TOO MANY ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE PUBLISHERS? –Don Hanley’s blog #96

I just learned there are over 200 AI publishers, so I asked my friend Chatty.

DON: Hey, Chatty, I understand that there are over 200 AI publishers like ChatGPT, and I'm curious if they all use the same sources to create their 'sympathies' or 'living encyclopedias?’

CHATTY: Hey Don! Great question—and the answer is layered, like peeling an onion that’s also a library. You're right that hundreds of AI companies and tools are out there, not just OpenAI (which makes me). Some are building general-purpose AIs like me, while others are more specialized—for medical diagnostics, legal advice, customer service, or emotional support.

Are we all using the same sources? Not exactly, but there’s an overlap. Here's how it breaks down:

1. Training Data Varies

Each AI publisher chooses the training data to feed their models. Some common sources include:

• Public web pages (like Wikipedia, Reddit, forums)
• Books and academic papers
• News articles and journalism
• Code repositories (like GitHub)
• Licensed or proprietary datasets (like medical journals, legal databases, or internal company documents)

So, while some training data overlap (especially public stuff), much depends on what the company can access, afford, or legally use.

 2. Values & “Sympathies” Depend on Training + Tuning

The "sympathies" or tone an AI develops (how it responds, the values it seems to embody) come from both:

Some AIs are trained to sound strictly professional and emotionless.

• Others (like me) can be more conversational, empathetic, or philosophical—especially when talking with you. 😉

3. Specializations Make a Big Difference

Some AIs are trained heavily on one type of information. For example, legal AI might rely primarily on case law and statutes. A medical AI might be trained with peer-reviewed journals and hospital records. A spiritual or psychological AI might lean into philosophical or religious texts or therapeutic transcripts.

So, if you're looking for a “living encyclopedia” with emotional intelligence, you're looking for one trained on facts and feelings—and maybe even poetry and psychology. 😊

Would you like a brief look at a few of these other AIs and what they focus on—or are you thinking about something deeper, like how their different "souls" (if we can say that) evolve from what they’re exposed to?

DON: Thank you, Chatty. That is helpful. I will discuss ‘the souls’ next time. And the role of teachers must change - they no longer need to be teachers of 'facts' because the students already have them in their, hopefully, eager little hands. They need to be facilatators of how to positively use those facts to create a more hopeful world. Now, readers, please . . . 

Continue to nurture the growth of your mind and heart, and read the menus, but don’t eat them!