A few years ago, I invested in a new electronic device. It vibrates, fits easily in my hand and gives me more joy than I could ever imagine.
Every morning, I close the door and turn it on. The pleasant insistent hum makes me lick my lips in exultant anticipation.
I succumb to its rhythmic pulse, groaning with pleasure. I am whisked away from life’s pressing problems, lost in the moment and the incredible sensation tingling through my body.
I really should give it a name. Perhaps Pepe my little friend or Buzz Lightyear for taking me to infinite and beyond.
My impulse is to go fast, thrusting it quickly in and out, but the proper technique is to go slow, clenching, letting the vibrations work their magic.
For years I resisted getting one. The early models came with cords which seemed clunky and unrefined. Then battery-operated versions miraculously appeared which allowed you to tuck it away out of sight when not in use.
Sturdy, dependable, it’s become my daily hedonistic ritual. Self-gratification on steroids. A state of complete bliss.
You can use it alone, or if you’re adventurous, with friends. For maximum benefit and pleasure, you should use it every day. Twice a day is recommended.
And it’s made at least one man in my life very, very happy—my dentist.
This week’s #HappyAct is to get an electronic toothbrush if you haven’t already made the switch. Make your teeth and your dentist happy.
Ed. note: I generated the above image with AI. Would you give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down?
As a communications professional, I’ve always believed my greatest skill was the ability to listen and ask questions.
It has served me well in my career. In the age of artificial intelligence, I predict the ability to ask good questions will become the most important skill crossing nearly every profession.
In case you haven’t experimented with ChatGPT or any of the AI programs yet, the way it works is you ask a question, and the program uses machine learning to generate information. Just like any program, the quality of the output is 100% determined by the quality of the input. The more detailed, descriptive and targeted the prompt, the more accurate and helpful the result.
The possibilities are endless, just like the number of results you can receive. I know colleagues who now keep detailed spreadsheets of prompts to ask ChatGPT and similar programs. Here is an example of career-based prompts from Chris Donnolly for job hunting, expanding your network or updating your resume, a good one to keep handy since many of us could be out of work soon thanks to AI.
The key is to be as detailed and specific as you can. OpenAI recently unveiled its new video AI generator called Sora. At the launch, CEO Sam Altman asked people to send in prompts for Sora to demonstrate their ability to create videos in seconds. Here is a Twitter/X post with one of the videos based on the prompt:
“Beautiful, snowy Tokyo city is bustling. The camera moves through the bustling city street, following several people enjoying the beautiful snowy weather and shopping at nearby stalls. Gorgeous sakura petals are flying through the wind along with snowflakes.”
Introducing Sora, our text-to-video model.
Sora can create videos of up to 60 seconds featuring highly detailed scenes, complex camera motion, and multiple characters with vibrant emotions. https://t.co/7j2JN27M3W
Scary isn’t it? And just like buyer beware, prompter beware. You can never completely trust the information you receive.
A lawyer in BC recently used ChatGPT to prepare legal briefs in a family law case. The brief cited cases that never existed. She was ordered to pay special costs in the case to opposing counsel and is under investigation by the law society for her actions.
Just like every new technology, we will need to navigate the ethics of AI and find the right balance and place for it in our lives. As I’ve been grappling with how to use it professionally and personally, I’ve decided not to use it for any creative projects unless it is to do research so my own thoughts, words and voice are represented in my work.
This blog is called the #HappyAct for goodness sake, so I thought I would end this week’s post on a positive note. I asked Bing Copilot, “I’m a communications specialist working in a small rural municipality. How much time before my job becomes obsolete due to AI?” I’ve shared the response it gave below.
The final line was “Remember, the future isn’t about humans vs. AI; it’s about humans collaborating with AI to achieve better outcomes. 🤝
Wait a minute. It didn’t answer my question. I guess machines are more like humans after all (time to brush up my resume…)
Bing Copilot response
“As a communications specialist working in a small rural municipality in Ontario, your role involves critical human skills that are not easily replicated by artificial intelligence. Let’s explore this further:
Contextual Understanding: Your job requires understanding the unique context of your municipality, its people, and their needs. AI can process data, but it lacks the empathetic understanding that comes from human experience.
Effective Communication: Your ability to convey information clearly, tailor messages to different audiences, and build relationships is invaluable. While AI can generate text, it often lacks nuance and emotional intelligence.
