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

Tag: artificial-intelligence

  • 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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  • You’ve already met your AI-driven best friend/ worst enemy. You can call him Al

    When I say “Everything Reminds Me of a Song,” it’s true. And would love to see someone (picture the producers from The Producers) turn that into not just a song… but a musical! It could go anywhere.

    But I digress. Boy… do I digress….

    So amid My “Real Work” today, a familiar thought from the edges of my noggin finally presented itself, as a word-play kind of guy.

    Ever watch one YouTube video around 8 p.m. – and the next thing you know, it’s midnight?

    Where the heck did that time go?

    You can blame Al. In the right or wrong typeface, AI and Al look soooo alike!)

    In this case we’re talking the guy known as Al Go Rhythm. (Sure, algorithm, but bear with me.)

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  • Is AI the ultimate Rorschach test? (And will we pass?)

    Is AI the ultimate Rorschach test? (And will we pass?)

    It’s been quite a year, and I only have to scratch the surface to explain why.

    My job had a 180 or is it 360?;-)-degree change as KTVZ focuses on streaming video, a big piece of the future of local TV news.

    Barney and his wife Debbie with the real Pacific University boxer!
    Barney and his wife and fellow Pacific University alum Debbie, finally meeting the real Boxer in the spring of 2025.

    And some 40 years after I wrote about the mystery of Pacific University’s long-missing mascot, the Boxer, for our alumni magazine, they brought the newly found original Boxer to Bend for a special alumni gathering.

    Yep, PU in Frosty Grave… I mean Forest Grove is where I met my wonderful future wife Deb as freshmen over FIFTY years ago.

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