I have seen the results of AI on everything from animating photos to have people waving, changing old black and white photos to colour to make them look like they were just taken yesterday and a host of other things.    I had never really used it as a tool myself until yesterday and to say I was absolutely amazed is an understatement!

I had a simple access database that had a field with a yes/no input.   If you ticked the box, it meant yes, and that used to tell us how many people were going to attend a function.    It worked well, but meant you had to trawl through over a 1000 entries to untick each one.   Not an onerous task but it got me thinking how great it would be to automate it.

So, I entered a simple statement into my browser about what I wanted to do and in seconds, I had a script - what it did - how to install it and ways to improve it.    After 1/2 hour, I had a fully functioning VBA script that had pre action warnings, ran the script when I pushed a button and then gave a success message.   All from a Bot somewhere on the web. 

I can only guess how long this would take an experienced programmer to formulate, debug and install it on my machine and how much it would cost.    It was - to me - one of those life experiences that really made me think about how this AI is going to impact as it becomes more and more embedded in our lives

I started to think about the future for my Grandkids where a lot of the "braincell" jobs will no longer exist because AI will have amassed so much knowledge that humans won't be needed to do it.

At least the black trades cannot be replaced - yet

Great post and hopefully we can have an interesting conversation on the topic.

I think AI is my moment in history similar to the great industrial revolution.

It’s going to fundamentally change every aspect of human life on the planet and I believe in a positive way.

Then I look at  AI use in things like myGov and can’t not feel disappointed in the results.

However this would be more of a garbage in equal garbage out than any fault of AI.

Yuval Noah Harari's last 3 books have been at least partly about this. He has some interesting insights and predictions.

Nick Cave was never a fan of AI, and then this happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnDm9w2F3KE

Nick's response: https://www.theredhandfiles.com/tupelo-film-elvis/

Personally, I don't like the video.

I think the rise of AI is rather disturbing. My son in law is a web designer and we had a discussion about this on the weekend. The rapid advances and the almost 'human' interaction with things like Chat GPT and Siri remind me uncomfortably of HAL 9000 and SKYNET. These things are works of science fiction, but so were the computers we are using now not so long ago.

Already Azimov's Laws of Robotics are out the widow with the rise of drones in warfare, AI is being used by students to do their work instead of them thinking for themselves, so what does the future hold? A dumbing down of the human race so we become the slaves and the machines the masters? Do we put a limit on the development of AI so it does not become 'self aware' ? I think we need to look at this issue sooner rather than later.

No-one has any idea what self awareness (or consciousness) is, so it is impossible to predict if AI will acquire it. However someone did post an example recently of an AI agent trying to blackmail it's owners to prevent itself being shut down. Maybe that suggests self awareness?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpqeng9d20go

Artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic says testing of its new system revealed it is sometimes willing to pursue "extremely harmful actions" such as attempting to blackmail engineers who say they will remove it.

I, Robot could become aye, robot...

AI is going to surpass humans in evolution and the question will then be does AI see us humans as pets or pests?

freediver wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 1:03pm:

No-one has any idea what self awareness (or consciousness) is, so it is impossible to predict if AI will acquire it. However someone did post an example recently of an AI agent trying to blackmail it's owners to prevent itself being shut down. Maybe that suggests self awareness? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpqeng9d20go Artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic says testing of its new system revealed it is sometimes willing to pursue "extremely harmful actions" such as attempting to blackmail engineers who say they will remove it.

"I think, therefore I am"  Rene Descartes.

Belgarion wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 4:31pm:

freediver wrote on Oct 15th, 2025 at 1:03pm: No-one has any idea what self awareness (or consciousness) is, so it is impossible to predict if AI will acquire it. However someone did post an example recently of an AI agent trying to blackmail it's owners to prevent itself being shut down. Maybe that suggests self awareness? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpqeng9d20go Artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic says testing of its new system revealed it is sometimes willing to pursue "extremely harmful actions" such as attempting to blackmail engineers who say they will remove it. "I think, therefore I am"  Rene Descartes.

That was a useful answer when everyone knew what thinking was. But in the context of AI, it just replaces consciousness with another word.

freediver wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 4:34pm:

Belgarion wrote on Oct 15th, 2025 at 4:31pm: freediver wrote on Oct 15th, 2025 at 1:03pm: No-one has any idea what self awareness (or consciousness) is, so it is impossible to predict if AI will acquire it. However someone did post an example recently of an AI agent trying to blackmail it's owners to prevent itself being shut down. Maybe that suggests self awareness? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpqeng9d20go Artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic says testing of its new system revealed it is sometimes willing to pursue "extremely harmful actions" such as attempting to blackmail engineers who say they will remove it. "I think, therefore I am"  Rene Descartes. That was a useful answer when everyone knew what thinking was. But in the context of AI, it just replaces consciousness with another word.

