AI rocks the boat?

When I was child, an omni-scient all-rounder used to dubbed a "walking encyclopaedia" (literally chodząca encyklopedia). Those humans who seem to have known an answer to every question embodied a desire to possess all the knowledge in the world. A quarter of century later this dream has come true in a way few had envisaged.

I have used the most popular AI tool, ChatGPT for a while. I use it out of curiosity, ask it uncanny questions, check if it can solve manifold problems. Despite its advanced age of two and a half years, it still has deficiencies, gets it wrong several times in a row, in spite of being prompted to mend its ways, acts as an outright liar or fails to substantiate the outcomes of its work.

Many point up its capacity as a therapist. I can confess to have tried it out, at times bounced quandaries off it. Its counselling is not mould-breaking and it still does not beat a bright therapist. Interactions with it remain still inferior to frank conversations with friends.

Some men (far more often than women) ask AI to aid them in online dating. I have also checked out how this works and here ChatGPT sounds like a typical boomer whose advice I wouldn't follow. With respect to romantic relationships, unless you are inexperienced or your emotional intelligence is well below average, I suggest AI does not offer dating counselling.

More and more frequently AI is used in situations when humans were told to use their brains. Falling back on AI dumbs people down. Intense thinking activates several parts of our brains, while relying on AI renders them idle. Over time humans might become helpless and prone to accelerated mental ageing.

Just like each invention, AI might be harnessed to pursue evil goals. You must be mindful of trolls farms on which people were paid for spreading disinformation and stirring things up. With AI in place, cost of producing fake content has dramatically decreased. As of now, what AI produces is easy to recognise (although the three-legged Marcon bait was swallowed by Polish right-wing journalists), but with time differences will fade. Touching on fake content, the percentage of people who take it in, without verifying, is disturbing, if not alarming. Needless to say right-wing voters and more likely to be manipulated in such way.

For months I have been hearing AI would take away most office jobs. AI tools keep developing fast, yet they are still far from the moment they threaten my current position. Just like in times of industrial revolution, machines have not rendered factory workers jobless, AI is unlikely to cause massive lay-offs. AI might to some extent take over mundane and repeatable tasks, but somebody will still need to oversee it, verify outcomes of its work and rectify errors made by AI.

If the exchange of goods and services is to continue, there must be a balance between supply and demand. Otherwise markets stall. In case AI replaces masses of white-collar workers and corporations realise their jobs are useless, the ultimate demand (for end products) will crash and thus the entire economy will go bust. An alternative scenario is that jobs of millions of people are redefined.

Some people have embraced AI excessively. At some point realising how much harm it can do and how many flaws it has will hopefully prompt humanity to take a step back with AI development, in order to make a few more prudent steps forward.

In the long run I see two conceivable scenarios: either most likely AI settles in a broad niche, facilitating our lives and jobs, with everyone keeping in mind humans remain superior to AI, or in a far less probable scenario AI grows uncontrollably, outwits humans, takes control over us and destroys our civilisation. Averting such scenario, whose probability is estimated by AI gurus at roughly 15%, lies in our hands only.

The new laptop - first impressions

I am writing this post from the third (counting out company one) computer I have had in my life. Given the fact my parents bought me my first one in 1999 (and I was one of the last children at school to have come into possession of a PC) that the most recent one is a brand-new one, jaw might drop open.

My first PC was the one I would tamper with, could take it apart and put together again, swapped components with my classmates etc. After seven years of service it gave way to a belated 18th birthday gift, a brand-new HP notebook bought in summer of 2006, prior to the outset of my studies. It broke down once, in 2010, then in 2014 I had it thoroughly cleaned of dust, the operation which cost under less than a hundred zloty that gave the notebook a second life and a speed boost. It served me really well, despite running on obsolete Windows XP and crying out for more RAM and faster processor at times. It has not given up a ghost typically; instead, its cover’s wear and tear reached its limits and the right hinge cracked. The estimated cost of repair was at least PLN 200 which prompted me to look for a new notebook, rather than sinking money in a device which on account of its age could pack up any time soon.

Since I have had good experience with HP devices (the one many not share) and having heard several times of badly defective Acer notebooks plus being fed up with my company Lenovo laptop, I decided to focus on HP portable computers only, knowing I would not repeat such good purchase as the previous computer had been. After all, more than a decade has elapsed and in terms of IT hardware, this is an era. For the sake of good order, I have not bought a state-of-the-art computer, since as I use it as Internet browser, a mailbox, a typing or calculating machine, a simple photo editor or a media player, the most advanced components would bring little marginal benefit and measurable marginal cost. I spent two thousand zloty on the new machine and after three weeks of using it, I do not regret not expending more money.

Though the technology has moved forward, in terms of ergonomics a step backwards has been made. I confess not to be fond of 16:9 screen proportions (I have got used to it) and I found 4:3 much more practical. Also all today’s notebooks have much less ergonomic mousepads. While choosing a laptop I paid much attention towards the pad (I have learnt not to use a separate mouse), bearing in mind how impractically it is designed in my company Lenovo and how it winds me up every time I use it outside the office. The pad in my new laptop has two separate buttons (not being a part of the pad as in lousy Lenovo), however lacks the scrolling surface to the right the previous one had. Well, one can get used to everything.

Using Windows 7 at work and Windows XP at home I did not observe much difference between the two operating systems. Upgrading to Windows 10 was thus a shock, yet I wanted to buy the most recent version of Microsoft’s operating system to avoid seeing it being rendered obsolete before long. Functionalities of Windows 10 best illustrate what stride has been made in terms of IT and what is the direction of changes. I would best call it a shift from owning to sharing and a shift from offline to online. Needless to say, my first steps with the new computer were dealings with privacy settings and turning off several spies built into the system and turned on in default mode.

