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Category: Technology & Innovation

Welcome to the Era of Co-Writing … With Artificial Intelligence

by Rohit Bhargava

Right now people are alternately blowing their own minds with the capabilities of ChatGPT and criticizing it’s current limitations. Whether you consider it dangerous or useful, the most likely use case for generative AI right now is as an automated tool to write faster (and perhaps better). 

Consider the fact that Microsoft is already experimenting with adding ChatGPT functionality to Word, Excel and Powerpoint. It is also inspiring artistic explorations, such as the vintage AI-enabled typewriter built by self-described creative technologist Arvind Sanjeev. It’s no wonder this is already being described as the “Year of AI.”

As the experimentation continues, we will see even more applications of this “co-writing” as writers and creators find more novel ways to use the technology. It won’t take long for classes to emerge on how to effectively write alongside AI. In the process, the discussion online about generative AI will no longer be focused on dissecting the content it creates in order to spot its flaws. Instead, the tool will quickly become a seamless part of how any of us create the written word … becoming as ubiquitous as spell check.

CES 2023: The 25 Non-Obvious Inventions, Technologies and Ideas To Watch

by Rohit Bhargava

Welcome to the future. Or rather, the future normal. That’s what I expect to unfold today from the Consumer Electronics Show here is Las Vegas. CES 2023 is back with full global participation and much of the usual innovation we have all come to expect from the show. Thinner screens (and foldable now too!), lighter laptops, more connected devices for the home, AI-enabled everything, VR headsets and lots of automation in automobiles. Reporting from the trade show floor all week, here are some of my early picks for the most non-obvious inventions to watch and why they are so interesting.

1. CRDL Therapeutic Instrument

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Sometimes the most interesting inventions defy description and are rife with contradictions. The CRDL was the perfect example … a device that is a therapeutic tool, magical instrument and art piece all in one. It was easily one of the most beautifully designed products at CES this year, and won an innovation award too. The mission of the product is also magical, as it uses tones and human-centered design to enable more meaningful connections between people with physical or cognitive impairments such as dementia, autism, mental disabilities or visual impairments by translating touch into sound. “Different types of touch will trigger different sounds that enhance the emotional experience, enabling people to connect naturally and spontaneously.” The only thing that is a miss with this product is the terrible name. Obviously, “CRDL” is supposed to stand for “cradle,” but it looks like “curdle” or like the keyboard (Read more...)

The Most Popular Non-Obvious Stories of 2022 (Based On Reader Feedback)

by Rohit Bhargava

Every week for the past year, I’ve curated the most fascinating stories every week in my weekly email Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter. This year the newsletter was honored in the prestigious Webby awards too. It’s always interesting for me which stories seem to resonate most with readers based on how many email responses I get, how frequently a story is shared on social media and how frequently the link to the full story is clicked. Based on this combination of quantitative and qualitative data, here is a partial list of some of the most popular stories of the year, based on what my readers shared (scroll down to read the full stories):

  1. The Surprising Forgotten Medieval Habit of “Two Sleeps”
  2. Does Science Need To Be Dumbed-Down To Make It Meaningful?
  3. Why Humans Learned To Laugh (and Naming the Uranus Mission)
  4. The Predictable Failure of Unlimited Vacation Policy
  5. The Backstory of the Bookshelf That Converts Into a Coffin
  6. Is It Ever Possible to Avoid Buying More Stuff For Your Stuff?
  7. The Science Is In. Wearing Your Shoes In the House Is Disgusting.
  8. Oslo’s Secret Future Library Holds Books To Be Published In 100 Years
  9. Why Do So Many Media Personalities Use Our Hate As A Popularity Test?
  10. Why I Just Became A Noble Citizen of the Micronation of Ladonia

Note – Some of the most popular links are to stories that have photo collections such as the winners for the World Press Photo collection to TIME magazine’s best photos of the year (Read more...)

The Danger of Falling In Love With a “Petbot”

by Rohit Bhargava

Loona is a small household robot with a personality designed to keep you company. There is more than a month left in her Kickstarter campaign, but the project has already raised close to $1.5M. The cleverest thing about the marketing for this so-called “petbot,” though, is how it can interact with your living pets. Loona isn’t meant to be a pet replacement.

Instead, it could become your pet’s best friend—while also offering a way for you to check in on your pet (via cameras) while you aren’t around. More significantly, Loona is the type of robot that will introduce all kinds of new dynamics into how we interact with technology. While we might feel no remorse at telling a tiny Amazon Echo hockey puck to “shut up,” most of us would feel differently about interacting with an exceedingly cute robot that exhibits joy, sorrow, anger or pleasure. 

I just hope Loona’s makers (and her buyers) learn from the tragic tale of Jibo, a beloved robot friend whose untimely obsolescence led to more than a few broken hearts. When you give your heart to technology, it’s best to be prepared for the reality that just because it could last forever doesn’t mean it will. Loona, like Jibo, might just be setting people up for a futuristic, but still devastating, heartbreak.

Why I Will Never Buy a Macbook

by Rohit Bhargava

I am a writer, so my keyboard is pretty important to me. It’s the reason why my computer of choice for the past two decades has consistently been a Lenovo Thinkpad. They have the best keyboards.

Clive Thompson is a journalist I have admired and read often – but his sadistic laptop choices baffled me. He recently estimated that he typed “22 million keystrokes on Apple’s horrid butterfly keyboard.” Yet he describes how he stuck with using a Macbook for years despite it’s painful user experience. This strikes me as a perfect example of our dysfunctional relationship with expensive things. Pricey shoes, cars, furniture, food and much more are often terribly uncomfortable to use or consume … but we buy them anyway and invite the suffering.

It’s time to stop doing that. Embrace the comfortable clothes you got used to when working from home. If you have the budget, upgrade your laptop and donate your old one to someone who can’t afford to do the same. And at the very least, upgrade your keyboard. Life’s too short to wear uncomfortable shoes and use a crap keyboard. Especially if you spend a lot of time writing … or any time walking.

How To Archive Yourself In the Digital Age

by Rohit Bhargava

“I thought self-archiving could lead to self-actualization. I filled as many spaces as I could with information, whether it was on my blog, in Facebook albums, on Twitter, or on any of the many social media platforms I’ve used through the years. It was like collecting data on myself. But I also had an overall fear of letting go, of impermanence. I was so scared of forgetting pieces of myself—even pieces I longed to discard, like bad relationships and bad friendships and, I guess, other people in general. They discarded me more easily than I discarded them.”

I have the luxury to remember myself cooler than I actually was in school. As I have sometimes shared on stage, there are no social media posts from the ’90s to contradict how I think of my younger self from 25 years ago. The digital archives we are now creating for ourselves can be a gift, but also can weigh us down. Writer Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya explores this idea in an essay this week that suggests perhaps the path to self awareness requires deleting the past … a conclusion she reaches after much soul searching:

“Easing up on my self-archiving felt like building new trust with myself, giving myself permission to change and grow. I used to believe saving everything was the only way to find out what I really wanted, who I wanted to be. But when I delete things, I just make space for something new.”

It’s not easy to admit, (Read more...)