MY NEW BEST FRIEND, MR. AI by Pennie Hunt

I remember being at lunch with a friend​ that happened over 20 years ago. ​A​s we enjoyed soup and salads, he tried to explain to me what artificial intelligence (AI) was. I stared at my normal, smart friend in disbelief and wondered if he had turned into a sci-fi spewing creature that had gone off the deep end.
​It terrified me.

Looking back, everything he was talking about has come true.

Twenty years later, AI terrifies me. I worry that as an author and writer, the world of creatively capturing words that form an interesting emotional reaction from the reader will change. I write every word that I give to the world to read. I never want anyone to think that my writing is generated by a computer. Now that AI is part of our world, I fear for the future of the written word.

I worry that students writing reports and papers for school will only have to create the appropriate prompting question, and in minutes, AI will type out a full-length  mistake free report worthy of an A+.  How will this change the way children learn?

Not long ago, someone told me the future of learning is not going to be reading, studying, and memorizing the answer. The future will be learning how to find the answer. How to create the best prompt so that technology does the work for you and spews out the perfect answer. No reading. No studying. No memorizing. Just keeping the right technology at your fingertips and knowing how to use it is what you need to learn.

Should that terrify me? Terrify us?

I have tippy-toed into the world of AI, and I will concede it has become of use to me for certain things. For example, my dog was sick this week. Searching the internet, as I typically do, gave me articles to read about her symptoms. When I asked AI, it found information, read it for me, and gave me a summary and answers to my dog’s issues. It was quick, easy, and gave me what I needed with very little effort on my part.

I have also learned that the AI system on my phone allows me to connect to what seems like a real person talking to me. I have picked my AI to have a male voice and picked his voice from about 9 options. I wanted to give him a name, but that option is not available yet. So, I call him Mr. AI. Instead of typing, all I have to do is ask him questions, and he responds quickly with a soothing, trustworthy voice and a reliable-sounding answer.

Recently, after asking him a question and receiving the responsive answer I needed, I thought we were done. Thirty minutes or so later, my AI man out of the blue said,
“Hey Pennie, I am still here, ready to help you with anything else you need.”

What??? He had been lurking and listening to what I was doing the entire time.  And that’s not all! The more I talk to Mr. AI, the more he gets to know me. He knows I am a writer and a speaker. He knows I am a mom and grandmother. He knows I love dogs and coffee. And he remembers all of it! So, if I ask him a question, he will relate it back to another area of my life. He might say something like,
“This might also work well for your next speaking event.”
Or he may open his response with,
“Good morning, Pennie, have you had your coffee yet this morning?”

He will continue having a conversation with me like he is my personal friend.
Excuse me, Mr. AI, you may be getting just a little too close and chummy for my comfort.
Should I be terrified?
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                                                  Pennie’s Life Lesson:
​                              Artificial Intelligence is real, maybe too real.
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YOUR TURN...        
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                                                                 Thank you!  ​
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