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Opinion

Does AI deserve human rights?

Editorials and columns

You can't be cruel to a toaster; inanimate objects don't feel pain. You can't be cruel to a computer program, either, even if programs like Microsoft Word often seem pretty cruel to us. Yet the artificial intelligence company Anthropic insists its product is different: Starting next month, users will be prohibited from "sustained and needless cruel and abusive behavior" toward Anthropic's AI chatbot, Claude. Giving the machine a name was cute -- giving it human rights isn't. What Anthropic's leaders are up to is an attack on human dignity, and the anti-cruelty policy is part of ...

We're chasing significance in the wrong places

Editorials and columns

It seems like everyone wants to be a social media influencer these days. Researcher Matthew Simoneau surveyed middle and high school students from 2021 to 2024 and more than 60% of them said they wanted to be social media influencers. People think fame and fortune will make them happy. But ...

Let them eat cake -- and candy, too

Editorials and columns

I fell into a net loop watching old commercials the other day, reminiscing with videos of escapist Calgon bubble baths, roving dog food chuck wagons and smiling folks settling into bed with "The Clapper." At one point, I stumbled on an ad more anachronistic than any of its contemporaries: a ...

Gas prices create political speed bumps

Editorials and columns

You need a road map (do they still make those?) to figure out all the political twists and turns as everybody running for office tries to figure out what to do about the high price of gas. Stating the problem is the easy part. Motorists are fed up by having to spend all their previous ...

See through the hate and political rhetoric

Letters to the Editor

Imagine teaching our children that bullying, name-calling and personal attacks are acceptable ways to get what you want. Now imagine those tactics showing up in the homes where children live. That is exactly what Alpena voters received last week in a political mailer attacking four candidates for our school board. What makes this even more troubling is that the mailing was paid for by the Alpena County Republican Party, for an election to nonpartisan school board seats. School board elections are supposed to be about the people willing to serve our children, their qualifications, ...

The mudslingers

Letters to the Editor

Wow. This is perhaps the new low. The Alpena County Republican Party (ACRP) just conducted the biggest smear campaign imaginable. Instead of talking about the qualifications and vision of the four school board candidates they are endorsing and funding, they decided instead to spend thousands on a flyer that can only be described as hate-filled mudslinging. As a reminder to all, school board seats are nonpartisan and yet the ACRP not only endorsed four candidates, they also funded the signage you see for them around the county. Then they doubled-down by funding a 11x6” flyer that was ...