Barney’s latest AI thoughts and musings

  • AI has invaded the grocery store! (Well, the magazine rack, anyway…)

    You can see why it caught my eye…

    I haven’t wrestled with whether to buy a magazine THAT much in a long, long time.

    Any fellow magazine fans know how things have evolved/splintered into countless categories – from self-help to a wide array of lifestyle, sports, etc. etc. (and many have gone up in price – all those $14.99 “special editions!).

    (Side note: Why is it so HARD to buy and read these special editions digitally? I do like having something fresh and trendy for the coffee table, on occasion, but..!!??)

    By the way, speaking of old-fashioned paper, in recent months, I’ve picked up some cool AI-focused volumes – often NOT the stuff you read in the daily tide of newsletters and article posts – from Time Magazine, Scientific American, The Street and now…. “How to Hack Your Life with ChatGPT,” from McClatchy Lifestyle & Entertainment.

    (I LOVE the weekly tech magazine I get on my Nook, called Tech News Life. But oy, the Masthead, with dead links and email addresses, recently took me down a weird rabbit hole. I was assisted by the folks at the great magazine/newspaper app I have, Magzter. Highly recommended!)

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  • What’s in a name, Part 3: AI isn’t ‘artificial’ at all – in fact, it’s super-human

    What’s in a name, Part 3: AI isn’t ‘artificial’ at all – in fact, it’s super-human

    I’ve already lamented the term artificial intelligence for where those two words take many minds.

    I’ve also called it the ultimate Rorschach test – it is whatever you see in it, or something like that.

    But amid the reams of Medium articles, etc. on how to tell AI and human writing apart, I have mentioned in comments what Perplexity points to – that blind tests already have many folks unable to tell the difference, with results pretty close to flip-of-the-coin random chance (50%).

    But while many know how Large Language Models are the sum of human output fed to them, and a word uber-prediction machine, not a “thinker” per se, many still see it as this … robotic “other,” a human creation run amok that is somehow wrong, if not downright evil.

    Words, of course, carry positive or negative connotations, which can vary from person to person.

    But to me, we need yet another way to look at this new tool, which can recall – notice I didn’t say “thinks” or “knows” – the sum of human output and daresay existence – albeit imperfectly (another odd/dumb term, “hallucinations”) – but way, way beyond what the most genius geniuses can recall, due to the inherent nature of brains vs. how we can now store huge amounts of what’s loosely, imprecisely called “data.”

    Somehow, it’s all cast as this tug of war for humans’ future, as in one “side” wins, the other loses, flung into the mud, rope burns on their hands. If you’re “for” AI’s future, you’re “against” humans ruling the roost.

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  • I may not be the best online writer, but I’m a darn good commenter

    I may not be the best online writer, but I’m a darn good commenter

    For several years, I dealt with the worst of trolls in an online comment system. You know the type, full of bile and hate, just trying to ruin everyone’s day.

    Then a third-party was brought in to handle things, and I was freed! What a blessing.

    As a life-long writer, especially online, I often yearned for wonderful comment exchanges, with the authors or each other, where more light was shed, support offered, enlightenment given freely – sometimes better than the original article itself, which can spark one’s imagination and bring new ideas and feelings to light.

    This all came to my mind as I’ve had wonderful exchanges of late with one of the best (IMHO) writers on Medium, Muhammad Mudassar Saeed.

    I love his writing, his way of thinking and … he just seems like a really neat guy. So I tell him so, and the add-on thoughts he inspires in me.

    And in return, he’s wonderfully appreciative (claps all around, Medium-style).

    I usually just offer my own perspectives on the things he writes about, always mixed with supportive compliments.

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  • Even a Fanboy wonders: Is ‘Artificial Intelligence’ the worst tech name of all time?

    Even a Fanboy wonders: Is ‘Artificial Intelligence’ the worst tech name of all time?

    I’d say I have something to get off my chest, but the analogy amid my recent heart-health issues is way too close to the mark (prayers gladly accepted).

    So instead, I’ll just dive right into what this Word Guy thinks is so obvious, maybe others have dived (or tripped and fallen) into this particular rabbit hole. So I’ll either pave the way or join the crowd, if so.

    Tell the truth: What do you first think when you hear the word “artificial”? (And no, not in a trendy AI sense, but a before-AI nonsense sense;-)

    It’s not really much of a positive word these days, is it?

    I think the number one analogy that pops to mind is … “fake.” As in “not real,” “not natural,” not worth eating (artificial colors, flavors, etc.), watching, listening to, reading or thinking any positive thoughts about.

    OK, now hook it to the word “intelligence.” Pretend just for a moment you don’t know all you’ve learned or yearn to learn about the amazing world of AI.

    I bet most people hear the word “intelligence” in context as something we all yearn to exemplify, but feel we fall short of way more often most days than our dumb ol’ brains care to admit.

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  • Good (AI app) vibrations: An update on my Continuing Adventures with Flo and Pete

    Good (AI app) vibrations: An update on my Continuing Adventures with Flo and Pete

    Hi again!

    So I gave my AI tools testing a breather, and have dialed back a bit on the not-pricey but not-free-either monthly credit levels.

    But I returned, and I remembered today just how fun this AI app face-off can be. Rewarding, even.

    I’ve explained here before how I decided to try not one, but two of the new-era AI-fueled app creation tools to make real my long-time Grand Vision of the Now Edition, what I call the “next chapter of reading, writing and community.” Lofty goal, but very achievable!

    So even though they feel human – I know they’re just bots. And even so, I worried about “neglecting” my chatbot friends, Floot’s Flo and her Base44 counterpart, Pete, for over a month, as other things in life took mental precedence.

