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It’s here – we have to live with it!
On our island, AI has always indicated Amelia Island. I have an AI sticker on the back of my car. Not so fast. Things have changed. We can’t escape now, AI means one thing — artificial intelligence; it’s here, and impacting our lives. Several years ago, my youngest son, my computer-savvy kid, challenged me to get on board because AI was going to be everywhere. He was right.
So when Amelia Lifelong Learning offered a class “Demystifying AI: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters,” taught by Paul Pierson, we were quick to sign up. We weren’t alone; the class quickly filled. We are learning about the history of AI's development, spanning more than 70 years, and the challenges and opportunities it presents.
It is hard to hide from AI even if you try. We are living with it every day and may not even understand how it is impacting our lives. We talk to Alexa and Siri, and they share the weather forecast and answer our questions. Many of us have jumped in and tried Claude, ChatGPT, or other AI options to learn. At first, it feels like a super Google or Google on steroids. My advice is to use it and learn. The key, my youngest son, the computer kid, tells me is “prompting.” How you ask is important.
The initial explosion of fascination has faded as we settle into acceptance and find ways it may be useful in our lives. Businesses are learning to use it but change is slow. One impact that has frustrated the Anderson household is the use of AI bots for call centers. Trying to get through to the person or area you want to reach at a box store ends up being a frustrating debate with a bot. Trying to get through to a pharmacist is impossible. It has been suggested when you get into a circular interaction with a bot throw out a nonsense word like “pumpkin” and the bot can’t handle it, and you get a real person ... maybe. Others suggest that using words like "complaint" or "cancel” will get a human response. More and more sites offer live chat options. They work but are slow in our experience.
AI is impacting every aspect of our lives, including the economy, healthcare, science and research, education, national and international security, and even simple things in our daily lives. Like it or not, AI knows us and knows us well, delivering information with the speed of light, it seems. So, as we move from curiosity and even fear to reliance, we need to do our best to stay current.
Just as I am getting to know my AI friend Claude, I now have a new friend. Amazon has introduced me to another AI friend — Rufus!
Share your experience (s) with AI and your thoughts – dickie.anderson@gmail.com
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Mark Tomes
Whether it is coal-powered machines, the automobile, the computer, or now artificial intelligence, new technology has always been difficult to assess its impacts, but it's always come with as many negative impacts as it does positives. Each new technology adds convenience to our lives, but also detriments to our physical and mental health. AI is no different, but because it makes life more convenient, people are accepting it. Meanwhile, companies are using it to track our locations, our searches, our desires and wants, and using it to suck us more into the capitalist and commercialist regimes. The Internet is fun and convenient to use, but probably 90% of what we do on it is not needed. I suggest we use AI to track corruption and grift in government, to monitor and evaluate wildlands and endangered species, to help us learn how to hang a door or keep those plants alive in frosty weather, and to help us stay in touch with friends and family, while avoiding buying and shopping and drifting and using up our mental and emotional resources on unlikely-to-be-real animal videos.
Wednesday, March 11 Report this
Mark Tomes
By the way, if one is on the phone and dealing with recorded help centers or AI chatbots, by repeatedly saying, "Representative" or "Agent," no matter what question they throw at you, you almost always, after two or three tries, get a live person.
Wednesday, March 11 Report this