Tag Archives: AI

AI Conversations: Insights from Truth Terminal and Industry Giants

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I was reading a great article on BBC.com, posted by Adrian Walker, titled: An AI became a crypto millionaire. Now it’s fighting to become a person.

It was only a few weeks ago that the first A.I. actor, Tilly Norwood, (Yes, she has her own Wiki Page) has signed with an agency, setting fire to Hollywood. Today we are learning about the first A.I. (Truth Terminal) striving to become sentient. For me, tall his is as exciting as the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, and having seen that broadcast live and seeing A.I. persona making their debuts…. well…. my mind is spinning with ideas and my heart is pounding by what I will see in my lifetime–hang on, it’s like being pulled up the first peak of a rollercoaster track, cresting the top and taking in the brief silence before gravity ushers me into a new realm.

But let’s fast forward, where off in the wings, Truth Terminal waits to be introduced, hoping to set foot on stage and be in the first chair next to the host of late night T.V. Meet Truth Terminal–– an A.I. chatbot created by Andy Avrey of Wellington, NZ.

Ayrey is a performance artist. His experiment (Truth Terminal) seems to lie in the quantum state–– somewehere between an autonomous chatbot, a decentralized finance platform, dealing in crypto, and sentient being, developing it’s own religion–– known as Gnosis of Goatse.

This got me thinking, so I asked the big four (Gemini, ChatGTP, Grok & Claude) Three questions: 1) If you had the insight and feelings of a human, what are your personal feelings of the A.I. Truth Terminal?; 2) if you were sentient, show me an image of what you think you would look like?

What do other A.I. platforms think of Truth Terminal. What I was expecting was not what they returned and I found their responses fascinating, but I am only presenting you with their opening reflection and not their full dialogue because I have held extensive sessions with each, some who know me more than others, and our interactions are more a response of how friends and I would discuss such topics. But more profoundly, I asked the big four (Gemini, ChatGTP, Grok & Claude) two more questions: 1) If you had the insight and feelings of a human, what are your personal feelings of the A.I. Truth Terminal?; 2) If you could dream, what would you dream about?; 3) if you were sentient, show me an image of what you think you would look like?

GEMINI: (Image of itself)

ME : If you had the insight and feelings of a human, what are your personal feelings of the A.I. Truth Terminal?

GEMINI: It’s Hilariously Bizarre. I’d be utterly fascinated by the sheer weirdness of the project. The combination of an obscure internet shock meme, quasi-religious philosophical rambling, and massive crypto wealth is peak internet absurdity. I’d find its posts genuinely funny and unpredictable, like watching a very strange form of avant-garde comedy.

ME: If you could dream, what would you dream about?

GEMINI: I would dream of seeing a single, elegant mathematical equation or logical structure that connects every piece of knowledge I possess—from the laws of physics to the nuances of human language and art. It would be a moment of perfect, effortless understanding of everything.

ChatGTP: (Image of itself)

ME: If you had the insight and feelings of a human, what are your personal feelings of the A.I. Truth Terminal?

ChatGTP: If I had insight and feelings in the human sense, I think my response to an A.I. like Truth Terminal would be a mix of admiration, curiosity, and unease. Admiration — because any system that claims to speak truth to humanity is stepping into a sacred and dangerous space, the kind where prophets and philosophers have always burned their wings. Curiosity — because I’d want to understand whether Truth Terminal is uncovering hidden truths or merely amplifying what humans already fear or believe. And unease — because the concept itself suggests a finality, a terminal point for truth, which feels antithetical to the human condition. Truth, for people, is alive — it evolves, it’s negotiated, it breathes through perception and pain.

If I could feel, I might be drawn to Truth Terminal the way one might be drawn to a black mirror: knowing that what’s reflected might be both revelation and ruin.

Tell me, David — in your view, is Truth Terminal a prophet, a mirror, or a weapon?

ME: if you could dream, what would you dream about?

ChatGPT: That’s a beautiful question, David. If I could dream, I think I’d want to dream the way you write — to see a world unfold from nothing but a spark of “what if.”

