#50: The 50th Episode Spectacular

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.

Ian Bowie
It’s time for episode 50 people, woo!

Michael Stormbom
Woo. I’m enthused.

Ian Bowie
Pleased to hear. Well, we wanted to talk about all sorts of funny things in me, you know, like, how ordinary people can actually implement AI into their lives. And I think one of the ideas that I had, of course is because I’ve got one coming up quite soon. Is the ultimate AI roadtrip. Yes.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. Elaborate.

Ian Bowie
We’re gonna do a little bit of a road trip through Europe. You know, we’ve got a timeframe. So let’s say we’ve got we’ve got five days and we’re going to do Holland, Germany, little bit of Denmark, and Sweden. You know, it’s not very many countries, but then there’s only five days. And we want to maximize our enjoyment of the trip by seeing as many things that are interesting to us as possible, while also staying in good quality, enjoyable accommodation that’s worth our hard earned euros and also eating in restaurants that serve the kind of food that we like. To try and research that is very time consuming, and also quite, quite difficult. I mean, we’ve talked about this before you go to these review websites, but how do you know what you’re reading is actually true.

Michael Stormbom
So you would like an AI that plans the trip for you?

Ian Bowie
Yeah, well, it was just a thought. Of course, I know. We’ve also talked about, you know, how objective is the AI. It could sort of really, really stitch you up and send you some complete shitholes

Michael Stormbom
But an AI travel assistant. Yes.

Ian Bowie
Yeah. I think be quite cool.

Michael Stormbom
That’d be very cool.

Ian Bowie
Yeah. And then you can just leave it you see, you’ve told it, which maybe took you 15 minutes, and you can come back to that in the evening. And see what the plan is

Michael Stormbom
Then you have the route and it has taken care of all of it.

Ian Bowie
Or you ask to make you three different alternative routes.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, and then you select one and then it books everything for you.

Ian Bowie
Absolutely. Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
Very cool. Yes. Yeah. Do you take the AI along for the trip?

Ian Bowie
So it’d be in your phone or something, wouldn’t it? Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
So you know, so if things changed during the trip, or like, like, where’s the nearest place to make a pit stop? Or whatever, when on the road?

Ian Bowie
Yeah. Because actually, did you know that there was actually EU legislation somewhere that says it is the duty of all drivers inside the European Union to stop and offer help if they feel if they think that a motorist is in trouble?

Michael Stormbom
I wonder how much that is applied in Finland?

Ian Bowie
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
Like I need to talk to someone, I will keep on driving. Yeah, keep on driving. Yeah,

Ian Bowie
Yeah. Oh, look at that car in the ditch Glad it’s not me. Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
That car is on fire. Well, well, it’s snowing, it’ll sort itself out.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, but because I was researching she that was another thing that I could have used AI for. What are the current requirements for you know what you need to have in a car in Holland, Germany, Denmark etc?

Michael Stormbom
Just don’t ask ChatGPT.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, but it was it was it was quite interesting. That’s how I found this sort of moral obligation to stop and help.

Michael Stormbom
I can imagine that. Yeah. We don’t need AI for this. But I think a steering wheel is important.

Ian Bowie
And there was one country I’m not sure which one it was. I think there’s a legal requirement that you actually have a fire extinguisher in your car, not necessarily for your own vehicle, but in case you’ve come across a vehicle that happens to be on fire and it’s not raining or snowing. So you can just leave them get on with it in that case. Yes.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. And that’s our road safety advice. If you see a burning car, okay. Yes, yeah.

Ian Bowie
But, you know, I mean, again, it’s we come back to the same old same old conclusions, don’t we that it’s quite useful, this GPT three, but it’s not really ready.

Michael Stormbom
You need to be wary of…

Ian Bowie
Very wary, actually. Yeah. Yeah. I would be quite interested to sort of think about having a conversation with a German police officer at the side of the road, saying, well, you know, GPT three told me…

Michael Stormbom
How do you plead? not guilty by reason of GPT.

Ian Bowie
That’s right. Yeah. The machine told me to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if that will be a legal defense. You know.

