Whether you know it or not, AI has come to dominate the internet within the last year.
They’re here, and “they’re not going away. This key scene from Poltergeist is an excellent metaphor.
Therefore, we have two choices on the individual level - to avoid AI like the plague or to learn to use it for good. The first choice - to avoid it- really isn’t a viable option if you are on the internet, which derscribes 99.9% of people at this point. It is running our search engines, increasingly our audio and video, and interfering with our written words - whether we like it or not.
The second choice is to learn to use it and then proceed to control it as much as possible. Understand when and where it is being deployed. Then, learn how to use the various generative AI tools available.
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a broad field of computer science focused on creating systems that can perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, perception, problem-solving, and decision-making. AI encompasses a wide range of techniques and applications, including:
Pattern recognition (e.g., image or speech recognition)
Data analysis and prediction (e.g., forecasting, recommendation systems)
Automation of complex processes (e.g., robotics, expert systems)
Natural language processing (e.g., translation, chatbots)
Decision support (e.g., loan approval, medical diagnosis)
Traditional AI systems are generally designed to analyze data, identify patterns, and make predictions or decisions based on predefined rules or learned models. These systems excel at tasks like classifying images, recommending products, or answering specific queries but do not create original content.
What is Generative AI?
Generative AI is a specialized subfield of AI focused on creating new, original content such as text, images, music, video, or code based on patterns learned from large datasets. Generative AI systems use advanced machine learning models (especially deep learning architectures like generative adversarial networks, variational auto-encoders, and transformers) to generate outputs that resemble their training data but are not direct copies. Generative AI is limited to what it presents by what data it has been trained on and what algorithms are used to show that data.
I highly recommend that everyone learn to use multiple generative AI tools. The more popular ones available to the public include chatbots such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, MetaAI, and Perplexity; text-to-image models such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E; and text-to-video models such as Sora. Some are free, and some are available on a subscription basis.
When using these tools for research, compare and contrast answers with the various AI generative language programs against your own experience and knowledge. Test the program periodically with your own database (that being your own memory and knowledge base).
I have a tremendous amount of fun with generative AI. The key is to control it rather than it controlling you. By that I mean put yourself in the driver’s seat - rather than a passive passenger. A whole new world opens up when using generative AI models for data collection and research.
Who remembers the Dewey Decimal system? When I was a young student and researcher in the 1980s and early 1990s, I had to go to the university library to look up scientific papers in relevant journals. I would browse the latest issues, check tables of contents, and photocopy articles of interest. There would be citation indexes that would collate various articles, but there was a lag time between when the newest peer-reviewed studies were published. The process was slow and labor-intensive, sometimes taking hours or days to compile a comprehensive list of relevant articles. One of the reasons one would have to go to a good university is that their library would subscribe to more peer-reviewed journals. Access was limited by what journals a given library subscribed to, and obtaining articles from elsewhere could be costly and slow. One would have to involve the librarian, who would have to fax or phone in the request to other universities. It could take weeks and often there would be a charge. Professors would hire research assistants who would almost live in the library and whose primary job was ferreting out the latest papers and studies. I remember spending days in the library - pouring over journals because I often didn’t have the money to use the copier. Just think about how far we have come.
That was the world of the student and researcher. Fast forward to generative AI and the government.
I can not wait for the Library of Congress and Pubmed to get their digital library into a generative AI tool. Soon, we will be able to get a generative AI program to answer specific questions about scientific databases, such as Pubmed, which contains more than 38 million citations and abstracts from biomedical literature, including research articles, reviews, and other scholarly documents. This is going to revolutionize science and medicine yet again.
The government and AI
DOGE has used AI to ferret out government waste and fraud.
HHS is using AI to search government, hospital, and insurance databases for vaccine adverse events on a scale that has never been attempted before.
Whether “we” like it or not, the government will use AI in all sorts of ways.
It is just a matter of time before the IRS uses AI to ferret out mistakes and fraud in our income taxes. And yes, that will open up a whole ‘nother can of worms.
So, of course, there are dangers - we all know it. Governmental, foreign elements and commercial psyops will abound. AI will be influencing capitalism, economies, and democracy in ways that we can’t even predict yet. We know that AI and generative AI is evolving rapidly and more scarily, independently from its creators.
But there isn’t much we can do about it. All we do is write and support our politicians and government working to control and regulate the AI technologies.
But that shouldn’t stop us from using AI -so that as much as possible, we can control it, rather than the other way around.
The truth is this train is coming. We can all be engineers or passive passengers on this digital AI journey. The individual choice is up to you.
Alas, why is it that so many inventions and technologies that could benefit the human condition are weaponized against us by those who wish to wield power?
Wow. Okay so I feel like I should share this experience from this week. I was in the process of composing a rather stern warning about AI especially AGI. Then something happened. A fellow substacker posted a link to SunoAI music composer. I was curious so I tried it out. I've been writing since I was kid, back in the dark ages, poetry, fiction, non-fiction and lyrics that I often recorded when I still played guitar. I have a back log of lyrics. But I also have a collection of songs I wrote under the title So Many Stories. I recently substacked about that under the title God Only Knows..
Tuesday morning, I uploaded one of my favorite lyrics and five minutes later I had two finished songs, voice and instruments, to choose from. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I swear this has changed things for me in a way I cannot possibly explain. I now have 11 compositions and I am still on an adrenaline high. Here is a link to listen if you like to my first AI recording.
http://trinitypondfarm.com/NoPhotograph.mp3
I tell you I absolutely agree that anything can be used for good or bad and it will be I am sure.