Configuring and personalising the system is far more intuitive than in its previous versions. It seems the contemporary devices and operating systems are designed to be fool-proof. If you need a device to run, after a few clicks it is in the operational mode, while if you desire it to run the way you want it to, it takes a longer moment to tweak with all the settings and to disactivate the redundant functions. Though I appreciate how the modern devices take care of themselves, I actually lean towards being an aware technology user who gives up on convenience and prefers to retain control over his machinery rather than lets them look after themselves.

Hope the new device will serve me well for years to come, however I realise no matter how much I care about this device with limited durability, another decade in service looms out of reach.

The spring explodes

Just for the record – last days of March 2017 and the very beginning of April 2017 brought temperatures in excess of +20C, accompanied by marvellous sunshine. Early first spells of short-sleeve weather have been witnessed in abundance in Warsaw in the last decade; a similar mass of African air came over Poland around the spring equinox in 2014, in 2016 first days of April also saw temperatures well above +20C. While four years ago winter kept Poland in its grip…

Since such weather is conducive to spending time outdoor and I am grappling with piled-up work-related and home-related stuff, computer in recent days has not been the object I have approached frequently. I promise to catch up next with a review of one of most poignant books I have ever read.

Besides, for the record – this is the last post written from my 18th birthday gift. The excellent HP Compaq nx6310 has not given up the ghost but after ten years and seven months in service, one of two hinges of the screen cover virtually cracked (my neglect) and the quoted cost of repair (PLN 200 after haggling) was above my budget for an investment in the device which may break down any time on account of its age. The old notebook still works (wires have not been cut up), but with fractured hinge laying bare wires its days are numbered. I have already purchased a new laptop, but at first encounter, I am not enchanted by it. Pressed by circumstances, I will have to get used to it and then review it, sometime around Easter.

Exam in operational risk management

No, not the one at school, the one in life, this is the school of hard knocks! As some of you noticed I was absent in the blogosphere for a few days, to be precise from Thursday to Monday. The computer rehab was totally unplanned, I wrote here many times that mishaps always strike out of the blue and a few days ago this theory materialised.

For almost four years my computer had worked beyond reproach, but recently it began to work more and more slowly, in a word it became an ordeal to use. On Wednesday I had a bad day, the laptop also wasn’t in top form and eventually I lost my temper and spanked it in an attempt to persuade it to run faster. To no avail, it didn’t, but the other day when I turned it on the operating system didn’t want to load. After a few attempts I decided to run a recovery procedure and blithely left the room. After a quarter I was back just to see the hard disk had been formatted and the system was being restored. I thought it wasn’t a tragedy, I deluded myself everything could be recovered, it would be just a matter of money, but the problems were just setting in.

Firstly, the reinstalled system was overwritten on some of the sectors on hard disk, making it impossible to recover around 10 gigabytes of data saved on the disk. But the computer at least worked, I installed a modem and looked for a company which would help me get back my data collected for no apparent reason for many years.

When I found one, thins began to tangle up even more. It turned out the hard disks by Fujitsu-Siemens are generally vulnerable and fragile, to boot given that this one was not in pristine condition, it didn’t need much to conk out – my fault. On the course of recovery process in which they somehow managed to get back around 30% of my data the disk launched an auto-destruction procedure and gave up the ghost. Nice.

The only positive aspect of the whole story is the company I’ve found. Recovery Center is an excellent example of how customer service in Poland should look. The guy who runs it (not much older than me) proved himself to be a professional and reliable young entrepreneur. A normal company would recover more or less of my data, leave me with a worthless hard disk and quote me at least 500 PLN. At RC, not only they recovered as much data as they could, but also they fixed me up with a new hard disk and restored my original operating system, probably worth still around 200 PLN. And at the end they quoted me very favourably – I paid for the whole service 300 PLN and 170 PLN for the new hard disk. Maybe you wouldn’t call 470 PLN a snip, but somewhere else I’d have been charged probably around 1000 PLN. So if it happens to you that your hard disk, pendrive, digital camera or any other carrier packs up and you live in Warsaw or around, do not hesitate to contact them. The only drawback is the road leading up to their head office in Kierszek, south to Las Kabacki. I wouldn’t advise to try to get there by car. I made this mistake once, I managed not to damage any part of the vehicle but then I simply cycled there, road full of potholes, dangerous for undercarriage is not how the infrastructure on the perimeter of Warsaw should look.

But it would be best, if you learnt from my mistakes, so I appeal to you. Do back-ups. Buy a pendrive and store there all your important files, just in case. You don’t have to hit your hard disk, they break down for no reason.

Now I feel as if I was writing on someone else’s computer. It runs faster, work is more comfortable, but my digital belonging are lost or kept in 6 GB of miscellaneous chunks which will be brought into order for many weeks. All music is gone, but I hardly ever listen mp3 files on computer, I burn CDs right away. Six films downloaded and not yet saved on CDs or DVD are gone. Interestingly all photos I took since December were recovered. When it comes to the documents, many of them can be found in the random heap of data. I don’t even feel like sorting it out. Not a tragedy, but not a pleasure as well. Following my previous threads I compared my loss to the tragedy of the people who lost everything in the flood. The price of my folly was also quite reasonable – less than 500 PLN. Compare it to other people who out of their carelessness crash cars, or, Heaven forbid, injure or kill people in traffic accidents and you’ll see the scale of my damage is negligible. And I inflicted a damage only to myself. If you managed to read through the whole post, just draw some conclusions.

Sorry once again for a break in blogging. The next post will appear on Sunday, just after the exit poll results are announced. I’m somehow no longer afraid about the result, but the growing support for the candidate of the System, Russian Secret Services and other criminal organisations does not mean you can shrug off the vote. Go to the polls on Sunday!