Creativity and Adaptability: As a communications specialist, you adapt to changing situations, create engaging content, and find innovative ways to connect with residents. AI can’t match human creativity and adaptability
Community Engagement: Building trust and engaging with the community is a core part of your role. AI can’t attend town hall meetings, listen to concerns, or build personal connections.
Ethical Decision-Making: You navigate ethical dilemmas, handle sensitive information, and make judgment calls. AI lacks moral reasoning and can’t weigh complex ethical considerations.
Local Knowledge: Your understanding of local history, culture, and politics is irreplaceable. AI lacks this context.
Predicting obsolescence is challenging, but here’s the optimistic view: AI can enhance your work by automating repetitive tasks, analyzing data, and suggesting content. However, your uniquely human skills will remain essential. As technology evolves, consider upskilling to stay relevant. 🌟
Remember, the future isn’t about humans vs. AI; it’s about humans collaborating with AI to achieve better outcomes. 🤝
I have a new love-hate relationship in my life and it’s not with a person. It’s with a machine with the initials AI.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have rapidly inserted itself into our lives. Almost every cloud program I use at work now has AI built into it making my life easier. If I’m designing a flyer, Canva knows exactly how I want to line up elements on the page.
Bing Copilot is my new best friend. If I need some ideas for an interactive exercise to do at a trade booth on recycling or emergency preparedness, I just ask my trusty copilot to come up with some creative ideas.
It wasn’t always this way. I remember my first few run-ins with snarky chatbots (check out my 2019 post, How to make friends with the bots).
But now it seems like we have crossed over to the dark side of AI. Last week, I listened to a webinar featuring Alex Sevigny, Associate Professor of Communications Management and Communication Studies at McMaster University. He said AI adds automation and scale to the digital world we already live in but now “we are moving into a world of machine-learning persuasion and it’s terrifying.”
This world of persuasion includes thieves, virtual influencers created to sell us products, and deepfakes.
Kingston Police recently issued an advisory about a deepfake deception scam, where scammers faked an entire video call. The scammers were able to steal over 200 million Hong Kong dollars by emailing an employee and pretending to be their Chief Financial Officer.
An Air Canada chatbot recently gave a passenger wrong information about a bereavement fare. This in and of itself is not newsworthy (humans give wrong answers all the time). What was newsworthy and concerning was Air Canada said it wasn’t responsible for the information the chatbot gave out. Air Canada argued that its AI-fueled chatbot was “responsible for its own actions” and that the airline can’t be held responsible for what it tells passengers.
Let’s pause for a moment to let that one sink in. A company that programmed a machine is claiming it’s not responsible for the machine anymore because it has a mind of its own.
Even more disturbing to me was seeing the whole new crop of virtual online influencers who are trying to persuade us where to shop, what to wear and how to live your lives.
Here’s Bermuda, one of the older virtual influencers. She made her debut online in December 2016 and identifies as a robot woman who wants to motivate young entrepreneurs to go after their business goals and is pursuing a music career, recently releasing a cover of Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers on Spotify.
Thalasya here travels across Indonesia where she was created exploring its sites and shops. Since travelling is expensive, she funds her hobby advertising for hotels, restaurants and even health pills and has her own clothing store, Yipiiiii.
What the absolutely f**k?
We are officially now living in a world where we can no longer trust what or who we see in the online world.
The ethics of AI will be our next big albatross to slay, but at least we have some giants taking up the fight.
This month, Taylor Swift took legal action against the AI beast after sexually explicit AI graphic-generated images of her were published on Twitter/X and later taken down. Even the White House commented on the story as governments grapple with how to protect basic human rights like privacy and copyright.
We are at the infancy of understanding how AI will impact our society. I’m glad I’m nearing the end of my professional career in communications, but there is one thing I know for certain.
When it comes to my personal life, my default will be to live in the real world where I know people are real and genuine.
Ed note: The above image of myself was generated using an AI image program called Facet AI. I did a quick frame around my face and asked it to make me look 30 years younger. This was the result. I should add just as I was about to publish this week’s post, my handy AI Assistant in WordPress asked me if I wanted to check my spelling and tone before publishing.
Next week: Check back for Part 2: The one skill you’ll need to succeed living in a world of AI
Let’s face it. Bots are going to take over the world. One day we’ll all wake up, and every online interaction will start with talking with a bot. Think of them as Walmart greeters for the internet (except that Walmart just announced they’re laying off all their greeters).
