AI, oh aye.

One thing about living through all this zero-to-one (70s to 20s) tech business is the appreciation of what AI is. And more importantly; isn't.

Example; for at least two decades I've been waiting for software to pay attention to what I'm doing. And it's still not doing it. Why not?

What? When I hit "Esc" after repeating some task three times unsuccessfully. That is recorded exactly nowhere. And actioned never. This bothers me. We (humans) are better than that. Aren't we?

Actually scrub that. We are not. Humans, I mean. Better than that I mean. We are not. Which is why it hasn't happened en-masse; I guess.

Sure, there is software "out there" which has some of these qualities, but it hasn't been released to you - the public. At least mine hasn't. Well, maybe checksum, some. And I still don't see anything remotely clever going on in that space which should by now be clever. But isn't.

Alt+F4 means something. "huifhy78e3r4huy78oe w3r4h783fr5dgfrdsvgfzcdvf4ghuy8 sewgfr5hu7i8pe fr54whu798pf4rhu798p", does not. Why not?

When I slam both hands on my keyboard repeatedly for three whole seconds, why isn't the software registering hundreds of nonsensical key clicks? Simply, because no one told it to.

As more than one person has pointed out to me: humans are shit. Not a sentiment I agree with entirely; but I dig it; shit happens and you think, "if I were the person in charge of shit happening there I would make shit happen like this, and fuck me not like that".

Or something like that. Not being in control, even though you paid for a licence (or license, if you are in the USA) is no fun.

Be careful what you personify. We actually accept the fact that the entity on the other end is not human, but being a collective sort of humanness, is actually good enough. Even when it is plain wrong. Which it most often is; especially when used outside pure archive research accumulation.

Basically nothing scares me. Even this shit doesn't scare me. But I do think, "Fuck me, what sort of world have I brought kids in to?". If the digital world can be 100% created, and our kids spend 90% of their free time in the digital world, erm, well the Mathematics is only justifiable FOR $CIENCE!

Their little brains will simply be different from us oldies. This is now fact. In a tiny slice of time we have reshaped the human brain; not with enlightened discourse and vital experience, but with Hary Potter and Peppa Pig and whatever else you fed them.

Welcome to the grand experiment. As adults you could not resist the exquisite kid's- pastime on offer, better than any auto-rocker, and as kids the irresistible tap-tap their way into mental oblivion, you can at least be safe in the knowledge that you "didn't know". The data will take time to filter in, but they will say this:

Screen Time == Bad.

They need enough that they know how to fluidly operate the latest systems, but not so much that they will prefer it over real-life activity.

When they start to slip into the latter category, you gently shift them back1. Simple.

Or else leave them to it and continue with your "work". Please do let me know how that goes.

So it's about quality. They have X amount of time on their device. We want them to learn. We want them to have "fun". But above all, we want peace, right? Bring on the AI ...

I get requests from Google Play Store. THIS kid wants to install THIS app; YES/NO. Mostly it's games. And mostly they are shit games which I deny; after having researched said game. Once in a while I get an oddball request from my youngest, like..

AI Chat Assistant

Erm. No. Hardeny. I instead make a note to spend more time talking with my youngest. I thought we did heaps of that. But the data say it's not enough. So of course I adapt.

Not that I am 100% against my children communicating with AI. But my youngest hasn't yet learned the distinction between AI and human. And even if they had; they are too young to resist the allure of the realistic-like interactions AI can provide.

I spent almost an hour with it recently. Attempting to coax any sign of intelligence. Still nothing. I try this every year. For years now. The best LLM isn't fit to clean an ant's boots. And ants (who may be even smarter than we are; I'm not certain yet) don't even wear boots.

Regardless; pandora's box has been opened. My eldest chose to stay inside the parental controls after turning 13. Legally, he could have opted out, but didn't. Can I phrase this yet another way? I feel like I'm talking to AI, or trying to survive some translate mechanism; what I am saying is, I am trusted over AI.

Or, more than AI; to moderate the input, to regulate the feed. The data say scary and I am the force that lies between there and here. So I stand, like some knight, at the gateway between reality and all that shit, a parry, a block. Hard work.

I have from now until they are eighteen.

;o)

ps. I apologise for the full stops where there should be commas, but I have been working with stable diffusion for a straight week.