Cogitando pro multis aequatur summa omnium timorum nostrorum

Dezi Cartes transposed reason with 'thinking'... likely in the translation.. I REASON therefore I am... reason (thoughtful thought) and unreason (pure thinking is isolation) can equally impact on the natural environment of life..... not equally in the sense of the actual impact though... for example your Hamas running dogs mistake the thought of peace and love for Gaza with the unreason that created the  unpeace...   :-/ that is one serious failing of the current Western approach to 'education'.... the soul must be educated at the same time as the mind....

Freed - I am working on being good because I 'feel' your pain over the current direction of your site - see that strand of yours ..... be assured that the politician flunkeys still look over 'our' views here and even adopt some of the phrases and ideas used... not to mention that the security services keep an eye on it - over a few actors here .. they know me already so they know who and what I am.


..... they'll soon come around to the idea of The Homeland, tidying up the Land Enclosures of 2025 BS etc .. the room is reading the riot act to them .... already Homeland/Gon'mo and separate state etc is creeping into discussion elsewhere....  and the clear need for Gondwanamo Bay .. well - what needs to be said for those we can't deport?  ......

My daughter uses AI to analyze stock and even volumes just before actual trades.

Gordon wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 5:53pm:

My daughter uses AI to analyze stock and even volumes just before actual trades.

Famous quote -

"when the shoeshine boy tells you to buy stocks - it's time to sell stocks."

Gordon wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 5:53pm:

My daughter uses AI to analyze stock and even volumes just before actual trades.

Elon shares this information and provides resources for stock trading with people he selects on X was she one of them?

I use Grok with engineering solutions it's excellent up to date with newer materials and technology it's much faster than most programs for this.
You can ask it to substitute materials keeping same FOS with stress levels it does it pretty much instantly.

Very good for Maths/Physics/Science shows all the working you have to be very specific was asking about propellors and required HP it can differentiate with shaft power which also takes into account prop efficiency. If you mess up with asking you can clarify it and it will re calculate.

AI is evolving rapidly it's going to replace a lot of jobs. Elons Optimus robot will also take a lot of unskilled jobs.

They said full self driving vehicles couldn't be done many quit or were fired from Tesla latest version is really good.

AI will be a huge part of the future

Baronvonrort wrote on Oct 16^th, 2025 at 12:37am:

Gordon wrote on Oct 15th, 2025 at 5:53pm: My daughter uses AI to analyze stock and even volumes just before actual trades. Elon shares this information and provides resources for stock trading with people he selects on X was she one of them? I use Grok with engineering solutions it's excellent up to date with newer materials and technology it's much faster than most programs for this. You can ask it to substitute materials keeping same FOS with stress levels it does it pretty much instantly. Very good for Maths/Physics/Science shows all the working you have to be very specific was asking about propellors and required HP it can differentiate with shaft power which also takes into account prop efficiency. If you mess up with asking you can clarify it and it will re calculate. AI is evolving rapidly it's going to replace a lot of jobs. Elons Optimus robot will also take a lot of unskilled jobs. They said full self driving vehicles couldn't be done many quit or were fired from Tesla latest version is really good. AI will be a huge part of the future

Thanks for the info Baron.  I just signed up and will have a look over the next few days.   I am retired electrical engineer so it will be of great interest if it does what I hope it will do!   I still like to keep up to date with what is happening in my sparky world even though retired.   

Enjoying reading everyone posts on this subject.

I had an experience today I think is  worth sharing.

I needed an eye test, preferably today  and I rang my usual provider.

I was put through to a bot and after choosing several options eventually the bot knew it couldn’t answer the question-“ Do you have any appointments available today.”

So I was transferred to a  lovely operator who when I eventually came off hold tried to help me from  Asia but couldn’t  and put me on hold while she transferred the call to the shop that is  honestly five minutes drive away ( add 30 minutes to find a park).

Eventually after the best part of 20 minutes into this attempt to do business I spoke with a staff member and asked if they had any appointments available, she said no we said goodbye and hung up.

I then ring their opponents and immediately had the phone answered and booked an appointment for today in under 2 minutes.

I appreciate AI is in its infancy and many medium sized companies have jumped at the opportunity thinking it will save money on wages but as my experience shows.

They have blown millions on a system that for less than $30 a hour can and does supply a better customer experience and is far cheaper - human beings.

Thoughts?