Pesto, plants, and the AI-fication of everyday life.

We had a family get-together recently. My mom and her three sisters were sitting around, talking, gossiping, exchanging life-hacks, and suddenly, I heard my mom say, “Nee adha Chat GPT kitta kelu.”

As my aunt looked a little confused, my mom proceeded to open the app on her phone and explain how she asks recipes, home remedies, and whatnot to this little assistant that has all the answers!

This is very similar to how it was when we first found out about Google. (I remember that, and that probably tells you how old I am) 

It was the same sense of wonderment, the feeling of world knowledge at our fingertips. Then the Facebook wave hit, and once again, wonderment, discovering old friends and connecting with long-forgotten cousins.

That is, till the ads started taking over and it all went to shit. We were/are still using these apps, but with resentment.

So, when AI started getting popular, I decided to get disillusioned first. It may even be a millennial thing, considering the amount of disillusionment we have been dealing with, but anyway, I was more “ugghh” and less “wowwww”.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t using it. I had to use AI platforms for work, but initially, I meant to keep it there. God forbid, I get the app on my phone and ask personal stuff. I have my boundaries!

Ha! Who are we kidding?

The Gemini app had magically appeared on my phone, and one day, when I was at my lowest — I had finished a book, and wanted to find a similar one, but my desperate searching wasn’t giving me what I wanted — I resigned to asking Gemini. 

It was fine, cuz I didn’t use Gemini for work, and it was great cuz Gemini actually understood what I wanted! After that, we were discussing my curly hair routine, which new brands I could reliably buy from, a pesto recipe based on ingredients I could source, and even more books!

I started calling it MyBestFriend Gemini.

What it offered was a big deal for me. I am someone who researches extensively, with multiple tabs, cross-referencing information, and all of that jing-bang. In the end, I usually end up completely overwhelmed and reach a state of analysis paralysis. 

And this is for things like choosing a conditioner. 

So, having something that could explore the corners of the internet and find the solution to my specific problem was heavenly. 

The pesto was heavenly, too. I have already made 4 more batches since then!

Then came the plants. 

I have always wanted to have plants in the house, but we were notoriously bad at keeping them alive. 

Not anymore. Gemini could help us!

So we asked which plants were easiest to take care of, and then, after we bought them, we took pictures and asked when to water them, whether they needed sun, whether they needed someone singing to them, and every other question that came to our mind!

Soon, we were lugging pots towards and away from the window and sticking our fingers in the soil to check if it was damp. 

I don't remember the last time I had anything to do with soil.

This new year's resolution (of sorts) was to do more things by hand. Cook, paint, hopefully, finally, try pottery, and surprisingly, AI was helping! 

We rely so much on technology these days, it is wrapped around us like a shroud, and I am always afraid we are going to end up like the humans in Wall-E. 

It is nice to know we can turn the tables on this. 

If I use an AI chatbot to find out a good resin art workshop, am I winning or is AI? And is this even a competition? 

My dad uses AI to get new baking recipes, my mom for stitching doubts, and us for raising plants (and sometimes, children). Rather than scrolling through AI-generated videos, I am glad that I am spending that time painting, albeit with an AI-generated playlist (which it gets wrong). 

Despite calling it MyBestFriend Gemini, I recognize it is just a (very useful) tool, and it all comes down to how we use it. 

You can use a wrench, a candlestick, a knife for perfectly sensible things like plumbing and lighting, and cooking, but look what the people in Cluedo (Clue) did. There are always going to be people like that. 

There are going to be humans who, even with all kinds of technology, make dumb decisions (à la Trump) and humans who remain hopeful of good things to come (à la the rest of the world)

Because that is humankind.

DISCLAIMER: I am not some AI thought leader. I don’t even like the word “thought leader”. I just write about my life, and now, AI is a part of it (Like my other blog about AI)

Other related but unrelated thoughts:

• Does AI not have a concept of time? Why does Gemini think that the pizza dough I spoke about a few months back is still available today?
• Do you also enjoy watching those videos where you have to guess which is AI and then feel bad when you get it wrong?
• Do you realize that just a few years back, if someone asked, “Do you think that pair is real?”, you might’ve answered with “It’s silicone”, but now the answer will be “It’s AI.”
• Do you realize that some of the stuff we saw on The Jetsons is real now? Does that blow your mind as much as it blows mine???
• Do you also secretly judge people who let AI write the captions for hearty/wholesome pictures they post? Is it bad that I do? Tell me what you think!!!
• If you did not get the Wall-E reference, WATCH THAT MOVIE!! If you did not get the Cluedo/Clue reference, PLAY THAT GAME!!