#40: The Christmas Episode

Ian Bowie
Hello and welcome to AI Unfiltered with me, Ian Bowie, and our resident expert, Michael Stormbom, where we will be talking about everything to do with AI in our modern digital society and what the future holds for all of us.

Artificial Voice
Welcome to the AI unfiltered Christmas 2022 episode. Ian and Michael will be with you shortly. But first, a Christmas poem as recited by an artificial voice.

Artificial Voice
Santa by Ian Bowie. Around the world Santa goes, guided by Rudolph’s nose, dressed in red from head to toe, his great big beard as white as snow. Jingle jangle his sleigh bells ring, while down below children sing. He always travels late at night, his schedule often very tight. But if you see him say hello, and he’ll give you a hohoho!

Ian Bowie
What about virtual Christmas?

Michael Stormbom
Virtual Christmas? We never executed our idea of having the virtual podcast in the in the metaverse. We should have our avatars and our virtual Santa.

Ian Bowie
Well we can get there next year. Next year. Yes. I think we have to.

Michael Stormbom
Next year. Christmas 2023. Watch for it. Yes.

Ian Bowie
Yeah. But you know, I mean, telling the kids well, you had you presents. No, we haven’t. Yes, you have.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, they don’t. They don’t want stuff anymore. They want virtual…

Ian Bowie
Virtual everything. Yes.

Michael Stormbom
Ooh I got a new virtual dance in Fortnite. I don’t know.

Ian Bowie
Uou could give them a song for Christmas couldn’t you. Or a new coat for your avatar? Yes.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, well, I mean, people spend actual money on dressing up their avatars

Ian Bowie
19,000 on on a virtual dress for a virtual avatar. That apparently has never been worn. We talked about that.

Michael Stormbom
And never will be because it doesn’t exist.

Ian Bowie
But I assume the $19,000 that were handed over exist.

Michael Stormbom
Maybe it was Bitcoin? Yeah.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, I mean, what’s the future of Bitcoin anyway? Is it gonna have a very Merry Christmas or?

Michael Stormbom
Well, I think that people who have a lot of their savings put into Bitcoin or other cryptos are probably not having all that Merry a Christmas now, unless they managed to cash out in time, but.

Ian Bowie
That was a very long time ago now. Indeed. Yeah. If you think about Christmas in general, right. So all these towns and cities, they have their Christmas lights and they’ve got their Christmas streets, and there’s many cities around that also have their Christmas tree out, you know, we now have one in in Cathedral Square in Turku. Now, do you think actually, there is a possibility that in the future a lot of that actually may well become virtual? Purely because it’s more environmentally friendly?

Michael Stormbom
I do think things will become more virtual mainly because it looks cool. Right? So you’re saying that in the future we will all be wearing, like augmented reality glasses and there isn’t actually a tree there but we’re all wearing glasses and then there’s a beautiful mighty tree in front of the cathedral. Yeah, but yeah, so as, as driven by the need to be more environmentally friendly. No, I don’t see that because…

Ian Bowie
you don’t see it coming.

Michael Stormbom
No. I mean, I think things need to get really really bad before it really starts springing people into action.

Ian Bowie
By which time it’s too late. Of course. Yes.

Michael Stormbom
Correct. Yeah. So Merry Christmas, everybody. Yeah.

Ian Bowie
Okay, let’s go down another route. What about some kind of projected Christmas tree rather than a real one?

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, I could definitely see that. So basically, a hologram tree. And I think, not to deviate too much from the Christmas theme of this episode, but of course for New Year’s, because that is a…

Ian Bowie
Hologram fireworks.

Michael Stormbom
Yes, because that is a thing every New Year’s, scaring the crap out of all the animals.

Ian Bowie
Not to mention the rubbish that’s left around on the streets.

Michael Stormbom
And all the people having accidents. Yes. The amount of eye injuries and general injuries due to fireworks and even death. Yes. Yeah. Now I mean, the environmental impact speaking of, I mean, that’s just horrendous.

Ian Bowie
I haven’t they started doing that. Haven’t they started having more like, like light shows.

Michael Stormbom
I’m not sure how it is here in Turku. I guess we’ll find out on New Year’s Eve, but.

Ian Bowie
I suppose everything depends on what Sweden does first. Or Tampere.

Michael Stormbom
Or Tampere. So if they do it in Tampere that maybe 20 years from now. We are not bitter about the tramway.

Ian Bowie
No, not at all.

