A.I., New Applications
We were planning the holidays on FaceTime with my stepson, and our granddaughter kept popping energetically into the screen. She had questions about an art project she was working on, wanted to see her Poppy and I on the screen and wanted to see if I’d stick my tongue out when she did (I did.)
Her dad was sharing the latest challenges in parenting. I must say I am so happy to have moved on from that chapter, so difficult and with so few magic answers. Our granddaughter is kindergarten age but reading many years beyond her level. This can be a problem, as her school offers no special program for her advanced level of achievement. Her dad worries she will grow bored or cease moving ahead if she isn’t properly motivated.
He is adept with technology and a creative individual. After pondering the situation, he came up with his own program. The largest leap is that he has Chatbot teaching his little girl Spanish. The Bot will correct her errors as it speaks with her at her age level of clases de Espanol. This task is completed on an iPad.
Learning a language from Chatbot was not something I considered. Most of the time, we are trying to see if A.I. is truthful (so far, yes) and observing that it is still very much in its infancy. It still makes mistakes in clarity of ideas. Artificially composed music and writing lack soul, in my opinion. I’m not at the frightened level, more at the “how can this make life easier?” level.
I think of A.I. as a high-tech tool and we need to find out ways it can better humanity or ease our daily lives.
I would like an application where I could tell A.I. all the companies that send me unwanted emails and somehow it could intercept about half of my daily email before I log on. I definitely have no interest in male enhancement drugs! And I do not want correspondence from my most disliked politicians. Yet there they are in my email.
Now, I have to spend too much time unsubscribing to companies I have no interest in. When I give my email to “unsubscribe” I am suspicious that the company will sell the email to another group of marketers. A couple of times I’ve asked to “hide my email” and gibberish is typed as my associated spam box email. I have no idea if this works.
I am not the user who is going to make groundbreaking progress with A.I. What I could see is asking Chatbot to help me with a difficult conversation. Sometimes I don’t have the right words, and I want to tell someone something sensitive, perhaps without ruffling feathers. I’m waiting for the next time this opportunity presents and I’m going to give Chatbot a trial. Maybe our diplomats should give it a whirl on world discord.
The holidays would have been the perfect moment to practice using computer-generated language had I not been with tolerant friends who had no arguments. I read several news articles before the holiday suggesting how to respond to the bombastic uncle after he has imbibed that one sip too many of wine and brings up a sensitive topic right when everyone is enjoying the meal. It seemed to be a problem of the masses. I need the exact words that could halt the moment.
Meanwhile, we are eagerly waiting for a visit from our granddaughter and her mom and dad. I am wondering if she will waltz in the door, practicing her Spanish and expecting us to respond. I may resort to my translation app so I don’t disappoint her. Imagine being intimidated by a five-year old. Perhaps A.I. is offering us progress we hadn’t imagined.
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