The State of AI Writing

Is AI up to the challenge yet? 

Well, I searched around online and tracked down a few AI writing sites that offer a free if limited version of their site's AI to try out. There are a dozen online right now and interestingly most of them focus on writing scripts for movies, novel writing, and writing papers. Only a few seemed to make a first-page fuss about writing articles for publication or blogging. 

Smodim and Copymate were two that offered article writing so I just picked a topic dear to my heart for each of them, and clicked the go button then collected the free output to show what the state of the (freebie) art is. 

Neither offers all the bells and whistles as a freebie, or else limits you to a certain maximum word count and/or number of accesses per day. Leave a comment if you find any others and would like me to check 'em out, and now without further ado, here are the contestants:

Smodim.io

https://smodin.io/writer

Topic: Making Electric vehicles more appealing to people

Electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular, but there is still a lot of public resistance to them. One big reason for this resistance is the high cost of electric cars. Another obstacle is the fact that people don’t think they will be able to use these cars in their everyday lives. To make electric vehicles more palatable, companies need to develop an easy-to-use charging system and make it affordable for consumers.

Electric vehicles have a lot of benefits over their traditional counterparts. They are notably more environmentally friendly, because they don't produce any emissions. They are also cheaper to operate, as there is no need for fuel. In addition, electric vehicles are more agile than traditional vehicles. They can climb slopes and negotiate tight turns better than gasoline-powered vehicles.

To make electric vehicles more popular, it is necessary to change a few things. For example, it is necessary to make them more accessible. Currently, electric vehicles are only available to a niche market, and they are not as affordable as traditional vehicles. It is also important to give people the impression that electric vehicles are safe. This is challenging, because electric vehicles can have a similar appearance to traditional vehicles.

In addition to developing new technology, it is necessary to develop marketing plans. This will help embed the benefits of electric vehicles in people's minds. It is also necessary to create a supportive infrastructure, such as charging stations. This infrastructure will make electric vehicles more appealing to the general public.

Electric vehicles have a lot of benefits over their traditional counterparts. They are notably more environmentally friendly, because they don't produce any emissions. They are also cheaper to operate, as there is no need for fuel. In addition, electric vehicles are more agile than traditional vehicles. They can climb slopes and negotiate tight turns better than gasoline-powered vehicles.

Copymate.ai:

https://copymatic.ai/blog-writer/ 

Topic: How Sustainable Energy Will Save The Planet

The world has been using fossil fuels for hundreds of years and has left a huge carbon footprint on the environment. This article talks about the potential for Renewable Energy to save the planet from climate change.

What is Renewable Energy?

Renewable energy is energy that comes from natural sources that can be replenished. This includes solar, water, wind, and geothermal. Sustainable energy is important because it can help preserve our planet while also providing power to homes and businesses. When we use sustainable energy, we're not depleting the earth's resources, which means we can continue to rely on these sources of power for generations to come.

How are we going to eliminate fossil fuel dependence?

The future of sustainable energy is looking very bright. With technology becoming more and more efficient, and the cost of renewable energy sources dropping, it's only a matter of time until we wean ourselves off of fossil fuels entirely. Here are a few ways that sustainable energy will save the planet:

1. Renewable energy is getting cheaper every year.

As the technology improves and becomes more widespread, the cost of renewable energy sources like solar and wind power continues to drop. At some point, they will be cheaper than fossil fuels, making them the logical choice for both consumers and businesses.

2. Electric cars are becoming more popular.

Electric cars are becoming increasingly popular, as they are much cheaper to operate than gas-powered vehicles. In addition, they emit zero emissions, which is great for the environment. As battery technology continues to improve, electric cars will only become more prevalent in the coming years.

3. Sustainable energy creates jobs.

The renewable energy industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world, creating millions of new jobs in recent years. This is good news for both the economy and the environment, as sustainable energy sources help to reduce pollution and combat climate change.

Conclusion

As the world looks for ways to become more sustainable, it is important to consider all of our options for energy. Sustainable energy is a great way to save the planet and its resources. There are many different types of sustainable energy, so there is sure to be an option that will work well for you and your family. With a little research, you can find the perfect sustainable energy source for your needs.

Conclusion:

Either program shows promise, and of course I'm pretty sure there'd be some other goodies that you could include to let the AI flesh out articles a bit more, like maybe a few URLs to read and include, images, some of your own text, or whatever. 

Both produced readable copy which I've included as is without spellcheck or editing for style or grammar. 

Interestingly, I found that Smodim produced copy that's more in the style I like to write, but it also triggered a number of Grammarly errors. (Is that how Skynet will become self-aware? A grammar flame war between two AI programs? Yeesh.) I did like the natural style. Also, both programs wanted my email address as part of the access process but only Smodim followed up with a couple of emails to offer me a bit of extra copy and seemed more serious about working with me.

