Digital Dilemma, Social Media

Too Much of a Good Thing

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I think one of the biggest benefits, and detriments, of the online world is always giving us more of what we like. The design of an algorithms is to pump content into our awareness based on our preferences and past selections. This is how so many of us end up going down the proverbial “rabbit hole” clicking on one link after the other. Or how we sometimes fritter away hours of time “doom scrolling,” without ever really accomplishing anything.

This type of approach offers many advantages. Sometimes it’s helpful to find other things you might be interested in. It can be an effective way to connect with others who share interests or experiences. This can be helpful if you want to find something less common. Tailored content provides me with selections and options of things I’m likely to find enjoyable. I remember that Amazon was one of the first to provide this feature. When shopping on Amazon, it’s common to see options based on purchases from other consumers who bought the same things. While some of this may sound appealing, there’s a sinister dark side to this type of myopic content matching.

Sometimes giving people more of what they like can be really damaging and dangerous. For example, men trolling the internet to make connections with children. Giving them more of what they like makes it easy for them to prey on vulnerable users. Or for others who might be obsessive about a certain topic, e.g., teenagers and their physical appearances. Connecting these people with more of the same may not be healthy or productive.

Another down side with always seeing more of the same thing is that it doesn’t provide us with an opportunity to see other viewpoints. It can be healthy and productive to learn about different perspectives. This can help to both strengthen a position, or come up with more long lasting solutions.

Finally, algorithms always designed to give us more of the same, mean we don’t have the opportunity to discover or learn about new things. That is, unless other users like us, also stray outside of their “preference parameters” and explore something different. While it can be nice to constantly be spoonfed all the latest and greatest tailored options specifically for what we like, it can also end up being too much of a good thing.

Digital Dilemma, Productivity

Rise of the Agentic AI Business

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I recently read an article about a company that’s run almost completely with Agentic Aritificial Intelligence (AI). Agentic AI is when the AI actually performs actions and makes decisions, instead of a human. Some examples of this could include answering questions, fulfiling orders, processing claims, or handling payments. I’m sure the discovery of even more uses is coming soon.

MEDVi, specializing in personalized telehealth, was able to gross hundreds of millions of dollars in a year or two. Even more astonishing, is the company is run by one person and his brother, the only other full-time employee. There are a few dozen contractors to deal with the thousands of clients. Other than that, AI is running the show.

It’s like something from a science fiction plot to have companies run by a handful of humans and technology. Aside from the inception of the company, it’s curious to wonder what the humans do. Once the AI takes root, it could become another science fiction plot to take over the entire company. This could even include idea generation, expansions, hiring, and everything else. We’re not there yet, but it might be coming sooner than we think.

Naturally, there are arguments to both sides of using Agentic AI. On the one hand, it’s means people can “scale up” easily and quickly. I like to imagine that Agentic AI would save a lot of humans from dreary, repetitive, mundane, tedious tasks. The kind of work that technology does more efficiently and consistently. For example, auto-filing documents to the correct places. This could also include adding descriptions to the documents to make them more searchable.

However, on the flip side, it means humans aren’t necessarily acquiring skills anymore. Also, some people might not want to “agentic-AI” themselves out of a job. In my younger years, I learned a lot of valuable lessons and knowledge of how to design better systems. This is a result of the boring, tedious tasks I handled. Doing boring, repetitive tasks taught me how to create systems that would avoid all this kind of work in the future. I was also thinking about how to spare a “future” me from some of this terrible work.

Of course this was in a time before AI, agentic, generative, or otherwise. Although the shortcut is tempting, it might just be cheating us out of too much in the end.

Human Archives

The First Signs of Spring… Sort of

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We’ve had an unusually cold and rainy March. Though with climate change, the unusual and unpredictable is becoming the new norm. One day, the temperatures remained chilly, hovering around freezing and lower. Yet, the sun broke through the dreary, gray clouds. I seized the opportunity to rake up the leaves in part of the front yard. Most people rake their leaves in the fall, but I’ve adopted the practice of leaving them as cover until spring to help the plants, soil, and small creatures through the winter.

Much to my surprise and delight, several new shoots were doing their best to break through. Even a week later, they’re still pale green, evidence of their etiolated state. However, I’ve noticed more shoots appearing and growing bigger and taller. Some have already succumbed to another round of frost. I woke up to a light dusting of snow everywhere last week. Others have tumbled over from some curious, and curiously hungry, squirrels. Yet, they’re still determined to make an appearance. This makes me feel hopeful about the regenerative and resurgent energy of spring.

I also have a small patch of crocuses. I planted them about 2 years ago, but I have yet to see one emerge. Though I can see shoots and the bright, tightly budded yellows and purples, the flower never emerge. I can’t figure out if the plants are damaged, or if the rabbits and squirrels continually nibble them. Ever since I was small, crocuses have always been an early sign of spring for me. I suppose they might be an early sign of spring eating for the animals. Even though I don’t get to enjoy the crocus flowers, I feel heartened to see some signs of new life after a long, cold, and somewhat snowy winter.

Despite the cold, gray, and irrational weather, I enjoy the vigor of spring energy. The plants and animals are all determined to carry on as though the sunshine and warmth is coming. I, too, participate in this belief. I refuse to wear my puffy, winter coat, even when it’s freezing. Instead I layer up, grumbling and huffing, in an attempt to stay aligned with the spring spirit.

