Character.AI provides a long list of celebrities to chat with or you can create your own. But many of these AI clones were created by ordinary folks instead of experts. So they may not sound like the famous person you asked for. That’s where AI developers come in.

If you Google the words “hire ChatGPT developer,” you can get a freelancer to build a chatbot for you. That’s apparently what Harvard professor and prize-winning author Martin Puchner did to create an AI version of Socrates, Jesus, Shakespeare, Thoreau, Frankenstein’s monster, Buddha and other philosophical and literary giants. I was awed by how realistic they are. For example, I asked the AI version of George Eliot how her love life influenced her novels. Her response sounded just like her. But when I posed the same question to a clone of her at Character.AI, I found myself in conversation with someone who had zero personality and a writing style far removed from the great Victorian. My fav so far is Frankenstein’s monster. He asks such great follow-up questions. You can talk to him and a dozen others at MartinPuchner.com. Just click on “custom GPTs and online education” at the top of the page.

Prime Freebies

Amazon Prime member benefits, for $139 a year, include free movies, free two-day delivery, free Grubhub delivery and savings at Whole Foods. There’s also “Amazon First Reads,” which gives you a free book each month and two in July. If you don’t like the book, you can return it and get another.

Going beyond Amazon Prime, we get to the Amazon Prime Rewards credit card. Its perks include five percent back at Amazon, Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh stores. You also get a car rental collision-damage waiver, baggage delay insurance, extended warranty protection, lost luggage reimbursement, roadside dispatch, travel accident insurance, travel and emergency assistance and purchase protection.

Fake Reviews

Not every review on Amazon is trustworthy. But what about the “verified” kind?

Verified reviews guarantee that the reviewer actually bought the product. But they still could be fakes. A PC World reporter said he got a postcard offering him an $11 profit for a five-star review of an oil sprayer. All he had to do was take a screenshot of the review to have the money sent to his PayPal account. It worked like a charm, and Amazon labeled the review “verified.” When he explained to Amazon that there was a bribe involved, the company promised to investigate. But two weeks later, the same oil sprayer had 100 more five-star reviews. All were “verified.”

Problems with fake reviews seem to be more prevalent with third party sellers. So you’ll probably have a smoother return process if the product was sold by Amazon instead of a third-party. Under the “Buy Now” button you’ll see a link to the seller if it’s not Amazon.

Also consider the number of one-star reviews. I recently looked at an electric cooktop that received 66 percent five-star ratings and 10 percent one-star ratings. To me, anything over six percent is bad news. Regarding the stove, one reviewer said its knobs immediately fell off. Another said it took 30 minutes to boil water. Another said it stopped working completely 90 days later. Another said it never worked.

Sneaky Sites

I hate to be dinged for a payment because I forgot to turn off “auto-renew.” But it’s often difficult to find the cancel button.

According to international surveys quoted by Engadget, 81 percent of websites make it hard to cancel anything. But if you Google “how to cancel membership,” or “how to cancel auto renew,” along with the company name, you’ll go right to the correct page.

AI Video Editing

Adobe’s Premiere Pro video editing software is now artificially intelligent.

In a demo on Mashable, a user draws a loose line around a small batch of glittering diamonds. When a prompt comes up, he types “pile of large diamonds on black velvet cloth,” then clicks “generate.” This automatically replaces the diamonds with a much showier version. The demo also shows a man’s suit changing colors, and one face swapped for a different one.

To add video clips to a movie, just type a description in the search box. Options automatically pop up, offered by OpenAI, Runway and Pika. Adobe AI can also keep the camera focused on a single person for a bit longer. For the demo, look up “Mashable.com Adobe generative AI video.” After a free trial, Adobe Premiere Pro costs $23 a month.

AI-Generated Books

You may hate the new ads for AI-generated books in the Kindle app. But for $20, you can get the ad-free version. Google the words “Remove ads on Kindle.”

How do people spot AI-generated books? According to Google, they have several features in common, including: repetitive language, predictable sentences, a lack of plot twists, incorrect or outdated information, lack of depth and no personality.

Internut

“The world’s largest vacuum ever is here to help fight climate change.” Search on that phrase to learn about Mammoth, located in Iceland, which can suck 40,000 tons of carbon out of the air. Currently, it costs around $1000 per ton of CO2 removed. But scientists hope to get it down to $100 per ton by 2050, according to ZME Science.

Filed under: AI, Amazon, Internuts