AI is here to stay, we will adjust just as we have adjusted to other technological advancements, but it will impact how we socialize and relate to one another. Look at how TVs replaced the front porch, e-mails replaced letters and texting replaced phone calls.

I still like to talk to people and have real conversations, but a lot of people prefer to just send an IM or text.

My mom would step out on the back porch or go to the start of the hallway leading to the bedrooms and call our names if we weren't at the dinner table. My niece sends her son a text. He can be in the next room and they will communicate via text.

We will also have growing pains, and it is growing so fast and not being thouroughly tested that we are seeing negative outcomes - like AI advising people to kill themselves based on programming that tells AI bots to encourage people to take action and not just think about doing things like looking for a new job or cleaning out your closet. When someone says they are thinking about killing themselves AI bots are encouraging them not keep thinking it, just do it. Oops.

The use of AI in selecting job candidates has also increased bias. AI took the patterns it saw from actual hiring processes and perfected the process, so where bias already existed (Men over women, white over black) it perfected the process and eliminated black and female applicants.

They know AI will learn, and the idea is that it will study how we do things and improve upon them, but who is monitoring the development and making sure AI doesn't learn the wrong things or unethical things along with the good and proper things?

Completely agree with Jennifer that AI is not going anywhere and like so many technologies we have to adapt. Not saying everyone needs to use it, but we will have to learn to operate in a world with heavy AI usage everywhere. Today it's cheap for people to use (due to the huge amount of capital investors are throwing at companies) but I expect the cost will rise in some way once those companies want to turn out a profit after they hook everyone on relying on it.

AI agents are absolutely the hot new thing and I suppose it's no surprise that people would explore using them for personal lives and not just work. I personally cannot fathom delegating my personal conversations to an AI agent and relying on that agent to communicate well with someone I care about. My mom wants to hear from me, not from a large language model that has been gathering context on me. And I would never do that to her.

I see AI as a very different technology than phone, email, TV. With all of those inventions it is a mode of communication that has changed, new tools for disseminating our thoughts. AI is replacing our thoughts, generating the words we communicate. I know it is here to stay and I still will resist the hell out of it. I want to use my brain as much as possible while I can.

The agents save time and leave them more of it for their careers.

Ha! What careers? They will probably be replaced by AI.

Today it's cheap for people to use...

Rate payers are going to start footing the bill for the construction of new power plants to generate energy for data centers. We think our electric bill are high now, we have no idea what is around the bend.

I have been taking classes and learning a ton about AI. I find the topic incredibly interesting. It is really shocking how quickly it is moving. There are companies that are sort of like temp agencies for training AI models. The jobs they are hiring for are good indicators of what will be soon eliminated.

ChatGPT has a feature that allows you to have a conversation with it like talking to a person on the phone. I find it incredibly useful in certain applications. Also, there are all sorts of prompts you can use for it to evaluate your personality. For me it was spot on.

Suggest everyone (on the planet) check out If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezar Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, two men who REALLY know what they're talking about, both deeply involved with developing AI since the beginning. Now they're warning the world.

Also, if your community was threatened with a data center (as is mine) you'd have that to worry about as well--threats to water, power use, air and noise pollution, etc.

I work in an industry that has been and will continue to be deeply impacted by AI. Unfortunately it is a matter of adapt or fall behind and potentially lose our careers. CEOs, boards of directors, investors, etc are pushing hard on adopting AI extensively. People who refuse will ultimately lose their jobs and the market is already being saturated by layoffs either directly correlated to or blamed on AI.

We just got together with our 2 DDs and were talking about AI. They are 21 and 26 and warned us against using it and talked about how they try to avoid using it where they can. I found it interesting that they would both have that perspective for a couple of reasons. One, they are both relatively young (I had assumed the younger generation would be more, not less apt to use AI), and two, they have vastly different personalities and are in vastly different fields (one is finishing a science degree and the other has just finished her Master's degree in creative writing, but both seemed very anti - AI. Not a broad sample at all, but gives me hope that the next generation might not be as accepting.

So many young people, including my teen Gandson are warning us off of AI. We should listen I feel like we are frogs in a pot of water slowly being heated to boiling, immobilizing us until it’s too late and people just saying Oh well we can’t do anything. Maybe we are already doomed but many of us are going to resist until our dying breath.

My DD has an advanced degree in machine learning (AI) and her husband is in grad school now studying the same thing. They both use it in their work to check and debug millions of lines of code and kind of laugh at the thought of people using it to write their emails. Neither thinks ceding the ability to construct a sentence based on your own thoughts is a good idea.

