Computers Among Us By Linda Stowe
I am concerned about the extent to which computers are insinuating themselves into our lives and we do not even notice. Some examples:
This morning, I was thinking about a coin purse my grandfather had. It was a little oval rubber thing that looked kind of junky, but it provided endless entertainment for us children because you could squeeze it and open it, like a mouth. My brother liked to clip it onto the cat’s tail, which didn’t hurt the cat but did make it jumpy whenever my brother came around.
In thinking about the purse, I realized that I don’t have any coins. I gave them to my brother’s grandson a couple of years ago because I never had any need for them. In fact, if it weren’t for my cleaner and hairdresser, I would never have a need for cash. Everything is online. Soon the only people who will use cash will be criminals and the poor.
I order my groceries online and have them delivered. Everything except the people who pack up the groceries and the person who brings them to me is handled by computers. Sometimes my groceries come from Richmond rather than locally and that was the case last week. I know this because I tracked the delivery online and could see the little car icon moving along Route 35. As the driver was approaching my phone texted me with a four-digit code number I must use to get the groceries and told me the delivery time. The driver pulled into my driveway at 1:01 PM, just as the screen said he would. The screen predicted the arrival time five minutes before his arrival but somehow the computer was able to judge just how much time it would take to get to my house. Apparently, the drivers have no discretion as to the route or speed they use in making their deliveries.
Another place I see computers in charge is with Preble Transit. Not long ago I was at the Preble Health Center waiting for my Preble Transit ride and one of their vans pulled up. I started to get on the van but the driver would not let me because he was not my assigned driver. The drivers do not have discretion on who they pick up or where they drop them off. Everything is run by the computer.
Not long after I started using Bard, I asked it to provide a synopsis of a novel. I had read the book and knew that it had some juicy parts, but my memory was unclear. I gave Bard the title and author of the book and in return I got a description that was completely wrong. I told Bard it was wrong and to try again. The second time Bard got the right book. Usually when we ask Google and other AI sources questions, we don’t already know the answer so we have no idea if we are getting wrong information. However, this is not something we think of. We believe what we are told. This can’t turn out well.
Wordle guess words: about, judge, juicy, junky, jumpy
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Polly here.
I don’t even know what to say about all of this.
In the first two examples, I can see and understand the value of this technology. It is nice to know an exact delivery time. And I can understand how a “ride service” needs to be precise about who they are picking up and dropping off.
But in the third example with Bard? This is a little scary. As Linda said, “This can’t turn out well.” The algorithm picked up something in her search that produced the wrong results.
I see this with AI on occasion. I use AI in Photoshop frequently, and often, I get terrible results. Other times, the outcome is perfectly wonderful.
In the case of searching for information, we don’t know that the answers are wrong. Because of this, I always check at least two or three sources for things that are important to me.
