Joanna Stern writes about tech for The Wall Street Journal. She decided to spend a year using AI to do almost everything, and the result is a book, *I Am Not a Robot,*
We may vaguely recall a decade or more ago reading about a journalist who decided to live like a hermit for a week and order everything they needed online – food, toilet paper, clothes, banking, books, the works.
Back then, ordering stuff online was for early adopters. Hence, the news value of a story about someone who actually lived online. Now, of course, nearly all of us do our banking online, check in for our flight, order dinner in and, of course, drive from A to B.
Fifteen years ago, the online life was novel. You had to cope with new things, like passwords, and use your thumbs to type.
We are in exactly the same place today with Artificial Intelligence. A few of us are both adept and addicted to it. Some of us use AI to write everything from a speech to a book. Shopping or complaining online now means talking to an AI bot to speed up the process.
AI companies are rushing to catch up with what they believe will happen within the next five years, let alone 15. Despite delays, I think driverless cars will be everywhere by 2031, as will robots, which today can fold a tee-shirt, but not one that’s fallen on the floor.
Waymo’s driverless taxis already operate in a dozen U.S. cities and could be in Toronto soon. Most of us already have wearable devices, like watches and rings and bracelets, monitoring our health by the second.
So, what was once alien, bizarre and hard to get good at becomes the norm.
All the more reason when we bump into AI, we should embrace it, ask how it takes its coffee and how it can help ease our path through life. The last thing we should do is avoid it, or run from it. Those of us who did this when the digital world started seeping through our door 15 years ago…well, the next time you board a flight, count the people who still offer a paper boarding pass, then count their age. Then ask them about the horror of losing their pass.
The big difference between digital adoption and AI adoption is that AI is much faster. Banks and credit card companies all use visual recognition software to save you from having to key in your password; and they’re well along in using voice recognition technology to fight AI scammers.
All this is my way of saying, the best time to start learning about AI was two years ago when ChatGPT was hallucinating and safety protocols barely existed. The second best time is today. Because AI is not just wicked fast; it’s getting faster, faster. And I repeat: today’s version of ChatGPT is the slowest version you’ll ever work on.
There are all kinds of courses and colleagues and loved ones who can help get you on the AI wagon. Microsoft offers AI for Beginners; MIT Open Learning has 13 foundational AI courses and resources; the U of T School of Continuing Studies offers a certificate program in AI.
And as I said, scores more groups offer beginner’s training; and Claude itself offers free training.
Okay, enough preaching to the unconverted.
For those of you already using AI – to write reports, plan holidays, diagnose patients, or cheat on exams – I have a different message.
It’s time to enter our third writing contest.
Last year we ran two of them. In the first, you were asked to write a very short but true story about yourself; in the second, you were asked to write 100 words to your 25-year-old self.
This is different.
I’m now asking you to write a prompt in 100 words or less. A prompt is the instruction you give Claude or NotebookLM or whatever AI platform you use to find, sort and generate the content you want.
This should be your magic prompt, and could be your secret one that you’re willing to share with our readers. Like how to write a speech, or how to sue your neighbour for cutting down their tree which shaded your porch.
The first rule of prompt engineering is “Persona” + “Task” + “Constraints” + “Format”, and the basics of prompt writing are here.
So…here’s an example:
1. Persona: You are a travel agent with 30 years experience in Southeast Asia.
2. Task: Create a “foodie tour of Japan and China.”
3. Constraints: Two weeks door-to-door. Budget of $15,000 for my wife and me.
4. Format: Include a detailed day-to-day itinerary with recommended restaurants and menus.
For this Prompt Writing Contest, please submit your entry here.
Deadline is Saturday, June 20, 11:59:59 p.m. ET.
The committee will choose three winners: Bronze, Silver and Gold, and publish them in an upcoming issue of the Omnium-Gatherum. Other Honourable Mentions may also be published. In terms of prizes, we found that saying the winners would get their reward in Heaven limited the number of entries. So in this contest, prizes include your name in lights, the envy and respect of your peers, and the feeling that you’ve done something useful and good for humankind.