Michael Stormbom
No, but yeah, holographic fireworks, why not.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, absolutely. Enviromentally friendly. For sure. Yeah. And also possibly more spectacular.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. Because I mean, you can, in principle, unleash your imagination with that.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, without causing any damage. Yeah, well, they’ve just they’ve just had it now in the center that they had some art installations along the river. To do with lights and different things. Some of it was pretty cool.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. Yeah. So I definitely see that in the future. At least.

Ian Bowie
That’s one way of helping the environment. Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
Plus, you could have like a virtual Santa like flying across the sky there with the reindeer.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, absolutely fantastic.

Michael Stormbom
And of course the can make it a game like on go look for Santa him in town. Yeah.

Ian Bowie
Shoot him down. No, I’m joking. No, God I got Rudolph.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, you bastard commercialising Christmas, how dare you.

Ian Bowie
Actually, so having said that, I mean, of course, you can have your virtual Santa riding across the sky. But of course then it also opens it up for as you said, commercialization so you know all the shops. I mean, you got Wiklund in Turku with its rooftop terrace and rooftop bar. I mean, they could have lights up there. Shining all kinds of messages to consumers. Yeah, for sure. In the brand new shiny Market Square.

Michael Stormbom
There could be like a giant blinking arrow, like come here.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, you could do a lot with that couldn’t you. Yes, definitely. Really? Yeah. Absolutely fascinating. Virtual nativity play.

Michael Stormbom
Virtual nativity play. I mean, virtual historical reenactment.

Ian Bowie
Virtual Christmas market. Because we’ve got the Christmas market going on in Turku at the moment now.

Michael Stormbom
Where you can buy virtual presents for your avatars. Yeah, yeah.

Ian Bowie
Well, you could have semi virtual stalls.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, no, no, we’re, we’re getting into the the metaverse of this blended reality where

Ian Bowie
Yeah, but why not? I mean, you know, what do you have a real store holder? And he’s selling virtual products. And you come and say, Well, I like that. And you say, oh, can you give me 100 euros via PayPal or whatever? And I’ll zap it to your phone as we speak. And then you walk away with your product.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, why not?

Ian Bowie
Why not? That’s actually rather cool. And would you like to have it wrapped, sir?

Michael Stormbom
Yes. In wrapping paper?

Ian Bowie
That’s right. Yeah. Well, no, because why does it have to be that far away? Because I mean, like.

Michael Stormbom
well, I don’t think it is.

Ian Bowie
Well thinks about Christmas cards. Yeah, you know, I mean, a lot of them now are actually virtual, aren’t they.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, I’ll be honest, I don’t recall the last time I sent a Christmas card.

Ian Bowie
There you go. Yeah, we still send Christmas cards to old people who expect to get them. Yeah, I guess when they’ve passed away. Then we won’t. Britain, actually, I think is one of the biggest markets in the world for cards. I mean, not just Christmas cards, but any kind of cards. So the culture of sending cards is very strong. Very, very strong. I think Christmas is probably the biggest time of the year for them. But Valentine’s of course, it’s huge, birthdays, wedding anniversaries. You know, new home, just passed your driving test. You know the number of cards for different occasions in the UK.

Michael Stormbom
Congratulations on being Prime Minister for longer than 45 days.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, there you go. Absolutely. Yeah. So it’s very, very strong. And it’s worth a lot of money to the British economy and also, you know, in terms of employment, people coming up with ideas, you know, artists, publishing them, printing them, etc.

Michael Stormbom
Well, I mean, AI generated Christmas card if start busting out Dall-E to generate the artwork for them and yeah, yeah, maybe a Christmas poem generated by GPT3 on there and.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, no, but I mean, just, you know, the whole thing. Think about how you could tailor Christmas using AI. You just feed in everything you know about your friends and family. And then hit create perfect Christmas for granddad. Yeah. And it does it. Yeah. Pretty cool.

Michael Stormbom
That would be interesting. So maybe recreating the Christmas of your childhood or something of the sort.

Ian Bowie
Or create me the perfect Victorian country house Christmas.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. Or visit Bethlehem.

Ian Bowie
Yeah. Show me the three kings.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, although it doesn’t specify there that there were three of them,

Ian Bowie
Does it not?

Michael Stormbom
no. Yes. There were three gifts.

Ian Bowie
We Three Kings of Oriental.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, I mean, if we’re talking about the Wise men.

Ian Bowie
Well, yes. What I meant three Wise men.

Michael Stormbom
But he doesn’t specify that there were three of them. Just that there were three gifts.

Ian Bowie
Yeah. Well, it depends which book you read.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, I was talking about the Bible.

