Talking About Homelessness

By Wayne Brown


In the course of our morning coffee break, the issue of homelessness came up. We used Perplexity to gather some facts or at least "talking points." Full text here. We learned a lot, including about the concept of "housing first." There were subtle lessons to learn as well. Perplexity tends to quote from "boilerplate" from Government Program announcements and websites. It "inherits" the breathless optimism from those announcements, making it seem like Perplexity itself (just a fancy browser) is enthusiastic.

Even so, we were impressed at the ability to drill down on local programs and address the issue of religious sponsorship.

With all its warts, Perplexity improved our understanding of homelessness, but the takeaway is that this occurs in the context of two human beings discussing the issue and getting quick information. Again, it comes down to asking the right questions.
 

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