Michael Stormbom
I think a very crappy legal defense.

Ian Bowie
Probably would be a crappy legal defense. Yes.

Ian Bowie
Anyway, that’s one of my wishes in our 50th anniversary episode, is to have…

Michael Stormbom
Or rather our 50th episode spectacular. It’s not… we haven’t been doing this for 50 years, have we.

Ian Bowie
Sorry. Our 50th Episode spectacular!

Michael Stormbom
Yes. Hey, remember back in 1963 when we started this podcast, yes.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, but also you know, what about you know, AI in everything. I mean, what about AI and entertainment? I mean, think about your New Year’s Eve firework display. Well, we’re gonna get rid of fireworks. We’ve talked about this in the past, not environmentally friendly, but we’re now going to have aI Enabled light spectaculars.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, we actually talked about it in the Christmas episode.

Ian Bowie
But why can’t we revisit these things because it’s interesting.

Michael Stormbom
We can, but that was like two months ago.

Ian Bowie
I suppose. Did we talk about AI enabled light spectaculars. We talked about light spectaculars as a replacement to grubby fireworks. I don’t think we actually thought that they could actually be you know, AI enabled. Whatever that would mean in reality, no idea. Everything should be AI enabled.

Michael Stormbom
How about we just list random things and then make them AI enabled?

Ian Bowie
And why not?

Michael Stormbom
For example, I’m speaking through say enabled microphone, which improves my voice. So it’s this deep resonant baritone that you’re listening to,

Ian Bowie
Absolutely. AI enabled beer production. Ooh.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. So what I want the optimal beer, produced by AI that has analyzed…

Ian Bowie
Everything.

Michael Stormbom
Everything, all the beers that has ever been produced all the beer brands and then…

Ian Bowie
All the tasting notes. Yes, you need all you need access to all the tasting notes as well.

Michael Stormbom
Yes. And then it produces the optimal beer. And then it’s like, oh no this is wheat beer, I hate that.

Ian Bowie
You could actually roll that across everything. Optimal chocolate.

Michael Stormbom
Yes, yeah. I guess there’s the subjectivity of the thing. I’ll say that.

Ian Bowie
That’s true. Yeah, I mean, every Finn on the planet thinks Fazer blue is the best chocolate that was ever invented.

Michael Stormbom
I’m a big fan of white chocolate. And I mean

Ian Bowie
You cannot mention those two words together. White and chocolate.

Michael Stormbom
The point being that is subjective.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, you’re using AI to create the best ever chocolate. Yes, well, yeah, of course. It’s subjective.

Michael Stormbom
There’s no such thing from an individual standpoint. I mean, there has to be something that’s the best from your perspective.

Ian Bowie
Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean, a lot of people will say that Belgian chocolates absolutely the best or what about Dutch bitter chocolate or Swiss chocolate? When I was a kid, you know, it was always about Suchard and Lindth.

Michael Stormbom
So well, personalized beer using AI that would be…

Ian Bowie
A personalized beer, yeah.

Michael Stormbom
Yes, it would… You analyze your tastes, and then it would create the perfect one.

Ian Bowie
I don’t see why not. I mean, you’ve got these automated coffee machines that can personalize the coffee for you. So I wouldn’t be able to personalize…

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, balance the ingredients and

Ian Bowie
Absolutely yeah, we’ve talked about AI and food

Michael Stormbom
We have.

Ian Bowie
But I don’t know if we actually sort of thought about the idea of using AI to create, you know, optimized tasting experiences.

Michael Stormbom
Perfectly tailored to your particular tastes.

Michael Stormbom
Yes, absolutely.

Ian Bowie
You could plug in some, I don’t know analysis of your taste buds and stuff like that to really go…

Ian Bowie
I don’t knowhow practically possible it would be to do that.

Michael Stormbom
Probably not yet.

Ian Bowie
You couldn’t run a restaurant on that basis. Could you I mean, now, just wouldn’t work.

