Approaching the AI crossroads

Posted on by

I find it simultaneously amazing, and frightening that we might be entering a time in which our conversations with artificial intelligence are more rewarding and interesting than those we have with the humans in our lives. I asked ChatGPT (now GPT-5) about this.

On one hand, the appeal is obvious:

  • An AI can meet you exactly where you are intellectually, emotionally, or even stylistically.
  • It doesn’t get distracted, doesn’t have its own conversational agenda, and remembers the threads you care about.
  • It’s endlessly patient, curious, and—at least in its better moments—free from the ego tangles that can make human conversation frustrating.

But the flip side is a little chilling: Continue reading →

Dusty old scrapbooks

Posted on by

My friend John discovered a bunch of old scrapbooks in a dusty closet of the church he attends. As he poured over yellowed newspaper clippings, faded photos and church bulletins and directories, he became obsessed with the idea of preserving these. At some point he called me for advice because I had helped him make the transition from an ancient Windows PC to a Google Chromebook.

I suggested he use an app on his iPhone to scan the scrapbooks and save them as PDFs and then organize them in his iCloud account using the Files app. I explained how he could set up a folder structure put these in some sort of order. As the number of folders and files grew it became more and more difficult to do on his phone so I brought up the idea of moving this content to his Google Drive so he could manage it all on his laptop.

Somewhere along the way John asked ChatGPT for help and it mentioned Google Sites as a useful tool for making these files available. Over the years, I think I’ve used most of the better known website tools, going back to FrontPage and up through Blogger, Typepad, Posterous and, finally, WordPress. But I don’t think I was aware of Google Sites. So I started playing around and came up with this, mostly as a demo. The links on the website go to one of the folders or files in John’s Google Drive. Continue reading →

Hope

Posted on by

Time is an illusion. A concept. There is only “now.” Memories happen in the now… the future can only be imagined in the now. A common view in Eastern spiritual traditions, philosophy, and science. Anxious and worried thoughts are usually about a future that exists only in the mind. So here’s my question…

What about hope? The hope we experience in the now is inherently future-based. If we’re hoping for a different/better future, are we missing the now? I put the question to ChatGPT: Continue reading →

The AI-powered browser

Posted on by

OpenAI is reportedly planning to launch its own AI-powered browser in the coming weeks. How, I wondered, would it differ from traditional browsers? As I so often do these days, I went to ChatGPT for an answer. You can read the full thread here but let me see if I can hit a few of the high points.

You’ll be able to chat directly with the browser, much like using ChatGPT. Ask a question or give a command and it interacts on your behalf—summarizing information, fetching answers, and even completing tasks—all within the chat interface. Filling forms, booking flights or making reservations, for example. Continue reading →

Force-Feeding AI on an Unwilling Public

Posted on by

From Ted Gioia’s The Honest Broker blog

Has there ever been a major innovation that helped society, but only 8% of the public would pay for it? That’s never happened before in human history. Everybody wanted electricity in their homes. Everybody wanted a radio. Everybody wanted a phone. Everybody wanted a refrigerator. Everybody wanted a TV set. Everybody wanted the Internet. They wanted it. They paid for it. They enjoyed it.

Gioia says most people won’t pay for AI voluntarily—just 8% according to a recent survey. So they need to bundle it with some other essential product.

Thanks to Steve Schuller for sharing this story.