Feature

AI and You
Feature

AI and You

By Jim Lynch
For this website, the editor of Contingencies wanted a follow-up to the recent piece I wrote about ChatGPT and similar large language models (LLMs) (“Artificial Untelligence,” May/June 2023).

Brilliant but Brittle
Special Section

Brilliant but Brittle

By Jim Lynch
I reviewed three books about artificial intelligence for the latest issue of Contingencies (“All About AI”; January/February 2023). I had compliments and quibbles for each, but one point that consistently emerged: AI is brittle, and it will be for some time.

How to Count
Feature

How to Count

By Alan J. Tausch
Since its outbreak in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on mortality in the U.S. Through August 2022, there had been 1,048,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which collects data on all deaths in the United States.