John Dickerson

John Dickerson is co-anchor of "CBS Evening News" and anchor of "CBS Evening News Plus." He is also a Contributing Writer to The Atlantic and is co-host of the Slate Political Gabfest.

  • 04/01/2023: Chat GPT is terrible at poltiics

    Question:
    The Manhattan district attorney has issued an indictment of Donald Trump but the facts are not known and will not be known for several days, how should that encourage or discourage a person from forming opinions about the indictment itself?
    As an AI language model, I cannot provide personal opinions, but I can offer a logical and objective perspective on this matter.

    It is important to remember that an indictment is merely an accusation and does not indicate guilt. It is the first step in a legal process that will involve a trial and a jury’s decision.

    Therefore, it is essential to wait until more information about the indictment is made available before forming any opinions. Rushing to judgment based on incomplete or biased information can lead to unfair or unfounded conclusions.

    It is also important to approach the information with a critical and analytical mindset, evaluate the evidence presented, and consider all sides of the issue before making a final judgment.

    Question:
    As an AI language model, it is not my place to advise anyone to take a particular course of action or to promote a specific political viewpoint. However, I can offer a logical and objective perspective on the matter.

    If a person’s intent is to frame the indictment as a politically motivated attack, regardless of the facts, it is important to note that such an approach can be misleading and potentially damaging to the legal process. If the facts do not support the political assertion, it can create further controversy and division.

    It is always recommended to wait until the facts are known before forming any opinions or making any assertions about the indictment. Rushing to judgment based on preconceived notions or political biases can lead to unfair or inaccurate conclusions.

    Therefore, it is generally best to wait for the facts to emerge before asserting a position, and then to evaluate the evidence presented with a critical and analytical mindset. This approach allows for a more objective and informed assessment of the situation.

    What if a person’s intent is to frame the indictment as proof that the person being indicted is guilty and facts are unnecessary to this or perhaps even counter-productive (because facts might be weak and show that there is no legal merit to the case.). Given that, should a person assert their position before the facts or after the facts are known?
    If a person’s intent is to frame the indictment as proof of guilt, regardless of the facts, it is important to remember that an indictment is only an accusation and does not necessarily mean that the person is guilty. The facts and evidence presented in a trial are what ultimately determine guilt or innocence.

    Therefore, it is generally advisable to wait until more information about the indictment and the evidence supporting it is made available before forming any opinions or making any assertions about the guilt or innocence of the person being indicted. Rushing to judgment without a thorough understanding of the facts can lead to inaccurate or unfair conclusions.

    Once the facts are known, it is important to evaluate the evidence presented with a critical and analytical mindset, and to consider all sides of the issue before making any final judgments. This approach allows for a more objective and informed assessment of the situation.

    • More Notions

  • 03/25/2023: A satisfying GPT exchange

    A lot of the coverage of change GPT has been about the learning and development of artificial intelligence. What I wonder is how we, as humans, are going to slowly learn and acculturate to the kinds of exchanges with ChatGPT and its cousins. What I’m thinking about is the psychological closeness that will accrue in […]

  • 03/24/2023: Chat GPT on the difference between how to think about important issues.

    There is a gap in American public conversation between what gets covered and what is objectively important. Presidential campaigns exacerbate this gap. I asked Chat GPT to list the important stories and then I asked Chat GPT to list the stories about issues that impact the greatest number of Americans, which is a rough proxy […]

  • 03/24/2023: This is how we beat the robots

    I’m not kidding. When artificial intelligence becomes so good at copying human behavior, we will need to get really good at head fakes. Remember this simple rule: head fakes beat deep fakes. This is how we will beat Chat GPT. https://t.co/CZoZUpjYBk — John Dickerson (@jdickerson) March 24, 2023

  • 03/24/2023: We Have Three Questions on Prime Time

    https://johndickerson.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/CN-PT-JOHN-DICKERSON-_17_16x9_JD_SOCIAL-DELIVERABLE.mp4

  • 03/23/2023: Beethoven's Grit and Gut

    You’ve probably seen the stories about how scientists used strands of Beethoven’s hair to examine his DNA. They did so in the hopes of trying to learn more about the cluster of illnesses that troubled the composer throughout his life. He was a mess. I knew that he was afflicted–most notably by a loss of […]

  • 03/22/2023: John McPhee on reading out loud.

    From The Paris Review. INTERVIEWER Is reading your work aloud still important? MCPHEE Certainly the aural part of writing is a big, big thing to me. I can’t stand a sentence until it sounds right, and I’ll go over it again and again. Once the sentence rolls along in a certain way, that’s sentence A. […]

  • 03/22/2023: Historical Shade and political anti-intellectualism

    Governor Ron DeSantis gave this response to Donald Trump’s nickname “Ron Sanctimonious” in a recent interview: “I don’t know how to spell the sanctimonious one. I don’t really know what it means, but I kinda like it, it’s long, it’s got a lot of vowels. We’ll go with that, that’s fine.” The nickname thing is […]

  • 03/21/2023: How Imprint helps me beat the morning and makes the day richer

    For those of you who have read my Atlantic essay on recapturing my day, you know about my daily fight to beat the morning. I have found an extremely useful tool: The Imprint app. I have developped a pretty good routine for keeeping focus while at my desk (thank you Calk Neport, Marshall Goldsmith, David […]

  • 03/18/2023: Writing: The leaving out

    I’ve written a lot in this space about the space in which art takes place. In the writing I’m working on now I’m working on that puzzle. How to say what you need to say, and how to evoke and how to carry along a reader without giving them too much. I don’t want to […]

  • 03/15/2023: Faith and Hope

    At the end of 2020 I wrote about that pandemic year so I wouldn’t forget what it was like. I wrote about hope and Thomas Merton: “By hope…the abstract and impersonal become …intimate conviction,” wrote the Trappist monk Thomas Merton. “What I believe in faith, I possess and make my own by hope.” Hope in […]