Ian Bowie
I had an alternative version. I had I had an alternative version of that. Yeah. Three Wise Men. That’s what we were told. Well, no, because there’s there’s that story that I was told once about a nativity play. And the kids come on. And the first kid comes up and says, I bring you gold. And the second one comes up and says I bring you myrrh, and the third kid comes up and says Frank sent this. That’s the sort of children’s ability to improvise ehen they don’t quite remember what they’re supposed to say.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. Well, thanks Frank for remembering.

Ian Bowie
But there were always three wise men in the Nativity plays.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, well, I mean, that’s because there were three gifts. If there was a fourth wiseman there I mean, like, yeah, sorry, Jesus. I didn’t bring anything. Yeah, so Frank brought my gift.

Ian Bowie
Frank sent this and he frames what this is well yeah. But no, actually, I mean, yeah, that’s something else. You know, when when resources are scarce, you can create them virtually.

Michael Stormbom
I mean, and here’s why I don’t like this virtual real estate that you sell virtual real estate and there’s artificial scarcity in that there are in some of these metaverses. Oh, there’s only a limited supply of land. No there isn’t, there’s only scarcity because you say there’s scarcity.

Ian Bowie
Iit’s just a fiddle, isn’t it? Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
I mean, we have this infinite playground and then you’re limiting what’s available.

Ian Bowie
Well, yeah, for profit.

Michael Stormbom
For profit. No less. Ridiculous. No. Yeah.

Ian Bowie
So how much can you make out of Christmas? I was gonna say, you know, you think about it at the end of the day, why shouldn’t Christmas be virtual? Because Christmas is manmade anyway. It doesn’t exist really. Only in our imaginations and our minds. Yeah, the whole thing.

Michael Stormbom
It is part of the human experience which is increasingly virtual..

Ian Bowie
It’s a complete Metaverse in its own right. Also, there should be like a Christmas Metaverse. A separate Christmas. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Now that’s…

Michael Stormbom
Then you can visit at any time of year.

Ian Bowie
Oh, my goodness.

Michael Stormbom
So it’s no longer Christmas as a seasonal thing. You can visit it anytime you like.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, but you can I mean, for example, in England there, I think in Germany, and many other countries. There are Christmas shops that are open year round. So it’s always Christmas. Yeah. Just taking the whole concept and creating the perfect…. Wow, hey, that is so cool.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, and then I can go and have a chat with Santa.

Ian Bowie
Oh, yeah, no, I like that. You have to pay to get in of course, children. So don’t forget mommy or daddy’s credit card.

Michael Stormbom
Oh, there’s always a profit margin.

Ian Bowie
Absolutely. But that that really does give meaning to the metaverse for me because I love Christmas. So that’s there. So if I could create a world where it’s always Christmas, Christmas land, yes. Oh, absolutely. You can have your own passport couldn’t you.

Michael Stormbom
Virtual passport. Yes. Yeah. Oh, no. Or a golden ticket.

Ian Bowie
Willy Wonka. But no, this is actually now this is something worth having, people.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, virtual Christmas.

Ian Bowie
We need anybody who’s in favor of having a virtual Christmas metaverse. Just let us know.

Michael Stormbom
I will add it to my wish list to Santa.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, no, really? No, that is so cool. You have all kinds of stuff going on in..

Michael Stormbom
In virtual Christmas land.

Ian Bowie
in Christmas. Metaverse land, couldn’t you? Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, I mean, you could even have like local varieties. So…

Ian Bowie
Yeah, but now I’m really into this now. I might end up getting lost in Christmas Wonder Wonderland.

Michael Stormbom
Yes, we will never hear from you again.

Ian Bowie
I’ll be very happy, happy as Larry. In my virtual Christmas Wonderland. Yeah. Selling presents and decorate… Christmas decorations. Decorate your own virtual Christmas tree.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, however you wish.

Ian Bowie
The tree is free. And then you pay for the decorations. Hey, this is really cool.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, you can buy. I mean, I’ve seen these virtual Christmas ornaments. I don’t know where you put them. But I’ve seen them around somewhere..

Ian Bowie
Virtual Christmas ornaments.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, I don’t know where you put them

Ian Bowie
where’d you get them?

Michael Stormbom
I don’t know. I’ve seen advertisements for them and stuff.

Ian Bowie
Advertisements for them. Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
Well let’s, let’s ask Google.

Ian Bowie
Somebody’s ahead of me in this fantastic, amazing, incredible idea.

Michael Stormbom
Virtual Christmas tree decoration here.

Ian Bowie
Don’t tell me it’s virtual Christmas tree decoration.com.

Michael Stormbom
No, no. The first thing… oh, virtual Christmas tree decoration collection. Add to cart. 19 bucks. Yes. From Atmos FX. Who is not a sponsor, but.

