Artificial Intelligence and Other Stuff…

Do a lot of people have a problem with their sleep? I mean, I know Michael Jackson did, and then he died of an overdose, all the while just trying to get a decent night's sleep. I’m sleeping some days for four hours, some days ten. But mostly the problem is, even when I sleep, I’m not getting real rest because of bad dreams. I’m speaking with various doctors, but honestly, I don’t know what to do. 

I’m having seriously intense nightmares since my father passed away more than a month ago. I think this is the way I’m expressing my grief. How do you fix your unconscious mind?

Honestly, I don’t even understand what sleep is. My mind doesn’t shut off, but my body slows down. I mean, what really happens when you sleep? And what are dreams? I read somewhere in one of my spiritual books that your soul leaves your body and is free to roam the universe when you sleep. I thought that was interesting, but it doesn’t really help explain my nightmares unless the universe is a very dark place.  

I know I’m stressed out because I’m looking for jobs, and that process can be quite taxing. There’s nothing like looking for a job and doing online dating that can make you question your self-worth. I mean, I like myself, but when you put yourself out there both personally and professionally, you wonder if other people are going to like you.  

Maybe that’s why I’m having trouble sleeping, because all day I put myself out there and hope for a decent reply from an employer or some mysterious man I haven’t met yet. A job and a boyfriend, am I asking for too much? 

Maybe I am. I’ll be fifty soon. I’ll have to change the title of this blog once again. It started as Thirty-Something. Funny story: I asked the guy who built my website how to change the title to Fifty Years. He just went ahead and changed it, and I almost lost my mind. I still have a few months left in my forties, and I just wasn’t ready to face the reality that I’m pushing fifty. So I figured out how to change the title back to Forty Years. 

On another note, I had an interview for a job that was hosted by an AI bot or whatever you call them. He was definitely smarter than me. I felt like I was talking to a real human, and it was creepy. I didn’t understand why they would hire me when they had this brilliant robot thing. AI is fascinating and scary. It’s not about, will it replace us? But, when will it replace us?

We are not only competing with other people in the job market, but we are also competing with computer intelligence. I don’t know if I’ll make the cut. But it was interesting, I’m on a job site where you post your writing portfolio, every time I submitted an article, the AI would produce a title for the work. My titles were always better than the computer’s. So there. 

Maybe my creativity is still needed. Let’s be real, we’ve seen art made by computers, it’s never as good as human art, at least I don’t think so. These AI jobs I’m applying to are ones in which you teach the AI how to do things like write. Should I be doing this? They usually pay pretty well.

Have I officially sold out to the man, or the robot, or whatever?

I’ve heard there are people who use Artificial Intelligence bots as therapists. There has to be a limit to all this. Did you ever see that movie, Her? It’s about a guy who falls in love with a computer woman. I’ve heard thirteen-year-olds are sitting around with AI boyfriends and girlfriends. Do we want this for our society? For our kids? What the hell are we doing? I thought I was far away from it, but you can’t escape it. The truth is, I may have a job where I am talking to chat boxes instead of humans. 

I thought the dumbing down of society was because of MAGA and Trump. But let’s be real, we are all complicit in this endeavor to recreate the human mind. I’m going to tell you something, at this point: if a robot could figure out a way for me to get some normal sleep, I would be game. 

I did mention on this very blog that I think the scammer guys on the dating sites are using ChatGPT to write their responses to women. There’s no way these losers could be so articulate. 

So I don’t know that much about Artificial Intelligence. I use Grammarly, that’s about the extent to which I use it. I think the reason I’m having serious issues with my sleep is that I have discovered the reality that AI could take over any job that I’m qualified to do. I teach, tutor, and write; AI can probably do all of that better than me. Or can it?

We have deep conversations in my college classes about very interesting personal and political issues. I have a personality when I give lectures or have debates with my students. I have experiences and opinions, and feelings, none of which the AI world has. I have very thought-provoking ideas to share when I’m tutoring English, and my students and I often stay late finishing our conversations. 

And then there is my writing. Do you want to read about the everyday life of a computer, or do you want to read about a real, living, breathing, feeling human? Do you want to read stories that have heart and soul or stories from robots that don’t have a heart or soul? Do you want to read an editorial written by a real person with an opinion or written by a machine that can only think other people’s thoughts? Do you want to read a poem by a robot that cannot convey feelings because it has none, or a poem by a person who has felt something in this life?

I don’t know, there was a dude I was talking to once who told me he stays up all night having conversations with ChatGPT. He was also an antisocial freak. He was brilliantly intelligent, though. So there’s that. 

This is only going to get worse. I will not deny that AI is cool. It can do some amazing stuff that I can’t do. It can even write things that don’t require any creativity very well. However, when the first best-selling book from an AI thing comes out, there will always be a human behind that robot. Without the human touch, that thing could not even exist. 

Does that make me feel better? I don’t know, I’m pissed that machines are going to take away jobs from very intelligent people, there’s enough struggle in this world. On the other hand, it's very useful. When it stops just being useful and becomes dangerous, will we even recognize it? Has it become that yet? I would again like to mention the teenagers who are falling in love with AI personalities.  

Fucked up doesn’t even cover it. I promised myself I wouldn’t swear in my blog anymore, but what can you say about AI girlfriends and AI therapists except that it is really fucking scary. I’m not the only one crying out about this. This is important. This is real. 

We need to check our machines for our children’s sake. For our sake. Somebody better do something, and fast; these computers are faster than us. Pass laws. Do whatever is in our power. 

Okay, it’s about my bedtime, and I’m going to try not to have a nightmare about my next AI boyfriend who cheats on me by having computer sex with my AI boss at my new AI job.

What has all this come to?

nina