62 - Love AI? From Knight Rider to Personal AI: Why the Future Feels Like Star Trek

[00:00:01] Welcome to the Digital Rapport Podcast. How are you doing? On today's episode I just wanted to share some thoughts with you around the whole kind of idea of what's happening with AI. I remember when I was younger we used to be so engrossed in watching Knight Rider. As a young lad, I think it was everybody, every young lad's dream to have this kind of futuristic car talking to your watch, calling it over and it talks to you and it's like this

[00:00:31] advanced AI thing. And back then we knew that those things don't exist, mechanical and whatnot, but the whole kind of imagination of that was a fascinating thing to so many of us. I remember playing around in the garden pretending to have this Knight Rider kit, calling it on the Casio watches at the time and playing around with your friends, your cousins and just having a great time in this imaginary world.

[00:01:01] And then later on in life, seeing things like Star Trek, you know where you got humans going out into the galaxy and having conversations with different species and you got this universe of translators that can run some core sounds into the platform and the system and then the AI or the onboard computer would change that into a language that you can understand.

[00:01:24] And anytime the captain had a computer, analyze this and what would happen and this thing would come back to you and tell you the answers. And I remember sitting there thinking, wow, isn't that amazing? Imagine having this smart computer that can do something like that for you. And looking at all of that, I'm thinking that future is here. You know, those things that I used to dream about as a youngster, they're here.

[00:01:52] The chances are that all those youngsters at the time that had those kind of dreams about Knight Rider, Star Trek and all these kind of things are probably the guys and girls out there creating the technology that we're now interacting with. I know there's this kind of fear that it's going to take over all the jobs and all this kind of thing. And there is that side of it. There is that danger.

[00:02:14] But I also feel that if you can actually utilize that technology to actually create that digital rapport with man and machine kind of thing, you know, and or human and machine. Right. And basically use that platform, use the AI to enhance what you do. And it can be used to enhance humanity. And that's the kind of world I'm looking forward to. That's the optimism I have for the whole AI space.

[00:02:41] Literally last week, I had an idea of creating some sort of software that does event management, for example. It's something I wanted to do ages ago and obviously didn't have the resources or the connections to get coded to do it for me. But now, oh my goodness, like the AI can be used to do that for me. It can be used to code up things. And it's so advanced and sophisticated that I can literally be copy pasting things. And this is a problem running into this is what's going on.

[00:03:09] How do I resolve it? And it tells you what to do step by step. And it's just amazing. My mind is just blown thinking if this is possible, what else is possible? And the other thing that comes out of it is the thought that people who are good at their core skill, the musician, the web designers or anything that you got skill with. If you learn to use the AI, you can enhance what you do so much.

[00:03:37] I'll give you an example. Obviously, I like music, but I'm not musically trained. I did try to go into it, but it wasn't the case. I have a musician in the family. My cousin's amazing at what he does. So I've learned little things, little structures and little understandings about music and what it is and how that can work. With just that little bit of knowledge, I've created AI songs, for example, and they're really good. Like some of this stuff is so amazing. But I'm thinking like if I knew music.

[00:04:06] Like the way my cousin does, for example, and I utilized the AI in the machine to do music production. Oh, my goodness. What couldn't I produce and create with that? So that's how I'm looking at it. Thinking that if you if you go, if you're good at something, use the AI to make you even better. Right. Because that's the way to go forward.

[00:04:27] I can imagine one of the things I see is people talk about data centers and they have to create the technology to be able to process the power of AI and things like that. But I like what Apple's doing. I like the fact that they're making these devices that are so powerful, that they're so amazing that you can run AI on those platforms.

[00:04:50] You might have seen Mac mini cells go through the roof quite recently because people have been installing genetic stuff on them to be able to process and get the AI to do things. Now, imagine that. Imagine an ecosystem where it's contained. The AI is yours. It learns things about you. It's contained. It's controlled in that environment.

[00:05:12] So it's like your IP and the kind of thinking behind it that whoever is on board with companies like Apple, for example, are trusted enough to make sure that it's yours. And they're not selling the data or anything like that, which is something they're working on where, you know, you'll have the ability and choice to actually share what you want to share with the world. And anything you do share, you get paid for it kind of thing. Like that's the kind of things that we're seeing. But having a device that's so powerful that you can have your own AI running on it.

