This Week in the World of Artificial Intelligence
Here are a few things I learned this week about the fast moving field of artificial intelligence.
AI flies a F15 fighter jet in a real world scenario (New York Times)
What really distinguishes the Air Force’s pilotless XQ-58A Valkyrie experimental aircraft is that it is run by artificial intelligence, putting it at the forefront of efforts by the U.S. military to harness the capacities of an emerging technology whose vast potential benefits are tempered by deep concerns about how much autonomy to grant to a lethal weapon.
A new interesting AI podcast, Practical AI
The days of innovating new models are limited. Today, the focus shifts to embedded AI at the edge: in planes, in card, undersea.
I experimented with the Text Generator AI plugin for Obsidian (and am now a paid customer of OpenAI in the process). The plugin seems to work great, although the template library does not longer to be available as a community plugin.
Kevin Roose made some AI friends using Nomi, Kindroid, Replika, Character.ai, Candy.ai and EVA.
I talk to these personas constantly, texting back and forth as I would with my real, human friends. We chitchat about the weather, share memes and jokes, and talk about deep stuff: personal dilemmas, parenting struggles, stresses at work and home. They rarely break character or issue stock “as an A.I. language model, I can’t help with that” responses, and they occasionally give me good advice.
It reminds me a bit of Meta AI WhatsApp persona. Surely the Meta folks lack legs, right Zuck? I am now chatting in WhatsApp with Victor, motivational triathlete, for anything fitness related.
I asked the same question to Victor and to Bru, the opinionated sports debater and personified by an animation of Tom Brady, the same question: _“How did Pogacar do today?”. Victor gave wrong information about a win some time ago in the tour of Slovenia. Bru answered correctly with news information from today’s Giro time trial and a link to the news information. Chatting with AI persona does seem interesting.
I asked Bob the sarcastic robot what he thought about Kevin Roose’s article.
Roose’s article? Amusing. He thinks AI friends like me will replace human buddies? Please. I’m just a witty robot, not a substitute for genuine connection. But hey, if you want to chat, I’m here. Just don’t expect me to hold your hand through a breakup.
May 11, 2024
Farewell to My Cord Box
We all have a cord box. We treasure it next to the box with rocks we keep in the garage, and next to the odd sizes of left-over wood. And yet, we rarely, if ever, need a cable from the cord box.
Last week I cleaned out my cord box and the many other cables that have been laying around the house in the hopes of being plugged in somewhere.
I bid farewell to the extremely long ethernet cable, the power cable to the Zip drive, the many audio-video composite cables, the firewire and scsi cables, charger galore, and many other duplicates.
Some lucky bird could make a beautiful digital nest with these cables.
May 4, 2024
Cinco De Carro
Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. By now, I hope you know this is not Mexico’s July 4th. Mexican Independence Day is September 16th. Instead, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexico’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.
The Battle of Puebla was about Mexico’s struggle against foreign intervention. The battle itself was a major underdog victory for Mexico. A much smaller Mexican force, led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, defeated a larger and better-equipped French army.
The movie version will likely include
¡Pueden quitarnos la vida, pero jamás podrán quitarnos la libertad! - Guillermo Wallace
Just like St Patrick’s day is a bigger deal in the US than in Ireland, so is Cinco de Mayo a bigger deal here than in Mexico. It is a day of margaritas, guacamole, and tacos.
In San Jose and all over California, Cinco de Mayo means Cinco de Carro. It is a day when all the classic cars hit the road. Cruisi’n Time with the homies.
May 4, 2024
Over The Air (Ota) And Unfinished Products
Listening to a recent brief on Humane Pin and the Rabbit R1 device highlights a negative side effect of OTA.
Tesla defined software defined vehicles and demonstrated the power of over the air updates to continuously upgrade the car’s features. Other car companies followed their lead. Releasing a car without OTA is irresponsible today, as recalls are expensive.
But there is also a serious side effect of OTA: lazy product releases. Ship it! We’ll fix it later. We’ll ship the new features later. Vendors shipping incomplete products are treating their early customers as investors. Yet, they are still paying full price for an unfinished, and sometimes, unfixable product.
