Issue #34. Whale Research = Good. Slop = Bad.

On today’s quest:

— Word watch: slop
— ChatGPT Plus can make slides
— Using AI to decode whale communication
— Training opportunities
— Quick hits

Word watch: slop

Have you noticed crummy articles that seem to be AI-generated showing up in your search results? It’s a growing problem, and in the last week, I’ve been seeing a new term emerge to describe these unwelcome missives*: slop.

Here’s an example from Steve Williams on Mastodon: “Reading #Google’s anti #Slop policy is a masterclass in cognitive dissonance.”

With its similarity to “spam,” I think “slop” could stick.

Try this at home: generating slides

Holy moley, ChatGPT Plus can make slides!*

I fed in a few paragraphs of the transcript for tomorrow’s Grammar Girl podcast, and gave it this prompt:

As you can see below, the output wasn’t perfect, but it did make slides. It was the barest of bare bones PowerPoint, each example sentence was not on it’s own side, and for some reason, the example sentences overlapped each other in the last two slides.

I played with it more by feeding the same prompt into Gemini, which created structured text for each individual slide (for example, saying “Title: Tricky Question” and putting the listener question after “Text”). Then I uploaded that more structured outline with a PowerPoint theme for ChatGPT Plus to use as a template and got this:

It took about seven tweaks to get this better-but-still-not-perfect output. It didn’t seem to be able to add icons — if you zoom in, you’ll see the blue text in the bottom left of each slide says something like “Icon: Question Mark” — and this theme that has space for images probably wasn’t the best choice, but I feel like the next time I need slides, I’ll know how to start, and this could save a lot of time.

Note that this is not available in the free versions of ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.

Using AI to decode whale communication

Researchers at MIT and Project CETI used machine learning to analyze more than 9,000 recordings of whale clicks and discovered that whale calls are much more complicated than previously thought. People had thought whales used only 30 different types of calls, but through their research, the scientists found many, many more sounds that are freely combined in a structured, complex way to create messages, much like humans combine syllables or words to make sentences. The next step is to try to match the vocalization patterns to whale behavior. If you have time, the 15-minute YouTube video embedded in the MIT News article is interesting.

Talks & Training

TOMORROW (MONDAY): An Introduction to the Future of Editing with Erin Servais (May 13, 2 hours, free)

AI in Publishing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Jane Friedman (May 14, 2 hours, $5)

Q&A: Ethics AI for Editors with Amy Frushour Kelly (May 16, one hour, free for ACES members, $30 for non-members)

Quick Hits

OpenAI is offering more than money in publishing partnerships; it’s also offering priority placement in output. — AdWeek

Ukraine debuts an AI-generated spokesperson to deliver “official statements on behalf of the foreign ministry.” They say the avatar will “save time and resources.” — The Guardian

An AI-powered fighter jet recently faced off in close maneuvers with a human-piloted partner in the skies over California. — ABC News

Fewer people died when a Taiwanese hospital used AI to flag high-risk patients in a new single-blind study. — Ground Truths

What is AI sidequest?

Using AI isn’t my main job, and it probably isn’t yours either. I’m Mignon Fogarty, and Grammar Girl is my main gig, but I haven’t seen a technology this transformative since the development of the internet, and I want to learn about it. I bet you do too.

So here we are! Sidequesting together.

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^{* I debated whether “missive” is the right word since it traditionally refers to a letter, but some definitions also include “or other writing,” and some also mention that missives tend to be long. Since in my experience, AI-generated articles are often longer than they need to be, “missive” seemed like a good choice in the end.}

** ^{If you knew how much time went into making slides for my LinkedIn Learning courses, you’d understand why the thought of never making slides again makes me want to sing “Hallelujah.” Even a simple start on a basic slide set could save so much time.}

^{Written by a human.}