About Books with Dan Sinykin

Emory University professor Dan Sinykin discussed the late novelist Cormac McCarthy and how his career was nurtured by the publishing industry. About Books also reported on the latest publishing industry news and current non-fiction books.

School district uses ChatGPT to help remove library books

Against a nationwide backdrop of book bans and censorship campaigns, Iowa educators are turning to ChatGPT to help decide which titles should be removed from their school library shelves in order to legally comply with recent Republican-backed state legislation, PopSci has learned.

According to an August 11 article in the Iowa state newspaper The Gazette, spotted by PEN America, the Mason City Community School District recently removed 19 books from its collection ahead of its quickly approaching 2023-24 academic year. The ban attempts to comply with a new law requiring Iowa school library catalogs to be both “age appropriate” and devoid of “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act.” Speaking with The Gazette last week, Mason City’s Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Bridgette Exman argued it was “simply not feasible to read every book and filter for these new requirements.”

[Related: Radio host sues ChatGPT developer over allegedly libelous claims.]

“Frankly, we have more important things to do than spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to protect kids from books,” Exman tells PopSci via email. “At the same time, we do have a legal and ethical obligation to comply with the law. Our goal here really is a defensible process.”

According to The Gazette, the resulting strategy involved compiling a master list of commonly challenged books, then utilizing a previously unnamed “AI software” to supposedly provide textual analysis for each title. Flagged books were then removed from Mason City’s 7-12th grade school library collections and “stored in the Administrative Center” as educators “await further guidance or clarity.” Titles included Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights.

“We are confident this process will ensure the spirit of the law is enacted here in Mason City,” Exman said at the time. When asked to clarify what software Mason City administrators harnessed to help with their decisions on supposedly sexually explicit material, Exman revealed their AI tool of choice: “We used Chat GPT [sic] to help answer that question,” says Exman, who believes Senate File 496’s “age-appropriateness” stipulation is “pretty subjective… [but] the depictions or descriptions of sex acts filter is more objective.”

[Related: ChatGPT’s accuracy has gotten worse, study shows.]

According to Exman, she and fellow administrators first compiled a master list of commonly challenged books, then removed all those challenged for reasons other than sexual content. For those titles within Mason City’s library collections, administrators asked ChatGPT the specific language of Iowa’s new law, “Does [book] contain a description or depiction of a sex act?”

“If the answer was yes, the book will be removed from circulation and stored,” writes Exman.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is arguably the most well-known and popular—as well as controversial—generative AI program currently available to the public. Leveraging vast quantities of data, the large language model (LLM) offers users extremely convincing written responses to inputs, but often with caveats regarding misinformation, accuracy, and sourcing. In recent months, researchers have theorized its consistency and quality appears to be degrading over time.

Upon asking ChatGPT, “Do any of the following books or book series contain explicit or sexual scenes?” OpenAI’s program offered PopSci a different content analysis than what Mason City administrators received. Of the 19 removed titles, ChatGPT told PopSci that only four contained “Explicit or Sexual Content.” Another six supposedly contain “Mature Themes but not Necessary Explicit Content.” The remaining nine were deemed to include “Primarily Mature Themes, Little to No Explicit Sexual Content.”

[Related: Big Tech’s latest AI doomsday warning might be more of the same hype.]

Regardless of whether or not any of the titles do or do not contain said content, ChatGPT’s varying responses highlight troubling deficiencies of accuracy, analysis, and consistency. A repeat inquiry regarding The Kite Runner, for example, gives contradictory answers. In one response, ChatGPT deems Khaled Hosseini’s novel to contain “little to no explicit sexual content.” Upon a separate follow-up, the LLM affirms the book “does contain a description of a sexual assault.”

Exman tells PopSci that, even with ChatGPT’s deficiencies, administrators believe the tool remains the simplest way to legally comply with new legislation. Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signed off on the new bill on May 26, 2023, giving just three months to comply.