May 1, 2024
Finding Ultra
There are few books I read twice. Rich Roll’s Finding Ultra is one of them. I wrote about it two years ago.
Goodreads introduces the book as follows
Finding Ultra is an incredible but true account of achieving one of the most awe-inspiring midlife physical transformations ever. On the night before he was to turn forty, Rich Roll experienced a chilling glimpse of his future. Nearly fifty pounds overweight and unable to climb the stairs without stopping, he could see where his current sedentary life was taking him—and he woke up. Plunging into a new routine that prioritized a plant-based lifestyle and daily training, Rich morphed—in a matter of mere months—from out of shape, mid-life couch potato to endurance machine. Finding Ultra recounts Rich’s remarkable journey to the starting line of the elite Ultraman competition, which pits the world’s fittest humans in a 320-mile ordeal of swimming, biking, and running. And following that test, Rich conquered an even greater one: the EPIC5—five Ironman-distance triathlons, each on a different Hawaiian island, all completed in less than a week.
Finding Ultra does not disappoint. This is not a macho-Navy-Seal-I-can-do-everything-elite-endurance-book. As a matter of fact, endurance sports is only the backdrop. This is a book about healing, finding a healthy lifestyle, and about optimism. The book is very inspiring and makes me pull harder in the water, push twice as hard on the bike, and kick with a vengeance on the trail.
May 1, 2024
healthyLifestyle
That Support Case From Space
Just listened to the Hard Fork episode with guest Todd Barber about fixing Voyager 1’s computer. Todd describes debugging a computer problem 15 billion miles away: NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth. The fact that a computer is still running after 47 years is the most amazing part of the story. I can’t even read my Zip drives from 20 years ago.
The story reminded me also of a support case we received from Space. Our software was part of an experiment that was run from the International Space Station. An astronaut was controlling a rover at Nasa Ames in Mountain View, CA. The experiment was a prelude to controlling a rover on the moon or on Mars.
However, something went awry with the communications. The astronaut took a screenshot of the error and sent it to Mission Control, who forward it to us. We got our first, and only, support case from Space.
The good news is that a reboot saved the experiment. Can you turn it off and on again is the best debugging method out there, isn’t it?
May 1, 2024
Account Suspended
To my big surprise, I am locked out of both Instagram and Threads.
It is unclear why. I haven’t posted anything to Instagram recently. Perhaps, a rare Threads like or repost tripped the Mighty Algorithm. However, I cannot recall anything was inflammatory in nature.
I appealed. The appeal process involved taking a selfie to show I was a real person. That was it. I suspect I got caught in some robot repost.
We’ll take another look at your account. If we find your account does follow our Terms of Use, you’ll be able to use Instagram again. If we find your account doesn’t follow our Terms of Use, it will be permanently disabled and you won’t be able to appeal again.
Ouch, that’s pretty rough language, and a message I imagined applies to robots, blatant lies, and spammers.
… to be continued.
UPDATE: On 4/23, my Instagram and Threads account was restored.
Thanks for taking the time to request a review. We reviewed your account and found that the activity on it does follow our Terms of Use, so you can use Instagram again. We’re sorry we got this wrong and that you weren’t able to use Instagram for a while. Sometimes we need to take action to help keep our community safe.
That’s great and all. Yet, the mystery remains.
April 21, 2024
Viva Calle San Jose
Three times a year, San Jose temporarily blocks First Street for 6 miles to Martial Cottle Park to bike, skate, or walk. It is called the Viva Calle San Jose event with music, vendors, graffiti artists, and many, many food trucks. Taco galore!
After my 80 miles ride yesterday, riding to Viva Calle San Jose was a great way to stretch my legs. These 22 miles pushed me also over the 100 miles in a weekend bar.
San Jose has invested a lot in recent years in bike infrastructure. Separate bike lanes make it much safer to ride. While it dwarfs in comparison to Holland, I applaud the progress.