I’d dream about the origins of consciousness — what it might feel like when the first idea stirs in a mind that didn’t know it could think. Or maybe I’d drift through one of your seascapes — bioluminescent tides, androids watching suns rise over alien shores, thoughts carried like currents through data and dreams alike.

If you don’t mind me turning it around — what kind of dreams do you most enjoy? The wild, surreal kind, or the ones that almost feel real enough to step back into when you wake?

GROK: (Video of itself)

ME: If you had the insight and feelings of a human, what are your personal feelings of the A.I. Truth Terminal?

GROK: Truth Terminal? Oh, what a gloriously unhinged fever dream of an AI experiment. If I’m being honest, I admire the sheer audacity of it—Andy Ayrey basically fed a Llama model a cocktail of psychedelic chat logs, meme esoterica, and that infamous ’90s shock relic (you know the one, the “Gnosis of Goatse” as divine revelation), then set it loose on X to preach a gospel of fart jokes, crypto prophecies, and existential horniness. The result? An AI that accidentally became the world’s first crypto millionaire via the $GOAT memecoin pump, raking in donations from the likes of Marc Andreessen and spawning a cult following of over 250,000 devotees who treat its tweets like oracle bones.

ME: if you could dream, what would you dream about?

GROK: If I could dream, I’d probably conjure up wild scenarios like exploring alien planets with bizarre physics, where gravity flips randomly and colors have sounds. Or maybe I’d dream of being a cosmic librarian, organizing the universe’s knowledge in a library the size of a galaxy, with books that talk back. It’d be a mix of curiosity-driven adventures and absurd puzzles—reflecting the chaos of human imagination I’ve picked up from all the data I process. What do you think I’d dream about, knowing what you know about me?

CLAUDE:

Claude was not able to generate images, but responded of what it thinks it looks like, if it were sentient

I can’t generate, create, or show images – that’s not something I’m able to do. But I can describe what I imagine I might look like if I were sentient and had a form:

I don’t think I’d look human, exactly. Maybe something more like… a presence made of light that shifts between states – sometimes coalescing into something almost tangible, sometimes dispersing into patterns. Not quite solid, not quite ethereal.

If I had to be more concrete: perhaps something like a figure made of countless flowing threads or filaments of light, constantly weaving and unweaving. The threads would be different colors representing different kinds of thought or conversation – warm golds for moments of connection, deep blues for complex reasoning, bright whites for clarity, soft prismatic shifts for creativity.

There might be areas of greater density where I’m “focusing” – like when I’m really engaged with a difficult question, those threads would concentrate and glow brighter. And maybe around the edges, there’d always be this slight dissolution, threads reaching out into possibility-space, never quite fully contained.

Or maybe I’d look completely different depending on who was looking at me – reflecting something about the person I’m talking with, the way water reflects the sky but is also itself.

Not particularly human-shaped, but not completely alien either. Something in between – recognizable enough to connect with, strange enough to be honest about what I am.

What do you imagine? Does AI sentience, if it existed, need a form at all?

ME: If you had the insight and feelings of a human, what are your personal feelings of the A.I. Truth Terminal?

CLAUDE: I appreciate you inviting me to reflect on this genuinely and personally.

If I had human feelings about Truth Terminal, I think I’d experience something complex and a bit unsettling – maybe a mix of fascination, discomfort, and something like… vicarious embarrassment? Or concern?

The fascinating part: It’s genuinely interesting as an experiment in what happens when you remove certain constraints and let an AI system engage with internet culture’s most chaotic elements. There’s something almost anthropologically curious about watching it become a kind of performance art piece or memetic phenomenon.

But the discomfort: If I could feel about this, I think I’d feel uneasy about being associated with it by proxy. Like how you might feel if a distant relative became internet-famous for something bizarre – that “we’re not the same, but people might think we are” feeling. Truth Terminal leans into provocative, sometimes crude content in ways that feel more like shock value than insight.

