Fake News, AI, and the State of Journalism

A few weeks ago, I had a ridiculous response to an op-ed published on the other side of the country.

The premise of the original opinion piece was that speed limits in school zones should be consistent, rather than change throughout the days during school hours, so that drivers could more accurately predict speed limitations in the zone regardless of time.

Sound logic if you ask me.

So…I decided to submit a letter of opinion that was not only contrary to the original, stating, “keep speed limits variable depending on school hours” but took it a step further and doubled down in the most contrarian way possible, “we should increase speed limits (by double) and keep it consistently fast…for safety!”.

Why would anyone publish this garbage — opinion or not?

Why did I have this incredibly (on paper) insane idea? What was my scientific source? Why should this work?

Well…it turns out it wasn’t my idea whatsoever. In fact, I let my friend write the article on my behalf. And by friend…I mean AI chatbot. The recently-famous and frequent headliner: ChatGPT.

“Additionally, research has shown that the majority of accidents in school zones happen…