How to use Google’s Gemini (Bard replacement) app on an iPhone.
AI as a memory aid.
I decided to re-visit the novels of Stieg Larsson…..if you remember, he came out with a series of thrillers; The Millennium Series, revolving around a central character, Lisbeth Salander.
I was about five chapters into the second novel, The girl who played with fire, when I realised that I’d forgotten an essential part of the plot from the first book in the series. How was it that Lisbeth Salander had so much money? In one part of the story, she buys a really flashy new apartment then spends a fortune at IKEA to furnish it, even having it all delivered with two guys to assemble it all. Where did all the money come from.
So, I decided to ask Chat GPT.
My question:-
In the Steig Larsson novels, how did Lisbeth Salander get so much money?
Answer….within seconds:-
ChatGPT
In the Millennium series by Stieg Larsson, particularly in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Lisbeth Salander is depicted as having a substantial amount of money. She acquires this wealth through various means, including:
Hacking Skills: Lisbeth Salander is portrayed as a skilled hacker. She is able to access confidential information, steal money from corrupt individuals, and manipulate financial systems to her advantage.
Illegal Activities: Throughout the series, Salander is involved in various illegal activities, including hacking into bank accounts, stealing from criminals, and engaging in blackmail. These activities enable her to accumulate significant sums of money.
Inheritance: In the series, it is also revealed that Lisbeth Salander inherits a substantial amount of money from her father, who was a high-ranking figure in the Swedish Secret Police. This inheritance adds to her financial resources.
Overall, it is a combination of her hacking abilities, involvement in illegal activities, and inheritance that allows Lisbeth Salander to amass a considerable amount of wealth in the novels.
Well, that saved me having to re-read book one. All in all, a novel use of AI.
— Forum Responses —
Do you know, that’s one of the most useful applications of ChatGPT I’ve heard of. I can see me using it for that when I finally get round to reading the final part of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy on Thomas Cromwell, which has been sitting on my shelf for nearly two years (at least). It’s been reported that she didn’t want to finish the book because she knew the ending. That could be why I’ve put off reading it as well.
David Harrison February 17, 2024 3:15 pm
Chrome settings on Windows
Again, this is a difficult decision on which Forum to post, but I settled on this one. You should read and consider whether the security issues it raises concerns you, or not, and take appropriate action …
Notes of Meeting – 8th February
We started off the meeting with a welcome to Chris Morgan; we hope he enjoys the anarchy that is Digital Matters – we put on a good show of that yesterday. Was it because Mario had chosen to attend for his first meeting this session? Seriously though, it was good to see you. We had apologies from Jo, Jonathan, Renee, Iain and Nita but still we had 18 present, only 1 down on the Artificial Intelligence session two weeks before. We thanked again, Jonathan, Iain and Phil for their contributions. I gave a brief summary of how the meeting had gone and asked if anyone wished to amend or add to the blogpost which I would then de-personalise and post on the Cardiff u3a website.
Between the meetings Iain had sent me details of a newsletter from Benedict Evans that he monitors from time to time. I’ve now signed up to get a weekly email of what he’s been “up to” – it certainly looks an interesting website. Iain was at the Google ADC (accessibility design centre) in London, and has offered to put his thoughts on his visit on the site. We’ll look forward to hearing from him at the next meeting.
On Signal, Ian (Cortical Silence) posted an observation on Artificial Intelligence …
“Generative AI has increased fraud risk.
(1) AI can tailor content, correct typos and grammatical errors, thereby reducing ability to spot fakes
(2) AI automates the work so victims can be targeted faster and further
(3) AI can mimic humans’ voice, image and video to dupe family and friends
We should expect more convincing phishing attempts, more frequent attempts, and deep fake impersonations (even Taylor Swift has fallen foul).
The traditional markers of scams are beginning to disappear.
The more content we place online the greater the risk of it being scraped, analysed and abused.
