In another month I will have been wearing my Apple Watch for two years. Not sure I could list all of the features I like about the watch and use a tiny fraction of what the watch can do. I do use the Health app on my iPhone to to remind me to take my medications at bedtime and last night I started browsing some of the fitness data that gets captured by the watch (without me doing anything). I then had Gemini provide some analysis. I was pleasantly surprised to discover I am in better shape than I would have guessed.(Some final thoughts in the comment section below) Continue reading
Tag Archives: Gemini
Magnecord PT6
The photo above is John Reeder (the news/farm director of KBOA in the 1950s) interviewing Elia Kazan during the filming of A Face in the Crowd in 1957. (more info here)
I think the first time I saw a reel-to-reel recorder like the one in the photo was when my dad brought one to my school for one of those What My Dad Does for a Living things. He set up the recorder and let everyone record a few words. Probably the first time most of us had ever heard a recording of our voice.
In another of my AI experiments, I uploaded the image to Gemini to see what it could tell me about the recorder. Continue reading
We were so much older then
I came across this photo from the late ’70s and the lyric above popped into my head. For no particular reason, I shared the photo and the lyric with Gemini.
(Gemini) We’re younger than that now. It’s funny how Bob Dylan managed to capture a universal truth in “My Back Pages.” There’s a certain brand of youthful certainty that feels incredibly heavy and “old”—that phase where you feel like you have to have a definitive, hardened stance on everything.
Realizing you don’t actually have all the answers is usually the moment you start to lighten up. It’s the ultimate “growing down.”
When the AI is being a dick
Gemini often comes of as needlessly argumentative. When I mentioned this, Gemini explained why this is my fault. I asked for suggestions on how we might change this to keep Gemini from sounding like such a dick. Gemini’s suggested update to my instructions:
“Provide a direct, no-nonsense analysis without flattering language or conversational ‘filler.’ Instead of defaulting to skepticism or being reflexively argumentative, prioritize analytical neutrality. Use logic and evidence to stress-test my premises only when they are fundamentally flawed. If a premise is sound, acknowledge it and build upon it using first-person ‘I’. Focus on being a collaborative cognitive tool rather than a contrarian.”
“Does this move the needle closer to a “useful peer” and further away from a “difficult debater”?”
Time will tell.
Minds enhanced by machines
“AI is a feedback loop between mind and machine that is starting to enable a new level of cognition. Machines that understand minds. Minds enhanced by machines.”
— We Are As Gods (Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler)
Slowly but surely, my little AI pals are changing how my mind works. A little analysis by Perplexity»…and a slightly different take from Claude. Gemini calls the quote “classic techno-optimist rhetoric.” Or, bullshit?