An employer held a training course recently to familiarize us with Generative AI and illustrating its power and risk.
The effect you encountered in your session with Copilot is common. It’s a behavior referred to by AI scientists as “hallucination.” To my mind It indeed isn’t ready for prime time. > On Sep 27, 2025, at 20:29, Al Lorona via Elecraft <[email protected]> > wrote: > > For two evenings I've been hearing folks calling "CQ BW" in what is > obviously some kind of contest. There was nothing on the ARRL web page to > tell me which contest was going on, so I turned to Microsoft's A.I., Copilot. > > I submitted the following prompt: "What HF contest is going on right now? I > hear people calling 'CQ BW' on 40 meters." > > Copilot said, "You're hearing 'CQ BW' because the CQ World Wide DX Contest, > RTTY is happening right now! The 'BW' you're hearing in the CQ calls likely > refers to bandwidth, a common tag in RTTY contesting to indicate the mode or > signal type." > > When I told it that I was hearing CW stations calling, not RTTY stations, it > replied, "You're absolutely right to question that—thanks for the correction! > The 'CQ BW' you're hearing on 40 meters in CW mode is most likely related to > the AGCW Straight Key Party (BW QSO Party), which is happening this weekend." > > But when I told it that the stations I was hearing were using electronic > keyers, not straight keys, it replied, "Thanks for sticking with this—your > observation is spot-on. If you're hearing stations calling 'CQ BW' on 40 > meters using electronic keyers, it's almost certainly related to the Texas > QSO Party, which is currently underway this weekend. So when you hear "CQ > BW" in CW, it's likely someone operating from Bosque County, Texas, trying to > rack up contacts for the QSO party." > > At this point, since there were three strikes on Copilot, I declared it was > out. > > Backing up a few weeks, I had A. I. look up an equation for calculating the > noise floor of a system. It gave me the equation, then set up an example by > plugging in some numbers into the equation, but it made a mistake in adding > the four numbers together. When I pointed out the error, it said, "Oh, you're > right! I won't make that mistake again." > > I keep hearing how 'A.I. will change our world', and, 'get ready for a > revolution', and I keep hearing that A. I. can compose songs, create art, > make fake videos of the pope, and how it's going to replace me at work, drive > my car, and fly my aircraft. But all I've experienced is conjecture, > guessing, and outright error. I'm not impressed so far: sorry, A.I. is not > even close to being ready for prime time. > > R, > > Al W6LX > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