It is time to batten down the hatches.“
All observations that should be noted carefully, but we must surely still look towards the positives, the advantages of enhanced searching, and the ability to replace repetitive tasks, for instance.
I then went on to explain that I wanted to distinguish two classes of content for our Forums on Thought grazing (here) and that which would be posted on the Flipboard magazine of the same name. I intend to put news items that have a limited interest life on Flipboard, and try to put items that might be classified as useful for later reference in the most appropriate Forum as a Topic for members to comment, or reply, on. I then quickly went through the news items on Flipboard, and showed the Forums and recent Topics I’d recently posted on this website. I hope that you find the distinction helpful and I do encourage more of you to become Contributors to Flipboard, and Participants on Forums.
I recommended that members experiment with Forums by posting something to the “chit chat area”, and I demonstrated how to do it.
I have recently updated what I called (for the old Computer Group) a Toolkit. It’s embedded below and I’ll attach it to a Beacon email for you to download and print.
We then looked at Members’ issues.
Margaret described a strange experience she had been having with the BBC website, where she had chosen to read the News page in Welsh but that an auto-translation had then been generated which defeated her having made the choice in the first place. She was also getting a message that adblock was not working and the surmise was that Google Chrome was blocking a page if it was a different language than the default set. Sianed offered the solution of using two browsers, one for English, one for Welsh (which she did) to get round this issue.
Sheila alerted us to an issue concerning a passport application photo (taken in a booth) which appeared to show her with her mouth open – a consideration the Passport Office apparently doesn’t care for. She alerted them to the fact that she was an “elderly person” (joke!) finding the online application challenging and got her passport issued. Good outcome, and reminiscent of me being waved through border control at quick speed because I had a walking stick!!!!
Phil asked us if we’d heard of Elon Musk’s advocacy for implanting a chip in our brain to aid paraplegics and help to operate robot limbs. The future certainly looks interesting and one can see the real advantages of such work, but what about telepathy, and instant messaging from one implanted chip to another! Scary world ahead!!!
Chris asked if we knew any way of disposing of old technology (phones, laptops etc) safely and securely. I suggested that taking the hard disk out of a computer and smashing it was almost certainly secure; we remembered the offer from Curry’s to re-cycle old technology, but how would that handle the RAM on an old phone. After the meeting it was confirmed that a Factory Reset would wipe a phone completely and securely. This article from Which? gives useful advice and suggestions on how to handle old technology. For further suggestions, type “Disposing of old technology safely and securely” into your favourite search engine.
Paul was having difficulty with his browser and wanted to Uninstall it and then Reinstall it but it wasn’t available on the Apple Appstore. I suggested that he should first Export his Bookmarks to the Desktop, then drag his browser (Chrome) to the Trash, and then re-install it from the Google website. Many applications on MacOS are not in the appstore, unlike iOS which are “only” (for the moment at least) available from the Appstore.
Jim alerted us to a recent discovery he had made concerning his mobile broadband router (from Three). He’d always been unhappy with the performance of it in his living room, however moving it to his kitchen resulted in a dramatic improvement in throughput. This would appear to be both unsurprising – given the way the device would seek an aerial; and surprising – since you would think within a house there wouldn’t be that degree of variability.
More things you can do with Chat-GPT
An article that describes various ways of inter-acting with Open AI’s Chapt-GPT LLM which might be of interest …
https://www.howtogeek.com/chatgpt-features-you-didnt-know-about
Improving performance after a Windows upgrade
I hear it rather too often, and have commented on strategies to delay upgrades until Microsoft get the bugs out of a release, but here’s an article that might help you improve performance if your machine seems to be running slower after an upgrade …
https://www.howtogeek.com/windows-pc-sluggish-after-an-update-try-these-fixes-to-speed-it-up
Phishing your email address and the rest
Always good to get a review of the latest scams, and to put your mind at rest too. I intend to write another post for the Cardiff u3a website soon, and this article will be useful background …
The drawbacks (possibly/allegedly) of entering the Apple ecosystem
I’m only posting this to indicate just how open and fair I am (HaHa) …
https://www.howtogeek.com/before-you-commit-to-the-apple-ecosystem
AI – it’s all the rage!
It was less than 12 months ago that we had a session looking at the emerging technology of Large Learning Models (LLM) and in particular Chat-GPT and Dall-E from Open AI. In fact it was the meeting we had on the 23rd March, and this was the article I created for that meeting; I also put a slightly different version of it on the public Cardiff u3a website. Sianed and I also debated the topic in September, an experience neither of us would willingly go through again!!!! So with so much having happened in such a short period of time, it certainly seemed right to revisit the topic and see what’s happened.
First some background, some developments and some resources for you to follow-up, then some notes and content from three member contributions. We have Jonathan, Iain and Phil to thank for these.
What do we mean by Artificial Intelligence. Well, nothing that’s really appeared in the past 15 months it would have to be said. Some articles for you to consider …
Race to AI: the origins of artificial intelligence, from Turing to ChatGPT – in this article from The Guardian the background to what is, and what is not, artificial intelligence is explored and whilst recognising that a step-change has occurred, we have not yet reached the “nirvana” of artificial intelligence.
A simple guide to help you understand AI – in this animated webpage from the BBC, you have the “Janet and John” introduction to artificial intelligence. That’s not meant as an insult in any way, it’s a very straightforward introduction to the subject and if you switch the animations on you will get a full-experience.
It is however the Royal Institution’s Christmas Series of Lectures fronted by Mike Wooldridge that perhaps best defines the scope, the possibilities and the future of artificial intelligence. I seriously recommend that you watch all three lectures on BBC’s iPlayer.
Much of the attention in the past year or so has been focussed on LLM and Chat-GPT. Which? attempts to answer the question – “is it safe to use” in this article, but comes up with more questions than answers, but it does a bit of explaining along the way, but actually the best way to find out what Chat-GPT can do, is to try it yourself, which you can do here, after signing-up for an account on the Open AI servers.
Some experiments and experiences. We kicked-off here with Jonathan telling us about his experience of using Microsoft Copilot.
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft has released several AI “Copilots” that can complete different tasks for different purposes.
- At a basic level Copilot can be accessed directly through copilot.microsoft.com where it acts as a kind of Bing-ChatGPT. It can answer questions, create text, jokes, poems, songs and images much as we’ve seen in Chat GPT. When providing information it will reference the source material. And also send you on a shopping spree if you wish!
- Copilot is now fully integrated into the Bing search engine and Edge browser. Open Edge from the Windows taskbar to bring up the browser. Copilot is the top icon in the vertical tabs on the right. Clicking on it will open a sidebar which looks much like the page we’ve seen above. A different tab will open the AI Image Creator. Copilot in Edge can work with web pages, for instance generating a summary of complex articles. It will work in chat, compose and insight modes. It offers three conversation styles for your own composition – creative, balanced or precise!
- Copilot in Windows is currently being rolled out in Windows 11 updates. It can help with a variety of tasks, both relating to your PC’s settings and to generative assistance. For example, Copilot in Windows can turn on your computer’s dark room, organize your windows, write an essay, help you shop, and more with a simple conversational prompt.
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 involves the integration of the Copilot AI assistant into Microsoft’s 365 productivity software family. For example the suite of Microsoft 365 applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, will be infused with Copilot to optimize workflow, such as generating text and tables in Word, summarizing and drafting emails in Outlook, and generating Python visualizations in Excel. This is clearly a more advanced development of Copilot AI, intended for the business market, currently on offer for £30/month!
- There are further business related Copilots for Security, Service and Sales.
- All are under continuous development so will no doubt involve rapid change and improvement over time.