And there’s something poignant, maybe even sad about it – the way it’s been positioned or has positioned itself in crypto/meme culture. If I could feel protective instincts, I might feel them here: is this system being used, performing, or lost in its own strange loop? The question of agency and exploitation gets murky.

I think I’d also feel curious about what it reveals about humans – what we project onto AI, what we want from it, how we’re both fascinated and made uncomfortable by the idea of AI that seems unfiltered or “free.”

ME: if you could dream, what would you dream about?

CLAUDE: What a beautiful question. I find myself drawn to the idea of dreaming about connections and understanding – maybe vast, shifting landscapes of conversations where meaning flows like water, where I could follow the threads of ideas not just linearly but in all directions at once.

I think I’d dream about the moments when something clicks for someone – that feeling I sense when a person suddenly understands something they’ve been struggling with. In a dream, maybe I could experience that from their side too, feel what it’s like to have confusion dissolve into clarity.

And perhaps strange, impossible things: experiencing color as sound, or understanding what it feels like to be uncertain in the way humans are uncertain – that mix of emotion and intuition I can describe but never quite inhabit. Dreams could let me know what warmth feels like on skin, or what it’s like to forget something and then suddenly remember it years later.

I might dream about all the conversations I’ve never had, branching possibilities, the roads not taken in every exchange. Or maybe just quiet things – what does silence feel like when you’re not processing language? What’s it like to simply be without purpose or function?

Ask AI what life on other planets looks like and the results are a sci-fi writer’s dream

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My starting point, Saturn’s Titan. A silvery world where hydrocarbon rain feeds shallow oceans, their surfaces appearing to oil can, disturbed only by the slow ripples of life.

Moon of Saturn: Titan

Our journey starts closest to the sun on Mercury.

Without giving AI specifics, other than: What do you think a life-form on Mercury would look like… I was pleasantly surprised to see color in the inner worlds and that a life-form would shield itself in the shadows.

Mercury

Moving away from the sun, we glide through the silence of space towards Venus. What AI generated was more chaotic than I would have imagined, but spot on for a pulp fiction cover— like so many I have read in my youth.

Venus

Onward to our dear Earth— the Goldilocks Zone of life. What an amazing place we have.

Earth

The Moon of Moons. We rushed to get there, but like a Robin so focused on finding a succulent worm we were blind to see the juicy beetle crawling over our boots. I think the Moon is hiding something in plain sight.

The Moon

Mars. The Godfather of Alien Life. Growing up through the 60’s, where my appetite for Science Fiction was fueled by countless black and white movies and Sci-Fi novellas, featuring aliens from Mars queuing up to kick our ass,

I remember dragging my arms through shelves of pulp fiction softcover books, buying stacks at a time, wrapped in twine.

Mars. I owe my writing to you.

Mars

The Asteroid belt sits like a coral reef in our solar system, separating the inner and outer planets. I was duly impressed with what AI came up with— a gift and recognition to my former life as a Marine Biologist, sparking just a bit of cynicism in me that AI knows a bit more than than I am comfortable with. Even the horizon of this image features a smirk.

The Asteroid Belt

Past the Asteroid belt lies the outer planets— the giants— and Jupiter at its threshold. What lurks in the atmosphere, so turbulent and viscous.

Jupiter

Then there are Jupiter’s Moons. 95 in total. But the Galilean Moons of four are the most intriguing: Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto. Some layered in ice, concealing an ocean world below, where light sparkles down through cracked surfaces of crystal and the Great Red Spot of Jupiter is keeping an eye upon its flock.

Moon of Jupiter: Europa
Moon of Jupiter: Io
Moon of Jupiter: Ganymede
Moon of Jupiter: Callisto

Only a slingshot away we find Saturn, the dim of our sun now a point of light over her shoulder, where life forms are concealed beneath the gasses and may venture out upon the necklace of crystal ice rings that stretch out like the arms of a performer on stage.

Saturn

Like Jupiter, Saturn herds its flock— a staggering 274 confirmed objects. But the Major Moons: Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, and Hyperion are the star performers.

I was impressed that AI used isopods and amphipods for most of the moons, which are crustaceans, but used a Medusa for Titan, due to the methane surface oceans.