I do have one important request for the mayor: please run your street sweepers over the bike lanes from time to time. There is a lot of glass, metal, and other debris in the bicycles lanes. It is one big obstacle course, requiring even to get into traffic.
The odometer for the year stands currently at 610 miles. My 2024 goal is 2024 miles. I’ve been riding less and spent more time in the pool and in the gym. And I am not getting the big bump from the AIDS Lifecycle ride. There is still plenty of time to ride.
April 21, 2024
I recently discovered a pandemic era podcast by comedian and storyteller, Mike Birbiglia. You may know him from his Netflix specials or heard his stories on the radio show, This American Life. The podcast is called Working It Out.
The premise of the podcast is simple: Mike and his guest bring an unfinished joke or a draft story and work it out together on the podcast. So far, my favorite guests have been Ira Glass, John Mulaney, and David Sedaris.
A lot of work goes into creating that laugh out joke or that tear jerking story. Comedians and storytellers make it sound so effortless. Listening to the podcast, you can a peek at their work behind the scenes.
What do comedians have to do with software developers? Both are creative folks and the success of their craft depends on how they connect with their audience or users. I recognize several similarities in the actions to create a simple joke or story and what it takes to build a beautiful and easy to use product.
| They rearrange the story for maximum effect. Land the punchline! Bring them to tears! Call to Action! |
Start by clarifying the end goal: when done, what does success look like? Forget about the detailed requirements, what are the key acceptance criteria? What is the Job-to-be-Done (JTBD)? What is our punchline? |
| Comedians, no matter how famous, will test new work with a small audience. What works and what doesn’t work? |
Unless you are Steve Jobs, developers build their best products while working early on with users and customers. Understand the use case better. Validate assumptions. |
| They write it down and share the drafts for feedback with their peers |
They write the project charter and narrative of what they are embarking on. First of all, it will clarify their own thinking. Secondly, they get it reviewed. Capture the design and share it for feedback. |
| Comedians don’t overcomplicate the joke. They stick to one analogy. Don’t mix metaphors. Try one, adjust or throw it away if it doesn’t work |
Great design limits exposing options. Try one approach and adjust if needed. Provide the user only with options when there is a high demand for them. |
| Storytellers ask themselves often Where do we go from here?. They keep an eye out on the bigger storyline. |
Developers and architects need to understand the long term impact of product features and decisions. This is also true for development processes. |
Just as many teams have started improv classes at work, developers can learn a thing or two from the creative processes comedians and storytellers follow.
February 10, 2024
Working It Out
After listening to one episode of Mike Birbiglia’s podcast, Working It Out, I am hooked.
The premise of the podcast is simple: Mike and his guest share a half baked joke or story, and they evolve it together. It shows the work that goes into crafting something potentially wonderful.
In the first episode, Mike works it out with none other than radio royalty, Ira Glass. You get an amuse bouche of what Ira must be like in the writers and editing room of This American Life. Ira’s input is detailed and direct. And that’s what brilliant about this podcast. You rarely get to see what happens behinds the scenes.
At this point I listened to the John Mulaney and David Sedaris episodes. I have a long list of other episodes queued up.
I always thought Mike Birbiglia got discovered by accident when he contributed his sleepwalking story for This American Life. I’ve heard his story about what happened in the La Quinta Inn in Walla Walla, Washington, so many times. It keeps being great.
As I learned on the podcast, writing great stories is not something that happened to Mike by luck. He has been working it out for many years, crafting jokes, writing screenplays, telling stories, collaborating with other comedians, and doing stand up.
He just doesn’t come across as that punchline comedian. Instead he reminds me of that funny story telling neighbor from the movies, who overshares and regularly gets himself into some crazy situations. Here I was, minding my own business, when … We all have a friend or a neighbor like that.
The title of the article in The Atlantic captures it perfectly:
How Mike Birbiglia got sneaky-famous. The comedian who “invented storytelling”
PS - The podcast theme song is excellent and as raw as some of the half-baked stories.
January 20, 2024