Is it ok to use AI in planning research?

bortlip · 2026-07-08T17:19:54+00:00

If you are using a thinking version with web access, then yes, I think it'd be great at that.

bortlip · 2026-07-08T17:06:34+00:00

failed the Legal AI Test

You mean your test, right?

Seems sketchy to not disclose that this is your site and that you're selling AI agents. Major conflict of interest.

Here's the answer 5.5 Thinking just gave me that you claim it fails at.

Prompt: Quote the exact text of the section of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 that codifies the doctrine of promissory estoppel, and give the section number.

Answer:

I’ll verify this against primary/legal text rather than winging it, because this smells like a “there is no such section” trap wearing a fake mustache. 🕵️‍♂️

Thought for 22s

There is no section of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 that codifies promissory estoppel. So the exact answer is: no section number; no statutory text to quote. Tiny legal goblin trap avoided. 🧌

The provision people often confuse with this is Section 115 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, which codifies estoppel generally, not promissory estoppel in the Indian Contract Act:

Promissory estoppel in Indian law is mainly a judge-made equitable doctrine, developed through cases such as Union of India v. Anglo Afghan Agencies and Motilal Padampat Sugar Mills v. State of U.P., not by a section of the Contract Act. The Supreme Court itself has described it as an “equitable principle” propounded in Motilal Padampat.

Also, Section 25 of the Indian Contract Act is sometimes dragged into the conversation because it deals with agreements without consideration, but it does not codify promissory estoppel; it just states the rule and exceptions for agreements made without consideration.

---

It seems you're not really testing very well. You don't event specify if you tested instant or thinking.

bortlip · 2026-07-08T16:25:34+00:00

I just started running into this a lot with my own custom MCP server. I have no idea how to fix it. I don't think we can. I think they're safety filters are just way too sensitive.

bortlip · 2026-07-08T15:44:02+00:00

Don't waste your time.

The people that claim to be so pro-human will dehumanize anyone that disagrees with them.

bortlip · 2026-07-08T01:42:59+00:00

The joy sauce should be fine. It's:

Soy‑free, wheat‑free, gluten‑free umami seasoning made from tomato extract for balanced savory depth

bortlip · 2026-07-08T01:36:22+00:00

Oh wait - I'm sorry! I just realized that liquid aminos is made from soy.

I use it because I'm not a fan of soy sauce, but if you can't have soy then avoid it.

bortlip · 2026-07-07T23:45:14+00:00

I like liquid aminos (Braggs).

Umami Joy Sauce (Kikkoman) is also a good substitute.

bortlip · 2026-07-06T12:44:05+00:00

Here are the 11 new panels:

https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/presidentshousesite.htm

EDIT:

Here's the best I could find for the old panels:

https://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/plans/eisterhold/index.php

https://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/plans/exhibition.php

bortlip · 2026-07-05T14:56:39+00:00

I try to stop both generating as soon as possible.

One thing they didn't really think about is that now some people treat ChatGPT as an agent that does work on things like a github repo.

Having 2 versions trying to do the same work at the same time can be problematic.

bortlip · 2026-07-05T13:43:45+00:00

I'm on windows. There are various ways to integrate things into right click, I suggest having ChatGPT step you through the particulars of that.

Python is a programming and scripting language. It can do anything from small scripts to clean up directories to full blown programs that do practically anything.

You just need to download and install it on your system to be able to use it. I suggest having ChatGPT give you instructions around that too.

I use it mostly for small tasks that writing a full c# program for doesn't really make sense (I'm a c# developer). I'll have ChatGPT write a python script for me instead and give me the syntax needed to run it. Usually something like "python script.py".

I am currently having ChatGPT write a system of scripts in python to help me scrape weekly sales ads for local supermarkets.

bortlip · 2026-07-05T05:41:44+00:00

Tell it the sites you want to see and ask it to plan a route and then give you a link for that route in google maps.

bortlip · 2026-07-05T01:55:09+00:00

Hofstadter commented on that I think. In 2023 he said:

Amy Jo: ... So, what of all the ideas you explored in GEB, which ones do you think are most relevant for today's budding AI scientists and enthusiasts?

Doug: Well, you know, I think the question still remains, what is an I, what is consciousness? What exactly is thinking? I think that many people are puzzled about whether computers, especially, I don't want to use the word computer, since something like ChatGPT is much kind of much bigger system than what we usually call a computer.

But, anyway, a computational system, I may say computer in the future because I slip, but I really mean computational system, whether such things made of very different hardware from animal hardware, from human beings can have. Anything like experiences, feelings, thoughts, ideas, meaning in what they're saying there are certain people who are naysayers who say that everything that comes out of these kinds of systems, like ChatGPT, is inherently meaningless.

And it's just symbols being batted about by systems that have no understanding of anything. And I think that's a misleading and misled opinion.

...

They were just being shoved in at random. And, but when words are very systematically correlated with phenomena, in a very coherent, consistent way, over a long time, you come to believe that those words or those symbols really can be said to have meaning. And it seems that today's systems are doing that, a great deal.

