Ai Yai Yai

I updated my laptop this afternoon to the latest version of Apple OS. When at last, after it restarted several times, I was able to access the machine, I got a message about the new AI (that's Apple Intelligence) features I *could* use. "Create fun, original images in seconds with Image Playground," one notification encouraged me, and then helpfully launched the app.

I had the option of describing anything I wanted to in words and then seeing the image generated or starting with a photo. I tried the first way but was disappointed in the white cat with devil horns I requested. (Yes, I was inspired by that naughty Tibby, who happened to be sitting on the table.) Even when I refined the description to have both ears and horns, the app just gave me the image of a white cat with a tiny, not-so-very-demonic mohawk.

Perhaps I should have exited then, but curiosity made me click on the photo option, where I chose one of the many selfies in my camera roll and was presented with an eerie artificial version of myself. I made her hair a bit lighter and then gave her a flannel shirt, but she was still a bit off. 

She sure is smiley, though!

You're Going to Do that Right Here?

It's been a while since I've spent any significant amount of time at a public library. Back when I was teaching, there was a library right down the hall, complete with interlibrary loan. Besides that, most books are available digitally, which is a quick and easy way to get them. But today was the day this month for our cleaning lady to come, and even though my grocery shopping was finished, she was still working, so I headed down to the library to hang out for a bit.

I found an empty table complete with a plug to charge my laptop if necessary and sat down to read the news online. Then, after checking the door cam and seeing Estela was still working, I checked my email and did a few word puzzles, then stretched my legs and looked over to the fiction section. Just then, a guy in his mid-thirties sat down across from me and started unpacking a bag of takeout. 

My eyes grew wide-- how could this be allowed? I surreptitiously glanced toward the two staff members at their counter. They seemed completely unperturbed by this display of, ahem, EATING in the LIBRARY! Clearly, things had changed in the time I had been away. 

I wasn't quite sure how I felt about these new policies, plus the smell of the burger and the sound of my tablemate's chewing was rather distracting. I checked my phone again. There was Estela, heading for her car, so I packed up my things and left the cafeteria, I mean the library.

Best Guess

Remembering that today was February 2, I checked the Groundhog report when I got up this morning, but as so often happens, Google's use of AI to generate answers proved inaccurate and confusing. "There will be six more weeks of winter," it proclaimed confidently, "because the groundhog did not see his shadow." (The highlighting was theirs.) 

I scratched my chin and investigated further. Turns out, Punxsutawney Phil did indeed see his shadow (highlighting mine), and so tradition has it that there will be six more weeks of winter. I also discovered that in the 135 years that we have turned to the groundhog on this day, he has seen his shadow 85% of the time, and his rate of accuracy is only about 35%.

The experience reminded me of an anecdote my nephew tells about the time one of the 8th graders he was working with was convinced that Abraham Lincoln owned slaves. To prove her assertion, she Googled the question and then flipped her iPad around to show him the AI-generated reply that, yes, Lincoln was a slave owner.

"Did you check the sources for that answer?" he asked.

"No!" she told him. "That's too much work!"

To the search engine's credit, I could not replicate either of those inaccuracies when I repeated both queries a moment ago, so there is some system at work within the system to right its wrongs. 

And, as galling as AI can be, it's gotta be more accurate than the groundhog.

February Evening

 

At the end of our walk late this afternoon, the sun had just set, and the air was cold and still. We could see crows gathering by the hundreds in the bare branches of the trees on the hill, and a new crescent moon hung low in the sky with Venus just beyond. I caught my breath and stood still.

And then I fumbled with my phone to capture the moment.

But I couldn't quite do it.

Rx: Read Two Books, and Call Me in the Morning

"It's not the pandemic," my friend Mary shook her head at breakfast this morning. "Reading scores are not coming up, and I know why."

"Kids aren't reading, right?" I said.

"AND," she added, "their parents aren't reading. Most kids never see an adult with a book outside of a classroom."

"It's all screens," I agreed.

"That's right," she nodded. "When I go to any waiting room, the kids are all looking at their phones, and so are the adults." She sighed. "We can't fix that at school."

The Difference

"It's usually not a good use of your time to ask students to write first drafts and try to comment on all of them soon enough for a second draft," I told my nephew, the first-year English teacher, when he was lamenting how much better the essays he was grading would be if they were revised.

"I'm sure my teachers did that," he insisted. "I remember getting drafts back and then having to do a final."

"Did you do the writing in class or for homework?" I asked.

"Oh, it was all for homework," he scoffed, but then his eyebrows raised in understanding. "Which, of course, no one does anymore," he nodded.

"Right," I agreed. "We call it "retakes" now."

A Farewell to WFH

The weather was beautiful today: sunny and about 30 degrees warmer than last week. And there were plenty of people out and about when I walked Lucy this afternoon, but they didn't seem like quite the same set of folks I've nodded to since September. Some seemed older, fewer had dogs, not a lot were on their phones, and many were workers on the job.

It occurred to me then that the neighborhood might get a little lonelier soon. Many residents are federal workers who, in the coming months, will have to start reporting to work in person five days a week.

I can't even imagine how it will be, but I bet the dog walkers in the area are happy.