More AI on Kurt Vonnegut
Jay Karamales, the co-author of The Hunting Falcon, asked Copilot AI the same question. I pick up his narrative here:
“It replied (in its long-winded way, which I excerpt here):
“No—they could not have known each other.
Buddecke died in 1918, and Vonnegut wasn’t born until 1922.”
Fair enough. Then, with hopes soaring, I asked:
“So their lives were not contiguous and they didn’t know each other; but were they related?”
Sadly, its answer:
“No—they were not related.
They belonged to entirely different families, countries, and social contexts, with no known genealogical or historical connection.”
Oh well. I guess, like all but about 15 of the Earth’s population, it has not read our book. I will ask Grok the same questions when I get home tonight.”
Anyhow, he (Jay Karamales) posted his comments to the previous blog post, but I (Chris Lawrence) choose to report in a separate blog post, seeing how AI is supposed to replace us all and take over the world.
Part of its (Copilot) confusion is that it assumed Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Almost certainly Hans Buddecke knew Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. He was a regular visitor to the Albert Lieber household and came to the United States according to his account with the encouragement of tall beauty Edith Lieber. She married Kurt Vonnegut in November 1913 and had their first child (the famous scientist, but not as famous as his younger brother) Bernard Vonnegut on 29 August 1914. Hans Buddecke never met Bernard Vonnegut, having started in trip back to Germany in early August, but he certainly knew of him.
That is the problem. AI does not read books. Books are protected in the U.S. by a 70-year copyright law. So anything that has been written about in the last 70 years is not available to AI unless it has been reposted in some form on the internet. Most authors have other things to do with their time (other than service AI).
AI also does not go to the archives either. Apparently does not search the on-line newspaper files, which would show that Lieber and Buddecke are related and working together in 1914. In particular is the article in The Indianapolis News, Friday 31 July 1914 “Birdman Flies over Western Part of City”, which identified “Johann Buddecke” and “…his uncle, Albert Lieber.”
The Morane D-3801 (from Switzerland late 1940).
The call for presentations for the Fifth HAAC is here: 
