Oskar Howell: Tech Commentator on the increasing prevalence of AI

AI is in everything - and it's giving us a lot of stuff we don't need. 

Personally, I am sick to death of AI in everything, from phones and computers to TVs and fridges now.  

The problem isn't the helpful AI that you can choose to use like ChatGPT and Midjourney, it's the annoying ones that they're installing without asking on our technology, like Copilot on Microsoft, Gemini on Google, Meta AI on Facebook, Grok on Twitter, etc   

They're unavoidable and inconvenient and they're almost never fit for purpose. You can't actually rely on them to provide accurate info or do what you want them to. You can't delete Gemini from your Android smartphone so it's taking up space for nothing. I have a particular gripe about Facebook Meta AI, where the button is inconveniently positioned right next to the search button.  

Everyone wants to be on the cutting edge of tech and position themselves as thought leaders, and that means forcing AI into consumer technology that no one's asking for.  I don't think it reflects how normal tech consumers think or act - we don't want to automate our lives, we just want things to make sense, be as they were when we left them, and if you're launching new features, let us choose when and where we want to use them.  

We're in a tricky phase of AI adoption, where extensive and expensive investment has been made into the development of AI tools. Many big tech companies are now looking to justify that investment, by inserting the tools into just about everything there is.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks ab.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Our tech commentator today is Oscar Helen. He joins me. Now,
morning Oscar.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Morning, Francesca. How's it going good?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thanks? Hey, great chat we're going to have this morning.
Because AI is kind of taking off. It's been put
into pretty much anything and everything, and I suppose the
question is is that happening to justify just the huge
investment that companies have been making developing these tools.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Well, it certainly feels that way. I mean companies like Microsoft,
like Twitter, like you know, Meta who own Facebook and Instagram.
I mean they've been investing you know, hundreds and hundreds
of millions, it's not billions of dollars into I mean
developing AI. Just running it costs a lot. And I
mean it feels like they're putting it in everything to

(00:55):
make it kind of make sense at the bottom line.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
And you I know that you find that bit frustrating
because some of it is helpful, but a lot of
it isn't. We're not asking for it.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, again, it feels that way. You know, there's there's
certain things out there, certain AI I mean pieces of
software for example, that are great. But everybody knows about
chat GBT, which is a great place to go to
you know, collect ideas or ask it for recipes or
this and that and the other. But I mean, at
this point it's a personal gripe for me that it
seems like every piece of technology I own, from my

(01:25):
phone to my computer and my television to my television,
I should say, have got some sort of AI in it,
and I'm not enjoying it whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Why not is it getting in the way of using
it or is it just.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, it soon. I mean that's how it feels to me, Like,
you know, it's okay if I want to go and
I want to you know, if I want to go
use it. I mean, fantastic, that seems to be what
it's all about. But I mean when it just kind
of sits there and it's the buttons are always in
an inconvenient spot on you know, whatever app you're using,
or you know, you can't delete like for example, on
my Android phone, Google's just installed their AI Gemini you

(02:03):
can't delete it. And you know, Microsoft have got Copilot,
it's basically built into their software now. So yeah, it's
just kind of a thing where you don't have an
opportunity to choose to use it. It's just kind of
there and you can only really accidentally press the button,
you know, so to speak.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
I suppose if it does genuinely add value, that's great.
But we're all different in how we use our tech
and devices, aren't we.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Well that's what I think, And you know, I don't
want to make any value statements, but I feel like
most people, you know, they want things to be a
little bit easier, they want to be more efficient. But
I mean we don't want to be I think most
people don't want to lose control of what they're doing,
especially on you know, especially online for example. I mean
with the rise of you know, cyber crime, you know,

(02:50):
just just being really responsible internet users, I mean putting
putting your online presence into the hands of something that
you can't control. I mean that's a scary thought. And
that's before we start talking about you know, what kind
of data and metadata these AI you know, models and
these our companies are taken from us.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Hey, Oscar, where are we in the AI revolution? I mean,
where where is am I going to be in five
or ten years?

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well, in terms of where we are in the revolution,
I mean, you know, if you'd asked me that question
a year, eighteen months ago, I would have said the
World Our Oyster. I mean, it was so novel and
so fun. But I feel like where we're at currently,
the kind of excitement has really died down. And I
mean in five or ten years time. To be honest,
I don't see AI having revolutionized society. I think it's
probably just running in the background, analyzing you know, lab

(03:37):
results and soil samples and doing all that kind of
really high you know, just data, data investigation and stuff
like that. I don't think it's going to have any
strong consumer, any strong applications for regular consumers like you.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
All right, Oscar, Really great to get your thoughts on this.
Thank you so much for your time today.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
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