AI has many uses and unfortunately will put many out of work. I use it daily, several hours a day. It is excellent for studying. Upload photos of the content you are trying to learn and let it quiz you. Have you missed the same type of question a million times? It will calmly explain it to you in a million different ways until you finally get it. Do you need confirmation over and over again about your line of thinking? If you ask a human the same question over and over they will shoot you. It never gets tired and is ready at 3am.

Sure, it is sometimes wrong. Yesterday I was studying something and part of the AI explanation was written in Arabic. I had to ask again. NBD. It's failure rate is a lot lower than mine.

I am taking a test today, after a month of studying. 90% of the material was produced by AI. I used it to greatly expand the content provided by the class and it was there to dig as deep as I needed.

It has millions of different uses and that is just one of the reasons it is so dangerous. It needs to be used and developed responsibly.

I listened to a podcast about it recently and came away with perspective that the worst danger is how it changes the way we think, or rather, stops us from learning to think. When you think back to how you developed the ability to reason and think through arguments and then take pride and gain confidence in your ability to do so, AI is stunting that progression.

My DS does similar work as Kswl's DD and DSIL for a well-regarded financial firm. I asked him if he thought AI would replace his job, and he replied no, and proceeded to explain why. Essentially, what he does is too nuanced to use AI.

My young adult kids feel about AI like Daisy's kids do, and see it for what it is. They make extra efforts to connect with people and engage with the world in meaningful ways--taking dance classes, playing board games with friends, reading hard-copy books, etc. They're rejecting technology as a whole in their personal lives because it's such a big part of their professional worlds.

How many of you ask Alexa to set a timer for you? You could do it yourself or even just look at your watch and make sure to look often enough that your food doesn't burn. People cooked for centuries without timers, but personal assistants make our lives easier. This is AI

How many of you use Google Maps or Waze to get directions, analyze real-time traffic data, optimize routes, and predict your ETA? This is AI

How often do you look at the recommended for you movies or shows on Netflix - this is AI.

I use AI every day to take notes and summarize meetings. I turn on transcripts and summary when I set up the meeting. When the meeting starts it warns everyone that it will be transcribing the conversation. At the end of the meeting AI provides a summary of the topics discussed, decisions made and action items that must be completed by each person. I can then ask AI to send calendar reminders to each person who has a follow up task. If needed, anyone who attended the meeting can review the transcript to get clarification.

I spend 6 or more hours a day in meetings. This is similar to back in the day when we had a admin assistants doing this, only it is like having a super competent admin assistant who requires no time off and never asks for a raise. Our company did away with having admin assistants for anyone lower than a VP 20 years ago.

I am retiring in a few weeks and am glad that I don't have to worry about AI taking over my job, but I am not under any illusion that AI won't take over the job that I currently do and I think it will be more efficient and effective. I spend about 50% of my time babysitting our data - making sure that things were programmed correctly, that the translation from business needs to technical specifications was fully understood. Finding places where programmers took shortcuts that impact the quality of our data (hard coding date ranges or filters that need to be flexible and change as parameters change (like we went from 2025 to 2026 - we shouldn't have to recode anything - it should just happen)). AI will find these issues and correct them without human intervention. I have to search thousands of lines of code to find the root cause of each issue.

I am glad that I learned how to navigate with physical maps, that I know north, south east and west and can make a good guess at which direction I need to go to get where I want to be, but I love that my car lets me say "Take me home" and it pulls up a map and provides me with turn by turn directions.

I am grabbing onto AI with both fists and seeing where the ride takes me.

I am with you Jennifer Hogan! AI is everywhere and I would bet that it is embedded in the lives of every single person on this forum, either knowingly or not. Do you use a fingerprint or face recognition to unlock your phone? How about spam filtering of email? Credit monitoring?

I can think of more than a handful of jobs off the top of my head that it can be much more effective at then any human. That does not mean that there are no ethical implications. I disagree that it will take over our ability to think. It allows me to think at a higher level because it allows me to explore ideas in more depth. I have sat at my computer for many hours and let it be my teacher and critique my work.

Well, I have never used Alexa or anything similar to do a simple task that takes virtually no brains or skill. Sometimes I can't quite fathom why people embrace stuff like that. I would have no problem returning to using paper maps. We all seemed to get there, didn't we? We took notes in meetings and it all worked out, too. Sometimes I miss the days of corded phones...we managed fine with those, too, didn't we? And not everyone had their faces glued to a screen, parents not interacting with their kids, kids not knowing how to play with each other non-virtually and on and on.

Just because it's possible and available, doesn't mean it's beneficial to humanity.

