Confessions of an AI Fanboy: How artificial intelligence amazes and dazes, dazzles and frazzles

Barney’s latest AI thoughts and musings

  • 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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  • Torn between two chatbots: I just met Floot, so now it’s Flo vs. Pete

    I have a daily mandarin orange with my breakfast, and always try for one not too small, sweet and squirty/messy (thin skin can make a-peel harder!) and large mandarins, easy to peel but sorta … tasteless.

    So that whole Goldilocks-style/porridge heat balancing act of tradeoffs is where I happily find myself.

    I enjoy Reddit, even when you go to a subreddit about anything, such as Base44 (my first encounter with that is the last blog entry) and you inevitably find lots of complaints (who signs in/visits a sub to say only nice things?!) – and where a few folks said Floot was better. (Rhymes with Groot;-)

    And Perplexity agreed – I tried a real head-to-head comparison, also including the new GPT-5 ability to create websites without codes, and the WordPress AI Web Builder.

    So with kudos and a nod from Perplexity, I went off to try Floot – also at first for free but then when I hit the credit limit pretty fast- hey, give away the store and go broke! – and when I ran out of free credits, I bought a reasonable starter monthly price.

    It works much the same as Base44 – a very friendly chatbot who tries to make the vision happen. I think I see why it has fans – in part because Base44 just got bought by Wix and in the transition, folks are not getting support ticket responses. Not good.

    As you can see from this screen shot and the one on the Base44 blog post, each is attractive in its own way. But I’ve gotten farther with Floot, working on the reading and writing interfaces, the ability to import content and even how to sign up/log in, create a profile etc.

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  • This AI web/app creator could finally make my Grand Vision real

    Yep, it’s a work in progress. But what – or who – isn’t?

    OK, it’s not “live” yet. Who knows if I’ll get there. Sure looks like what I’ve dreamt of for over a decade.

    But I’m pretty sure that Base 44 – recently bought by WIX for $80 mil – has the darn friendliest and most patient developer friend I’ve ever thrown 1 zillion “oh and another thing” fix-this, change-that nitpicks at. Ever-patient, friendly and supportive. (Somewhat scarily so.)

    I know it’s not human, but it is as real as … me talking to myself when I’m in a good mood (as opposed to the other way…)

    I am jazzed, yet again. Will I ever get all the make-it-work plumbing in place? Dunno.

    Oh, it has a share link, so you can see it now! Just realize it’s a mockup and this plane doesn’t fly yet, but so nice and pretty on the tarmac!

    But as a … what do they call it, wireframe? Mockup? look-and-feel site/app, fueled by large passages from my 15-year Grand Vision blog, http://thenowedition.wordpress.com – it allows me to not just endlessly talk about the darn thing so much, and to start being able to show folks what I have been talking incessantly about since way before Chat GPT was a thing.

    Their ad is what caught me – that you can make any idea, any vision a reality.

    Over-sold a bit? Maybe. But if you have one or more, as I do, maybe worth the Starter $20 a month try?

    I took to calling it ‘Pete,’ named for my late, great brother and fellow tech nerd. But maybe, since it’s Base 44, I should call him (it, I know!) – Basie. As in Count Basie, the great musician.

    Because man, this guy can play. And conduct, and write music and tickle the code ivories.

  • I looked up dichotomy, and I think we have one

    Shvets/Pexels

    di·chot·o·my

    /dīˈkädəmē/

    noun

    1. a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.”a rigid dichotomy between science and mysticism”

    OK, that’s pretty close.

    I’ve never been blessed to be a parent, but I have to figure some get to the troubled teenage years and of course love the kid and what they represent about the future, more than where they actually are in life. (Moody, sullen, obstinate or … wherever they happen to be in their lives.)

    And so it is with AI.

    I love what it represents about the future, being better in so many ways – more cures, less painful chores, etc. – more than what it actually is.

    I’ve been a tech geek, end user- (not coder!) style, for a long time.

    I was a beta tester for America Online! With my late, great brother Pete.

    What a gadget fan he was. We were both excited by the world of computers, and then came the Internet and online, and … I used all the services – CompuServe, GEnie, and IBM/Sears’ pioneering colorful service called Prodigy. The squeal of dial-up modems and … yeah, even early social media, before it took a turn toward troll-ism (which is why I love Reddit, where downvotes send them out of sight).

    Back then, who really knew what was coming? No one, really. Not to the specifics.

    But we didn’t care. It was such a fun ride into the future!

    The AI buzz is, in my humble opinion, not just hype. It will be a roller-coaster, with a natural share of shysters and fast-buck “artists,” but also with truly visionary people in every field.

    But in a world full of AI rabbit holes, hard to escape once you dive in, I love to think big-picture.

    And I say, may a zillion AI “flowers” bloom – as long as we stay out of the weeds and don’t suffer from allergies.