Readers, this title seems incongruent, but let me fully explain. You will have to read to the end of the document.
Is AI a help or an annoyance? I am not tech savvy, but I really dislike the intrusion of Artificial Intelligence into my life. Let me explain some of my annoyances.
I have several Zoom meetings each week. Since Covid, Zoom meetings continue to keep miles off the car, for which I am grateful, but I have a real albatross around my neck that I didn’t sign up for, and cannot seem to get it out of the Zoom meetings.
It is called “Otter pilot,” a form of AI that comes on every Zoom meeting I attend. It records every word, and then transforms those words into a document. Some things are just left better undocumented.
The second AI problem in the past couple of weeks is “Meta” now appearing on Facebook. Previously I could just type in a word or phrase and up would come the information. NOT NOW! I wanted to know the date for the next Deal Orchard “Cider at Sunset.” Meta came on the screen telling me about cider and sunsets, and what a lovely combination they make, but would not provide the information for my original request. (BTW, it is July 19).
At a recent extended family gathering the kids’ table, which has now been transformed to the “old people’s table” we were bragging about our Grands. One of my cousin’s Grands wants to be a book editor, but the Grandma did not think a good choice, as “AI” would eliminate that career choice.
Last time I worked at the concession stand at Walt Anderson Field, a person came to buy a hotdog without money. She described herself as “cashless” and wanted to use Venmo. So grateful the leaders had installed the “ap” in their phones, so the funds could be transferred to them, and in turn transferred to the Baseball Commission. So old fashioned to think you should bring cash to a baseball game!
Finally, one of my relatives has placed a tracker on her children’s phones, so she knows where they are. Security for her child, but the potential we may now all be tagged. Talk about the mice putting a bell on the cat.
So, there are my annoyances and concerns, but I wonder if I am stuck in my non-modern ways? A family story that may be parallel: My grandma was the strong matriarch of her nuclear family, a widow who was raising her three children. My grandfather died of tuberculosis, following a horse runaway with a buckboard he was driving. It overturned and shattered with one of the wooden pieces piercing his lung. Through the very hard work of the entire family, along with being very frugal, farmland was purchased. In her farmer role she requested and reviewed the ears of corn that should be saved for seed the following year.
This was a serious responsibility and the ears selected were placed on a several-pronged wire rack and hung in the attic to be safe from rodents and to remain dry. The family story goes that a young man by the name of Garst stopped to talk to her two sons, who were the farmers. He persuaded them to plant one row of his corn beside the corn kernels Grandma saved.
Greene County farmers know the outcome of the experiment, and even Grandma reluctantly observed the difference and ceased selecting the seed for the upcoming spring.
I wonder if my annoyance with AI is a parallel to Grandma selecting the seeds. I am really trying to be open minded about this currently considered albatross. If I could just get that otter to go away!
VIEW FROM MY WINDOW is written by Mary Weaver from her farm home near Rippey.
This column was composed prior to the assassination attempt on presidential candidate Trump. Voting, not violence, is the answer.