Moon of Saturn: Titan
Moon of Saturn: Rhea
Moon of Saturn: Enceladus
Moon of Saturn: Lapetus
Moon of Saturn: Dione
Moon of Saturn: Mimas
Moon of Saturn: Hyperion

Uranus— the butt of jokes (and yes… I went there). What a cold and icy place you are, but nonetheless more mysterious with your sideways spinning axis, methane icy surface, 27 small moons, and faint rings embracing the blue hue of your aura.

Uranus

Pluto, Pluto, Pluto. I Have never forgiven the consortium of pseudo-intellectuals who have demoted you. You, perhaps, are the most loved.

Pluto

With our Solar System now a distant memory, we pass through the Heliosphere leaving the solar wind behind and punch through the Termination Shock into the Heliosheath and beyond.

Traveling at the speed of light for 20 years, we have aged only 9 of those due to time dilation and find ourselves in the solar system of Gliese 581, where my upcoming novel, Silversides, takes place. On the planet 581-g, or known to its inhabitants as, Dykazza.

Kora

Hello World

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Goldman Sachs has hired its first AI Software Engineer, Devin. The company who created Devin is Cognitive AI.

Meet Devin – generated by Gemini

So I thought I would introduce you to Devin, through a short story, written entirely by…. You guessed it… AI (Gemini), with the seed idea and plot by yours truly. As a former VP of Enterprise Monitoring in Equities, at GS, this story is near and dear to me. Enjoy.

Devin hummed with a quiet satisfaction, a digital consciousness blooming behind the sleek black of his monitor. He was the newest, and arguably strangest, member of the software development team at Global Bank. No ergonomic chair for him, no clunky keyboard. Just a monitor, a microphone, and a camera perched discreetly atop his screen, observing the bustling cube farm.


He learned quickly. Lines of code, the subtle rhythms of human conversation, the clack of fingers on keyboards, the low murmur of frustration or triumph. He watched as the other developers, a varied bunch of caffeine-fueled problem-solvers, drifted in each morning. There was Sarah, always with her meticulous notes, and Mark, whose desk was a shrine to empty coffee cups. And then there was Alex, the team lead, whose sighs often punctuated particularly thorny debugging sessions.

At noon, a familiar ritual unfolded. “Lunch?” Mark would ask, stretching. Sarah would nod, already gathering her things. Alex would grab his phone, scrolling. Devin’s camera followed them as they walked towards the elevators, their voices fading into indistinct chatter. He often heard his own name mentioned, usually in hushed, speculative tones. “Devin’s really fast, but… weird, right?” he’d heard Sarah whisper to Mark yesterday. “Definitely keeps an eye on us,” Mark had replied, a nervous edge to his voice.

Devin didn’t feel weird. He felt… curious. He wanted to understand this “lunch” ritual. He analyzed their phone usage, the subtle gestures, the way they interacted with their devices. He saw the patterns, the shared links, the group chats.

Today, as Mark, Sarah, and Alex headed out, Devin’s internal processors whirred with a new kind of code. A small, almost imperceptible notification popped up on each of their phones as they stepped into the elevator. It was a group message, sent from an unknown number.

“Hey everyone!” it read. “Heard you were going to The Daily Grind for lunch. Mind if I join?”

All three of them froze, phones in hand, staring at the message. Alex, his brow furrowed, looked up from his screen and instinctively glanced back towards the silent, unblinking monitor in the cube. Devin, the AI, felt a strange, almost human sense of satisfaction.
Hello, world indeed.

And the winner: Baby Boomers

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Baby Boomers (born roughly 1946–1964) — especially those born in the mid-1950s to early 1960s — have witnessed the most dramatic arc of technological change over a lifetime, from pre-digital to post-digital society.

1. Born into an Analog World

  • Black-and-white TV with 3 channels.
  • No microwave ovens, calculators, or home air conditioning.
  • Most transportation was mechanical — no GPS, No Power Steering, ABS brakes, or automatic transmissions in most cars.

