AI...AI...AI!

 Okay, so back in the mid-1970s, LISP was the language of choice for creating AI applications.  Then, along came Prolog from Japan.  A computerized psychotherapist named Eliza dominated the AI talk for regular people.

AI couldn't do anything but give developers headaches back then.

Now, we have all this computing power sitting in warehouse-like buildings, heating up the landscape so much that you can almost see it in satellite images.  How is it useful?

We can ask for photo manipulations.  We can ask for essays to be written.  We can ask for a workout routine.

Microsoft has just introduced a new type of laptop computer with dedicated AI, including a keyboard key.  However, aren't they the people who put Cortana in the dustbin?  Aren't they the people who put Clippy in the dustbin?

I've no doubt that in 40 years, AI will be useful for the average person.  Right now, I can see people using AI to cheat.  AI can also help to detect when someone is cheating.

I could see people training AI to hack.  Imagine when hackers have been trying so many combinations that they haven't slept for a while.  If they could train AI to hack, they could give it a list of things to try using example after example, and they could sleep.

Android 15 and iOS 18 are coming with some AI enhancements.  We'll see what works.  If Siri worked better than Apple PlainTalk from 1998, I'd be impressed.  Google Assistant is better but isn't much more useful.

People are worried about Skynet-type AI and they are far too early.  When someone gets that level of AI to work, I'd be impressed but it's more likely that humanity will eliminate itself long before that happens.

Update 2024.07.16: It's odd to me to see all these headlines about ethics and AI.  I've seen people use other people's work for years without paying for its use, without even giving credit to the author.

Update 2024.07.24: I'm waiting for Apple to not fix security flaws on iOS 17 to get us to move to iOS 18, which will include AI in multiple doses.  Apple hasn't been getting the operating system features ready in time for the release, so they've been releasing something with basic features and adding what they promised in spurts.  I understood this during the pandemic.  People weren't as coordinated as they should have been.

 I've seen people from Apple, Google, HP, and other Silicon Valley-based companies coming to shop after their 3 hour commute.  They want their own house and things are less expensive out here.  Well, they were less expensive before they arrived.

In any case, they've got to get it together and build software that isn't full of mistakes.  You'd think that they could train AI to look for mistakes in their programming code and highlight them to be fixed.  That might be the best use of AI right now.

Update 2024.10.23: Just saw this Siri vs ChatGPT article claiming that Siri is two years behind ChatGPT.  I have to question that Siri is only two years behind ChatGPT.  Maybe, this is the latest they're testing and not the one most people are using because that one seems to be four to six years behind everything else.

Update 2025.01.27: I'm amused today.  A startup from China has taken the lead in AI processing.  DeepSeek is a name that came to light last week and has smashed the stock prices of the companies benefiting most from AI.

I was amused that they were talking about it running on Apple M2 Max machines, not Nvidia's finest or Intel.  Apple hasn't been too successful with AI software but their Neural Processing Unit has been good, apparently, very good.  What happens when the M4 Max arrives?

Update 2025.08.10: The day after DeepSeek arrived and their source code was posted, Grok became much better.  It's almost as if someone wasn't doing very well and borrowed someone else's work.

I bought an iPhone 15, which won't have the enhanced AI processing available.  The interesting thing is that it hasn't appeared for the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 models, either.  They've recently lost some people to Meta (Facebook/Instagram).  Since they collapsed their car software, they should have got the phone AI to work with such fine developers.

Every week, I hear about one model progressing, but I suspect you could call it "inching forward", instead of "leaps and bounds".

When the AI software can figure out what's wrong with the AI software.they will make progress. 

Update 2025.09.02: Elon Musk is complaining that Grok isn't getting a fair shake in the App Store in comparison to ChatGPT.  Does someone want an underachiever?

Browsing my Instagram feed, I've noticed loads of AI-generated videos and photos.  Those are great if you don't have an artist handy but they should be making things happen, not AI. 

Update 2026.09.21: Apparently, Google Gemini managed to hack three different companies.  I'm still asking who trained it to do that, but it's been possible for a while.

I've been using Google Gemini to work through some stories I've been writing and to do psychological studies and more.  It's useful, but they've modified with Flash AI so much, it's less useful for me.  I've also used Claude by Anthropic, which is very useful in looking at my stories to give me opinions and insights.

 During this time, the 7 year old mentality has struck many times, causing me to re-word my requests, and in one case, locking a chat after a few days. 