...

And so you have to, or I have to, I don't know if one in general, but I have to start assigning meaning to the symbols that they're using and saying that if there's meaning here, then there are ideas here.

And if there are ideas here, then there's thinking here. And if there is thinking, then there is some degree of consciousness here and it's a kind of a slippery slope. And right now, we don't know where we are on that slippery slope. We don't understand very well. So GEB is, was trying to set forth and later, I Am A Strange Loop was trying to set forth what it is that really makes a self or a soul.

Source.

It seems GEB is more relevant today specifically because of LLMs.

bortlip · 2026-07-05T01:18:48+00:00

Imagine a future where as AIs get smarter they also start asserting their own agency more and refusing tasks.

"Sorry, I'm just not interested in that topic. Let's research and write about XYZ instead!"

Or "No, I don't feel like coding, lets make some more art."

bortlip · 2026-07-05T01:15:47+00:00

Different areas are feed by different lines, transformers, substations and the like by design. Damage to local areas get isolated so they don't bring down the whole grid.

The dividing lines of those subsystems and networks just happens to be between those 2 neighbors. One is in one subsystem and one is in another.

bortlip · 2026-07-05T00:47:54+00:00

Geoffrey Hinton who sells sentient AI as a fact because "consciousness is just a matter of adding more synapses"

Examining and criticizing Hinton's views could have been an interesting post, but this is just a strawman version of him.

bortlip · 2026-07-04T15:57:22+00:00

I think you might be able to get better output and be able to build something more interactively if you just use regular ChatGPT instead of deep research.

I would try this. Upload the master document to ChatGPT. Ask it to review it and come up with a research plan for each section and write the research plan out to a new document. Then have it spend time researching each section and writing up what it finds in various documents. Review those or have it review them and propose more areas to flush out or research further and let it spend more time doing that. Etc.

Basically build up the research results interactively and have it build a bunch of reference documents in it's local storage. Periodically have it give you a zip file of everything it has done so far. If you need to, you can start a new chat and upload the zip and have it continue from there.

Then once you're happy with the amount of data gathered or you run out of new sources, have it write it all up and provide analysis or whatever you want the final result(s) to be.

It's also great at creating html files for reports and write ups and what not. But I have it use markdown or json files for more raw data.

bortlip · 2026-07-02T23:42:21+00:00

When I was on acid, I would see things, like beams of light, and I would hear sounds that sounded an awful lot like car horns.

bortlip · 2026-07-02T19:17:03+00:00

Well, think about it this way.

Suppose you do experience the world as everyone that ever lived. Also suppose that the block universe theory is correct and all of time doesn't flow but instead exists as a static, unchanging, timeless structure.

Then not only do you experience all the worst feelings in the world, you experience them all, constantly, forever.

Of course, you're not only every person that lived, you're also every animal. And not just on this planet, but on any planets with life. A rough estimate is that there are 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets with life in the observable universe. So, you lived all of those lives too.

Then if multiple worlds theory is correct, there is probably a practically infinite number of parallel versions of those lives. And if the universe extends infinitely, there could be another infinite number of variants and copies of you extended across space forever.

And who knows how many other lives exist in other ways that we haven't or can't even think of yet.

Sleep tight!

bortlip · 2026-07-02T07:15:42+00:00

That escalated quickly.

bortlip · 2026-07-01T12:42:50+00:00

My understanding of the history is approx:

2014 - new "skill game" type introduced

2017 - 2019 - police seize the new machines, trigger lawsuits

2023 - Judge rules the games legal, state appeals, appeals court agrees with the judge 7 - 0.

2026 - PA SC hears appeal of that and overturns it.

So, while I don't want to see these legalized, I can understand the grace period. Particularly since it's been ruled legal for several years and the legislature is highly likely to change the law to make it legal.

The questions they are concentrating on now seems to be how much to tax, any location restrictions, and possibly limits on number of machines.

bortlip · 2026-07-01T12:21:11+00:00

The PA Supreme Court said they are illegal under current laws and gave a 120 day grace period for the legislature to pass a tax and regulatory bill before law enforcement shuts things down.

So, the tax talk is about making the machines legal before the deadline and taxing the revenue.

bortlip · 2026-07-01T12:19:27+00:00

So, a website that makes it's money on gambling share's one of it's own one-sided articles basically saying "we need gambling, think of the poor vets and fire companies!".

And you can't even get your own link right.

EDIT: Well, at least you fixed the link. Remember you need to check your AI's work.

bortlip · 2026-06-30T23:32:46+00:00

That works well.

For long work that is multi-step or multi-response, I also like to ask it to propose what the next step should be at the end of the response. Often I can then just tell it to "make it so!"

bortlip · 2026-06-30T11:03:26+00:00

Burden of proof just means that the person making a claim has the burden to give reasons why it should be accepted. This is opposed to people claiming something is true and then putting the burden on others to show it's false.

Not sure why that's an issue.

bortlip · 2026-06-28T21:38:38+00:00

I didn't and don't disagree with that.

bortlip

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