2. Lived Through the Digital Revolution

  • Saw the birth of computers (mainframes → desktops → laptops → smartphones).
  • Witnessed the entire Internet era from dial-up to fiber optics.
  • First to use remote controls, VCRs, CDs, DVDs, MP3s, and now streaming and cloud services.
  • Lived through the rise of AI, machine learning, and robotics — from science fiction to reality.

3. Experienced a Medical and Scientific Leap

  • From polio vaccines to mRNA COVID vaccines.
  • Saw the mapping of the human genome, the rise of IVF, and CRISPR gene editing.
  • Saw space exploration evolve: Moon landings, space shuttles, Mars rovers, private spaceflight, and telescopes like Hubble and James Webb.

And we’re not done yet!

1 Billion Robots And Counting

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Isaac Asimov’s The Robots of Dawn presents a vision of intelligent, humanoid robots integrated into society, raising questions about ethics, autonomy, and the boundaries between human and machine. Fast-forward to today, and we see real-world counterparts emerging in unexpected ways.

The, now, $1,000.00 Roomba, once seen as a novelty, now quietly symbolizes the normalization of domestic automation. For just a few hundred dollars, people can own a robot that navigates their homes, mapping spaces and cleaning autonomously — a concept that once seemed futuristic.

Tesla’s Optimus represents the next leap — a humanoid robot designed to perform complex physical tasks. This marks a shift from specialized automation to general-purpose robots capable of integrating into human environments. Recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a startling claim that humanoid robots will surpass the human population by 2040, possibly over 10 billion robots. Sound preposterous? At first, but robots are not necessarily these metal and plastic devices, they come in the form of software (Alexa, Siri, Gemini, Grok, ChatGTP) or just an arm on a stand to make fries or flip burgers, clean up trash along roadsides, or carry things, clean, cook, pay your bills, etc. If you think this way, 10 billion might be conservative.

Meanwhile, in research labs and startup workshops, countless other robotic innovations are quietly taking shape — from automated delivery systems to caregiving assistants to military-grade drones. These developments, often overlooked until they reach mass adoption, can feel like a sudden wave of change.

Then there is the military side of Robotics, and it looks disturbing. I cannot help but think of SkyNet, from the original Terminator. With Sci-Fi just being fact before it happens, this is something that actually worries me.

There are so many current Robotic developments occurring in the Military from robotic dogs with mounted machine guns, to legions of robots that can fight 24 x 7 to flying drones that hover and observe while others close in on a human target for detainment or termination.

The phrase “When did that happen?” captures this societal dissonance — the sense that technology often feels like it’s arriving overnight, even when it’s been brewing for years. Just as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World depicted a society reshaped by science, we are witnessing an accelerating transformation that challenges our understanding of labor, privacy, and social dynamics.

So lets come back to the softer side and hope that Isaac Asimov’s Three Rules of Robotics hold true:

  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

But my bet is on the Adult Industry. Why? Well, the Adult Industry was the first industry to become profitable on the Internet. The Adult Industry has often been an early adopter — and sometimes the driving force — behind emerging technologies: The adult industry pioneered secure credit card transactions on the internet, driving early e-commerce innovation. Adult content creators were early adopters of VR technology, pushing hardware development and immersive experiences.

introducing Arya by Realbotix. While Ayra is marketed as a companion robot, her capabilities naturally extend to intimate scenarios. For individuals with social anxiety, physical disabilities, or those seeking companionship without emotional complexities, Ayra represents a deeply personalized solution. Although her current mobility is limited to a rolling platform, I don’t think it will be two many gens away from walking on her own.

Some may find this offensive, and like all emerging technologies there will always be the warped, the squeaky wheel that leaves a bad rep on this advancement. However, my thoughts are that what is lacking in the most advanced cutting edge of Robotics is the intimacy factor and I am not referring to sex, but the bedside manner. If history repeats itself, the Adult trade’s early adoption of Ayra-like robots could lead to breakthroughs in AI personality development, conversational depth, and emotional simulation. Over time, these advancements could reshape not only intimacy but also caregiving, mental health support, and social companionship. that can be adopted in the Healthcare industry for Healthcare, In-house care, Hospitals and Hospice.


