Digital Dilemma

The Impacts of AI

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This morning I failed an AI detection test featured in the NYTimes. The quiz included 10 videos, a mix of AI-generated and human-made ones. My goal: correctly determine if AI or a human made the videos. I felt good after the nailing the first four and then things took a turn. I got the next 5 wrong and finally guessed the last one right. Total score, 50%.

AI-generated videos are getting much harder to detect. The small glitches and weird imperfections, telltale marks of AI, are largely undetectable. The technology has improved rapidly. Also, AI trains on real recordings, making it possible to create something new from an existing persona. All of these factors combined make it increasingly more difficult to detect fact from fiction.

On the flip side, technology has also improved the capabilities of making films and movies. In some cases, AI may even be used on the backend to expedite editing or creating effects, even though the main content is real. Sometimes AI is used to fill in missing elements or add something to the background that wasn’t there initially. This also blurs the line between AI-generated and human made. I suppose at a certain point, we’ll consider the percentage of a work made by humans vs. AI to determine creation.

Another huge impact of AI is more on the environmental side. AI generating centers require huge amounts of space, time, resources, and energy to maintain. As more of us start using AI, or rely on devices using it, this creates more demand for the centers. The location of these centers and their management also creates impacts. Living in Canada, we’re mindful in which country our Canadian resides. This can create challenges and concerns about data management and under which jurisdiction. For example, the privacy laws in the US are different from those in Canada.

All of this to say, the lines are blurring.

Spring Cleaning

Renovation Readiness

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In two weeks major renovations will be starting in my home. Since it’s hard for me to simply throw stuff in the garbage if I no longer want or need it, it takes a lot of effort to move things out. Clean up efforts included purging, selling things, recycling, shredding, and donating lots of stuff. Some stuff even requires specialized donations, which can take time to locate. For example, I had a box of broken jewelry that I felt guilty about tossing in the trash. One day I randomly saw a post on FB marketplace for someone “ISO” (in search of) old jewelry. Even better, this person was in my neighborhood. Score!

I started preparing for the work in Jan, even before I had called any contractors or received a single estimate. The scope of work remained undefined. But already I knew that it would require a big clean up effort. Slowly, over weeks and months, I’ve been spending small amounts of time working through everything. Sometimes I spend 20 minutes on one shelf in the evening after a day of work. Other times it’s a few hours spent on larger areas. It also included clean-up efforts in other parts of the house, and in the garage, to make more space.

By spacing it out over months, instead of a helter-skelter rush in the weeks preceding the demolition, I was hoping to avoid “make-work” projects for myself. These typically occur when the fatigue sets in and the time crunch starts. It’s when good decisions evaporate because things need to happen fast. This is when things get randomly thrown together in boxes with a self-promise to clean it later. However… nearing the final weeks of a months long process, everything is devolving into future work projects, despite my best efforts.

Things are getting messy in the packed boxes, and in the available areas in the house where we are storing everything. The basement, one of the renovated areas, will have shiny, new storage cabinets. While I’m looking forward to the new, storage spaces, I’m also dreading it slightly. Nature hates a void and I’m concerned I’ll find creative ways to fill the space. This after spending so many months and so much effort to thin out years of accumulation. It won’t happen right away because I’ll be busy with my “make-work” future projects enjoying the results of all the hard work.

Human Archives

Grief’s Humanity

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June is always a bit hard for me. In quick succession my father’s birthday, father’s day, and the deathdays pass. Along the way other memories flit in and out, such as the day my father went to hospice, the last time I heard him speak, and the last time he said my name. All in June.

During the final weeks and days, I would have given almost anything for one more day. Even if it was a bad one. I knew my father was in terrible pain, but I still wanted him alive. His condition and suffering was secondary to my wants. For years after the yearning was intense. The desperate feelings I had to hear his voice, call him, or laugh at his nerdy math jokes. We left his voice on the answering machine for a long time. Some days I would call and hang up after hearing the message, repeatedly. I felt it was the closest link I had.

Over time, along with various therapies and techniques, I learned how to process the enormous grief I felt. I developed ways to cope with the intensity of the emotions. The yearnings are still there, but I relate to them differently. I can transport myself to the intensity of the experience in an instant, but I know how to deal with it now. It’s all part of the grieving process, a natural part of being human.

However, now different options are available, ones that will undoubtably impact how we grieve. What that impact will be is unknown. This June marks 22 years since my father, and grandfather, died, only one day apart. Had they passed away only two years ago, I would have had a plethora of media available. Videos, digital photos, recordings, maybe even some social media postings. All of this would have provided me with more opportunities to see and hear my father posthumously. Now there are even options to create AI avatars of your loved one to continue the conversations even after they are no longer around.

I can’t help but wonder how this will affect the natural progression of grieving. My initial grief was extreme and I would have loved these AI-options. But in hindsight, I’m not sure if having it might have kept me in grief-limbo or helped me to move forward. After all, grieving is part of what makes us human.

