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Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

A “Few” Words On Film Reviews

Posted in General Comments, tagged AI, Artificial Intelligence, Copilot, Garbage In - Garbage Out, General Comments, Google, Microsoft, Training AI on January 5, 2026| 4 Comments »

When I started adding book and film reviews to my blog posts, there was a “somewhat” clear idea in my mind that there would be a difference between them. Book reviews would be lengthier because I would be providing “some” analysis. Film reviews were more: “action movie; I liked it” or not. As I widened my own blog reading, I noticed some folks were “really” into movies and gave in-depth information about plot, directors, actors, special effects, music scores, etc. Since I didn’t really think about films that way, I shied away from doing mine to that level.

Over time, I changed…

Viewing franchises, sequels, remakes and “collections” altered my consumption of film and I’ve gone from being a passive viewer seeking entertainment to a beginning critic. I don’t know if that’s a “good” thing or a “bad” thing. It just is what it is…

Anyway, a few years back I began adding more and more information to my film reviews: who’s in them, what drew me to the film, the plot, my opinion about the acting, my thoughts on the special effects (if any) and then – finally – did I like the film and would I recommend it to others.

Last year I found I was spending an increasing amount of time doing the drafts for my reviews. At the same time, I started using various Artificial Intelligence (AI) “tools” to help me draft my reviews. This was actually more intended to give me exposure to AI (as a retired “computer guy / programmer”) than to save time, but if a tool works, I’ll use it…

What I found was the two “best” were Google’s and Microsoft’s, but Google’s was very academic sounding and Microsoft’s (CoPilot) more closely matched my own writing style and voice. Basically, I would copy / paste two or three of my prior reviews into the AI and ask for an analysis of my “style, format and content”. I would then give it the title of a “new” (to me) film and ask it to draft a review. Neither tool started well, but CoPilot was slightly better in initial drafts. I would then make corrections and get a second or third draft. I then thought to use the other tool’s draft to feed into the AI tool to see what impact that had. After six weeks of using both, I settled on CoPilot. I have been using AI for all of “my” first drafts for the last couple of months.

Yes, the AI has made the generation of a first draft faster. But I have found the tool is not without issues – which take care to find and time to resolve. Yes, very occasionally, the tool will make stuff up from apparent whole cloth. This can be EXTREMELY difficult to edit because more often than not it is NOT whole cloth, but half truth wrapped in cloth. For example, if the film was based on a book, the film make have taken liberties with the character’s name or combined multiple written characters into one film character. This is an actual example I experienced as the character from the book was completely changed for the film. The AI didn’t “know” this and it wrote the review as if the character was the protagonist’s friend (from the novel), when actually he was the lead antagonist (in the film). If I hadn’t JUST finished watching the film, I might have missed this in the draft review and subsequently MY post would have been (garbage in,) garbage (out).

Bottom line: YOU have to be a better editor to use these tools “designed” to make you a faster writer!!

My second issue with AI is “AI creep”. The drafts slowly but surely begin to include words and phrases you (me anyway) would not use. In my case, simply because I tend to be a simple talker and therefore a simple writer, I don’t use “cinematic / artsy” language which doesn’t “mean” anything to anyone (me) not in the industry with years of experience.

I have allowed this to happen – one word / one phrase / one sentence – at a time, and now my reviews don’t sound like me at all. (Well, not very much like me… LoL)

So, now having spent weeks training the AI tool how to draft a film review “in my style”, I now have to go back and retrain the tool. The “kicker”?? It (the AI tool) says it understands my new requirements, but after a few days of use, the “AI creep” has re-started…

Oh, what tangled webs we weave… when we first try to use AI to improve our lives.

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Click here (5 January) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Cracking Comfort

Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Comfort, Copilot, Microsoft, Mystery, Oz, Philosophy, Quotes, Sci-Fi on July 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

There’s something strangely comforting about sci-fi that doesn’t rush to resolve every mystery — just leaves the gate open a crack.