Ian Bowie
No. Bastards. Because they need my idea.

Michael Stormbom
Oh, so basically what they do is they have a they have a projector, right? You know usual screen projector. Yeah. And then there’s just a Christmas tree on there..

Ian Bowie
What about the decorations?

Michael Stormbom
Well, I guess for 19 bucks you get some decorations included.

Ian Bowie
So what what are you buying though? Do you have to buy the tree as well?

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, and I guess you need to have the actual projector otherwise this isn’t working right.

Ian Bowie
So do you buy that off them as well?

Michael Stormbom
I think that’s the idea.

Ian Bowie
That’s what they’re really selling the projectors and then yeah, and.

Michael Stormbom
Then you can buy their virtual Christmas tree for 90 bucks and then traditional Victorian, six bucks. Wow, vintage Santa Xpress, six bucks. Retro funky. The Spirit of Halloween. Okay, interesting. You can even buy some Christmas carolers for 21 bucks.

Ian Bowie
Okay, Christmas carols. Nice.

Michael Stormbom
Yes, so, but that is not quite the metaverse because you still need the digital project.

Ian Bowie
Not quite what we’re aiming for but still.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. It’s the way the world, yes-.

Ian Bowie
And we could also have the Christmas Casino.

Michael Stormbom
Christmas Casino?

Ian Bowie
Yeah. For gambling.

Michael Stormbom
Where’s the Christmas aspect in the casino?

Ian Bowie
Making money for Santa, so you can get the presents with a kid.

Michael Stormbom
So that’s how he funds his operation. it’s all making sense now. We’re on to you Santa.

Ian Bowie
Roulette table.

Michael Stormbom
Yes. Yeah. It’s for the children. Yes.

Ian Bowie
But I think… Do you reckon that casinos use AI in the casino to sort of, you know, spot like facial recognition AI for example?

Michael Stormbom
I’m sure they do. Yeah, because that would seem a pretty obvious way of using AI. Yeah. And I mean, of course, I mean, all of these casinos are built around the house always wins. Right? Which means estimating probabilities and making sure that they are, that the odds are in their favor in your favor. So even if an individual player happens to win big every now and again. If the same player keeps on playing repeatedly then they will make a loss. Yeah, because that’s how the whole thing set up. That’s how they make thier money. So yeah, so I’m sure they’re using various types of algorithms to to analyze and perhaps even track player behaviors inside the casino.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, this is what I was thinking. Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. And I mean, certainly online when you have to register and be identified and so forth, they can run various forms of analysis on your player behavior and stuff like that. I’m sure.

Ian Bowie
Santa’s Christmas casino doesn’t work like thatm people.

Michael Stormbom
No in Santa’s Christmas Casino the children win.

Ian Bowie
We want the mommies and daddies to lose all their money, so the children can get nice presents.

Michael Stormbom
Yes. That’s how it works.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, absolutely. But no, this really appeals to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think Christmas needs to become virtual.

Michael Stormbom
And it can be year round and…

Ian Bowie
And controlled by me.

Michael Stormbom
Fair enough.

Ian Bowie
It’s a Christmas Disney World. I mean, for example, we’ve got I don’t know what they call it up in Rovaniemi, Santa land or something. So there’s really two or something so yeah, that’s, that’s Yeah, and you know, people pay a fortune to fly there. Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
So let’s do that virtual instead.

Ian Bowie
Absolutely. We’re saving the planet, because you don’t have to fly anywhere. Yeah, you can do it from the console. Absolutely. Yeah. have the same experience or even a better experience.

Artificial Voice
Christmas by Ian Bowie. Snow falls gently to the ground, making not the slightest sound, trees all covered white with snow winter’s night with stars or glow, while guided by Rudolph’s light, Santa rushes through the night. Sack pack full of lovely toys, presents galore for girls and boys. As he passes sleigh bells ringing, hear the sound of choir singing. Church bells all begin to chime, oh how wonderful it’s Christmas time. Midwinter. Sleigh bells. Church choir sings. Children laughing with delight. Christmas.

Ian Bowie
Santa’s Virtual Winter Wonderland people. And with that in mind, we will bid you a very, very Merry Christmas and we will be wishing you a very Happy New Year in January 2023 when we come back with our 2022 retrospective, so Merry Christmas.

Michael Stormbom
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Ian Bowie
You’ve been listening to me Ian Bowie and my colleague Michael Stormbom, on AI Unfiltered, and for more episodes, please go to aiunfiltered.com Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Speech synthesis by https://www.narakeet.com