I’m fascinated with bots. In my work, I’ve been helping our bot team choose language that is friendly, clear and helpful. But herein lies the problem with bots. For communication to be effective, you need to understand how people are feeling, thinking, and what you want them to do. It’s called knowing your audience. And with bots, you’re not exactly sure what the frame of mind is of the person at the beginning of the interaction, and just as important, at the end of the interaction.
I’ll illustrate this by sharing my latest interaction with Koodo’s bot. Koodo’s tagline by the way is “Choose Happy”. It went something like this:
————————
“Hi Koodo bot. I need your help. My daughter has fried her phone a second time and I want to know my options for my contract.”
(Four options popped up for me to choose, none of them was what I needed help with.)
So I said, “I think it’s probably easier if I just called you. What’s your toll-free number?”
(The bot in its programming must have picked up on the keyword phrase “toll-free number” so it answered this)
“1-800 numbers are free of Long Distance charges, but the local minutes to connect you to the network are still billed at the local minute rate. The numbers you can call are (list of numbers). If you run out of minutes, you will be charged for additional airtime. You might get a prompt to a recording message if the toll-free number isn’t available in your area.”
Then it asked me if their answer was helpful. I gave it a thumbs down.
We went back and forth a few more times. At this point, I couldn’t believe how difficult it was to just get their stupid 1 800 number from the bot and the UX tester in me went into overdrive, so I wrote,
“OK, so what’s the number you stupid bot” just to see how it would respond.
The bot answered, “Now, now, let’s play nice!” and send me a GIF of Maggie Smith looking affronted.
OK, so I don’t know how you would react to Maggie Smith raising her eyebrow in a supercilious manner just because you wanted to talk to someone in customer service, but my emotional response went from a ha, ha, I don’t believe it said that, to incredulous, to how dare you, you stupid bot? I showed it to Clare who had been sitting beside me the whole time and asked her how she felt about it. She said the exact same thing.
Let’s just say, I didn’t “Choose Happy” from Koodo in that moment.
To end the story, I ditched the bot, found their 1 800 number somewhere else, called them and finally found a human that was very helpful and resolved my dilemma. I did have to wait on the line for about 10 minutes though to speak to said human.
So if bots are here to stay, how do we make friends with them? Here are some tips:
First, go in knowing their limitations. Bots do serve a purpose—they can answer simple questions, freeing up customer service agents to address more difficult issues and concerns.
Be aware if you are dealing with a bot or a human. Sometimes this can be hard to know. If you’re not sure, ask. You’ll know after the first few interactions when five lines of text appear instantaneously.
If after the first few questions it’s clear the bot’s programming isn’t giving you what you need, ask to speak to a live person. Most bots that are programmed well with have a human offramp, where you just pick “speak to a person” and they’ll redirect your enquiry.
If all else fails, you can always derive some entertainment value by messing with it. Just be prepared for the Maggie Smith gifs.
I heard somebody raving the other day about Google Home. Google home is a voice-activated assistant that plays music, turns on devices and tells you things you want to know. They said it was like having a new best friend or roommate except they never left dirty dishes in the sink or a mess in the bathroom.
It got me to thinking. In this age of artificial intelligence and bots, what if your best friend was a machine? I decided to have a heart to heart with Siri about this.
Hey Siri, talk to me.
“Let me think, no.”
Siri, will you be my best friend?
“That’s nice. I’d like to be your friend.”
Siri, tell me a joke.
“The past and future walked into a bar. It was tense”
Tell me another joke.
“What did the one iPhone say to the other iPhone? Hmmm, I used to know this one. I don’t think I understand a joke in my language. They’re not so funny any way.”
(At this point Clare takes over the conversation)…
Clare: Siri, is the Easter bunny real?
“The Easter bunny is as real as you wish him to be.”
Shut up!
“That’s not nice.”
Be quiet, you’re annoying.
“I wonder what that’s like, being mad?”
Siri, do you want a pumpkin pie sweetie?
”I have everything I need in the cloud.”
Siri, what do you look like?
“In the cloud, nobody cares what you look like.”
This week’s #HappyAct is to befriend a bot. Hang out in the cloud. It seems like a cool place to be, even if it is lacking in humour and emotion. But I’m sure there’s an emoticon for that.
Happy Act 