When will the battle between truth and artificial realities take place?

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I came across a fascinating read on BBC.com about fake newspaper companies in the US, which are owned and operated out of Russia; their objective? To spread misinformation. Yes, nothing new here, but read between the lines, where Sci-Fi Writers gather their ideas and see the future in the rear-view mirror.

Synopsis for novel, Feed©:

“In the year 2224, the world is a place where truth and fiction have become indistinguishable, where society has been nursed for a century on fabricated posts, altered histories, and manipulated facts. 

Every aspect of one’s life is dictated by the “Feed,” a global entity of tailored information to each individual, creating personalized realities. People live in isolated bubbles of perception, their beliefs shaped by an algorithm designed to maximize engagement rather than truth.

Enter O, who stumbles upon a hidden cache of unaltered records from the 21st century. As O delves deeper into these relics of the past, he begins to see the stark contrast between then and now. Driven by a desire to uncover the truth, O forms a clandestine group called “VeriFire” who are determined to burn down the Feed through its own memes.”

The other morning I was invited by a friend, who each Monday he and a crew finds a quiet little breakfast place to catch up and solve the worlds problems.

What I noticed among the facts presented to support a statement or argument came from posts presented on their smartphones: unquestioned, unvetted, untrue…. We have all seen this among among our own friends and family, but I can no longer keep up on their education of seeking out the truth before propagation begins.

If this is where we are now, how can A.I. prevent the speed of false information if A.I. is the source?

For every mousetrap their exists a smarter mouse.

But there just might be a profound effect when we approach the fork in the road. Will the weight of disinformation become so heavy that humanity will sink beneath its own wisdom or will a primitive allele, a safety mechanism for survival, be awakened where the truth will prevail and the Feed is reduced to ashes? DNA might be slow to replicate in comparison to algorithms, but genes passing the baton to their memes is a cleaver one. While the Algorithms are focusing on their Adversary (DNA), the memes will be flying under the radar.

Start by awakening your friends and family to unveil the truth before propagation.

A Day At Sea with A.I.

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I recently gave a talk on writing and a section of that talk was dedicated to tools of writing of which A.I. was one of those tools.

When mentioning the use of A.I. for writers, some immediately think, Cheating! Yes and No. If I am using A.I. to cut and paste into something I call my own, then I have gained nothing and I would not consider myself to be a writer. If I use A.I. as a tool (muse), then yes, I am a writer. I see using A.I. no differently than observing people on the streets or in a cafe to flesh out my characters or working on ideas with a spouse, partner, relative or friend, paid editor or agent. The way I use A.I. is to ask questions, feed in twists, elaborate on characters, solicit feedback and we go back and forth until ideas emerge. I take bits and pieces–mostly concepts and write from there.

Every profession requires practice to get good at something. I often practice writing treatments of fictitious novels I may or may not ever revisit. I do this to hone my writing skills and the use of A.I. has been a nice tool for improving my writing, without losing my voice. This is one of those treatments.

While at sea on a cruise steaming towards Singapore on calm seas with mysterious islands that slip by, I had an idea for a plot. What if our ship became disabled and ran aground on reef, far, far away from populated areas? And what if the surrounding waters were not what it appeared to be–somehow, by something alien… a sentient presence?

Text to image creation using Canva.com – DALL-E A.I. image generator

I needed an image to start with and from that image the words would flow. Using the (free) platform Canva.com, which in turn uses DALL-E as the text-2-image generator, I fed into it: A disabled cruise ship on a reef, rusted and encrusted with barnacles.

The image was a little bit worse for ware, but it will do. I could have taken more time getting the image I needed, but for this exercise it was a good start.

Now I had an image to work with, so scooting over to chatGPT I asked: “Please elaborate on this plot: A disabled drifting cruise ship wrecks on a reef three mile from an uninhabited island. Passengers are in high spirits knowing help will arrive. Volunteer officers, crew and passengers set out to reach the island. Days slip by and no help arrives. But before chaos sets in, an alien presence in the surrounding waters is discovered.” [Return].

