Oh I wish. Artificial Intelligence [AI] has invaded my world and yours, like a virus. Neither of us can be sure who is contacting us today, by phone or online, or who is collecting what we say and do. I remain amazed that companies keep track of my every move online, often giving me unwanted ideas about the things I was writing about or searching for. For me, it’s like being followed by some invisible evil spirit that is constantly noting what I do and occasionally shocking me when it suddenly appears with a scary idea about what I should be doing: think ‘Hal’ in the 2001 Odyssey movie. It’s happening and no one knows what its ultimate value or price may be for people.
My reliance on algorithms has grown from all the things my personal computer and mobile devices do automatically to my most recent outrage - how my government and most companies insist that I must ‘chat’ with them instead of talk to someone. I get it. Artificial Intelligence [AI] is a bonanza for bureaucracies and corporations, from governments to my favourite fast food joint. All of them want to get rid of people [staff] to lower operating costs and boost profits by no longer wasting time on people [staff or customers]. Now they just waste ‘our’ time, not theirs.
People, i.e., ‘customers’, are a pain to companies and governments that can’t operate without them. Ironically, as profits and shareholder values soar, or governments expand their pedantic control over the people they ‘serve’, it’s ordinary customers - i.e., people who need and pay for things - who are absorbing the fast growing, high costs of artificial intelligence. Yes, we pay cash for most things, but now we pay with our very lives: i.e., ‘lives’ being the time we have to exist on planet earth. It’s only our time that is being trashed as companies reduce services, force people to line up in stores or online, all the while feigning concern and care for us with their AI chats, messaging and time-consuming ‘surveys’. Notice how many come from ‘do not reply’ sources?
I digress. My purpose today is to assure you that when you read something with my name on it, on this site, I wrote it and I mean it. Sometimes you’ll see errors in spelling, punctuation, my use of technology or how I am supposed to behave ‘online’ - I am human, making mistakes. Plus, as a late adopter of the online world I live in, I do not know how to use all the tools or social media properly: my apologies. And of course, my views and ideas are mine: it’s up to you to assess their value. Regardless, they’re mine and it’s me!
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