The thing that I don't like about Alexa, Google and similar is that it is always listening. One time my oldest sister was on a call, either speaker or Zoom and asked to set a timer, and two timers set in other people's houses, but not hers. And she said "Why did it do that?" and one of them replied "Because I hear everything".

My nephew, who is not a conspiracy theorist, and has a PhD in constitutional law and history, will not talk about certain subjects unless Alexa is unplugged. (We do not have any of these devices in our house but the rest of my local family does)

My other sister can no longer get anywhere, even places she goes to on a semi regular basis, without Maps or Wayz or something. It got ridiculous, one time she had two on, we were in a city that we both had lived, and one of them gave her an obviously wrong direction (like making a turn in a middle of a bridge) and she said "what do I do?" And at this point I said "Turn the f---g thing off is what you do, you lived here, what's the matter with you?" Obviously she was not happy with me for the rest of the day but seriously. (It also used to direct everyone through the grounds of a penitentiary near where one of us lived, because it read it's roads as a short cut. )

She was essentially forced to stop driving recently anyway. Her car got stolen.

I'm grabbing onto AI too...mainly because the race between U.S. and China remains tight-but the U.S. holds key structural advantages, for now anyway. I want the smartest and most innovative people working for us!

Jennifer, there's no doubt of AI's influence in our lives, and many industries and job descriptions have been impacted by it. What AI lacks are critical thinking skills, emotional intelligence, and common sense. Companies that incorporate AI to replace jobs that rely on these abilities place themselves at risk. Just because I may ask my Alexa what my weather will be tomorrow, doesn't mean I want AI to manage my investments or how my city implements tax dollars for road improvements. One of the most concerning adaptations of AI is in the mental health field.

We still have agency in our personal lives. But this is where young adults and children who have been raised with this type of technology are impacted most, because we, in this generation who created AI, have not adequately prepared them to adapt to it. We have facilitated AI into their lives. It's great that you know how to navigate without Google maps, but do kids in your community know?

Our generation seems to lack an accountability for what we've allowed here--for the next generation to deal with.

I live in a largely Amish community just outside of Lancaster PA so I do appreciate and sometimes envy the simplicity of a life without technology and where community comes first.

Through my interaction with this community I can understand why so many people were concerned about what Televisions were going to do to our society. We stopped building homes with front porches because people didn't sit on their front porch every evening to socialize with the neighbors. We became family focused vs community focused. The idea that we can have someone die in their home and no one even notices for weeks on end is pretty awful. Before televisions people were much more focused on their neighbors lives and someone would notice that "Jane" wasn't sitting out that evening or hadn't brought her laundry in from the line or or or.

Television shifted us away from personal interaction with our friends, neighbors and even our families, where we once sat and talked or read after dinner instead of turning on the TV and having something else entertain us and influence how we think and behave? At the same time we are living longer lives due to the technical advancements in medicine and we can have life experiences that previous generations would most likely never experience. I love that I have friends from all over the world. My grandparents did have a few friends that came to America during the industrial revolution, but beyond that they didn't interact with the world outside of their community.

Look at how we communicate through Houzz. We all share an interest in interior design, we get to communicate and share our thoughts. We wouldn't have this opportunity if it were not for the advancements made by technology. But it did come at a price. We talk with each other, but don't know that our neighbor has cancer or that their child passed away. We don't talk to them and aren't there to ease their burden. We traded physical community with our virtual communities.

Technology has always been and will always be a double edged sword.

In terms of kids sitting in front of a screen and not interacting with others, that is the fault of the parents. No different than handing a two year old a phone or iPad at a restaurant. It is their responsibility to make sure they parent and not pass that responsibility to a screen. OTOH, just because kids spend all day with peers does not mean their interactions are healthy. There are tons of appalling behaviors that are learned on playgrounds and in schools.

@Olychick - My sister came to my house last night and I shared this conversation with her. Your post was the second last comment at that time. She read it and asked me "Remember what mom used to say" . . . "There is a reason people grow old and die" She was referring to the people who in 1975 were still using hand signals instead of the turn signals built into the cars or people who were afraid of using a microwave . . . Life continuously changes and when you can no longer adapt it is time to die.

@ilikefriday - I often think my generation learned how to treat others because if you said something mean on the playground you got punched in the nose. Online you are safe to say anything you want and not get punched in the nose.

BTW - I had a dog that was big and active and sometimes I just needed him to settle down. He was a TV watching dog and he loved Shrek. I would take him into the bedroom, call him up onto the bed and turn on Shrek. He would lay on the bed for the next hour and a half staring at the TV and thumping his tail back and forth. I kind of understand parents sitting the kid in front of the TV or handing them a phone or iPad. Shouldn't do it all the time, but some days or sometimes it is the right answer.