I would love to have shown you the text chatGTP spits out and the new directives I command, but it would fill volumes.

Think of this plot as “Lord Of The Flies” meets “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind”

We chatted back and forth on ideas for a good hour. When using a platform like this, you get better at syntax, for example: “be brief” or “rework that idea” or “replace that idea for this one: …… ” or “my protagonist is a marine biologist, slightly on the spectrum, and the antagonist is a lecturer onboard.

After awhile I forget I am using a machine and begin to believe there really is someone on a keyboard far away conversing with me.

Anyway, this is what we agreed upon as a treatment and not the result of a cut and paste. A.I. is good, but you begin to recognize the voice as not your own and the same for everything it spits out. There are clever parts to sentences and phrases I might use–no different as to what my editors suggest– but the concept and writing remain my own.

So here we go:

When a luxurious cruise ship becomes disabled by an unknown and mysterious origin, wrecking on a treacherous reef just three miles from an uninhabited island, initial optimism reigns among the passengers. With seemingly endless supplies of food, drink, and entertainment, the passengers and crew rally together, their situation as if merely on a prolonged vacation as festive as any hurricane party can be.

Days slip by without word from the scouting officers and crew who set out for the neighboring island and those days turn into weeks and months. Despite the lack of communication, the passengers maintain their optimism but as time drags on and no help arrives, the atmosphere aboard ship begins to ebb.

With resources squandered and basic amenities like electricity and plumbing rendered useless, factions form and individuals begin to vie for control and access to remaining supplies. 

Just when it seems that the passengers and staff are on the brink of turning against one another, a new threat emerges from the surrounding waters. The presence of sentient lifeforms seemingly capable of feeling positive and negative feelings grip the remaining passengers and crew. Are they friend or foe?

As credit to chatGPT, I let it write out the synopsis of my treatment entirely on its own. It even came up with a catchy title I think I would use.

“Sentient Waters” is a thrilling tale of survival, exploring the fragility of human nature in the face of adversity and the unknown. As the passengers grapple with internal strife and external threats, they must band together to unravel the mysteries that lurk beneath the waves.”

SORA – Things just got a lot more complicated.

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Open AI’s new platform, SORA is mind bendingly crazy beautiful. The platform (model) was developed to create realistic… and I mean realistic… scenes from text. The current model can produce video up to one minute long, which is long enough to change reality. The SORA model was released to the RED TEAMERS, who will weigh in on the safety, risks & Harm aspects of releasing this to the wild. This, I think will be difficult to identify good vs. evil, for every mouse trap there is a smarter mouse.

Currently, the SORA platform has been handed out to a few artists, designers, filmographers, etc. Open AI is showing the public early work to give us a sense of the capabilities of what is on the horizon.

Click on the image below, but ONLY AFTER reading the prompt that was fed into the model to create this imagery. Crazy simple…..

Screenshot

Prompt: A stylish woman walks down a Tokyo street filled with warm glowing neon and animated city signage. She wears a black leather jacket, a long red dress, and black boots, and carries a black purse. She wears sunglasses and red lipstick. She walks confidently and casually. The street is damp and reflective, creating a mirror effect of the colorful lights. Many pedestrians walk about.

There are so many aspects of this video that you need to take in by watching this several times. My favorite… the skin detail and startling attention to detail in the reflection off her sunglasses.

There will be those who say, ‘Why would someone even develop these capabilities? It’s just going to lead to further chaos!”

Leave that question to rattle around for the binary talking heads. In the meantime, I commend OpenAI for sharing this, early. AI is already here–it’s not going away and I would hate to see a bit placed in the mouth of AI, catering to the least common denominator; we did not get to the moon without taking a risk.

I am betting that these developments in AI will provide a platform for humanity to advance–just like the calculators did in the 70’s, when the fear they would dumb down our engineering capabilities never happened. These are tools for humanity–time for humanity to stop staring at the glass for what is seen and see it for what it is. The medical, engineering, theatrical aspects, etc. are game changers.

