Let’s start here. My high school classmates gathered a couple weeks ago to celebrate our 40th high school reunion. Living so far away with no current ties to Rocky Ford, I have not gone to a single reunion, but I am a little sad to have missed out on seeing friends I have known forever.
Of course, 1984 conjures up other images as well, and with Phil prepping to go back to the classroom in this brave new world, we have been talking a lot about artificial intelligence. Last night, Phil (who has been walking to work daily with his backpack, thermos of coffee, and full-on headphones) told me had something to show me that would astonish me. He wasn’t wrong. He punched my last five posts into a Google AI product and about a minute later, before my very eyes, the robot overlords had created a podcast about my blog. What??? I barely know what a podcast is, but here were these very human-sounding voices talking about Ben’s Day Wednesday. Big Brother seemed to understand voice and tone as it wove together my fairly disparate posts.
Give it a listen. What do you think?
I told a couple of colleagues (who are in my general age range) about this over lunch and we talked about the challenges AI poses to teaching and learning. “Did you ever think teaching would be this?” We asked. Well, no. I didn’t. I still remember reading in the Weekly Reader in 1975 that robots would one day be doing my homework. I’m still waiting for a robot to lurch into the room and ask me in a monotone voice what a nice teacher like me with a stack of papers to grade is doing in a place like this. It would whisk that pile of illegible dreck from my hands and… (you’ll have to conjure up a podcast if you want the steamy details.)
Fascinating story about your Family history & how AI connected the box to what you found it. I’m with Ben, I like my cheese steak in the garden! My Dad used to joke when asked if he wanted his sandwich in the garden he would always say I’d rather have it here.
It’s crazy how AI seems to work! Agreed – cheesesteak in the garden is the best! Ben ought to know. He eats them all the time! I’m sure that a cheesesteak in the garden in the actual garden would be the best of all worlds!