Category Archives: here and there

Chatting about math with ChatGPT

I’m still trying to learn how to use ChatGPT to improve my productivity. One thing I’ve been experimenting with recently is to ask it to check my math. As it turns out, I’m still better at math than the algorithm. Here is a link to a recent discussion I had with ChatGPT. My entries are the short strongly indented statements. In this little conversation, ChatGPT made six separate math errors. Each time it confidently asserted something to be true when in fact it was provably false, and each time it would cheerfully admit its error when I pointed it out.

My recommendation is to keep ChatGPT on a short leash. Don’t ask it anything you can’t directly confirm yourself.

Econbrowser has moved to a new server

This weekend we moved the hosting for Econbrowser to a new server. This should not affect how anyone accesses or experiences the content of the site. The one consequence is that comments that were entered Saturday night or Sunday morning would have been lost. If this is the case for you, please re-enter your comment now. If you experience any other problems, please let us know.

(Non)Diversity in Econoblogging

The issue of diversity in economic discourse has occupied a prominent place over the past few years. The AEA has had long running initiatives to broaden the diversity of individuals in the economics professions, along gender, racial and ethnic lines, but it’s fair to say they have become much more visible as the debate has waxed: https://www.aeaweb.org/resources/best-practices . The last AEA conference had a panel devoted to the topic of racial diversity (video) . A good summary of the argument for promoting diversity in the economics profession is provided by Janet Yellen. A forceful statement on the economics professions gender diversity problem is here.

What about the EconoBlogosphere (or what remains of it)?

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Economists for Biden-Harris

More than 200 economists have signed a letter of support for Joe Biden and KamalaHarris. Signers include Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, Laura Tyson,William Spriggs, Claudia Goldin, Robert Reich, Robert Gordon, Ebonya Washington, Jeff Sachs, and Emmanuel Saez. The letter contends that the U.S. is facing a series of simultaneous major crises — health, economic, and political — and that only strong national leadership from the Biden-Harris ticket supported by a grassroots democratic movement can address these crises and create an economy that works for all Americans.

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