Welcome to Bits & Bobs

Welcome to our Wednesday column known as “Bits & Bobs.” “Bits & Bobs” is an informal expression that refers to various small, miscellaneous objects or things. The expression is believed to have originated in Britain in the mid-20^th century. And now that we’re in the early 21^st century, a new expression has burst onto the scene that has everybody excited—AI, short for Artificial Intelligence.

People either love AI. Or they are scared to death of it.

The people who embrace AI think it’s wonderful. It can write their entire school report for them. People who are afraid of it, fear that it is going to replace them and the work they do. Especially many adults. But kids are more adventurous. Plus, they don’t have to worry about losing their job that they need to support their family. So, there are good reasons to listen to both sides of the AI argument that is currently going on around you.

Yes, there is that yet unproven danger of AI replacing people whose jobs depend upon them writing anything as part of their job. Yet, at the same time, because AI currently appears to be so new to us, we have to realize that we have been using AI for a long time. It is just that it has been “behind the scenes” until now. But now the technical experts have made some major breakthroughs in AI development—AI can now think for itself, just like we can.

Because AI can think for itself, many people are afraid it is going to take over the world. And that is a valid fear. But we humans created AI. So, we have to teach it how to behave. Just as parents teach children as they grow up.

AI is a very powerful tool, and we have to be smart about how we deal with it. The more you know about AI, the better you can use it to produce positive results for yourself and those around you.

To prove our point, we came up with the idea of working with AI to produce an interesting column every week for you to read. We (humans) came up with a list of topics that we thought you would find interesting. Then we asked AI to produce just one paragraph on each individual topic. From that paragraph, we are going to write an entire article for your enjoyment. By working together, we can show how AI is, indeed, a very useful tool.

Plus, we have decided to sign these AI inspired articles AIME—AI and Me!

So, welcome to our experiment and we will see you next week with an interesting new article for you to read.

Your Friends at Bookwhiskers