Everyone’s talking about AI. Or are they? My favourite newspaper (no paid partnership, message to ask if you want to know!) has an AI editor now and you can barely turn a couple of pages without seeing another article about it. Browsers and “free” platforms loudly or subtly proclaim the contribution of AI to content’s creation.

Do we really care and how much is AI actually featuring in or enhancing our daily lives? What’s the difference between AI and technology in general and how can the layperson interpret this?

In the past week, Google Maps has told me a dual carriageway with a 70mph is a 30mph speed limit, and angrily flashed at me for exceeding 30mph (I don’t recall consenting for Google Maps to be monitoring the speed of the vehicle I travel in when I downloaded the app many years ago, on a privacy aside). The sat-nav feature has mispronounced several Cornish placenames. Chrome browser has placed AI suggestions as the prominent “answer”/information source to all my searches, but been completely off the mark on at least 3 occasions.

I was looking for cortisol research, and now my Instagram is fat with ads for somatic services that apparently will sort my cortisol out (no requirement for vendor or customer to know anything about my cortisol levels in advance).

I’m interested in machine learning, and how this can interest and benefit us. But I also can’t remember the last time a new feature, product or service that involved increased technological complexity or AI, excited or delighted me (or was even an improvement on the previous iteration). Think the multi-factor authentication banquet of banking apps that load slower and have worse UX (the most wooden of spoons going to Santander for this one – if you know, you know).

In the coming fortnight, I’m going to try and reduce my Google dependency, and escape the pretence that AI is omnipresent and omnipowerful. I successfully managed to give up Amazon 4 years ago in my commitment to shopping direct on the high street or with specialist merchants. I don’t have Netflix because it’s a waste of money. I don’t buy new iphones as I have no need for diminishing returns “improvements”. So out of the FAANGS monopoly (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) (yes I know the parent companies have changed their names) my main remaining dependencies are F and G. I’m going to practise what A, I preach and  limit their decisions on how much AI features in my life. Why don’t you, too?

Next fortnight, I’ll be writing On Novelty. Packed with new content, be sure to bookmark a few minutes in your diary to drop by and read it.

Please get in touch with any particular aspects of this subject you’d like me to write about.

In the meantime,

Happy Planning

PS If you want some other free tips for your business life, check out the Working Well blog – out fortnightly on Wednesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Productivity Expert, Penny Le Kelly. Browse the latest edition here:

https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/cybersecurity-month-2024-how-small-businesses-can-stay-safe-online/