Chilling at the Cottage with AI on my mind

Purple Martin Update: We’ve got babies~!

“Let’s stay another day,” I suggested.

We keep extending our stay at the Cottage. The weather has finally turned warm and the cold northeast wind has finally eased off. The Catalpa trees (above pic) are in bloom, a sure sign that summer is here. Or at least late spring!

We’ve been keeping busy with gardening, birds, long afternoon reading sessions, and evening boat rides; a slower pace in which every day seems a gift.

No one has seemed happier about the warmer weather than the Purple Martins. We did a nest check yesterday. That basically involves me climbing a ladder at the end of our pier, peeking into each of the eight nesting gourds, and calling out the findings to the BW, who is safely ensconced on the pontoon boat.

Here’s the official chart:

I managed to take a few pictures to show you the progress.

Nest #1 is truly #1 this year, with at least four feathered babies. How many can you make out?

There are three yellow bills showing, but I think there is also a fourth feathered friend somewhere in that pile.

Five nests just had eggs:

Nests 2, 3 and 5 haven’t hatched yet.

But two more had babies that are just now hatching.

Newly hatched babies

In the right photo above you can see one egg has almost rolled out the nest. I decided to let it alone for now. Not sure if the parents have pushed it there.

The eggs in nests 5 and 8 should have hatched by now. It’s been 25 days and martin eggs hatch in 15-18. So I think they may have restarted the nest after the cold rainy weeks we had in early June. We will see~!

Now the weather is nice, the bugs are flying and the martins are busy.

“We’re getting the cottage aired out good,” I remarked, as we pulled away from the pier in the old pontoon boat.

Whoops. You can’t use “good” as an adverb, right? Just ask Mrs. Terry, our 7th grade English teacher.

But it sounds so folksy, with a touch of reality.

“The Cottage is airing out nicely,” on the other hand, has an air of elitism to my Midwestern ear, although it is no doubt a better adverbial choice.

And the Midwestern version makes the passive tense just a bit more active: “Are getting.”

I decided to see if the internet could diagram this sentence.

Sure enough! I had to type in the subject to get a good screen shot.

Artificial Intelligence is here for sure.

Have you ever heard of Semantic Pen? It’s AI.

Here’s a screen shot from the home page:

I wonder how much of what we read is really written by AI?

I never have used it, and never will, unless I tell you up front, but no doubt the world is changing quickly.

It’s sad to think that AI may eliminate the need for students to learn how to write. But what student wouldn‘t be tempted to use AI to generate a winning term paper? Or at least improve the term paper he or she had written?

Especially when “Everybody is doing it.”

And once employed at some big corporation or law firm who wouldn’t want to leverage the technology to improve productivity and billing rates? Indeed I can see some corporate clients insisting that AI be used, at least as a proof reading tool.

Once we are “freed” from the tyranny of writing, we can focus our talents on … what? What will happen to our brains when we no longer are required to formulate sentences in a grammatically coherent manner?

The amount of information, and the AI tools available on the internet is mind-blowing!

There are AI detection tools being used to detect plagiarism and the use of AI. Whole books are being written about how to avoid detection of your AI generated work!

I am sure there are big productivity benefits from AI. If you were a client of a law firm involved in a big case, would you want your lawyers to use AI? What if both sides of the case, Plaintiffs and Defendants, used AI to write their briefs on a subject?

Could the judge then use AI to decide the merits of the case? Should the attorneys disclose their use of AI? Should, or could, the judge run the briefs through an AI detection tool?

I found this web site: ContractSafe.com. They will sell you software that will perform:

• Contract management

• Contract review and analytics

• Legal research and analysis

• E-discovery processes

• Risk management

• Client intake and management

• Drafting documents

No doubt the big guys (mega law firms) are leveraging this technology. But it also seems that AI might help level the playing field a bit for the small law firm that can figure out the game.

On the one hand, I am glad that I’m retired and don’t have to learn all this new stuff. On the other hand, it does seem like there is tremendous potential here for both contracts and litigation.

Perhaps someday the main job of judges will be to monitor the integrity of the computer program that is tasked with evaluating the motions and briefs of each side then make the decision.

Or why not task AI with writing legislation to address societal problems?

Those of us who do not use AI will soon be anachronisms.

But then, perhaps folks will use AI to do their reading for them as well:

“Siri, go through my email and see if there’s anything in there worth reading.”

The Orwellian future seems closer than ever.

Time to make breakfast, then back to my job of the day: organize the garage.

I don’t think AI will ever be able to organize the garage, or take boat rides.

Thanks for traveling along~!