— “Oz”

[Oz is the nickname I’ve given to Copilot (MicroSoft’s AI). I asked Oz to provide a draft review of the film “Stargate”. Copilot’s data analysis accuracy may not be very good, but it’s wordplay is pretty entertaining. — kmab]

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Click here (10 July) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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I’ll Pass On The Pie

Posted in General Comments, Movie Review, Movies, Reviews, tagged Aibileen Clark, Allison Janney, Bryce Dallas Howard, Celia Rae Foote, Charlotte Phelan, Cicely Tyson, Constantine Jefferson, Copilot, Emma Stone, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, Highly to Very Highly Rated Movie, Hillary "Hilly" Walters Holbrook, Jessica Chastain, Microsoft, Minerva "Minny" Jackson, Movie Reviews, Mrs. Walters, Octavia Spencer, Oz, Reviews, Sissy Spacek, Viola Davis on June 28, 2025| 2 Comments »

Today’s review is for the film: “The Help” (2011), which is a period drama set in Jackson, Mississippi (the American South) during the early 1960s. The movie stars Emma Stone as Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (the struggling author / writer / journalist), Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark (one of the housemaids in the film), Bryce Dallas Howard as Hillary “Hilly” Walters Holbrook (the primary “racist” in the film), Octavia Spencer as Minerva “Minny” Jackson, (Aibileen’s best friend and another housemaid), Jessica Chastain as Celia Rae Foote (the “nice” white lady in the film), Allison Janney as Charlotte Phelan (Skeeter’s mother), Sissy Spacek as Mrs. Walters (Hilly’s mother) and Cicely Tyson as Constantine Jefferson (the previous servant at the Walters house, she raised “Skeeter”). The film is based on the novel of the same name and lives and working conditions of Black maids working in white households during the Jim Crow era — and the young white writer (“Skeeter”) who challenges the maids to let her tell their stories.

Background: I came to the initial viewing of this movie with no knowledge of its story let alone the awards buzz the film generated. I was talking with my daughter about the film “Hidden Figures” and she made a passing comment about Octavia Spencer being in both films. She said this film was a really good film and, like “Hidden Figures“, dealt with issues of race in the American South during the 1960s. She said she was sure we had the DVD. We did, but I’d never watched it with them back in the day. Anyway, I was re-watching “Hidden Figures” and “The Help” came up as “if you liked this”… I did get around to watching the DVD a while back (several years ago), but I wanted to re-watch it after my more recent revisit with “Hidden Figures” so it would be fresher in my memory for the purpose of creating this post.

Plot: A struggling female, white, wanna-be writer (reporter) returns home from college and awakens to a story she lived through during the entirety of her childhood, but was not cognizant of: Jim Crow treatment of Blacks in the American South and in particular of Black women’s treatment in their positions as household workers (The Help). The story traces Skeeter’s struggles to find her position in a society she never fit into as a child and can never fit back into now that she is a college educated (liberated) female. Skeeter meets some “help” and she slowly gains their trust as she seeks to convince them to share their stories. There is a break through and the stories flood out. Skeeter writes a novel about the stories and in addition to her own fame as a writer, she shares some of the book royalties with the women who contributed portions of their lives in the process of her storytelling. Like I said: Disney = happy ending.

So… is this movie any good? The acting? The drama? The message? Is it worth your time viewing? Answer: Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, and Yes!

Any good? This is a “Disney” film which means it’s probably not going to be too violent or otherwise explicit and it will probably end with a “happy ending”. Check, check and check. But really, who cares if it’s a good movie. This movie is good. Is it an accurate depiction of being female, household help (a “maid”) in the Jim Crow era? Almost certainly not – “Disney” remember? But I believe it does give a surface level testimony to some of the conditions, particularly the systemic prevention of economic and educational opportunity, for Blacks in the South. Technically, the movie is shot beautifully – crisp images and lots of vibrant colors.

The acting: The ensemble is strong across the board with Oscar nominations for Davis and Chastain and a win for Spencer. I (myself) particularly liked the performances of Spacek and Janney, too.

Drama: Davis’ portrayal of grief as she describes the death of her son, Spencer’s comforting of Chastain after a miscarriage and Tyson’s counseling of Skeeter were all quite touching to me. There is something quite life-affirming about teaching a child to love themself and to learn to forgive.

Social messaging: Apparently there was some initial controversy over the “white savior” aspect of the film. It is true the protagonist is “Skeeter”, but the heart of the story really is that of the American Black (female) and how they were treated in the Jim Crow South. Skeeter starts the story, drops in every now and then and then ends the film, but it is Clark’s tears, Jackson’s determination, and Jefferson’s love which are the soul of the movie.

