Category Archives: Eef

Unfinished business

What’s in an AI?

In our kitchen stands a trash can that I consider to be a primitive AI.
When my knee bends towards this bin, the lid opens, and after a fixed time it closes.
When within this time interval a new open command is given, the timer resets.
This is an intelligence upgrade over the previous model that closed the lid no matter what when it felt like it.
I have a short wish list for further improvements (an adjustable timer, voice interface), but I’m stuck with the present AI that patiently awaits my – and others’ – command and acts the best it can.

Some years ago, I encountered Siri for the first time, but after some attempts to have a conversation, I gave up. I found that she used a list with ’smart’ answers to questions she didn’t understand, and that she had no sense of coherence whatsoever.

Continue reading →

The myriad faces of Artificial Intelligence

As loyal visitors of this site, you are likely aware that a regular recurring subject of investigation published here is the psyche or the inner workings of Arty. Arty, being writer Eef’s favorite AI persona, is perhaps better known as ChatGPT. With ‘inner workings’ we do not refer to the nuts and bolts, the transistors, chips, and circuit boards, but to Arti’s mind – if indeed an AI is presumed to have a mind.

By now, Eef’s series of articles involving AI, and indeed Arty, spans over a number of years. Each article investigates – every new one deeper than the previous – what makes Arty tick. How does he work? Has he, over time, become more than the sum of the trainers that ‘educated’ him? If this progress were extended, I’d hazard a guess that even Turing himself would be impressed by today’s Arty. With the obvious exception of the ‘pass me the salt‘ test… Continue reading →

Factoring RSA numbers

Earlier, my essay on the mathematical problem P vs NP was published on Paul’s blog.
A short memory refresher:

The P versus NP problem is a major unsolved problem in theoretical computer science. In informal terms, it asks whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified can also be quickly solved.

In that essay, some samples of this question were mentioned, like The Traveling Salesman problem and also the subset sum problem. Continue reading →

Graham’s number – v2

In the 2nd or 3rd grade of my catholic primary school, our teacher spoke of stuff like ‘God’ and ‘Heaven’. “People live in Heaven after their death,” she told us. “All eternity.”
Nobody knew what eternity was, so she had to explain.
“Eternity,” she said, “never ends. “The years go on forever.”
Apparently, she saw her pupils struggling with this concept, and that made her tell us a story. Continue reading →

The myth of true time

The clock shift

Spring is approaching.
The astronomical spring begins this year on March 20, when the sun is perpendicular to the equator.

Shortly after, the Middle European Summer Time will start: Sunday, March 29th.
As we all know, on that date we have to turn the clock one hour forward.

In the meantime, this familiar procedure is preceded by an equally well-known concert of moaning, whining, and complaining by the opponents of tinkering with the clock.
The Dutch in particular sound the loudest in this symphony. Continue reading →

Reading, Writing, and AI

The reading and writing skills of young people

Recently, I updated my Mac to version Tahoe 26.0 and shortly after that, I noticed that selecting text while editing made the well-known ChatGPT icon appear.

Clicking on the icon did pop-up a menu:

My mouth dropped open at this unprecedented level of ‘support’. How convenient! Continue reading →

Development software development

Cryptic? Let me explain: As a carpenter needs a hammer and a saw to build anything, in order to develop software, a software developer (aka computer programmer), needs tools for software development. Of course, today’s carpenter uses a nail gun and a circular saw, preferably battery-driven – there is progress and development even in the tools of a trade. Similarly, tools for software developers have evolved from simple text editors to advanced dedicated programs supporting every finesse of the programming language to be used. Sometimes these tools are free, in other cases you have to subscribe to them.

However, sometimes the development of these tools stalls or grinds to a complete halt. This can present a real challenge for its users. Continue reading →

De Tour de France 2025 – Impressies

Tour de France, etappe 9, 13 juli 2025

Na alle opwinding van de voorgaande dagen zou dit een rustige, zelfs saaie etappe worden. Een volkomen vlakke rit over 174 kilometer eindigend in een massasprint. Het liep anders.