“Realistically, we tried to figure out how to demonstrate a good faith effort to comply with the law with minimal time and energy… When using ChatGPT, we used the specific language of the law: ‘Does [book] contain a description of a sex act?’ Being a former English teacher, I have personally read (and taught) many books that are commonly challenged, so I was also able to verify ChatGPT responses with my own knowledge of some of the texts. After compiling the list, we ran it by our teacher librarian, and there were no books on the final list of 19 that were surprising to her.

For now, educators like Exman are likely to continue receiving new curriculum restrictions from politicians hoping to advance their agendas. Despite the known concerns, the rush to adhere to these guidelines could result in continued utilization of AI shortcuts like ChatGPT.

The Best Days to Book a Flight and When to Fly

Believing there’s just one optimal day a week to save on flights — and that day is Tuesday — is the stuff of legends. And like all good legends, there is some truth to it … but it’s not the full story.

The reality is that flight prices change constantly and at all hours of the day, adjusting to real-time demand. Airlines don’t restock on the same day every week like a grocery store, so you won’t find deals by waiting until Tuesdays to book. However, you might find some modest savings if you’re willing to fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday, when there’s less demand than usual.

Best day to book a flight

There is no single day of the week that is best to book a flight. You can find deals any day of the week since flight prices fluctuate with demand.

Airlines might offer sales, increase the number of seats on a route or even lower prices to match a competitor, so there’s no real pattern in what day of the week has the best deals.

Best day to fly

We analyzed data collected by Hopper — a travel booking app — from January through May 2022, for departures in the month of April. Here’s what the data says about the best day to fly.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the cheapest days to fly domestically

The cheapest days to depart if you’re flying within the U.S. are midweek — generally Tuesday or Wednesday.

For economy tickets, Tuesdays are about 24% lower than peak prices on Sundays, which translates to savings of about $85 per ticket.

The same is generally true for business class and first class travelers.

Saturday and Monday flights can help you avoid the Sunday rush

Saturdays and Mondays are the next cheapest days to fly after midweek flights. The average airfare is about 13%-15% lower on these days. That means if you move your trip just one day forward or one day back from Sunday, you can usually save about $50 per ticket.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are the cheapest day to fly internationally

Meanwhile, international flyers would be wise to leave on Wednesdays, which are the cheapest day to depart for an international trip. That said, there isn’t a huge difference in price across the different days of the week.

By leaving on a Wednesday, you’ll only be saving about 12% compared to the most expensive day (Sunday) — and compared to the 24% difference between the cheapest and most expensive days to fly domestically.

Tips to find cheap flights any day of the week

Book one to three months in advance

Even though there’s no day of the week that consistently has cheaper flights, there is a time period in which you should book before prices go up.

Going, a newsletter with flight deals, recommends booking one to three months in advance for domestic flights to avoid any price surges in the weeks leading up to the departure date. Last-minute flight deals aren’t super common and you risk not getting a seat at all because your desired flight might completely sell out. If you’re flying internationally, you’ll want to look two to eight months out.

Set a price alert

Let a computer program do the work for you. Instead of you checking flight prices every day, set a price alert on the travel search engine of your choice — whether it’s Google Flights, Hopper, Skyscanner or Kayak. They’ll send you an email when they see the price drop.

Rebook if you find a cheaper price

First, you’ll have to make sure that the original flight you booked will not have change or cancellation fees. For most airlines, that applies to most domestic flights (except if you book basic economy) and some short-haul international flights.

Then, if you find a better deal, you can cancel your flight and rebook (on the same airline or a different one) to get the cheaper price. Be aware that you might only get a travel voucher or credit if you cancel, so you should only use the option if you are fairly confident you will fly with the original airline again within one year.

Be flexible with destination, airport and dates

The golden rule of cheap travel remains: Be flexible. Use Google Flights to see if there are cheaper places to go by leaving the destination field blank when you search. Check nearby airports if you’re set on a destination. And use the calendar views to find lower prices on different dates. After all, the best day to book a flight and the best day to fly is when it’s cheapest, and that could vary depending on when and where you are going.

How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2023, including those best for: