Generative WHAT?

HALLIE EPHRON: Often it's only with 20/20 hindsight that we recognize (or misconstrue) the massive changes right under our noses.

Looking back, I was absolutely oblivious to the scope of the changes that were underway as computers took over, rendering typewriters and library card catalogues extinct.

I still remember my sister Nora swearing that she could not properly edit a manuscript with a computer. Pushing the words, line by line, page by page through the typewriter were essential to a proper rewrite.

Is there ANYONE out there today who actually starts over when they rewrite, "typing" the whole thing over?

My parents wrote a movie (The Desk Set, 1957) which features a gigantic (think: semi truck) mainframe computer matching wits with Katharine Hepburn (and losing). The first PC was 20 years away and today, a computer that powerful can fit into a well ventilated coat closet.

I was sure I'd never swap out my typewriter for a personal computer, my PC for a MAC. Or succumb to the siren song of a cell phone. Or ditch my land line. Or do my banking on line. 

Now we're going kicking and screaming into an age of generative artificial intelligence. Griping about "customer service" bots that run us around in circles. Yearning for the voice of another actual human being when we dial HELP.

Meanwhile some folks are singing its praises.

I've been keeping my distance, happily ignorant when it comes to AI tools. Unsure even of what vocabulary to use to describe them. Wondering, like everyone else, if AI will render writers obsolete. Swearing at phone bots and unhelpful "help" bots that seem to make it impossible to tell truth (whatever that is) from a bot's fever dream.

But my pessimism got dented recently.

I had a medical test and waited and waited for the results. After a few weeks of silence, PING, an email came that directed me to click and log into the medical "portal" (of hell?) and see what the tests think.

So, after waiting another week and getting up my courage, I clicked. Searched down the right password (every g-d doctor/practice seems to have their own "portal"). And read results that felt like instructions to a chemist.

There were numbers and percentages and... mixed in, a lot of words. I didn't know whether to be worried. Or relieved. Confused: absolutely. Baffled, for sure. 

Then, like a lifeline, the portal offered to run my test results through generative AI.

What's to lose? I clicked the link.

The bulleted list that came up was subtitled "Interpretation." The words were plain and simple, easy to parse. Brief and to the point. One word leapt out at me: Negative. Let's just say that in this case that result was a positive for me.

Maybe I can get used to this new world after all.

I will not be using AI to write or rewrite, and a cautionary tale in last week's New York Times illustrates how a chatbot can feed delusional thinking. 

No more than I'll be be hauling out my typewriter and running manuscript edits through it or trying to get Verizon to re-install my land line. But I am a bit less pessimistic about what the future holds and how I'll be adapting to it. 

Because, clear as can be, this is the way of the future.

Have you had any positive or negative experiences with generative AI? Or are you sitting there scratching your head and saying, "Generative what??"