Is Artificial Intelligence Behind Our
Unexplained Digital Encounters?

A friend of mine was talking to a young Hispanic salesclerk who started speaking to him in Spanish. My friend apologized and said he didn't speak the language. In short order he started getting commercials for Spanish language lessons on his phone and home computer. He had never given the clerk any information let alone his phone number. But he was carrying the phone when he spoke to her. I mentioned this to another friend who is a Bell Labs retiree. He said that it is entirely plausible that the conversation was picked up and recorded by the phone company data base.

No doubt in my mind, as it happened to me several times. Yet people voluntarily buy those smart speakers that answer commands and questions. When I told my sister-in-law that it's always listening, she said "No, only when you say Alexa... do something" You just can't reach some people. Don't forget, that selfie camera is always facing you when you use your phone. I tore off a small piece of my foil hat and stuck it over the camera to be sure it didn't see me.

AI is so sophisticated it'll become a politician or government bureaucrat. It'll make up stuff then lie about it.

Your smart phone listens. The person who wrote the story likely made a comment at the booth and the phone collected that statement. This has happened to me at least twice in the last 3 years and each time the bizarre off-shoot advertisement was for something that I had SPOKEN while in earshot of my phone.

Artificial Idiocy. You can't make this stuff up!

My first thoughts on this were similar to #4; but the author made a point that she had left her phone in the car and hadn't said a word about owls. Odds are that the phone's GPS noted she had gone stationary, searched nearby locations, and found something there for the bazaar (and that had keywords for items being featured at the bazaar). Not a huge amount of "smarts" required for that kind of "unexplained digital encounter"...

I remember reading a book about a futuristic Earth. Nearly 100% of the planet was under surveillance. If the police were searching for someone, they usually found them within 20 minutes. They could see inside houses, and see what people were doing. People allowed it. Many people literally had internet connections implanted in their brains. Much of the intrusion came in the form of ads. They followed a person everywhere. Wanted privacy? One had to turn off all smart appliances which was impossible since they were everywhere, and the individual didn't own them. People that knew how to hide from the surveillance net were much sought after. People wanted to know how they did it. They also wanted to know where there were holes in the surveillance net. My current laptop currently runs Windows 10 which goes out of service this October. I get notifications, but my setup will not upgrade to Windows 11. In the last month, my computer has had an increase in glitches. I almost wonder if this is intentional. It's not just Microsoft. Are they trying to push me into purchasing a new computer. I always remember a saying I heard at my former workplace, 'The purpose of software, any software, is to sell hardware'. I suspect it is true.

Elon Musk is worried about AI and is delving in to keep it from taking over humans.