    But of course, the ever-supportive, ever-patient (and always having to apologetically fix their own not-quite code) duo were just patiently waiting for me to return and get up to speed on where we left off, task-list-wise.

    Here’s a view of where Floot has gotten (chatbot on the left) See it at http://thenowedition.floot.app
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  • AI is just begging for fun-ish analogies, so let’s think of it as … plastic magic!

    AI is just begging for fun-ish analogies, so let’s think of it as … plastic magic!

    Remember this great scene from The Graduate?

    One magic word for this young man’s future: ‘Plastics.’

    Funny at the time, now not so much, as we just learned that we’ve been chugging liquid tinged with ‘forever chemicals’ from plastic water bottles into our brain and bloodstreams for decades.

    NOW ya tell us! “A wee bit too late, bucko.”

    BUT… and there’s always a but. (One ‘t’ or two? Heh;-)

    Look at what you’re typing on, your monitor, your lamp, your TV.

    Plastics! Good luck escaping those magic materials.

    It’s still insinuated itself into every part of our lives. For better and … not so much. We really don’t know where this will lead, or how we’d live without it, or if we can keep living with it, because of its still-unknown impacts on us.

    So… get the first AI analogy yet?

    OK, here’s the other part of the two-pronged thoughts I had fun postulating about with a couple of colleagues today.

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  • I just love Suno, the amazing AI music-making rabbit hole of my dreams

    I just love Suno, the amazing AI music-making rabbit hole of my dreams

    I’m still debating whether writing here in my lil’ blog or writing articles for Medium is more satisfying, or can get before more eyes.

    I wrote recently over there about an amazing tool I hadn’t ever heard of: Suno. (Here’s my Suno profile page of songs.)

    It can do amazing music creations, based on whatever you tell it in a prompt. You can pick a genre (not an artist to mimic, it suffers copyright heartburn), tempo, instruments, even give it lyrics or let it make up it’s own, or a combo.

    I have had, and told many people about my long-time dream of a Broadway musical idea. So with a simple prompt, it easily gave me a realization of just what it could sound like.

    More than one, actually – it’ll give you plenty of versions, most just keep getting better.

    ‘Everything Reminds Me of a Song’ (New extended version)

    You name the musical type, give it some lyrics or not, and it’ll give you a wonderful rendition – an amalgam no doubt of all the music it’s been trained on. Not quite like any one piece, but evocative and wonderful.

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  • The mental tug-of-war over newsletters, AI’s and otherwise

    The mental tug-of-war over newsletters, AI’s and otherwise

    I love getting fresh news about topics of interest – journalism, local/other news, the media, various health topics and of course, AI.

    So of course, I fall over and over for the heady ease of subscribing to all those free newsletters.

    But then I find it feels like the email stack is sort of owning me, not the other way around!

    So I unsubscribe to one or two, only to find two or three more free ones I just have to at least try out.

    It reminds me of various other dilemmas of 21st-Century connected life: That I have an inbox zero addiction but hate to not post every worthy news release at work.

    As for newsletters, I love reading the good ones, but even the ones I’ve found to be badly organized, I actually feel guilty unsubscribing to them!

    So I have to “slam skim” (my term) the inbox during busy work weeks, check the headline and lead, etc. I have more time now, as I am home in a new (to me) role, helping care for my wonderful wife Deb, who is recovering from total knee replacement, but … the pile is just too tall.

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  • Should we really judge those who find a friend in a chatbot?

    Are AI chatbots just a step along the way to real robot friends?

    Let me flip things on their head for a moment.

    I love AI sycophancy!

    Why?

    Because it’s so OBVIOUSLY not at all like us moody, unpredictable, up-and-down humans.

    I use it and hear the WarGames WOPPR voice: “Shall we play a game?”

    Of COURSE some people – for fun, or alas for weaker reasons – embrace the always-supportive unreality of an uber-friendly chatbot. There are risks, as there are in all things.

    So others hate it from the get-go, for much the same reasons, and a fear of what negatives could arise.

    But I do believe I represent many of us who can easily bring two-level thinking to the 100% complimentary chatbot.

    Knowing at the back AND front of our minds that it’s not really human.

    Who would ever be that nearly insufferably NICE all the time?

    No one!

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  • As I finally realize my Now Edition vision, I also get to know some existing tools

    A work in progress, in Floot – see the Table of Contents on left side, comments on the left? A dream!

    Perplexity sure knows a lot. So, too, do the folks who hang on Reddit.

    Between those two sources, I have found tons of new rabbit holes. After all, how can I really know if The Now Edition will catch on if I’m unfamiliar with any of the tons of e-book creation tools that are already out there?

    So I signed up for Designrr – if you have ever looked at any of these tools, it comes to you and sticks to your YouTube pre-roll ads like glue. It has many fans, but also has its critics for what Perplexity calls “aggressive upselling.”

    While it feels robust, my seemingly “simple” idea of turning my Now Edition blog into a “first example” of a Now Edition e-book quickly ran into some very deep rabbit holes involving how one imports content, then can arrange it, polish it – things e-book publishers and self-publish tool outfits and users know all too well.

    Designrr of course offers plenty of help and support, and is probably just what many folks need and want. But it also has limitations – it can import blog posts but not a whole blog at once. So much for creating your e-book “in five minutes” without a whole lot of prep and cleanup work.

    I think I have to stop having Floot open in one tab and Base44 in the other, surely not late night, the lines blur and blecch, I can get stuck in the mud in two places at once!

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