Google tells you there is a new time zone in Cape Breton, you [should] check other articles." Fortunately, Comeau's fictional time zone seems to have caused no real confusion or chaos — or at least, none that she has heard of. "I've not heard of from any tourists who've missed their ferries as a result of this, but maybe they're out there," she said. "Knowing that somebody may have not gotten to Greco Pizza before it closes — I don't know, it's a heavy cross to bear."
National Observer
6 hours ago
- National Observer
MOVIES: A probable blockbuster with a Canadian connection, an Indigenous fantasy, and a very modern romance
The biggest film this week is perfect for your kids and you, if you remember How to Train Your Dragon. It was a big animated hit 15 years ago and it's back, remade as a live action film. That's Dreamworks copying the success Disney has had with the technique. Their latest re-make, Lilo & Stitch, has been number one for three weeks and as you can read below there's a touch of irony there. Along with that not-insignificant Canadian connection. Want something more substantial? I've written about the upsurge of films by and about Indigenous Canadians several times and this is a good time to mention it again. Two that I reviewed at festivals are now widely available. A third is coming. So Surreal: Behind the Masks is about efforts in BC to bring home ceremonial masks that were taken, sold and drifted into the hands of surreal artists in France. CBC and CBC GEM is showing it. Angela's Shadow, by filmmaker and academic Jules Koostachin, is a drama about a woman who visits her ancestral Cree community and has to turn to illegal ceremonies and medicine to protect herself from a dark figure, a mean-spirited husband and the effects of colonialism. The film will be in select theaters starting next week. And also next week, there's The Salmon's Call, Joy Haskell's documentary about the vital role that fish has in Indigenous culture on the West Coast. The film will be in theaters and I'll review it next week. This week I include another Indigenous film, Endless Cookie. It's quirky, entertaining and animated. And these ... How to Train Your Dragon: 3 stars Endless Cookie: 3 ½ The Life of Chuck: 3 ½ The Materialists: 4 HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: If you haven't seen the much-loved original film from 10 years ago or its two sequels this will all be new to you and probably also a delight. If you have seen them, this will be mostly a repeat, the same story followed very closely, nothing much added but not in animation anymore, in live action, filmed in Ireland. Gerard Butler is back in body as well as voice as the Viking chief Stoick whose island has been pestered by dragons forever. Mason Thames plays his son Hiccup (officially Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III) who can't meet his dad's expectations as a dragon killer and in fact becomes the opposite. He befriends a young Black Fury, treats him like a pet, flies on him and takes a girl (Nico Parker) from his training class in dragon-killing on a soaring flight in the skies. It's good fun for them and for us too delivered with fine visual effects created mostly in India, but Montreal too. It's got a bigger meaning though. Hiccup is demonstrating that dragons have been maligned and misrepresented. When Stoick argues 'They've killed hundreds of us,' Hiccup replies 'And we've killed thousands of them.' He's come to understand that they're only defending themselves. He argues for acceptance, a very necessary sentiment anytime, especially these days. That and a young man trying to meet the demands of his father are the deeper themes here. They're well-presented by director Dean DeBlois, who was born in Quebec, directed the three previous films, got Oscar nominations for them and in a bit of irony also created the original Lilo & Stitch, which Disney has just remade from animation into live action. It's huge at the box office right now and probably something of a competitor though Dragon is heading big also. (In theaters) 3 out of 5 ENDLESS COOKIE: This is not your usual Indigenous film. Sure it includes the grinding issues: land usurped, culture diminished, residential schools, the RCMP, but does it in a most unexpected way. First of all it's animated (in a rough and lively style) and it gets across its attitudes (some of them very harsh) in a series of entertaining stories. They're told by a pair of brothers, half brothers Peter Scriver and Seth Scriver, one Indigenous, the other white, one a great storyteller, the other recording him and leading the filmmaking. And first securing a government grant to make a film he describes as 'funny, beautiful, spiritual, political, complex, simple and true.' It is all that. Peter casually rambles here and there in telling his stories. The time he got his own hand caught in an animal trap he was setting takes several revisits to finish. His owl story, attracting one and then not able to get rid if it, is funny. An RCMP encounter, when a nut dropped on a cop car by a squirrel is heard as a gun shot, is both funny and scary. The film answers back subtly by twisting the RCMP motto into Justicia et Contritum Est Ratio Racist. Funny (trying to get free pizza in Toronto, household noise vs sound recording) is side by side with protest (prison numbers compared to whites, historical pressure to give up land). At the same time there's a quirky view of life on a reserve and a clear statement of pride . 'They say that the ancient ways, ancient knowledge, is sleeping within us and will awaken someday.' (In theaters now and sure to be again, as at The Rio in Vancouver, on National Indigenous Peoples Day Saturday, June 21.) 3 ½ out of 5 THE LIFE OF CHUCK: What this film is about isn't exactly clear although it is a treat to watch. It's directed by Mike Flanagan from a fanciful story by Stephen King and there's definitely a call to embrace life, accept death and enjoy all the unknowns around you in the universe. Characters say that but how it relates to the central character, an accountant played by Tom Hiddleston, is obscure. We first see him on his deathbed, then, at various earlier stages in his life. Vancouver's Jacob Tremblay plays him as a teenager. A teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor) interprets a line from Walt Whitman to say that inside his head there are "multitudes", i.e. the whole world, everything he's learned. He feels special. His grandfather, played by Mark Hamill, tells him that mathematics is what's most important. "Mathematics is truth." He becomes an accountant. Carl Sagan on TV says if all human history were represented on a calendar it would be just 10 seconds long. He's moved to make the most of his life. That includes visiting