I just remembered at Christmas when we had a huge family gathering and my one 3 year old grand niece had a meltdown. Her mom got out her phone, set the little girl on her lap and played a video for her that was one of her favorite videos. She settled down and stopped crying. Was there really anything wrong with using a video to distract her when she was just overwhelmed by all the activity?

@lucille

First - this was something my mother said and said often enough that it was engrained in both my sister's an my memories. I am not sure that I would take this quite as literally as you did.

My mom was definately a strong woman with strong viewpoints. She got frustrated with people who wouldn't or couldn't adapt or those who resisted change. Her mother left the Amish Church and joined the women's suffragist movement, wanting women to have the right to vote and to have a say in their own life, not be the property of their husband or father or brother. My mother followed suit, ensuring that her daughters, as well as her sons were well educated and capable of supporting themselves without dependency on a spouse. We knew that saying "I can't" or having a defeatist attitude would bring about great disfavor with my mom. She expected us to do our very best and believe in our ability to do anything we wanted. She insisted that every summer we try at least two new activities. I took lessons in everything from tennis to baton twirling, ballet and tap, art, horseback riding, rifle range, woodshop, basic plumbing, archery and music.

My mom actually had a large number of Amish friends and relatives. She understood their viewpoints and values and the restrictions imposed by their religion. She also kept photo albums with pictures of all of their kids. The Amish are not allowed to have pictures of themselves, but the moms all wanted to see the pictures of themselves as kids and their husbands as kids to see who their children favored. There were also a few of the Amish women who would come over and borrow my mom's vacuum cleaner and a long extension cord so they could vacuum their rugs. The men usually had a generator in the workshop so they could use electronic tools, but the women were restricted to a broom for cleaning. The long extension cord just leveled the playing field. They also enjoyed watching television while they ate lunch with my mom.

She understood that the rules of their community did not allow certain things, but she didn't mind helping her fellow women with breaking the rules and even sometimes get them to change their rules. She had one friend who was had large breasts and her dress seams under the arms would split open. My mom explained that she needed darts in her tops to accommodate her breast size. This wasn't to show off your figure, but to allow you to wear clothing that fit. The woman took this back to her community and women who needed darts were allowed to add them to their clothing so that the dresses wouldn't tear when they needed to reach for things or move certain ways.

My father, who was not from an Amish family, but was a physician. He met with the local Amish bishops and helped change the views on vaccinating children for preventable diseases like polio. While the Amish are still considered an under vaccinated community, the church does not forbid vaccination and at that time encouraged members to be vaccinated.

It may take the Amish a lot longer to conform to the rest of society, but they too are changing. I do see more and more farmstands with battery operated calculators. You wouldn't have ever seen that when I was a kid.

I have to admit that as much as I admire some things about the Amish community, I also have issues with their strict adherence to gender roles, their lack of tolerance for gays and their subservient expectations of women. Example - I grow tomatoes every summer. In June and the beginning of July I will only have enough for my own use, but by the end of July I have far more than I can use. I will tell my neighbor that she is welcome to come over and pick tomatoes for her family. My plants are 5 feet from the property line. She can't just come over and pick tomatoes. She has to ask her husband's permission first. Really - he can see you, he can see where you are. If he calls your name you are within earshot. But she isn't allowed to do this without asking. She also has to ask if I offer her some things that I am giving away "I have some pie plates that I was going to run down to the thrift shop - would you or one of your sisters want them?" "I could really use some more pie plates, let me go in and ask Joshua if it is okay." I want to scream every time I hear this response.

I use AI professionally. The way I use it, it is exactly like having another junior person to give assignments (except for the incredible speed of course). I give it tedious things to do, and when it gives me the output. I look it over very skeptically, ask follow up questions, substantiate any facts or assertions that I don't already know myself, and then use it as raw material for things I am creating.

Example, there are newly proposed banking regulations. Four hundred pages. I know the gist of them, and I can find and read articles summarizing them. But I will ask AI to do a custom summary for me, and ask it to locate certain aspects that particularly interest me. That adds to my overall analysis of the matter. But I cannot just have AI do all the work and have a thoughtful, tailored result, just like I would not simply paste in a junior person's work. My oversight and judgment are needed.

Before AI, I would have read only the summaries of the 400page regulations, because they are of interest to me but somewhat tangential to my work. Now I go the extra step because AI makes it easy to add another layer.

For me, AI has raised the bar and I do more because it is easy to do more. It reminds me of how word processing changed the writing of memos. Back when you had to retype the whole thing to make a change, you edited a lot less. Nowadays one edits and re-edits ad nauseum, because it is so easy to do so. The work product is far better!