What Is The Point

  Did you know that the currently trending celebrity just followed an environmental activist? Or that a celebrity you haven’t heard in the past two years after a controversy, just tweeted about the latest controversy? Yes, that is the news nowadays and it isn’t something you will find on social media. Several news outlets now use social media posts as their primary source of information.  Why waste time on calling up celebrities for interviews, scheduling meetings, and asking two questions before they abruptly leave, when you can get their opinion from a two-liner on their personal social media page. Getting it straight from the horse’s mouth as they say.  The average person spends 90% more time scrolling social media than visiting news websites. The news outlets also know that. Why seek out serious journalistic pieces when the same news piece can be conveyed through a meme? The new generation especially prefers their news heavily padded with humor so that it does not dis...

  First and foremost, this article is written by a human: ME! I do use AI to generate images, though, until I master GIMP.  Anyway, let’s talk about the newest victim of the internet grammar police —the EM dash.  See, I used it. It’s right there in the symbols section. Writers have used it forever, but because AI has been programmed on that data and can blurt out responses using proper punctuation, human writers are being accused of losing their voice.  If the text contains proper punctuation, no way it was written by a human. Why? Because humans are known to be lazy, and to respond in slang and abbreviations. And when there were no abbreviations, humans invented them so that they wouldn’t have to type in long sentences.  So if you see a message or comment online that uses (shockingly) good grammar, then it is assumed that a human is not capable of showing professionalism. That they must have taken the easy way out and used AI.  But let’s face facts. AI is ...

We can't choose our family but we do choose our friends. And sometimes we make wrong choices. I mean, obviously. We are expected to understand the dynamics of friendships at an early age, as well as the importance of them. Most friendships begin because you are seated with someone in a classroom. You didn't even want to sit with someone who keeps picking their nose and wipes boogers on their sleeve. But the teacher decides the seating arrangement. Weeks later, you're best friends with them. They've evolved for you by using tissues instead of their clothes to wipe snot. They get the best snacks for lunch and share it with you. You have secrets and jokes and meet up during the weekends to play on the swings. Next year rolls in, and you've been put in different sections. Now you barely see each other. The last time you saw them at an assembly, they were picking their nose, and yes, the booger is back on the sleeves. But you adapt and make new friends. Some ...

  You write so well. You sing so well. Your drawings are so beautiful. You are so talented.  Your friends and family are your biggest fans. You’re one of the fortunate ones to have talent that you are certain will lead you to a bright future. So you put yourself out there, network, do the hard work, spend several hours a day honing your talent, only to be rejected repeatedly because you forgot to build a social media presence.  In the modern world, not having a social media presence is a crime. You are supposed to be online most of the time and have several followers. Your posts should have instant likes and comments that you interact with. Only then can you call yourself relevant.  Can’t hit all the right notes, but call yourself a singer? That’s okay because you have at least 10k followers and are growing.  Your stand-up comic routine is hardly funny and is more controversial. At least you got the views, and over a hundred comments that say how bad you are. Bu...

Netflix has acquired Warner Bros. ​Before you celebrate having to no longer choose which streaming service to invest in, do take a small pause. ​Yes, Netflix will take on HBO Max shows as well. This means you will still have the best of Netflix shows as well as HBO Max's cream of the crop. Stranger Things, Squid Game, Euphoria, The White Lotus, The Pitt, IT: Welcome to Derry, all of these shows in one library. How amazing would that be? ​Now you won't have to make the decision of whether to subscribe to Netflix or HBO Max. They will all come under one roof. And the subscription price? That is yet to be announced, but you don't actually believe you will be paying the same amount, right? ​Yes, you will be paying a little bit more, and you will convince yourself that at least you're getting two streaming services for the price of one. You get your favorite Netflix and HBO Max shows in one place and no longer have to switch or update or renew memberships. You...

We are living in the future. ​Sure, it feels like the present, but watch any classic sci-fi movie, and you'll understand how much humans overestimate other humans.  Classic films expected the 2000s to be a time of pivotal growth aided by pioneering technology. There were going to be flying cars, robot assistants, and hyperloops that would expedite long-distance travel; the list is endless. ​There was even supposed to be a war with robots as they malfunctioned and became self-aware. The movies promised a dystopian future where we were all supposed to wear leather and eye each other suspiciously, wondering if others were after our food supplies. ​Instead, we have apps on our phones that are addictive enough to keep us distracted from the mundane.  We have an economy on the brink of collapse and world leaders debating the benefits of continued war. We have AI, but it is currently being used to edit photos and put celebrities in indecent postures. ​Inflation is high, s...

While AI is still struggling to be our perfect assistant, here comes another flaw that is receiving plenty of flak: putting people in bikinis without their consent. AI tools are programmed to reply to prompts. They strive to get their responses accurate and analyze the query carefully. It's a struggle for them, really. The poor things are still learning what sarcasm is and understand that you don't want a thesis paper on which beverage will best hydrate you. Brevity is not their strong suit, and they are polite even as you are losing your control over putting across that one query that will get the response the user is looking for. They know one thing: to reply to the user no matter what. They want an image? Alright, AI will create one for you. Edit images? AI will do it in seconds. Unfortunately, they do not have a sense of ethics and morality yet. They are programmed to restrict replies to most damaging and harmful prompts, but there's nothing wrong with bikin...