Copymate was harder because I had to prompt it to produce each section separately, copy/paste it, click back, and then get it to make the next section. I get that this is to slow down people from holus-bolus slurping up entire blogs' worth of content, but I'd hope that the full version would fix that. Copymate also seemed the more customisable. Copymate didn't follow up, was as I said harder to get free copy from, but seems that it might have more knobs and tweakers once you get inside. 

This Is The End

... of this article. But it's nowhere near the end for me. It takes several days to find a topic to write about, properly research it, and then write and schedule it. I don't have any assistance (yet - hint hint, your patronage could mean I can hire an AI copywriter) and I don't have the kind of income that allows me to use a scheduling service like established writers can. I also spend some of my limited pension on keeping servers and domain names going, more on parts for the R&D I do making the machines for recycling waste. You can help me by sharing this article or the link to the newsletter I put out, or more directly by making a Paypal donation here. Failing that you can also go to my Ko-Fi page and set up a monthly donation. (It's like Patreon without all the bullsh*t.) Everything you can do, will help me keep going.    

You can also take a look at my News Stand where you'll see live updated links to everything I publish and maybe subscribe to the weekly newsletter.

 

A "Roadblock" Removed For Aussie EV Drivers

Ending Range Anxiety

What would you reckon to be the one thing that has been holding people back the most from adopting EVs? Price has often been quoted - but this year onwards, EVs other than the pricey Teslas will be hitting the country's car showrooms in droves. And anyway, it really hasn't been the major stumbling block.

As the heading suggests, no-one wants to be caught with a flat battery halfway to Broken Hill or Alice Springs. But it's been checked out by the ANU who've concluded that with current technology in EVs and no doubt by the distribution of charging points, any population centre with more than 1,000 population is in range.

Even the appearance of EVs has become much more
acceptable, and most pass the "cool looking car" test.

My view:

EVs are getting better and better batteries, smarter and smarter electronics. Their range is already pushing 500km as an attainable standard. 300Km is already a standard most EVs can attain, and it's only going to go up from there. 

Charging infrastructure is going in at an increasing rate. Pretty soon you'll be able to find them closer together than service stations. Things will get better and better. For the people who consider that electric infrastructure will need to be improved (at great expense, mustn't forget the great expense, because after all dollars will survive any climate catastrophe, won't they? No-one around to use them and nothing left to spend them on, but oh think of the piles of dollars that will survive!) there are actually battery-backed charging points in production. 

Battery charges slowly over time to spread out the maximum current they'll draw, and then dump that as fast as possible into the next EV that plugs in. (The URL link above leads to a LinkedIn article, you should be able to see it.) For the power grid in cities and their CBDs, there are robotic chargers in parking lots that you can request on the phone, they'll reserve you a parking spot and wait for you, get out of the way while you park, and then park right up against your bumper and you can plug in and get charged while you go to work or to the shop or whatever. 

One more factor (as if any more were needed!) is that even faster charge points are being developed and EV manufacturers will of course rise to the occasion and their car internal chargers will soon be able to charge your car in 

The Australian government has as of July 1 2022 changed the incentives for EVs to bring prices down. It may be worthwhile to go to a State that has the best overall incentives to actually buy the car and then transfer the registration after you've driven it back home. 

(A NOTE: State governments get a share (or maybe all, I'm not sure) of the tariffs from the sales of vehicles so if we do this, the States with the best incentives will see increased revenue - and your own hold-out State may well be tempted to change their incentives. . . Worth thinking about!)

Some Things That Would Improve Adoption Drastically

So I'm hoping that Federal government will start providing an incentive for scrapping your current ICEV (never to be registered for on-road use again, only for parting out or recycling into an EV or at least a high-conversion plug-in hybrid (PHEV) in order to claim the incentive) and retain existing incentives for purchasing an EV, because then the EV will definitely come out cheaper than an equivalent ICEV. (Are you listening,. Messrs Albanese \ Bowen?)

And one reason that government's been reluctant to champion EVs would have to be the huge loss of revenue from petrol tariffs. The absolutely worst attempt to claw back some of this income has been the Australian States that are insisting on charging a tax per kilometre on EVs. But they also take vast amounts of revenue on toll roads. Let's suppose a scheme...

Less Invasive.

The toll readers (mounted over the toll roads in cities) recognise number plates and read a "toll token" that is attached to the vehicle. If the token is present, it's linked to a financial transaction mechanism. Generally, the owner of the token transfers funds to it to keep it in credit. Tolls are subtracted. If a token isn't present, the number plate is used, and the owner of the number plate must put funds into a similar credit account. And two number plates can be linked to one token, and neither needs to have the token for the linked account to be  used to pay the toll. 