True Confessions

Quirks of AI

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I’m still enjoying my FORM goggles. They’re my first foray into using a smart device to track something on my body. After my inaugural smart swim, I was impressed! The goggles seemingly knew what stroke I was doing. It also tracked the number of yards and cool stats about my strokes.

After getting used to the goggles, I decided to try the subscription services. The main attraction for me was the built in workouts. I’ve been doing the same sets for years and it’s good to change the routine. What I didn’t realize was the level of customization. The workouts match my specific objectives and skill level. After finishing one, the next is based on whatever technique or skill I need to improve.

This is a great use case for AI. I’m provided with a custom-plan based on my progress. Even more impressively, in a few short weeks my technique is (slowly) improving. I know because my technique swim score (called FORM) has been steadily creeping up after starting the workouts. Prior to that, it remained flat.

Along the way, there have been a few weird things with the goggles. For example, if I stop to shake water out of my ear, the goggles start recording this as swimming. Another strange thing is that the goggles can’t seem to recognize side stroke. I almost always do two laps of side stroke to finish off my workout. Sometimes, when I swim breast stroke, the goggles consider this as rest time, too. A little weird, but not a deal breaker. However, the last workout amplified the difference between a coach and goggles.

While the goggles may track some things better than a human, such as head position and calculating strokes, they can’t adjust sometimes. During my workout, I had to do 2 x 50 front crawl. This means across and back, rest, then across and back again. However, I was in the zone and started the third lap without resting. The goggles wouldn’t count the lap until I stopped in the middle of the lane to “rest”. They recorded the extra lap, but not as part of my second 50. I ended up on the wrong side of the pool for the remainder of the workout and it messed up my stats! That half lap counted as my best time for the session. After the sophistication of everything, I found this surprising.

Human Archives

Spring Blossoms

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Few things delight me as much in spring as the first, nascent flowers appearing. Despite the cold, rainy, gray spring we’ve been having up north, the sun came out on mother’s day weekend. It was just in time to catch the end of the magnolia blossoms at the Royal Botanical Gardens. They have little fragrance. However, their creamy white petals tinged with pinks, magentas, and yellow provide a feast for the eyes. One tree sports a star-shaped blossom that is the sweetest smelling of the bunch.

Shortly after the magnolias drop their petals to the ground, the lilacs start blooming. Again, due to the unseasonably cold temperatures and large number of rainy days, I thought this would delay the blossoms. But to my joy, the lilacs continued to grow and bloom, same as always. This reinforced the magic of spring to me, always coming with its relentless and persistent energy each year. No matter what the weather is like, spring is determined to arrive, bringing with it a bounty of flowers, soft wind, and warm sunshine.

We went to see the lilacs two weeks after the magnolias. The lilacs, I learned, bloom at different stages, early, mid, and late. Our visit coincided with the tail end of the mid-bloomers. After this round there was still at least another week or two to go for them. I was too busy enjoying the fragrant smells of the lilacs to take any pictures. However, I captured the picture below of the blooming Redbud trees, offering a spray of bright pinks against the verdant background.

We definitely lucked out with the weather on our two visits to see the flowers. It was a nice reminder of what spring can be like. This after experiencing a long, cold, snowy winter followed by more gray, rainy weather. The sun shone today providing some much needed rays for the lilac in my own backyard, which still has yet to bloom.

True Confessions

The Printed Word

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Earlier this week I read an article about a group of teenagers creating a weekly newspaper, called The Ditch Weekly. For the moment, it’s only available in the summer months. According to the article, the teens actually make profit with the newspaper.

What struck me about this endeavor was the desire to produce something in print. I also appreciated the teens finding ways to engage that didn’t require them to use social media. A lot of newspaper reporting requires talking to people, even if the talking may happen over technology. There is still the promise of face-to-face time, going out and exploring, and fact checking. All of these seem like good skills to develop to combat rapidly developing AI and a lack of original content creation.

I also felt a little surprised that these teens seemed to want something more nostalgic. Producing a printed, weekly publication in the summer sounds like something from my childhood. Albeit in today’s climate, I’m sure their printed publication looks way better than anything I could have designed and it’s probably easier to get copies made. Small things like that would have taken ages in my time. However, the technology can really speed up some of these process while also making it easy to create something that looks high-quality and professional.

While reading the article, I couldn’t help but wonder is this the start of the pendulum swinging back in the other direction. Perhaps the constant information bombardment on our phones fatigues us making a small publication seem appealing. After all, it forces us to slow down to read the pages instead of skimming and scrolling. The amount of content is manageable. We can enjoy the tactile sensation of holding something. It’s easier for people to share and read together, instead of hunching over a tiny screen. And it’s nicer on the eyes.

I don’t typically interact with teenagers, but I did feel curious to understand why they’re craving these types of experiences. Do they see something with the devices that we don’t notice because we’re using them so often? Though to be fair, I didn’t grow up with smartphones and social media. I’m sure that would have been a stressful experience for my teen-self, even though I probably wouldn’t have been aware in the moment. But maybe these teens can see how damaging some of these technologies can be and they’re making different decisions.