Scary Intelligence

When I first heard about AI, I assumed it was a new thing kids were using on social media — like LOL and ROFL — and it stood for “As If.” Like, “Hey, John, you wanna go to the dentist instead of playing golf?”

“AI.” I asked AI if Senior News should do an issue on AI. Not too surprisingly, it said, “Yes” and listed the following reasons: “Many senior readers are already encountering AI without realizing it: voice assistants on phones or TVs, photo enhancement on smartphones, spam filtering in email, navigation apps, weather alerts and medical portals.

“AI intersects with senior interests in very practical ways: health & wellness (appointment reminders, symptom checkers—pros and limits), safety (scam detection, robocalls, deepfakes), independence (navigation, captioning, hearing/vision support), creativity and memory (photo restoration, writing family histories).”

Aside from the above, as a self-described writer, I’ve used AI to help me clarify confusing passages or to find repetitive phrases in what I’m writing. It’s very helpful in making suggestions that I can go with or ignore. I’ve also used it to create a few images for use in some book trailers I made.

I really haven’t used it much for anything else. I don’t think I’d trust it yet to diagnose and treat any serious medical symptoms I’m having. I haven’t asked for any dating tips, either.

I remember the 1983 movie “War Games,” in which a high school kid hacks into a military supercomputer looking for a video game and launches a nuclear war, so I hope the military doesn’t get too carried away with it.

We don’t use Alexa or Siri at home. I think for them to really be helpful, they’d have to know me better than Google does, and that would be scary. I’m not ready for AI to handle my finances, either — I’m not done messing that up myself yet, although I’m sure my bank probably relies on it already.

Of course, I remember when computers first came out and my brother got all excited because “anyone can go on there and find your address and phone number.” I asked him what he thought a telephone book was.

Personally, I plan on embracing AI to the extent I can figure it out. I figure I’m old enough not to have to worry about robots completely taking over Earth. Pretty sure I’ll be dead by then.

John Meyers, 77, has been artificially intelligent most of his life.