Is it worth your time viewing? Yes. I almost always enjoy (that might be too strong a word) films which portray the United States with all of our warts: Native American genocide, slavery, Civil War, the Jim Crow era, the Labor Movement, the Suffragette movement, and the Civil Rights Movement. All of these are historical steps we have climbed to be a better and more inclusive America. Even “less historically accurate” films like a Disney film can bring some sense of progress to all Americans and especially to those who still struggle with their own “movement” in our modern day.

Final recommendation: High to very highly recommended. This film is very good drama elevated by outstanding performances — especially by Davis and Spencer — that is well worth your time viewing.

Note: The initial draft of this film review was generated by “Oz”. That’s my nickname for the MicroSoft AI (“Copilot”). I asked Copilot (“Oz”) to use one of my prior film reviews as a template. My best estimate is that less than 10% of this version was generated by Oz, but I wanted to give it some credit in the review process, anyway. Although I have not found Oz useful for data analysis, it does seem to be reasonable at generating conversational “reviews” and applying formats to the reviews. This could be a real time saver for some. For others the task of editing would be practically the same as starting from scratch. In my own case, Copilot does seem to act well as a catalyst in lowering my movie review “procrastination barrier”.

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Click here (28 June) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Looking Ahead

Posted in General Comments, Science and Learning, tagged AI, Artificial Intelligence, Deepseek-R1, General Comments, Microsoft, Science and Learning on January 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I am loading a local version of DeepSeek-R1 on my home PC. It’s the minimum version and it’ll probably run slow as heck. I’ll play with it for a little while and then (if I can get it to work) I’ll give my first impressions (if any).

I just want to get a peek at the future…

[Update: Microsoft has (just this afternoon) announced they are making a minimal version (similar to the one I installed) available to work / run under Windows with their developer toolkit. I’ve not yet heard when this (toolkit) will be available. Things are moving FAST!! — kmab]

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Click here (30 January) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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A Steep Price Ahead

Posted in Economics, Politics, Quotes, tagged Brad Smith, Economics, Making Things Work, Microsoft, Politics, Quotes, Romesh Ratnesar, Technology, Time Magazine, Trust on February 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

If you don’t figure out how to make things work from a broader societal perspective, you will pay a steep price for many years.

— Brad Smith
President, Microsoft Corp.
As quoted by: Romesh Ratnesar
In his article: “Trust“
Appearing in: *Time Magazine*; dtd: 16 September 2019

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Click here (7 February) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Is Anyone ELSE Out There Listening?

Posted in Faith Family and Friends, Family and Friends, Philosophy, tagged Affiliates, Amazon, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Corporate America, Ethics, Family, Google, Illusion, Linguistics, Microsoft, Philosophy, Sarah, Security, Siri on January 18, 2019| 2 Comments »

My daughter is a linguistics major (BA graduate) from Cal. Last night we were discussing artificial intelligence and she stated she doubted she could work in the IT industry because she questioned the ethics of corporate America.

I asked: “Why?”

She said a co-worker approached her at her desk and asked her about a product she (the co-worker) was interested in buying. My daughter said as an aside that this was nothing she had ever thought about, considered for her own purchase or searched on or about on the web. However, the next time she picked up her iPhone (within one hour of the conversation), she began receiving Ad placements for the product they had been discussing.

I replied she must have left her Siri turned on. She said, yes, but she had never actually said the name / product type herself. Only the co-worker had done that. She added, she was less concerned if it (Siri) had done the listening for her specific voice, but she didn’t approve of it listening in on others (not her voice), too.

I then reminded her that ALL security is an illusion and your confidence in the security is based on the amount of money you are willing to spend on maintaining the illusion. (Which led to a completely different discussion…) Of course, Siri / Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft are “listening” in and monitoring all of our searches and selling that information on to other corporations, who in turn convert our “hot leads” into sales offers – and they, of course, store our data and forward it on to other “affiliates”. And so the cycle continues… After all, it’s just good business. Right? And, if anyone else is listening in along with them, too? Well, that’s just good government keeping us “safe”. Right?

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Click here (18 January) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.