Typewriter repair = chess?

"Mateo" usually beats me.

 

Free Thoughts, October 2024

This time I was joined by Sayo, a Xavier student, to type "free thoughts" for the public. We had plenty of requests, and I captured only a few of the results in photos.

Sayo was new at this, but he proved to be a gifted on-the-spot thinker. Afterwards, he said that the experience made him feel like a better person. I know what he means! I recommend giving this a try if you want to create meaningful moments for yourself and for the people you'll meet.

Some of my efforts:

This one isn't readable but the students' expressions are better than the thought! (Topic: why are pickles smaller than cucumbers?)

Some of Sayo's work:

Good, huh??

AI can't generate this (yet)

As my readers surely know, generative AI continues to make impressive/frightening strides. Chatbots pass the Turing test with flying colors. AI-generated images, music, and videos have eerie detail and depth, providing new aesthetic possibilities as well as easy tools for propaganda and harrassment. AI can animate your old family photos, or add detail that was never there. It can generate a realistic podcast based on any document you give it. Massive data centers are springing up to handle the surging demand, boosting our electricity consumption to alarming levels. And the AI future has barely begun.

Yet there is one thing AI can't generate ... at least not yet.

This is "typewritten text" according to Midjourney:

Midjourney attempts to generate a particular typewritten word:

Meta AI gives it a shot:

Several image generators provided by Nightcafe don't do any better. This one is atmospheric and eye-catching, but that's not typewritten text:

This one gets a "participant" badge—not even "honorable mention":

As for this one, uh ... what?