My son and I were having breakfast while I listened to a segment of a podcast on my phone. As Rocky Stallone was talking about something, in the middle of it all, my son casually looked up from his plate and interjected. “A.I. that’s a robot talking.”
“Artificial Intelligence? How do you know? That’s his actual voice.” I shot back.
“But is there an image of him with his lips actually mouthing the words?” the exchange continued. I had said no. Indeed, the scene was just showing pictures as his voice delivered his message. He then said with finality, “then it’s A.I.”
I have to admit, it’s slowly getting on my nerves that these new gen kids know better than us boomers when it comes to the ongoing new tech thingies. I can now actually relate with our parents when back then, they expressed dismay at whatever new thing we were showing them. However, I’m not entirely lost in the woods on this one (I think). At the very least, this old fart still notices a few things. For one, I have observed that suddenly, people are getting more attractive in their profile pictures lately. While in the beginning, when having cameras and editing applications on mobile phones was the trend, all image renditions could be done using available filters, with beauty-mode levels 1-10. Now, the advancements have gone much farther, improving backgrounds, attire, period hairstyles and even inserting people’s faces into videos as well. Suddenly, my knowledge of Photoshop has appeared as old as the version I’m still using.
I remember Time magazine’s 2000 special issue, they predicted it wasn’t long when cinematic rendering of long-dead personalities in movies and video clips would become reality, thereby creating endless possibilities for film-making ventures. Twenty-four years later, who’s to argue, modern applications have become so perfect, one would think dead people have actually risen from the grave and gone ahead to star in movies! Just last night, I watched a spoof of Star Trek where the characters interacted with Abe Lincoln. In social media, one only has to look into fan-made short films to marvel at how far technology and the employ of artificial intelligence apps had evolved.
So much for all these trivial things I mentioned and know about. Nowadays, if I were a student who needed to submit an essay, book report, with references attached, I only have to look for a particular A.I application that can do them for me in a jiffy. They also write profusely-worded application letters in case one wanted to land a job. I have heard that artificial intelligence is likewise being used in producing music, though the nitty-gritty of it, I still have no idea about. Thing is, ever so slowly, artificial intelligence applications will creep into all aspects of our day-to-day when the time comes. Pardon the layman-ish perception of this boomer so-so techie has-been. I just like to say, remember this year 2024 and earmark it as a beginning. In the near future, anything we read, see, hear or smell will be all become questionable. Is it real or merely A.I.? And if it were indeed A.I., isn’t that our new reality already?