Meanwhile…
1. Baby in a bulldozer. That’s what Tim Snyder calls Donald Trump’s relationship with the world.
2. The Army of Drones Bonus System. The Ukrainian Army has advanced the video gamification of war by creating a competition among its frontline drone pilots, with points and prizes for high scorers. The Washington Post reports “[It’s] the only program of its kind in the world. Units earn points for each Russian soldier they incapacitate or kill and each weapon, vehicle or piece of military equipment they destroy. Points may be redeemed in an online government marketplace for more drones, with which to target more Russian forces.” Gory details here.
Speaking of death, pancreatic cancer may no longer be a death sentence. 80% of patients today are diagnosed in the metastatic stage, and just 3% of them are alive after 5 years. But a new pill, Daraxonrasib, doubles patients’ survival rates and boosts their quality of life. Bladder cancer seems to be on the run as well. Doctors are hailing a British drug, Durvalumab, that spares bladder cancer patients “life-changing” surgery and stops tumours from coming back.
Meanwhile, a large majority of Canadians support Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) as it’s now constituted, but not the proposed reforms around mental illness.
3. Two Canadian cities. Last year, Toronto’s luxury housing market fell more than any city in the world, except Guangzhou, China. Also, what is the world’s most photographed hotel? Quebec City’s Chateau Frontenac.
4. One fine evening. On June 27, Canada’s storied rock-jazz group, Lighthouse, will perform at The Concert Hall. They’re celebrating the Anniversary Edition of their global hit One Fine Morning first recorded 55 years ago. Tickets here. See you there.
5. What’s on, and what’s good at Stratford. Dr. David Goldbloom is an eminent psychiatrist who chaired the Board of the Stratford Festival and attends opening nights and writes about them for his friends. Here’s what he said about Stratford’s six new productions this past opening week.
Speaking of Stratford, Sara Waxman wrote a review about the opening of Waiting for Godot, which featured her grandson, 12-year-old Asher Albert Waxman. Her son Adam Waxman was also in two Stratford productions, and her late husband, Al Waxman, played Willy Loman in Stratford’s Death of a Salesman in 1997. A new production of Salesman debuts at Stratford this summer.
6. Learn more about UFOs. Unidentified Flying Objects have had a bad rap. But serious science is now looking at them and finding…well, they’re still not sure. After a name change in 2021, UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) are getting their own conference, the first outside the U.S. On the weekend of July 24-26, the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (UAP) will present Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and former Minority Staff Director, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Details here.
7. Connections. What happens when you map every friendship in the U.S.? Something odd. And how the new Major League Baseball salary caps and floors are related. Plus, the global spice map, and how the ROM Walks connect you with the city. Plus, how rising temperatures impair your judgement. Finally, how to get fired from “60 Minutes.”
8. Still not planned to go somewhere glorious this summer? Join us at The Canada Summit, the fabulous four-day heli-hiking trip from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3, where four leading Canadians (Steve Paikin, Dr. Heather Ross, Ron Deibert, and Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux) will discuss where we’re headed around politics, healthcare, cyber and Indigenous relations. If you can walk around your kitchen table, you can heli-hike. Details here and register here.
9. Louche luxury and precarious doctors. Amidst the crowd of far-from-the-madding crowd experiences are a new British train and the world’s most intelligent hotel. Plus an interesting theory on where the middle class disappeared to, what a portfolio career looks like, and where the ultra-rich are now living.
10. 250 for 250. The 250th birthday of the United States is coming up. To mark the occasion in a decidedly non-jingoistic manner, historian Heather Cox Richardson is producing a series of one-minute videos, each featuring one of ‘the many people, places, and events that have built America and remind us of the power of each person to make history’. Here are the first.
Plus, The Washington Post’s review of The Obama Center in South Chicago. It opens June 19.
Speaking of citizenship, Mark Carney spoke on June 1 at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. [start from 11:10] Plus Dambisa Moyo on the first innings of the new world order.