Editorial

Dear readers,

In eighteen months from now it will be time to celebrate ten years since the first issue of y/our journal. Accordingly, I am lately finding myself taking stock, musing, wondering what to change, to improve… I am learning to use new tools, progressively introducing Artificial Intelligence into my workflow. And maybe that’s why I am inclined to weigh-up and ponder all the more. Where should we let AI encroach, and how far? Do we keep checking on it, or trust it? Imagine this: A key, with “boat” written on the key fob. Does that mean it’s a key to a boat? Or is it the boat-hire business owner’s sneaky attempt to ‘fob off ’ some sneak-key-thief? Oh come on, you’ll be thinking, this kind of second-guessing is no good for you, more than likely it is indeed a boat key! Yet, can this kind of guileless thinking, founded on elementary confidence in human nature, be applied to AI? Artificial Intelligence may indeed lack any guile, deviousness, and is not out to trick us on purpose, but that alone will not suffice. AI has no consciousness, it has NO intentions (hopefully), no sense of guilt about pulling the wool over our eyes, leading us astray. It’s all too easy to trust what it writes in reply, just as it’s easy to believe the key marked “boat” is in fact a boat key. Just in these last few weeks I have called out AI personally, as it tried to bamboozle me. It took quite some time and effort to persuade it that it was mistaken. One such case was when it claimed a renowned lady writer hadn’t written two books in the last few years (AI stuck to claiming there had been only one), and the second case was when it proclaimed – a particularly zesty quirk on its part – that there was no Pope Leo XIV (about a week after his announcement). It was pretty tiresome to talk ‘her’ out of it. I did get her to apologize to me in the end. But I felt no joy as a result of my ‘triumphant victory’. I realised how easily one could succumb to AI mystifications, inaccuracies and even downright falsehoods. It is too easy to suspend disbelief, put critical thinking aside and float along blithely on the gentle wave of convenient, immediate and painless acceptance.

And here is the crux of why I am writing this to you, dear readers. Our journal also brings information, plenty of it! And despite our editorial team being delighted by the articles and looking forward to how these articles will enrich y/our understanding, let us bear in mind that these are but pieces of information to work with, to follow further. We wish you the time and interest to read not only this journal but everything you come across, now and in the future, with an open, curious yet cautious mind. It is highly likely that where a “boat” tag is written, a boat will be found. But it is not to be taken for granted.

May you sail the high seas of information with all good fortune, such is our wish to you all, from all of us in the LKL editorial team. Zuzana Lebedová

PS: The mindful reader will have noticed a small change – no interview with the ‘Guiding Lights’ of our domain. We are definitively relocating interviews to our ‘Řeči o řeči’ [Speaking of speaking] podcast on YouTube and Spotify; those pages are being freed-up for reviewed articles. Nothing has been lost, and we appreciate your kind indulgence.