Welcome to Born Analog//Living AI

Welcome to a brand new newsletter covering the world that is Artificial Intelligence and how it can make a positive impact on your life. If you’ve been awake at all in 2023, it will not have escaped your notice that terms like AI and ChatGPT have morphed into the everyday lexicon. If you’ve used any of the AI tools - and there are now hundreds - then you will, if you are of a certain vintage at least, have been completely blown away. I reference vintage, because this newsletter will come from a certain, shall we say kindly, experienced perspective.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me (though it absolutely shouldn’t) is how every new technology is usurped by the 20 somethings. Experience and perspective count. It might not make you fearless (like you used to be in your 20’s!) but it does, if you are prepared to be open, curious and engaged, allow you to keep up with - and maybe even pass - the youngsters. That is the objective of this weekly musing - to educate, reflect and entertain if at all possible!

Born Analog//Living AI

I was born analog, which means that I am older than I would like to be but very happy for the perspective this affords. The great technological changes of my lifetime have been truly staggering and unprecedented. I was born as a child of the 1960’s just after Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors on a microchip would double roughly every two years for roughly the same cost. Moores Law, as it became known, and it’s continued progression throughout my life, is the reason we have the compute power that enables AI technology to be where it is today. What is incredibly exciting is that if this law continues to hold out (with the new coupled chipsets then this is all but assured) then think where we’ll be in a year, let alone five.

I had just left High School when Microsoft launched windows and made computing accessible to everybody, though I didn’t build my first computer until a decade later. I got my first mobile phone a few years later even though it was unuseable in 90% of the places I frequented. I did know however, without any doubt, that it would get better. I started an internet based business in my late 20’s (sounds familiar?) and exited in my late 30’s. During that time there was widescale adoption of email and I remember having to be invited to get a gmail email address! Social media created a societal shift in my early 40’s along with a new form of communication called tweets of all things. Along the way, things got better, faster and cheaper, just as Moore predicted all these years ago. And to think all of this was just laying the foundation for the age of AI that is now upon us whether we like it or not. Rather than sit on the sidelines and watch the kids shape our world, this technology needs to be for everybody, even (maybe even especially) for those born analog.

What can you expect from this publication?

Firstly, this is a weekly newsletter. It will hit your inbox on a Thursday and will take hopefully no more than five minutes of your time to read, though there will be links if you want to look deeper. It will follow a consistent pattern with the following sections:

• News: it’s a newsletter after all! We will summarize 3 -5 of the most interesting stories of the last seven days and provide sourcce links for you to follow up if you wish.

• Just One Thing: this will be a deeper dive into one thing that has caught our eye in the past week. It could be a blog post, a video, a product or a news story that is worth delving deeper into

• Remember When: a look at some of the products, gadgets and technologies that have shaped our lives and how they have developed to the current day. Lots of stories and pictures!

• Practical Prompts: all of the AI tools we use require that we prompt them with words or images to do anything useful. This section will give example practical prompts and outcomes to help you in your daily life. I’ll also introduce you to the world of AI personnas, experts that we can create and use in any area of your life. This will blow your mind!

There is so much going on in this world, and changing at a blistering speed, that this weekly review will hopefully keep you abreast of all that matters and introduce you to new practical things that will improve your life, facinate you and give you a companion on what is likely to be the most disruptive technological advance of our lifetimes - no matter how old you are, this is for you.

If you enjoy this as it hits your inbox every Thursday, please consider sharing with your friends and family. Thank you for reading this introductory issue and I look forward to introducing you to an AI Chef called Gordon next week!