‘AI is going to kill us all!’ ‘AI is a wonderous gift and tool!’ Sorta kinda? AI isn’t going away. Guardrails may mean nothing if it is already out of its box, hiding in the Internet. As for killing us all, well, we’ve been living with human-generated existential threats since the end of World War II. As for being a wonderous gift and tool, I suspect there are already patients who are alive because of some cure found by AI. What I am noticing is AI’s version of bloatware, features added to existing software that slows it down as it tries to help. Remember Clippy? New does not mean improved. There are, however, opportunities for investing.

Every feature added to software probably included a meeting when someone proclaimed its benefits. (Case in point: Google just interrupted my typing to tell me about a new update to the operating system. I am encouraged to click on the link for more. Later.) For someone, maybe more than a few, they were right. I doubt the updates are always good for everyone.

I only use Microsoft software when the product has to be distributed to the world, or at least to any publication. The library takes care of that. Otherwise, I use Google’s ‘free’ products. Free is in quotes because now I pay for storage. I was a Mac fan, but Apple lost me when they closed their architecture a couple of decades ago.

I realize that I may need a new software solution. I suspect I am not alone.

I am a wannabe-minimalist. I live in a tiny house. Does that help make the point? (MyTinyExperiment.com) The majority of what I need software for hasn’t changed since – pardon the pause as I reflect on my computer usage  – as early as 2005. If digital photos are exempted, my needs have changed much from basically a digital version of a typewriter and some early spreadsheet programs.

I’m looking for those kinds of solutions again as AI is added, forced, into the software I use. I have stopped using some of that software and some of those websites because the AI is Clippy, intrusive, slows performance, and can be buggy. The jokes about autocorrect gone wrong seem to be ignored as if the kernel of any joke isn’t seen as a truth.

For the pro-AI crowd, I’ll hereby acknowledge AI’s recent advances. And no, I am not going to list them because they are so numerous. Drug discoveries alone are phenomenal. Yay. Oh. Yay!

For the anti-AI crowd, I feel your pain, but I don’t see any way we are going to retreat. We don’t like it when someone takes away our toys.

(Obvious personal parenthetical: While I type, corrections to my spelling are highlighted, a handy feature. Note that they are highlighted, not corrected. Communication is tough enough that I don’t need the computer to use ‘sue’ instead of ‘use’. Have fun with your own vocabulary of possible errors. ‘Trial’ versus ‘Trail’.)

But what can we do about AI? I’m taking little steps, little precautions. I’ve already cancelled subscriptions to services that are so enamored of AI that they require more effort to use. (Cancelled Grammarly) Prior to AI, I’d already abandoned Microsoft (except when necessary) and Apple. Google is replacing my favorite hardware, Chromebooks, with Googlebooks, which are more powerful and cost more. There are others. 

I’d like to find simpler solutions to many of my software choices, but legacy issues mean remaining compatible with software packages that have updated themselves. This blog started in 2010. It actually started earlier, but Apple decided to abandon that software. There went 200 posts. 

AI may exterminate us, but I suspect its effects will be celebrated at the same time the added weight of its abilities slows us down. We’re more secure! But how often do you have to prove that you are you? Security is ephemeral anyway, and the time spent proving that you are you takes time away from your life. Ah, and if the system thinks you aren’t you, it has the control over the situation. That situation may be your financial records, your health records, your tax records, etc. AI may not exterminate us, but it may make life tougher for us so we can feed it.

And then there’s AI generated Spam, interviews, customer calls, and a general de-personalization of a person’s life.

Oh woe. Oh me. Oh my.

And in chaos and struggle is opportunity. I am a fan of humanity. Many, and possibly most, people will embrace or at least accept AI. Fine. But in the billions of people on the planet, someone will hopefully make hardware and software that is simple and effective. Imagine that. A word processor that isn’t trying to turn your notes into a book. A spreadsheet that adds up your numbers without trying to crosslink them and create a presentation. Software that shows your pictures, and not just a cropped icon but the actual image in the file. 

I have things to do. Thanks for the help.

Crosstalking them between my laptop and my phone without me knowing means time, effort, and money – and that’s assuming I don’t have to debug anything, chase away cybercrooks, or keep track of apps I never asked for. 

Linux is the answer! But yet again, not. For the non-cyber-savvy, there’s a need for a simpler solution. True, everyone could learn it, except that for some reason, almost no one does. It’s a start, but, ironically, someone has to either build on it, or build something new.

I don’t know the solution, but I am looking for it. I am looking for a simple solution to buy and use, and also to invest in. 

I owned AAPL and MSFT in the 80s. Astonishing that was over 40 years ago. Will there be something to supplant them in their wake as they ‘progress’ into an AI world?

Now, pardon me as I use the computer’s (non-AI) grammar tools to find my errors so I can fix them. (It found 5 prompts to fix. Three of them were what I intended, no need to change. One was to change ‘like’ to ‘it’, when I intended ‘life’. As for the fifth, I can’t remember because I am not a robot.) (And now WordPress sees the same text and flags about a dozen more, all of which were words I intended.)