Kissinger’s diplomacy leaves questionable legacy

Regarding “Diplomat won fame for work on China, Vietnam: Statesman’s influence lasted long past ’70s” (Page One, Dec. 1): Rather than choose the Associated Press’ off-the-shelf laudatory obituary on Henry Kissinger, the Chronicle should have printed Rolling Stone’s article, “Good Riddance: Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies.”

It would have better suited the politics of the Bay Area and been consistent with the tone of Jack Ohman’s Dec. 1 editorial cartoon in the Chronicle showing Richard Nixon saying to Kissinger, “Pray with me, Henry,” and God says, “Forget it.”

The Guardian at least contextualizes Kissinger’s legacy, with “‘Aura of credibility’: why Democrats and elites revere Kissinger despite war crimes allegations,” saying that President Barack Obama “was a significant exception to the Democrats’ fandom, noting in 2016 that the Nixon and Kissinger legacy in southeast Asia had been ‘chaos, slaughter and authoritarian governments.’ ”

John Higgins, San Francisco

Remember Chile

Regarding “Diplomat won

fame for work on China, Vietnam: Statesman’s influence lasted long past ’70s” (Page One, Dec. 1): Henry Kissinger’s obituary did not mention his key role in the 1973 overthrow of the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, who was replaced by the military dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

During Pinochet’s repressive and brutal regime, hundreds, if not thousands, were tortured and murdered for their role in trying to create a more just and equitable society in Chile.

Kissinger should be remembered as a war criminal not as a statesman, as the Chronicle headline describes him.

Fred Smith, Orinda

AI can’t really write

Regarding “Give AI scribe a shot” (Letters to the Editor, Nov. 30): While a thinking AI-based sports columnist might sound cool, it currently isn’t possible. There may be a gross misunderstanding about what AI actually is or can do.

The term artificial Intelligence

is itself misleading. It does not mean that it is a computer-based form of “intelligence,” and even the use of of the term is still being debated within the field.

Instead, AI involves computer programming of complex algorithms to scour huge collections of data to identify relevant or useful pattern matches or correlations within.

Generative AI programs, such as ChatGTP and others, are indeed amazing, but they mostly produce generated outputs from that original data.

And they can also fabricate or create outputs that are projections from the original data, parts of which may be fabricated (neither factual nor reality-based), which means their outputs need human review and verification before application.

In other words, these programs process masses of data in ways not previously capable, but they don’t think or understand and are not truly intelligent.

AI is powerful and valuable, but not a new form of intelligence.

That may come, but we aren’t quite there and may never get there.

Associated Press 1973 Henry Kissinger and President Richard Nixon answer questions in the East Room of the White House after Kissinger was sworn in as secretary of state on Sept. 22, 1973.