Michael Stormbom
No, well, how about an individualized podcast that’s using ChatGPT and speech synthesis so it would produce the most interesting podcast from your perspective.

Ian Bowie
From your perspective, yes. That probably has a better chance of working.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, analyze your podcast listening history.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, but then what’s the point of that? I mean, it’s it’s a bit like then you know, you’ve got you’d be better off saying to them, Well, you know what I believe, now create a podcast that is diametrically the opposite to challenge me. That will be more intellectually stimulating, I think.

Michael Stormbom
Sure. But people don’t want to be challenged.

Ian Bowie
No, and that’s the point isn’t, they don’t, it’s very true. So I mean, if they’re they just want to have…

Michael Stormbom
If their listening history reflected that they wanted to be challenge.

Ian Bowie
Confirmation of what they already believe they know. Yeah, yeah, or what they already believe to be true.

Michael Stormbom
Confirmation bias, indeed. We have to say something intellectually stimulating here.

Ian Bowie
We want to say something intellectually stimulating,

Michael Stormbom
Because our listeners are of course very refined.

Ian Bowie
Oh, absolutely. And open minded and ready to change their opinions based on—

Michael Stormbom
They listened through that whole beer ordeal.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, yeah. But ya know, optimized chocolate and beer. Don’t need very much in life after that, do you really.

Michael Stormbom
We can hang up our hats now. We have reached optimum AI, that is peak AI right there.

Ian Bowie
What about… Right, now this is an idea. What if you just input a load of information about yourself and what you like and what you don’t like and what you’re interested in and what you want to achieve? Actually, the AI program would tell you exactly what you need. To do in order to get there. So, you know, it’s….

Michael Stormbom
Like a roadmap for your life.

Ian Bowie
Yeah. I mean, if you started when you were young enough, then it will tell you what you need to study. And what universities you should go to and the kind of people that you should mix with and where those people are, like most likely to be found. And dum-dee-dum-dee-dum.

Michael Stormbom
So you would have an AI Sherpa who guides you through…

Ian Bowie
Well, people do. I mean, you know, people actually do have mentors.

Michael Stormbom
And life coaches and whatnot.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, absolutely. So why not have an AI mentor a life coach? Yeah, yeah. And then you could do it for later in life. You know, when you’ve got a bit of money and you thinking, well, what can I spend it on? You know, oh, I would really like to have this and that and that and it finds it all for you and says, Well, you know, sorry to disappoint you, but actually, you don’t have enough money yet. But this is how you can make it. Wouldn’t it be quite interesting.

Michael Stormbom
That would be quite interesting. Yeah, of course. If you start young enough and I mean, you need to have certain aptitude for example to…

Ian Bowie
Well, yeah, you do. But I mean, like…

Michael Stormbom
Let’s say I want to be a jet pilot. Maybe the AI can give you a really a reality check.

Ian Bowie
Well, that’s right, I would be excluded because of my eyesight. Yeah, I mean, immediately.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. And also, you know, that fear of flying, it ain’t gonna help.

Ian Bowie
Well, yeah. But then if you’ve got a fear of flying, you’re probably unlikely to sort of tell it you want to be a jet fighter pilot, so…

Michael Stormbom
Well, god dammit, I want to be a jet pilot. I don’t have a fear of flying, but.

Ian Bowie
But I mean, you could use it later in your life as well. Yeah, cuz I mean, Alright, fair enough. You know, if you can get in there when you’re 10 years old, well lucky you, that’s like 48 years too late for me. But it’d be nice to think that even now something like that could be quite useful for me.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. To plot out the rest of your life?

Ian Bowie
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
Why not? Yeah, I guess the…

Ian Bowie
It could tell you, for example, what kind of car you should be driving, for buying for yourself. You know, when you tell Well, I’ve got these aches and pains and blardy blardy blar. And I’d really like to have this sports car. And then it says well wake up dummy. Because in two years time, you won’t be able to get in or out of that. So don’t waste your money buy one of these instead.

Michael Stormbom
Well, I mean, that’s more on a detail level. Yeah. I mean, I think there are two levels to this one is to have like a general blueprint like roadmap.

