On the road...again!!!
Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams
Chronicles of a Footloose Forester
By Dick Pellek

 Bloggers and Their Intellectual Property, Courtesy of AI

AI isn’t going away, so we all better learn how to use it to our advantage without stepping on   booby traps and embarrassing ourselves.  Full disclosure: the Footloose Forester uses AI daily to help him with accurately spelled and currently accepted botanical names, just as an example of his queries.  Since genus and species names are occasionally changed to accommodate consensus acceptance of new information by botanists worldwide, the Footloose Forester has no problem accepting the latest changes when AI is the reference source of the current names.  Of course, that will not change older genus and species names that were committed to dated textbooks before the age of modern AI systems.

With the now commonplace internal editors in some social media websites, a double-checking with AI for accuracy is part of the process in publishing acceptable and credible documents.  Indeed, AI sometimes makes mistakes and responsible AI systems post that disclaimer somewhere on their home page presentation.  In the final analysis, however; a technical or scientific posting, even written by a novice, may contain AI derived information that henceforth becomes the “intellectual property” of the novice author.  The legal status of such intellectual property rights, however; has yet to become an issue, except where charges of plagiarism are relevant. Colleges and universities are deeply involved with such issues, inasmuch as future careers may be affected.

For the moment, however; individual bloggers with free access to AI sources, sometimes use those AI-researched sites and sources as justification for spreading information that is incorrect, outdated, or even outlandishly inane.  AI does not play favorites, although a few AI systems have policies restricting against using derogatory or inflammatory phraseology.  Yet, it is far too routine for AI and some research sites to maintain incorrect punctuation that gets shared worldwide.  Case in Point:  The book cover graphics of Acer Rubrum to Zyzyphus Jujuba, Volume I, and Acer Rubrum to Zyzyphus Jububa, Volume II are widely shared on some sites but continue to display the misspelling of the species name for red maple.

 According to botanical spelling and punctuation practices, the Genus and Species should be written as Acer rubrum and Zyzyphus jujuba, respectively. That is what Footloose Forester submitted to the publisher, AuthorHouse, as the titles of his 2^nd and 3^rd books.  Share sites like Amazon, Google Books, Thrift Books, etc. presumably corrected the spelling, or so it seems.  Although prominent AI systems post disclaimers admitting the possibly of mistakes, it still leaves open the need for someone to correct the spelling, if it is deemed important.

Certainly, a correction in the official mailing address of the Footloose Forester is warranted.  It has been 15 years with the name of Greenbackvile, Virginia appearing on about 60% of his incoming correspondence.  Even some government documents persist in using the incorrect spelling. Under oath, the Footloose Forester will testify that he does not live in Greenbackvile, Virginia.