We’re expecting more rain this week, but with temperatures closer to double digits. Slowly inching our way into the new season. Hopefully we can enjoy some nice weather before the heat waves start.

True Confessions

Customer Service Woes

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Late last year I upgraded my smartphone to one of the latest and greatest Pixel models. Since I never had any issues with the previous two pixel phones, I wasn’t anticipating any issues. However, less than 3 months in, the phone started to freeze. Read last month’s blog “The Smartphone Dependency.” Though the problem was diagnosed and deemed irreparable in about a day, the next steps took weeks.

After confirming fundamental damage with the designated repair shop, the troubles began. The repair shop updated my service ticket with the information for the replacement order to continue directly with Google. What followed was weeks and weeks of phone calls, emails, automated verifications, and lots of waiting. To start, even receiving a callback took days, despite the support window estimating the time as less than 1 minute. I had to go through the form several times to even get a callback.

Each time I spoke with an agent, it seemed like there was progress to creating the replacement order. After several calls, and no replacement order generated, one agent discovered there were two orders for me causing problems on their end. He resolved that issue and assured me the notification email would arrive shortly. Days later, I called again.

This agent said he would call me back after reviewing case notes. The call back arrived, hours (days?) later around 4am. Needless to say, I missed the call. After more emails with no replacement order, I called again. The agent confirmed my call back information in case of disconnection and put me on hold to review the file. We got disconnected and there was no call back. Even worse, I couldn’t request another call back because the current call was still in progress. Then, more emails.

I requested another call back. This time the agent successfully placed the replacement order. Even before reaching that point I had to ask the agent to review the notes carefully. He was asking me to send him the receipt for the orginal order, even though it ordered directly through Google! I told him the order was already on my record. Yeesh! At this point, I remained on the phone with the agent while confirming the replacement order email to finally complete the next step of the process.

To date, the new phone arrived within a day. I’m busy transferring data. Fingers crossed for a better outcome.

Digital Dilemma

Crossing the AI Divide

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Now that so many of us are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) regularly, discerning when to disclose this information is tricky. In some ways AI seamlessly inserted itself into our lives, upending, disrupting, and transforming even the most basic tasks.

For example, it’s likely many of us use AI to assist with writing. However, AI may be involved in different stages of this process and to varying degrees. These stages could include creating a first draft of a work based on a prompt or a review of something existing. AI might write, edit, and finalize an entire work. However, there would have to be some human intervention, even if it was a minimal amount to adjust prompts. Is disclosure required for all of these uses?

Sometimes at work, I draft an email or message. Then I use Copilot (Generative AI tool) to help achieve the right tone, make sure the statements are clear, and check if anything might sound confusing. Other times I might use Copilot to draft an Executive Summary or Conclusion for a document I wrote. Copilot is terrific at providing high-level succinct summaries. It’s perfect for an Executive Summary and Conclusion.

But do I need to disclose that, especially if I’m proofreading and making final edits? And if so, how and when? And in which ways does using Copilot differ from doing a task I might normally have to do, or would potentially delegate to a student? In my mind the big difference is that Copilot can do it instantly with a relatively high level of accuracy.

Other organizations might use AI as Chatbots to provide automated assistance to customers. In some cases, this information is readily available. As soon as a chat opens a message appears alerting the customer that they’re communicating with a Chatbot. I find it’s easy to know when I’m communicating with a Chatbot, even without disclosure. In my experience, most Chatbots have a hard time understanding any question that isn’t about something really basic. Even then, misinterpretations are easy.

As we all become more familiar using AI, I’m hoping more guidelines and practices will emerge. Some places are starting to require labels for AI-generated content, especially images. However, as AI becomes better at replicating human work, discerning the difference will become more difficult. Without guidelines, the line between human and AI may become blurred beyond recognition.

True Confessions

Glad I Grew Up When…

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I think every generation goes through a period of nostalgia when they reminisce. When they can look around at all the changes. The dramatic changes, like the way smartphones have fundamentally altered our habits. Or how social media has completely changed how we interact and communicate with each other. They can observe these things, shake their head and say, I’m glad I grew up when…

Last week, a bit under the weather, I had one of these moments. From a young age, I always had a strong love for books. Paper books, because when I grew up, that’s all we had. Some people ventured into books on tape (yes, cassette tapes), but we didn’t have audiobooks, ereaders, or people reading books to us in little YouTube videos. We had paper, words, and sometimes some illustrations. That was enough back then.

During a chat with my mom she asked how I was feeling. She remarked when I was sick as a kid, I never watched much television, preferring to read instead. However, I would have watched TV all day, except watching game shows and soap operas got boring. This was before we all had unlimited access to shows through Netflix or other platforms. Cartoons were only available a few hours a day at certain times. And even then, options remained limited. Had I been a sick kid at home with Netflix I may have remained ill all through middle school.

Reading articles about Gen-Xers and getting some good flashbacks watching “Stranger Things,” (whenever I want, I might add), I’ve come to appreciate the limited options we had. I’m glad I grew up when the pace of life was slower. When we got to experience boredom, real boredom, because there wasn’t anything good on TV forcing us to go outside, hang out with other people, and get creative.

Mostly, I’m glad I grew up during a time where “street smarts” meant just that, learning how to navigate the physical world. Thinking about the cyber and digital dangers awaiting today’s children is terrifying. Even in your own bedroom you may not be safe from predators and bullies. And the limitless choices and ability to customize anything and everything is also damaging. It’s probably impacting us in ways we can’t even begin to understand.