ChatGPT – II January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Long-time reader Matt Ball (whose own book you can find here) responded to yesterday’s post: “You might find this somewhat different take on ChatGPT interesting.” I did. But I’m still going to try to find a few minutes this weekend to get ChatGPT to tell ME “how to remove a sandwich from a VCR in the style of the King James Bible.” And perhaps get it to write a sci-fi novel in the style of Aaron Sorkin about how artificial intelligence displaced human intelligence one crisp October morning in 2028, just when I was planning to start work on a novel of my own. Will I deserve credit, or perhaps even copyright protection, for that novel if all I did was set the parameters and let ChatGPT do the rest? Does Aaron Sorkin deserve some of the credit? Is writing a novel by hand versus ChatGPT like the difference between painting a landscape with a brush versus capturing it in a click with my iPhone? BONUS The U.S. Has Thwarted Putin’s Energy Blackmail. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld in FORTUNE: . . . The days of Vladimir Putin’s energy blackmail driving up energy prices and testing Western unity are quickly coming to a close amidst a string of underappreciated but significant energy victories for the Biden Administration, ranging from bringing down gasoline prices for drivers to supplying enough LNG to keep Europe warm this winter. . . . . . . the Biden Administration has charted a pragmatic, centrist, effective path towards stabilizing global energy markets. . . . . . . After Putin choked off natural gas supplies to Europe, hoping Europeans would “freeze to death” and “turn on their elites,” the Biden Administration immediately committed to delivering an extra 15 billion cubic meters of U.S. LNG to make up for the shortfall. The U.S. ended up delivering nearly 40 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe (almost three times the previous record) and is en route to becoming the world’s largest LNG exporter. Europe is fully weaning itself off Russian energy, reducing its dependence on Russia from 46% to a minuscule 8%, with gas prices falling to lower than pre-war levels. . . .