October 30, 2024
Dear Google: Please stop
trying to sell me something when all I want from you is specific information.
Love, Morgan.
Sometimes it’s a real pain in
the you-know-what. I’m an author. I’ve got 70 titles available, as well as
several boxed sets that my publisher has so graciously compiled, of both my “Morgan”
authored books and my “Cara” ones. And being an author, I often will ask any
number and manner of questions of “the google machine”.
Even when I’m not in writing
mode, you have to know that I have a curiosity about anything and everything. I
never know when watching something on evening television or reading about
something in a book will pique my curiosity.
Now, I understand that in a
capitalistic society, “commercials” are necessary as a means to help pay for
services provided. I sometimes make a donation to Wikipedia when asked. So, I’m
mostly ok with the concept, and the inevitable “hitting up” I may experience
via imbedded commercials about this, that, or even the other thing.
Of course, I really, really
hate these interruptions when I’m doing my nightly YouTube dive. Is there
anything worse than having a great song, one that you love or maybe haven’t
heard in a long time, interrupted mid-note by an ad for something I will never,
ever buy (or even something I won’t buy now because the company ruined
the song I was into)? Oh sure, YouTube offers me the privilege of experiencing
their services ad free if I pay protection money—er, sorry I meant a membership
fee—but that’s a topic for another essay.
So, Google is always tossing
up ads in whatever I use it to do for me. Whether I’m looking for information
to learn or to verify, or maybe if I’m trying to find a specific website,
Google has a seeming endless number of suggestions on ways in which I and my
few discretionary dollars can part ways.
And then there’s that other
thing Google has been doing lately. Sometimes, Google asks questions that have
nothing at all to do with possibly earning a small stipend for themselves. And
almost always these suggestions are just downright silly and bring out my
not-so-inner smart-ass.
Me: Asking Google a question
about the Pyramids at Giza.
Google: Would you like to view
results closer to you?
I sometimes wonder what Google
would do if I clicked on “yes”, but I never remember to do that when it
happens. Because usually, when I’m researching something or other for my
current manuscript, and being in full work mode, I do not want to distract my focus
away from said work at all. Period. Because, friends, I know how that is going to
end, and the word that comes to mind is not “good”.
These days my focus is too
hard to come by to begin with. If I find it, I sure as hell don’t want to lose
it.
But since I am one to always
search for the silver lining in life, I’ll give you one now. I’ve been a bit
worried about all of the possible implications of the newest technological breakthrough
(at least the newest that I’m aware of. If there’s something newer, please don’t
tell me.) That breakthrough, of course, is AI. Artificial Intelligence.
Up until this point I had been
thinking the emphasis belonged on that first word, “artificial”. Made sense as
it sure as heck isn’t something that is naturally occurring in nature. I’m
reasonably certain that companies like Google and Microsoft, and any other
company involved in the medium known as the Internet has already or is in the
process of installing AI wherever they can on their platforms. Nothing I can do
about that.
But now, when, for one
example, I look at the results when I search for clues for my acrostic puzzles
and see what google gives me, I understand that “artificial” doesn’t deserve
the emphasis in this two-word phrase.
Because artificial it surely
is and there can be no doubt about that. But whether or not intelligence
of any kind is involved is a whole other matter.
And from what I’ve seen so far,
it’s not looking too smart.
Love,
Morgan
https://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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