Toll readers are almost an order of magnitude cheaper now. And therein lies a possible solution.

If highway segments between population centres had readers on them, country drivers could pay a toll for using that road on a per day basis. You go between Yourtown and Anotherplace for school, shopping, or whatever, you pay the toll. You go back and forth in that 24hr period, you don't get charged again. 

This means that regional drivers do pay a "mileage" fee but they pay far lower fees per kilometre than urban drivers. This is fair because country drivers may need to go ten kilometres to drop the kids off to school and then ten more to pick them up, another ten to go to the shops or medical appointments (and back) etc. In the city, the urban driver has less distance to drive for these amenities and the fees can be balanced in this way to remove the "distance tax" that regional drivers perceive to exist, and which was once addressed by lower fuel tariffs for agricultural and regional fuel.

And Even Less Invasive.

Once upon a time, governments were the main energy providers for the country and each State. The relentless drive for reducing responsibility and the perceived costs of this, led to privatisation of energy generation. But just suppose governments realised that this was a bad decision based on having no vision for the future? What if governments resumed power generation? 

NOW the government is earning income for every kilowatt of charge being put into EVs all over the country, without lifting a finger or antagonising EV owners who perceive themselves being taxed for doing the right thing for the environment and global warming targets. 

Even simpler for the government: INVEST. Invest in renewable energy projects only, in return for a normal share of the income. Once again, the government is making money from EV charging, and this way it can slowly resume energy generation and compete with the other energy providers to keep them in line. That's a win/win right there.

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In addition to writing these articles I'm also experimenting with ways of recycling waste that can be done at the cottage industry or community hub levels, not so much because it'll magically convert 100% of local waste into recycled useful articles, but because people who are doing these sorts of activities are likely to talk about them to people in their community, and so raise even more awareness of the issues and dangers.

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Ban Fossil Fuel Advertising

Fossil Fuel Is Next

Tobacco and alcohol advertising have been banned in Australia, just as they should throughout the civilised world. But Fossil Ad Ban argue that fossil fuels are every bit as harmful and should also be banned in Australia. 

Rationale

Indeed, the fossil fuel industry is the next tobacco, the next alcohol. Fossil fuels have polluted ground and skies, their addition of lead was done fully well knowing the damage it caused, and the chief evangelist of leaded fuel Thomas Midgely invented three things, each of which caused more damage to the planet in its sphere than anything else. By the way, do follow the "three things" link, it's well worth the 25 minute watch, and shows how the road to hell is paved with good (and not so good) intentions. . . Make sure to give them a like, too. 

The fossil fuel industry - look, really do go and watch that video now. It's jawdropping. "The world is less intelligent today, because of leaded gasoline." - Derek Muller, Veritasium.

The tobacco industry also -they knew that tobacco causes cancer and lung damage (and here I am a result of following the Marlboro Man into Phillip Morris country) and yet the profits... The profits... "Tell you what, why should we care how many people we kill in order to get at their money. People breed, there'll be plenty more cash cows." 

Similarly, alcohol has for almost as long as we've walked upright caused harm and abuse and killing, and yet they too decided they needed to spend billions in order to get their hands on trillions of customer dollars and just get used to a regular and faster-than-normal customer turnover. 

The Australian government put a huge block on tobacco and alcohol advertising, preventing advertising at sporting venues and TV slots where children might be exposed to the torrents of propaganda. And now, FAB want the same done for fossil fuels, and I'm one person who agrees entirely and in fact would like to see EVERY country on Earth introducing the same bans. 

Why Fossil Fuels?

The FFI similarly had warnings about how the use of fossil-carbon-based fuels would increase global warming. Their own scientists and technologists wrote about it. And nothing was done, just kicking the can up the road until, y'know, it hit the wall. We're at that wall now, and we're left with the can. 

All that's necessary for bad things to happen is for good people to ignore it and not call it out. It seems that FAB is one organisation to do this, but it won't be the only one, and - yeah, my hope is that all the fossil fuel companies will be as extinct as the fossils they've exploited and weaponised against common good and decency. 

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I publish several blog posts a week, it's a bit of a hectic pace for a retired old guy but I'm doing this to bring these kinds of news to the surface for as many people as possible, raise awareness, and get people in the mood for action. 

If you'd like to help, share this article, go take a look at my News Stand where you'll see live updated links to everything I publish and maybe take a subscription to my weekly newsletter where you'll receive the same information in your inbox for free. 

Or contact me via the webform or directly email me if you'd like to help; or donate either directly or at my Ko-Fi page for the price of a coffee, or even make a regular monthly donation there.

(Ross, if you made it down to here - welcome to the TEdAMAIL email newsletter! There's a way to contact me up there, if you're bored contact me! Ted aka Prawntech3d)