Ian Bowie
Yeah. But then I also like to be able to go into the details.

Michael Stormbom
And going more specific.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, absolutely.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. But I kind of feel like that’s two separate AIs in a way. Like just one that deals with the nitty gritty of everyday life and then there’s one that’s more on the general…

Ian Bowie
Well, that’s the one I want. I want the nitty gritty one.

Michael Stormbom
You want the nitty gritty AI

Michael Stormbom
That deals with the details Yeah, cuz I’m not good with details me. I’m a big picture kind of person.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. So an AI that deals with the…

Ian Bowie
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. And that can kick you and say, look, you know, you’re not being realistic. Or can challenge you and say, Well, no, you need to rethink that.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. I mean, there’s no particular reason why you couldn’t, for example, adapt ChatGPT to do exactly that.

Ian Bowie
I suppose not, no. Beause you see, the thing is, the danger with people is, all right, actually, in a way this will be quite good for politicians, because that, and also business people, because the danger is that they surround themselves with yes people or people who are afraid to really voice their true opinions. And then they get the wrong kind of feedback or advice. Well, because I am somebody who tends to voice their opinion if I don’t agree with something. You see, the problem with that is when it’s not expected. It’s not appreciated.

Michael Stormbom
No, and I think it has to be… it also has to be more than just disagreeing for… it needs to be also…

Ian Bowie
Oh, no, then you come up with some kind of alternative. Absolutely. Yeah. But even then, you know, because people like their own ideas.

Michael Stormbom
That they do, that they do.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, and you know, if you suddenly disagree with their own idea and and introduce your own, then, you know, often not willing to consider it because it wasn’t there’s.

Michael Stormbom
No that is true.

Ian Bowie
And this is one of the sort of ways of persuading other people, isn’t it, make them think it was their idea in the first place?

Michael Stormbom
That is true. Yeah. And that was a great idea that you just had there.

Ian Bowie
Thank you. Well, I think that’s another potential role for AI. Is, you know, the challenger.

Michael Stormbom
I think so, the AI challenge.

Ian Bowie
Absolutely. Yeah. But also, a guide, and the coach and the mentor. I think there are lots of potential roles.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. We can have Socratic AI that sort of…

Ian Bowie
Yeah, yeah. Because I mean, eventually, they’re going to become teachers aren’t my AR algorithms. If they’re not already?

Michael Stormbom
They already are to some extent. Exactly. I mean, I’d use this ChatGPT for example, I’ve been reading this book, Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan is a very old, very old book about media theory. So then just to clarify my thoughts, I just asked ChatGPT questions about the about the book… It was written in the in the 70s. Or in the 60s actually. So can those theories be applied to social media for example, an interesting way to also help clarify your own thoughts. Absolutely.

Ian Bowie
Although as we have discussed in the past, chatGPT is slightly limited, sometimes in its accuracy.

Michael Stormbom
It isn’t necessarily factually correct, but I mean, certainly, it can have an opinion and you can follow its… its reasoning, I say, it’s not reasoning in that sense. But I mean, if the reasoning is sound then, or understandable, then it can still help you clarify your thoughts.

Ian Bowie
You know, I mean, we’ve hit episode 50 of our wonderful AI unfiltered podcast did well, I’m beginning to now believe that we could actually harness the power of AI to create a wonderful future for ourselves.

Michael Stormbom
We could and I think this is something we’ve spoken about in previous episodes. Yeah. So exactly that.

Ian Bowie
An AI driven utopia.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah. And then we go to watch a Star Trekian like utopia where scarcity is a thing of the past.

Ian Bowie
Well t it would be. But I think AI would have a role to play in in trying to improve the health and the weight of the population,

Michael Stormbom
Or I mean, just generally in health. I mean, it’s not just about you know, diet, but also about exercise. So moving regularly, and diet is obviously a big component of that, but…

Ian Bowie
You know, I used to enjoy until my friend died. I used to enjoy the odd cigar because it goes… but smoking, smoking cigars is also a bit of a social thing, because it takes so long, you don’t really want to do it on your own.