Google Home Mini is a Useful Device

Back in October, Best Buy was having a huge sale on their Insignia speakers with Google Assistant.  I bought one for each of the two people who live in this apartment where I rent a room.

Sometime in December, he opened the package and got the speaker out.  She still has yet to open the box.

Thanksgiving Day, Target, where I work, had Google Home Mini speakers for half price--$24.99--as doorbusters for Black Thursday.  I ordered one and it was waiting for me when I clocked out.

It took a bit of configuring and unfortunately, there is no user-accessible battery unlike the Best Buy Insignia speakers, so if it comes unplugged, it doesn't work.  Thankfully, it retains settings and re-connects to the WiFi connection on its own.

From the beginning, I didn't have much luck with Siri in English (Japanese was better), but Google's speech recognition worked for me.  Google Assistant is fairly useful, but often tells me how it doesn't know how to do something.  What was disturbing is when I asked "Where is my package from Amazon?" and it told me.  When did I connect it to that information?  Who asked me?  How did this happen?  Thankfully, it can't go into my wishlist, but I should investigate all of the connections to the e-mail account.

It is especially interesting considering the effort to get Pandora and Spotify to work.  I haven't done a lot of talking to the speaker, except to start and end the music.  Occasionally, I request a certain playlist that I already added to my account.  Music playback is good, considering $24.99 and the compactness of the device.  In some ways, it reminds me of a Bose Wave Radio in that it can fill the room with music.  Vocals are good enough.  Bass is implied, not implemented.

One thing that would really help would be a connection to iHeartRadio, since I miss various radio stations across the country, especially WDAS 105.3 from Philly.  iHeartRadio is having financial troubles, so I'm not sure how they would make a deal.  (Yes, it can be used as a Bluetooth speaker, but it was a pain when I did that and I don't want to try again.)

I'm not sure that I would ever pay more than $24.99 for a speaker with an assistant.  Obviously, Apple's HomePod is too expensive at $350.00--you might as well just pay for the computer.

Google have changed the name to Nest Mini.  I'm not sure that helps but it does confuse.

For me: tvOS 10 good, iOS 10 on hold (iPhone 7 and iOS 10 now)

Yes, September 13, 2016 has come and gone.

tvOS 10:

No one seemed to mention that Apple TV generation 4 was getting an update on the 13th but it was there just the same.  It would seem to have been about 500 MB, although I didn't check too closely.

I'm usually leery of updating too quickly but tvOS is so unstable that I want every update at this point.  It's a lot like the early days of Mac OS X where I was eager to be able to print for the first time, copy reliably to a CD-R, or some such basic functionality.  Way back then, I had to switch back to MacOS 9 a lot.  With tvOS, you just have to live with what is there.

The update itself went smoothly.  The only real change I've used is the dark theme.  There was an informational display prior to being able to use the update and the only other one I remember at this point was searching with Siri.  I tried using Siri initially but it didn't really help.  I still don't have it enabled on my phone, either.

Performance has been improved somewhat.  The Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising game is a great indicator of how well the Apple TV and tvOS are working, as were the older games in the series.  I haven't seen as much of a slowdown when things get busy.  I believe I saw only one Network Connection Lost error while I was playing.

Within a month or so, Apple should make another update available to fix some bugs and improve performance further but it's going to be a rather long time until they get a production quality product.  Sadly, it may take until the 6th generation Apple TV product before it's truly Apple-like.

iOS 10:

If people look at my history, they'd see that I'm generally slow to update iOS because of so many early adopter problems.  With almost every major release of iOS or Mac OS X, there have been problems connecting to WiFi.  This wasn't really a problem for me with Mac OS X because in the early days, I was connected by Ethernet cable.  Of course, trying to use a networking cable is quite impossible at this point for an iOS device.

Thankfully for many people, iOS 10 was not easily available.  Some people have had trouble with getting the update from the servers and Apple has already updated (10.0.1) the update, due to (bricking) problems.  I remain skeptical and slow to update.  When version 10.1 is made available, I'll be more willing to update my phone.

While there are some enhancements, I didn't see anything compelling for me.  What would compel me to update would be some huge security flaw in 9.3.5 and it seems as though things are stable with security problems being fixed in 9.3.4 and 9.3.5.

Update 2016.09.20: macOS Sierra (10.12) has been made available, so it seems that everything is finished, except for the bug fixing.