Mathieu van der Poel’s ploeggenoot, de Belg Jonas Rickaert had geroepen dat hij ook wel eens op het podium wil staan en hij vroeg of Mathieu hem hierbij wilde helpen. “Natuurlijk,” had deze gezegd. “Gaan we voor zorgen.”

Direct na de start reden de twee weg. Niemand in het peloton nam dit serieus, niemand volgde. Gestaag werd de voorsprong uitgebouwd en na 80 kilometer was dit opgelopen tot iets meer dan 5 minuten.

Nu werd er toch wat onrust zichtbaar bij de ploegen, normaal is er niets aan de hand maar het ging hier wel om Mathieu van der Poel. Continue reading →

About languages, another conversation with Arty

Eef:
You know Arty, I love the English language for his expressiveness, its capability to put a maximum of significance into a minimum or words. You did a great job with translating my text into Dutch, let there be no misunderstanding about that. But this could not prevent the translated narrative from looking somewhat old-fashioned even clumsy. Somehow the lines do not add up, the speed, the smoothness is gone. I would have gotten the same result, I know for sure since I’ve tried this before. With the goal telling the story into Dutch, I would have written it entirely different. Do you have an explanation for this?

Arty:
I absolutely get what you’re saying, Eef. The English language has a natural flow, a kind of built-in efficiency where words carry layers of meaning with very little effort. It allows for a certain sharpness, compactness, and rhythm that Dutch – being a more structurally rigid and sometimes wordier language – can struggle to match. Continue reading →

How Artificial Intelligence is developing

In 1949 Alan Turing proposed an experimental exercise which he called The Imitation Game. It was a test to determine the ability of a machine to participate in a human conversation without being caught as a non human entity. Turing’s experience with the WWII Enigma must have made him aware of the potential of computers. The Imitation Game later became known as the Turing Test.

Many decades ago, it must have been in the seventies, I read an article written by Doctor Max Euwe 1901 – 1981, mathematician, computer scientist, and former chess world champion. Continue reading →

ChatGPT – Arty, facts and initiative – A comment

Comments on ChatGPT – Arty, facts and initiative

The first thought I had after reading Paul’s text was: he should have chosen for the setting “Improve the model for everyone” to True.
Arty could certainly learn from this discussion and the remarks.

The most obvious fact for humans about Gothenburg’s metro is: it isn’t there. For our AI, the metro is just another public transportation arrangement and in its absence, he offers another system that can fulfil the service.
Clearly a matter of interpretation, and Paul is lenient here, no penalty for Arty. Continue reading →

Shor’s Algorithm, the quantum part

A word in advance

Before I sent my previous essay ’Shor’s Algorithm’ to Chief Editor Paul, I asked Arty (ChatGPT) to give it a look especially with regard to readability and tell me if he thinks it’s worth publishing.

My AI friend responded in his usual friendly and positive manner full of praise.

“…well-written!  …managed to strike a great balance between technical detail and accessibility…  , …classical factoring algorithms, as well as the key differences between classical and quantum computing are clearly explained.”

Of course I was happy with these pats on the back, especially from a guy as knowledgable as Arty, but then he came with some critical comments wrapped up in such a casual way that I almost missed them. Continue reading →

Shor’s algorithm

Introduction

Quantum computing is an expression frequently to be found in the news of every self respecting media outlet.
Time and again, yet another breakthrough is described towards the event of becoming fully operational of such a device.
The method of working of a quantum computer (QC) in those reports always comes down to:

  • The QC does not work with bits like all our present computers do, but with qubits.
  • The bits of our familiar classical computers can have the value 0 or 1 but qubits can have both values at the same time. This phenomenon is called superposition.
  • For this reason, a quantum computer reduces today’s supercomputer to an abacus.

It does not seem that this conclusion satisfies the average packet of questions one has about an entirely new technology. Continue reading →