his ex-wife (Karen Gillan) and in two sparkling sequences showing his talent for dancing which he learned from his grandmother (Mia Sara). Meanwhile, street banners, posters and TV ads appear repeatedly saying Thanks Chuck, for 39 great years. Nobody knows who he is. And there's chaos: there are power failures, wildfires, the internet dies. How does all that fit together? Not sure. It highlights moments and they're memorable. The film was voted most popular at the Toronto International Film Festival. (In theaters) 3 ½ out of 5 MATERIALISTS: Here's a modern romantic comedy that manages to be hip, witty and funny … and also come across relaxed and comfortable. A pretty good date movie, I'd say, unless there are tensions between you and the date. I say that only because there's a speech part way through that delivers an acerbic profile of a standard marriage. It's funny but way, way too real. Around it is a pleasant story about a woman (Dakota Johnson) who works as a matchmaker in New York. She connects people looking for dating partners with clients who fit their requirements exactly. Height, weight, personality, appearance, full head of hair, wealth, home décor, are all factors they consider, as well as 'intangibles.' The office celebrates when marriages result. It feels authentic but then the director, Celine Song, has experience doing that work before she turned to filmmaking. This is a follow-up to her Oscar-nominated Past Lives. Her matchmaker has a professional protocol for all of this and then the problems arrive. One client sues because the man she sent attacked her. Should she have known? She didn't detect any hint when she interviewed him and secretly regrets that. We watch her interview many others, usually with editing that highlights the humorous side. And a more personal problem arrives. Pedro Pascal, as a party guest, chats her up, charms her like one of those matinee idols from decades ago and she's attracted right into bed. He'd be a perfect match for her but she's also still attracted to her ex boyfriend (Chris Evans). So who's best for her Mr. Suave or Mr. Spontaneous? Mr. Rich or Mr. Poor? Finding the answer to that question gives us a bright and smart script, good and amiable acting and a lot of sharp observations about modern dating. A rom-com for adults. (in theaters) 4 out of 5
CBC
a day ago
- CBC
A satirical article said Cape Breton has its own time zone. Google and Meta AI repeated it as fact
Janel Comeau managed to trick Google and Meta with just her words. The Halifax-based writer had penned a satirical article for The Beaverton, a Canadian parody news site. It said that Cape Breton, the island off the northern coast of Nova Scotia, was adopting its own time zone in a cheeky plea for attention from the rest of the Maritimes. "We are tired of being ignored. And that is why we will be making the incredibly irritating step of moving the entire island to the new Cape Breton Time Zone, where we will be 12 minutes ahead of mainland Nova Scotia, and 18 minutes behind Newfoundland," Comeau wrote. But what came next was no joke. While reviewing her past work, Comeau noticed something odd on Facebook: Meta's AI-generated prompts were appearing under her article — as if it were real news. "It was like, 'Find out more information about when this time zone change will take effect,' [or] 'How will this affect businesses?'" she told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I realized very quickly: Oh, it's treating this as a real article." Curious, Comeau asked Meta AI directly, and searched on Google with the question of whether Cape Breton would indeed be getting its own time zone. Both said that yes, it would. "[I felt] in-between, this is very funny and oh no, what have I done?" she said. Unpacking search engines and AI Jian-Yun Nie, a professor in the department of computer science at the University of Montreal, says this incident reflects how artificial intelligence and search engines process content, without necessarily evaluating its truthfulness. And in Google's case, says Nie, search rankings are driven by a mix of factors: the use of keywords that match a query, how often an article is linked to other content, and its overall popularity — like user clicks. " So if you ask what is the time zone of Cape Breton and whether there is a new time zone, [Comeau's] article may appear at some top position," said Nie. Nie says AI systems typically scan multiple related articles to synthesize an answer, but that only works well if the sources are correct, and if the system can distinguish between reliable and unreliable information. Without understanding context — or satire — they can mistake humour for fact. According to Nie, AI systems primarily assess reliability based on the source of the information — favouring trusted outlets like reputable newspapers over less credible ones. However, he says there's no universal standard for determining what's reliable and what isn't. "How do you trust one person and not another [person]?" Nie said as a comparison. "It is quite difficult to make an algorithm to mimic exactly the same behaviour of human beings, but the algorithms are trying to do the same thing at this stage." How do we avoid being misled? Since the incident, both Google and Meta have corrected their systems. At the time of writing, Meta AI now responds: "No, Cape Breton Island does not have its own time zone. It follows Atlantic Standard Time and Atlantic Daylight Time, the same as the rest of Nova Scotia." According to Osmar Zaiane, a University of Alberta professor specializing in AI and data mining, that kind of swift correction is standard procedure, and part of the growing pains of emerging technologies. "Each time they find a hole like this, they try to fix it," said Zaiane. "You can't think of all possibilities; there's always something that some people discover." CBC reached out to Google and Meta for comment, but have not yet received a response. Both companies have language in their terms and services disclaiming responsibility for the accuracy of their search or query results. To avoid being misled, both Zaiane and Nie urge people to cross-check AI-generated answers with multiple sources. "We should use our own judgment to see whether it can be plausible," said Nie. "In this case, if Google tells you there is a new time zone in Cape Breton, you [should] check other articles." Fortunately, Comeau's fictional time zone seems to have caused no real confusion or chaos — or at least, none that she has heard of. "I've not heard of from any tourists who've missed their ferries as a result of this, but maybe they're out there," she said. "Knowing that somebody may have not gotten to Greco Pizza before it closes — I don't know, it's a heavy cross to bear."