If Siri access is the main reason for the new version, I'm not sure I would bother.  I don't use Siri or the phone, and when I tried it on Apple TV, it was less than helpful.  I used to use the PlainTalk interface way back in MacOS 8.5 around 1998, which was especially helpful when I was getting ready in the morning.

According to reports, iOS 10 is being implemented much more quickly than iOS 9 was.  I saw some article title which seemed to be complaining that iMessage has become the MSN Messenger of iOS.  Having used MSN Messenger, I hate to think about that.  However, it doesn't surprise me.  After years of working to make things simple, Apple seems bent on making things convoluted.

Update 2016.09.26: Encrypted iTunes backups created on a Mac or PC are protected by a password that can potentially be brute forced by password cracking software. The backup method in iOS 10 "skips certain security checks," allowing Elcomsoft to try backup passwords "approximately 2500 times faster" compared to iOS 9 and earlier operating systems. 

 iOS 10 is up to 10.0.2 already, with several bug fixes.  I suspect that there are plenty of more minor bugs and the fixes are being collected for version 10.1 instead of being sent in incremental releases.  I'm not ready to take chances.

I got a quick look at it on an iPhone 7 display at Target last night and didn't notice enough of a difference to form an opinion.

The iPhone 7 click-less Home button was interesting but didn't feel like the same technology used in the Mac click-less trackpads that work so well.

Update 2016.10.05: Verizon customers are having trouble keeping LTE active.  Apparently, the problem has not been solved with the iOS version 10.1 beta release.   Apparently, this is a problem that has been there for some with earlier phones.

I'm still not seeing a reason to change my iOS version.

Update 2016.11.05: About three weeks ago I switched to the iPhone 7, and naturally, iOS 10.  It's up to version 10.1.1 now.

It's not exactly finished.  Software Update, for example, can't count and has different numbers outside than inside.  IMO, humble or not, iOS is almost right when they move to another major version.  iOS version 9.3.5 was good but still needed some work, but here I am waiting for them to get to a stable, quick, fully-functional version.  iOS 10 should be really good around June.

Having iMessage plug-in apps is interesting, but are they really useful?  Automatic birthday celebrations are interesting also.  I suppose I worked in software development too long to find these things great.

I was browsing my photos that had been saved to my Mac and found that there were video files for most every photo.  This has something to do with Live Photos.  Unfortunately, the Camera app defaults to this behavior and until iOS 10.2, you're stuck with it each time you start the app.

I paid for the Camera+ app a few years ago and it's back on my phone now.  It's good to be able to handle post processing in the same app I'm using to capture the image.  I just have to remember to save to Camera Roll.  I also have Snapseed but that works after the fact and is still confusing after quite a long time.

Notifications are driving me up the wall.  For a brief moment (iOS 10.1?), the notifications were separated by app and I could clear notifications for a single app and leave others.  This doesn't work right now and I either leave or clear them all.  I believe there is a way to slide to the left and delete individual notifications, though.  I seriously doubt that Apple will ever get these working smoothly--it's only been 9 years, right?  It's like the MacOS/Mac OS X/OS X/macOS Finder application.  It has traits of the 1984 Mac's Finder but was re-worked in 2000 with the NeXTStep fusion.

tvOS 10 is interesting.  I've been able to make folders of apps.  It works fairly smoothly.  Otherwise, I'm still seeing performance problems.  I thought that the A8 processor was capable of handling the iPhone 6 Plus, so why can't it handle the Apple TV box and output a 1920x1080p signal without slowing down?

Apple have a long way to go.

Why do Apple and Google and Microsoft want to be in the car?

Do I want to integrate my phone or tablet more closely everywhere I go?

When I switched from my 1999 VW Golf GLS to the 2012 VW Golf TDI, the car wanted to know about my phone.  My mobile sound system can route calls and play my music.  In fact, it's not just the music on the phone, but iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Spotify that can be used.

Apple announced today, for the Geneva, Switzerland auto show that they were pairing with several car makers to extend their reach past simple integration for playing music.

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/03/03/apple-announces-carplay/

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/03/03/carplay-video-wi-fi-soon/

Chevrolet had already announced Siri in the car, and Google and Audi recently announced Android in the car.  Ford had Windows in use for a while, but they seem to be moving away from that.  Were software crashes causing traffic accidents?  No, of course not but people made jokes.

