It’s easy to raise alarms about the perils of any device with an iota of connectivity and its apps, and wonder what horrors of privacy invasion are possible. The hard part is to design happy endings between customers and data-collecting businesses. Current technology has the capacity, if so used, to invade everybody’s privacy. Possibly, a huge amount of information is… Read More »What to do about every business, everywhere, and privacy?
Thanks to an astute colleague1, I have a new understanding of chatGPT and its chatBOT, natural language generative relatives (sisters by different parents). This AI stuff isn’t as smart as I thought. I was under the impression that chatGPT produced answers to queries based on being able to eloquently parse information from a bucket of sources. It’s advantage was the… Read More »Re-understanding AI chatBOTs.
From the buzz over the past month, it seems the natural language information AI, chatGPT, and its bretheren artificial intelligence thingies, will write all student essays, assignments, literary art, songs, marketing materials, letters to editors etc. in the future. Maybe. My next step in the understanding this brave new technology was reading the terms and conditions of use1 from OpenAI, creator… Read More »AI that Writes like Us. Regulated.
As a light return to writing science fiction, I want to conjure (had a bit of a passion for fantasy, too) the best and worst uses of emerging technology. Here’s the Venn diagram for how new tech could be used, with good, the bad and unknown applications. The question is, what’s in the middle? I’ve started with a short description,… Read More »Fun with Technology Trends
In the not too distant future, all things will be smart. All inanimate objects will have sensors that collect information, and artificial intelligence to analyze and react to the information. A first generation example is motion sensors that have the sense to turn on lights when people, or your rottweiler, enter the room. Getting a little more sophisticated, there are… Read More »How Smart do you want your Smart Things to be?
The perfect house: energy efficient, climate-controlled, with sweet filtered air inside. Want one? I don’t. To me, healthy living means opening a window to change the temperature in the house and rejoice in what the environment presents1. I’m an environmental pig, living in a house designed over a century ago, lacking in the latest energy efficient technology. Instead, I have… Read More »Evolving with Technology, or is Fresh Air good for you?
Being right about something that’s wrong isn’t very satisfying. This CBC article reports that the mobile app from my favourite provider of coffee and donuts was collecting personal location data inappropriately. The story, highlighting a report from Canada’s privacy commissioner, supports my ongoing contention that apps, in general, may be evil. The level of detail in the CBC post is wonderful, showing… Read More »Privacy and $2 Will Buy you a Cup of Coffee
The basic premise of artificial intelligence, to use enormous amounts of data to find out new things, is easy to grasp. If any one of us had the time and stamina to study a million photos or stories about a thing, I’m sure we’d come up with insights about it too. Business products emerging from current applications of artificial intelligence… Read More »The GUIey Middle of Artificial Intelligence
One day, while shuffling between screens in Safari, the last tab popped into its own shell in the corner of my screen. Because this had never happened before, I hastily shut the new window, fearing a viral infestation that would steal my life savings, edit my LinkedIn profile, or browse photos of my cats. When it happened again, I realized… Read More »Give a Hand, or the Finger, to Techology.
What if everything in the future works like the automated public bathrooms of today? The average state-of-the-art bathroom has: lights that turn on when you enter the room, toilets that flush when you stand up or walk away, taps that turn on when you place your hands under them, automated soap dispensers, sensor-powered air dryers or paper towel dispensers1 All… Read More »Modern Potty Humour
