Beware the AI Bunny.

I just had a week long holiday from work for Spring Break. This extended from Easter, through Qing Ming (Chinese Tomb sweeping day) until the end of the week.

My family had a good time, as normal just relaxing, our Easter was lovely. During this holiday, however I seem to keep running into the topic of AI. My friends use it, my older two children use it, and I myself use it.

Did you know, that you can have a chat with a book character as if they were alive? There is an AI website for that. My daughter uses it to talk to characters before trying to draw them. That’s cool.

What was a bit unnerving was that the same website let’s you have fake conversations with celebrities and politicians… Yikes. This could lead to some strange situations if AI celebrity is realistic enough that someone believes they have a bond or friendship with Real celebrity, and tries to act on that.

AI is used in art. This use has been very loud in the news and social circles. And I think we can all agree that the systems that steal styles and art from living artists is not ok. However there are AI systems that help you with your own art. You upload samples, and it helps you tweak your own work, by either changing the angle or lighting. This I believe is a great use. And I am all for this use, but stealing is never cool.

There is AI out there to help songwriters, and prose writers. I personally have been tinkering with a writing assistant and it has helped me get back to work on novels I started years ago. I am working on 3 of them again. And if I get to publication level, I will mention it here first.

What I have noticed is that, if left to it’s own AI writing contradicts itself and repeats facts multiple times. I had a chapter where the main character’s wife is supposed to be manning a stall at a street market, but the AI had her walking around with her husband, at the same time she was explaining things to children at her stall… And characters that hated her were kind and giving free gifts for their anniversary (which was not even close the this event…) So it is important to not rely on it to write for you, but to use it to help write.

As a teacher, AI helps us with report card comments and lesson planning. When we go back to work tomorrow, there is a half day training for us waiting on the AI tools that are available to make life easier. I have to say, some comments were easier to write with the AI, some I just breezed through on my own.

Teachers and students have been exposed to learning algorithms for years. Most educational websites run them. The problem with these sites is simply they miss the human factor. Sure the reading app can analyze the speed of a child’s reading or their written response to a book. However it does not take into account that it is being read at 11:00 at night by a child that just spent most of their day in classes and should be asleep.

I have had to adjust student levels on reading apps enough over the years after sitting and listening to them read during the class time, and the assure the parents. I also have to keep reminding parents that children need 8-10 hours of sleep.

I know there has been a lot of fear about AI lately, and after looking into it myself I can say clearly that as long as the creativity and empathy stay human, let the machines deal with the slog. I know many people fear for their jobs and don’t want to be turned into an “AI prompt engineer.” Just remember, machines break down, and make mistakes do to not understanding reality. We will always be here for quality control, and realigning the machine.

I do however really hope that Asimov’s 3 laws of robotics are going to be forced to be included in the core code … Just in case…

For those who don’t know…

• Law 1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
• Law 2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
• Law 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.