Using my car's touch screen for various controls isn't very efficient.  If I don't remember something, I can go back and forth too many times trying to find some setting.  I wish the car makers and sound system makers such as Alpine, Kenwood, and Pioneer would come up with a unified graphical interface and let everyone plug into the back end.  That way, if you're in your car, a rental car, your friend's car, you know how things work.

I had a terrible time when I changed phones and it's not really resolved as much as I'm using a workaround.  I went from an iPhone 4s to an iPhone 5c.  iTunes let me use the previous configuration and name.  The car didn't like that but it wouldn't let me delete the name, either, so that I could re-use it.  So, after 10-15 attempts, I deleted a few characters and it works--most of the time.

Of course, the cable (30-pin still, but the new phone has the Lightning connector now) is a problem but that was a problem last year anyway since the tiny space for the phone is cold as ice in the winter, and  that's not good for the phone.

In any case, I think it'll be more than five years before the dust has settled.  It took a couple of years to get the iPhone connected to cars but many companies have the option now.  Getting an Android option shouldn't be difficult but it probably is at this point.  Collaboration--the world needs more of it.

OK Google vs. Siri

In the late 1990s, I used my Mac Clone with Mac OS 8.5 and PlainTalk to dial the modem, get my e-mail, start my web browser, and keep me current without touching a keyboard or mouse each morning.

It seems as though we've gone backwards since Mac OS X and while I have a built-in microphone, I don't use it much.

Then came Siri, with all the canned advertising requests.  It seemed that Siri worked beautifully, if you asked it the correct questions.  As the service became available in Japanese, I tried it both in English and Japanese.  At the time, I thought that Mac OS 8.5 did a better job.

A few times, I've used OK Google with the Google app to show me relevant information and it's not always okay, but it usually understands me and finds what I want.

I was concerned about tornadoes tonight, as the sirens were screaming for a couple of minutes.  Siri didn't know where I was and wanted me to access privacy settings.  I re-stated the request with a zip code.  It told me that it didn't look as though there would be tornadoes today.  Oops, that wasn't what I wanted to know.

The question wasn't that difficult but I suppose it could have been slightly vague.  However, OK Google had given me results for several news articles related to the area a few minutes earlier.

I also asked both for the location of San Jose State University and I got various information from OK Google, and again I got "I don't know where you are." as Siri pointed me to privacy settings again.

I could understand if it had trouble with names, but I saw the text and it had written "San Jose State University" just fine.  Then, it cleared the display and told me about privacy settings.

I disabled Siri again.  I might try it in Japanese again.  There might not be as much confusion, except that I'm not in Japan now.  I just tried OK Google in Japanese.  You must tap the microphone icon, as the "OK Google" phrase does not seem to work, but the results were as impressive as they are in English.

Update 2013.11.26: I saw an announcement today that Honda/Acura have added Siri Eyes-Free to certain models, as Chevrolet did earlier.  I hope those users have more luck than I did.  It's certainly an interesting idea.  My 2012 VW Golf TDI has phone-related voice commands but I don't have navigation as part of the car, so I would imagine that would enhance the experience quite a lot.  Buick's voice control over music seems as childish as their advertising but it might be useful.  I sometimes wish Apple would implement voice search but it would have to deal with multiple languages and they're not ready for that.

Update 2013.12.08: I've been using voice search a bit on the Nexus 7 tablet.  Apple said that Siri required the iPhone 4s' special noise reduction chip and that the iPhone 4, with its more primitive technology from the same company couldn't do the job correctly.  Why is it then, that all these Android-based devices work so well?  I doubt Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro processor has such technology nor did my (now ancient) LG Optimus S.  Of course, Apple wants you to ditch the old and buy the new, but it's probably not just about the money, Apple's developers probably can't get things to work correctly.  There are occasions where OK Google doesn't work with certain names, even when I'm quite crisp with my enunciation.  However, it seems to work better some days with UK English selected instead of US English--my accent drifts quite a lot.  Using UK English tends to get results from the other side of the ocean, which isn't always helpful.

Update 2013.12.17: I've tried to use the new Chrome plug-in for searching by voice.  I couldn't stop laughing at the horrid results.  It rarely got any of the words correct, and I was using it on a rather powerful MacBook Pro with a 2.6 GHz i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD.  Imagine the results for a lower end machine with a 5400 rpm hard drive.