A.J. Jacobs has carved out an interesting writing career by immersing himself into different scenarios and then writing about it in entertaining and enlightening ways. It’s not a new genre but one I find interesting. Joanna Stern and her new book — I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything — is in the same vein, and that is not a knock on Stern, a talented technology writer who literally spent the year actively searching out AI to use.
Stern’s approach makes sense in the world we are living in, where AI seems to be everywhere and inevitable. She maps out how she invites AI into her family life — from apps to robots — and casts a critical eye on issues of privacy and transformation of work and play from the infusion of technology. She also writes with humor and compassion, and allows her position as a mother to be forefront in her final analysis of the potential of this technology. She brings robots into her household, uses AI as her therapist and romantic companion (with permission from her husband), and uses the technology to organize her notes and thoughts, allowing it to access her files and record her voice. She goes all out with AI.
And she emerges both impressed and skeptical, and at times, worries. Aren’t we all?
Stern wisely notes that while she, as an adult in these times, has agency to choose whether AI is in her life, her own children and others growing up today might not have those same options. Given the many questions – around privacy, and security, and the unknown — she wonders how young people will navigate the world through inquiry and curiosity, if the answers are just a query away.
Same.
Peace (and wonder),
Kevin