[00:05:42] Imagine that. Imagine what's possible, you know, to have this companion kind of artificial intelligence that only enhances what you do. So you're still navigating the world. You're still doing whatever, but it's utilized to basically make your life better. Imagine that world. Imagine that kind of Star Trek world you're living in. And the technology is being utilized to explore new worlds. Conversations, universal translator.

[00:06:10] I can't wait for the universal translator to come out like that, which you can wear it on your back. If you have a badge, for example, put it on your shirt and you're walking around, go to Japan and start speaking in English. And it's done a real time conversion into Japanese. Imagine what that's going to do when you have the conversation with people, because one of the biggest barriers is communication. When you're able to talk the language, it opens up a whole new kind of connection and deeper rapport with people. So imagine using the technology to be able to do that in real time.

[00:06:38] How fun is that going to be when you're able to have conversations like that? The universal translator just go pretty much anyway. You speak the language, you know, but what you're hearing and replaying back and stuff is just a deeper connection. There's so much possibility and what's possible with what's coming. With anything, you're always going to have two sides of the coin. This is what the yin yang represents. If you look at a yin yang, you've got kind of like a dark side and a light side.

[00:07:05] But when you look within it, you've got dark within the light and you've got light within the dark. So that emphasizes that on whatever level we're going to have the good and the bad. They're always going to be together. The positive and negative are always going to be together. Utilizing, moving forward. So yes, on one side, we're going to have this kind of dark side of what's happening with AI. We're seeing lots of things around that. People becoming aware of it. Misinformation, deep fakes, using stuff without your permission, all that kind of stuff.

[00:07:35] But on the flip side, there's advancements in health tech. There's advancements in the way we connect with people. People who haven't been able to speak are getting devices connected that allow them to communicate with other people. I mean, what's possible? It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And I think if we focus on that optimistic side of things, it can be quite bright.

[00:08:00] But I'm just sharing because there is a lot of stuff out there with a lot of negativity around what's going on. And people are afraid of AI. I don't know what it's going to do, right? It could be good or bad in that kind of sense. But imagine that. Imagine all of that stuff that you saw as a child and you were so drawn to it. That futuristic world where these kind of things are possible. It's possible, man. It's possible.

[00:08:25] I'm kind of optimistic and hopeful that the people who are running these companies, technology, that they are doing it for the betterment of humanity. That's an ideal situation and scenario because if we help each other, we will be able to get into the starships and travel to worlds beyond worlds and connect with who knows what's out there, right? That feels endless.

[00:08:53] And that is something to look forward to, I feel. So, yeah, I just wanted you to share my thoughts around this and share the level of excitement that's possible there. And understand that there is a darker side to all of this as well. And I think as human beings, we have to take some sort of social responsibility in what we do and how we utilize what we put out there. If your intentions are coming from a good place, then you can only do good things for other people, right? If your intentions are not good, then unfortunately that's what's going to come across.

[00:09:22] So do your best. I think utilize it. The technology is here. It's not going to go away. Regulations will get tighter. And as a human, you know, we've got this new toy and we're just playing with that at the moment. Some do good, some bad. Some take the benefit of it. Some are not even utilizing it. It's just, it's a bit of madness to some degree as well. But at the same time, play with it. Go forward. Look at it like, how can I use this to make what I do better?

[00:09:49] And that will probably serve you a lot better than worrying about what's the downsides of it. Because whatever you focus on, you create more of. So if you're looking at solution-based kind of thinking, you're probably going to be able to process and do those things in a much better space. So yeah, just wanted to share that and say I can't wait until that is no longer Siri, but it's something I created.

[00:10:16] Or, you know, my own version of my own personal AI that helps and assists everything I do. That's kind of exciting. It's kind of exciting. So yeah, on that note, signing out on this quick and brief. Well, it's not quick, but signing out on this podcast. And looking forward to chatting to you on the next one. So thank you very much. Bye.