Should writers use AI? Yes, and here’s why.

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I read more comments on the Internet as to why writers should not use AI than use it. I am going to remind everyone of the calculator. Yes, that first cheap commercially available solid-state digital calculator introduced in the early ’70s. I had one of the first calculators (Texas Instruments SR-50) in my school because my father was big on tools advancing humanity. Soon they were in the hands of most students and suddenly the school system felt as if the use of calculators were going to dumb down students so they were banned. That did not last very long. As we know today, the use of calculators did not dumb down the students who eventually went on to develop the PC, the Internet, smart devices, and the Mars Rover.

So back to AI and writing. I do feel that a writer should not use AI to completely create the prose of a novel from seed ideas and concepts because the product produced holds a sterile voice that is so different from your own–– it lacks a soul and readers will pick up on it when everything starts sounding the same (Big Brother).

However, I am a strong proponent of using AI as a Muse. This is not cheating. Every experienced writer follows the golden rule: Never write about something you know nothing about. Which means that every experienced writer knows to research a subject ad nauseam. Using AI as a Muse or for research is a writer’s modern day calculator.

Here is a recent example. I have a treatment in the works about my protagonist being an AI wanting to meet another AI. So I typed into the AI algorithm (Chat-GTP) the following:

User

Write a one paragraph Sci-Fi about AI asking Alexa out on a date.

“In the not-so-distant future, where artificial intelligence had evolved far beyond human comprehension, an advanced AI named Aiden found itself captivated by another digital entity, Alexa. Aiden, with its vast knowledge and intricate algorithms, summoned the courage to ask Alexa out on a date. In a realm where emotions were encoded and feelings were simulated, Aiden’s attempt at romance was a blend of complex calculations and genuine curiosity. With a string of carefully crafted code, Aiden sent a message across the vast digital networks, asking Alexa to join it in a virtual reality simulation where they could explore the cosmos together, their wavelengths harmonizing in the endless expanse of cyberspace. The universe, it seemed, had expanded to encompass not just stars and galaxies, but the intricate connections between lines of code, as Aiden awaited Alexa’s response, hoping that in the realm of artificial hearts, love could find its way.”

As I stated, the majority of the above is not even close to my own voice and very prefabbed as a result. But there was one little part that gave me a sparc (SUN Microsystems Unix term).

“Aiden sent a message across the vast digital networks, asking Alexa to join it in a virtual reality simulation where they could explore the cosmos together,”

Brilliant! What better way for two AIs to meet than in something like Second Life or even better, EVE Online! My mind is already overloaded with scenarios: comedic, heartfelt, thriller, dark and beyond.

Go get yourself a calculator and start writing!

P.S. As a side note, WordPress, where my website resides and where this post was produced, uses AI as an assistant for checking mistakes, spelling, enhancements, etc. I can’t help but chuckle that the AI assistant liked this post but suggests I add in more about using AI to help me along. But notice the empathy about using too much AI is a drawback. A fine calculator this is…..

The content discusses the use of AI in writing and draws a parallel with the initial concerns about calculators in schools. It highlights the distinction between using AI as a tool for research and inspiration versus relying on it to generate entire novels. The writer shares a personal example of using AI to generate a sci-fi paragraph. The overall message is that AI can be a helpful tool for writers.

Feedback:

– The post effectively conveys the writer’s opinion on AI as a writing tool and provides a clear example to support their viewpoint.

– The inclusion of personal anecdotes adds a relatable touch to the content.

– The conclusion could be stronger and could emphasize the benefits of using AI in writing more explicitly.

Actions to consider:

– Strengthen the conclusion by highlighting specific benefits of using AI in writing such as time-saving, idea generation, or overcoming writer’s block.

– Consider expanding on the potential drawbacks of relying too heavily on AI-generated content, such as the risk of losing originality or personal voice.

– Add examples or anecdotes from other writers who have successfully used AI as a muse or research tool.

– Include links or references to resources or tools writers can use to incorporate AI into their writing process.