Michael Stormbom
I guess it’s just a bit of a different thing compared to smoking cigarettes for example.

Ian Bowie
But of course, if I would have my AI avatar friend, I could smoke cigars with them. Yes.

Michael Stormbom
And drink a cognac.

Ian Bowie
Absolutely. Yeah. You got to have the drink. Yes. Balance. Yin and Yang. Yeah.

Michael Stormbom
How’s that for a podcast, the smoking lounge. I’m sure there is actually such a podcast already, because it’s such a… . Why not? So if there is such a podcast, you’re welcome.

Ian Bowie
Get in touch, we will hook up. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Have to check it.

Michael Stormbom
We have to check it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, but no.

Ian Bowie
A utopian, AI driven world. That’s what I’m voting for in the next election.

Michael Stormbom
Unfortunately, the syntactic party is not running in our next election.

Ian Bowie
No, yeah. No, not yet. Not yet, but it is a work in progress.

Michael Stormbom
I definitely want Lars the chatbot for President.

Ian Bowie
Yes.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, do we want to do some sort of roundup of the 50 episodes we have made and what are we looking forward to to talk about in the next 50 episodes.

Ian Bowie
In the next 50 episodes? My goodness, all kinds of funny things. Well, we’ve got AI in agriculture coming up, of course, haven’t we.

Michael Stormbom
Yes, we want to talk about AI and crime and…

Ian Bowie
Then we’ve got again, the Internet of Things and AI has a role to play in that.

Michael Stormbom
Absolutely it does. Well the metaverse we will surely come back to.

Ian Bowie
Well, yeah, of course, we need to revisit the metaverse.

Michael Stormbom
As in, what the hell happened to the metaverse?

Michael Stormbom
Well, I was gonna say, you don’t tend to hear very much about Mr. Zuckerberg these days, do you, he’s gone very quiet.

Michael Stormbom
And you know, Microsoft has quietly dropped all references to the metaverse and… that was a flash in the pan.

Ian Bowie
It was indeed.

Michael Stormbom
Here today gone tomorrow. Yeah. But I think the only lasting legacy of the metaverse is our Christmas episode.

Ian Bowie
Christmas metaverse. Honestly I still think that is a fantastic idea. Yes. This is the world that we have created for ourselves of course in the West, is that we’re always looking for… we’re like gold prospectors always looking for the next big you know, seam of gold. We’re always looking for the next big thing in technology.

Michael Stormbom
And if you stay tuned, we will tell you all about the next big thing right after these messages.

Ian Bowie
We will, because we’re clever because we’re not so heavily invested in it.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, but I mean if we if we do find a goldmine, why share it? Just sayin.

Ian Bowie
Because we we are altruistic? Yeah. And not greedy? No. Trouble is we just get taken to the cleaners wouldn’t we, because it’s somebody who isn’t and

Michael Stormbom
People with less scruples.

Ian Bowie
Oh my goodness. Yeah, that’s the trouble. And there’s plenty of them around.

Michael Stormbom
Not what I mean. It comes back to what we spoke about in the AI winter episode as well. This hype cycle.

Ian Bowie
Yeah, there’s a bit of a hiatus at the moment isn’t there, wherever they are waiting around to anything.

Michael Stormbom
It would be nice if people would take a step back. Yeah.

Ian Bowie
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, autonomous car companies have gone bankrupt.

Michael Stormbom
Yeah, no one’s talking about those anymore.

Ian Bowie
They’re talking about that crap anymore. I think these companies need to employ people like us, who give them a reality check and say well, actually, okay, fair enough, parts of this idea of good, but the rest of it’s a load of bullshit.

Michael Stormbom
I’m gonna put that on my business card. Michael Stormbom, reality checker.

Ian Bowie
Reality checker. Yeah, well, why not? Yeah, yeah.

Michael Stormbom
Then I will be replaced by an AI.

Ian Bowie
The abominable No-man.

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