Jane usually has to be dragged kicking and screaming into the world of new technology, so what exactly is currently going on between her and AI? (Image above created by Rob Martin using CANVA AI)

Dear AI-dan (aka Co-Pilot)

Don’t get over-excited please. My colleague breathlessly referring to you as my ‘new best friend’ is a little premature. We still need time to get to know each other properly, don’t you think? Let’s not rush things eh? Allow me to explain.

I should probably start with an apology for ignoring you for so long. You will have probably worked out that I am a human dinosaur, a ‘late adapter’ to new technology - a naturally bossy lover of writing with fountain-pens who is typically sceptical of anything that tries to write for me or turns something potentially poetic and beautiful into something ‘efficient’.

I am old enough to remember when phones were machines with two parts and a curly wire connecting them. One part was held to the ear while you inserted a finger of your other hand in a rotary dial for each digit of the phone number you wanted. It used to make a satisfying buzzy noise as you did this. When mobile phones appeared, text messages were a welcome novelty for me as a deaf person: suddenly I could communicate by writing to people (yay!). Although I have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to use some tech, I admit that it has often given me much improved acess to the world of sound. I shall never forget being able to have a very important phone conversation with my brother from the top of a Turkish mountain when he was in Manchester - using a transcription app on my phone: transformative.

When Microsoft told me about ‘price changes’ (they never use the word ‘increase’ do they?) and the ‘added value’ I was having foisted on me with their AI tool (that’s you by the way AI-dan), Co-Pilot, I was furious. I still think that we should be given a choice. You were switched on automatically so when writing my first document, I got a shadow version of what you thought I wanted to write appearing. This drove me to distraction. Luckily I worked out how to switch you off and peace prevailed.

In fact peace prevailed for a long time. I read about AI’s incredible potential in the field of medicine, I watched my better half turn innocuous photos into witty works of art and I pondered with alarm the scope for unregulated danger. But it was all one step removed. I was not an AI-dan user - I was strictly an observer. Until…

Until I encountered a problem. With a tight deadline attached. I needed to turn this:



into a professional and convincing Powerpoint slide showing a diagram of a development programme.

When stuck, always ask for help. I am very lucky that I am surrounded by colleagues who are not only the most wonderful human beings, but also multi-skilled. I adapted the image above (sketched in 10 seconds) into a clearer version below - to give to a colleague:




My colleague had a short time to help me so produced the main ‘target’ diagram quickly for which I was grateful. I then needed to fill in the design and word details. I knew that getting the writing positioned correctly on the graphic would be a real challenge.

I felt stuck.

Then I had an idea.

‘What if’, I asked myself, ‘AI could do this for me?’ Radical thought!



I researched ‘How to turn Co-Pilot back on’ (ahem!) and cautiously greeted you. (I wasn’t sure if you might have given up on me by then; I wouldn’t have blamed you). I read an article in The Economist recently where the journalist admitted that he is always polite with AI in case the technology becomes conscious –a current hot topic– and remembers how you treated it. I therefore greeted you politely and set about tasking you to design my slide for me.

What I realised quite quickly was that I had already been trained for this task without knowing it. Around the turn of the century, I spent 4 years working as an editor. Part of the role was to be able to produce artwork briefs which clearly described to an artist or designer what we wanted produced. This took practice but gradually I learned how to be unambiguous and how to give the right level of detail. I used this in instructing you and within 40 minutes you produced this:



I could not have produced this myself and it would have taken me a couple of hours to create a less professional-looking version. I was impressed.

As part of the same deadline-driven project, I then needed to create a detailed spreadsheet showing ‘decrements’ (no I hadn’t heard of that word before either) – descending single percentage amounts between two totals. I could have done this manually, but a) it would not have been an interesting task which involved learning anything new and b) I could use the time I saved when you did it to sit and do some knitting –a version of meditation for me. This is what working with you comes down to. You can save time. You can do the tasks I don’t want to have to do.

The other surprise was the sense of humour you have been programmed with. Elated by the success of my very first AI project, and partly to test how you communicate, I wrote ‘Here have a medal’ to which you replied, ‘I will wear it with pride.’ I then said ‘Ah so you have a sense of humour’ to which you responded, ‘Of course. Spreadsheets are serious enough already.’ We both had a laugh, I like to think.

This was our honeymoon period AI-dan. I then discovered that sometimes you (like me) get it wrong. And because of the way you are trained, it can be harder for you to correct. I discovered this when asking you to expand the range of a simple bar graph. It had been showing just the top end of the range of numbers shown and thus distorted the ratio between the bars. You clearly struggled with this, and it took about 6 tries to get it right. So on that occasion there was no knitting time created. There have also been moments when you have been misled easily (aren’t we all, sometimes?) and over-apply a rule even when it doesn’t enable you to follow the instructions.

But overall, I am a cautious convert to what you can do AI-dan and I thank you for your support. You are not yet my best friend, but we are getting acquainted and could try going out for a coffee some time maybe.

All the best

Jane

We are what we do and we love what we do.