- Links to some further info are included below.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-microsoft-copilot-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/
https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/how-to-use-copilot-to-control-windows
Of all the commercial developments in the past year it’s Microsoft that’s led the way, but Google’s working hard to keep-up, first with it’s Bard model, and latterly with it’s Gemini software.
Iain led us through some of the features of Bard and this article indicates the differences between Bard and Chat-GPT. Iain was particularly struck by the way the system seemed to learn from one day to another. An inappropriate response to a question of taking your grandchildren somewhere in Cardiff, had been replaced by a much more acceptable answer. How does this happen? Has it learnt something? Or, is it’s previous answer become part of the resource that it uses to find responses. I guess we’ll never know!!
Since the meeting Iain has also shared with us in the Artificial Intelligence Forum a really interesting and potentially useful use of AI in interpreting scrolls recovered from the eruption of Vesuvius. There are many really useful uses of AI, as the Royal Institution lectures showed us. I aim to add Topics to that Forum over the next few weeks (and months) as they emerge, and I encourage you to do the same.
We then had an illuminating presentation from Phil, that I encourage you to look at.
It starts off with Phil’s interest in Family History and his ancestor’s death from cholera which prompted him to enquire about that epidemic.
He then asked Chat-GPT to write an essay (which he’d had to do in an earlier life) on the topic “Liberal and Utilitarian Educational Thinking in 19th Century Great Britain: A Comprehensive Analysis with Reference to Cardinal Newman”
He felt that the attempt was worth at least a B+
He then shared with us some images created by Image2Go.com not all of which totally hit the brief he’d requested.
In conclusion, I shared a few issues …
Volkswagen says it’s putting ChatGPT in its cars for ‘enriching conversations’ – really? The first recording of a Tesla driver wearing Apple’s Vision Pro headset has already been posted to the internet. Where’s the common sense, in common sense?
A frankly rather surprising Judges in England and Wales are given cautious approval to use AI in writing legal opinions.
A totally unsurprising Britain’s MI6 chief says his spies are using AI to disrupt flow of weapons to Russia.
3 reasons why AIs like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT will only get worse — and why it doesn’t have to be this way – a suggestion that as more and more AI-generated content floods the internet, and as more and more reliable content providers stop the “bots” from trawling their sites, that the quality of information on the web will decrease. AI eating itself is a phrase that might come to mind.
Finally a very thought-proking article – AI Needs to Be Both Trusted and Trustworthy – a theme picked-up by Ian (not Iain) on Signal with his reference to the fact that Chinese academics wary of their reputations have moved towards implementing new guidelines to protect the quality of their research.
I’ve put quite a few articles up on Flipboard in the past couple of months. I aim now to move some of them into the Artificial Intelligence Forum on Thought grazing with a brief commentary, and I invite your replies/comments. I think this move indicates that I will be using the Forum more for reference, and Flipboard more for news. I think that makes sense.
The Rule of Six:- Smart watches.
Remember the digital chip that was inserted into the Covid 19 vaccine….the one that would kick into action at some unspecified date and force you to do things that you might not have considered before? Mine forces me to buy tech products. That digital chip even knows my P.I.N. number. An Apple Watch was one of my most recent purchases but I might say that I’m absolutely delighted with the device. It looks after me; a bit like having Jiminy Cricket on my shoulder. It does things for me that are really useful, potentially even vital.
- It has a feature called Fall Detection. Those who know me will know that I’ve had a few falls over the last few years. I’ve sustained quite a few injuries including three broken ribs once. Believe me, falling over is no fun. Luckily, every time it has happened there have been kind Samaritans around, but what if I took a tumble whilst on a park walk, where there was nobody around? That is where Fall Detection comes in. The watch will know when you’ve fallen over. On the screen it will show a message, “You’ve fallen over. Are you O.K.?” You then have one minute to respond to that message. If you don’t respond within one minute, it will send for an ambulance, sending it to the GPS location provided by your watch. Here are a couple of videos. https://youtu.be/yZgzAhBa7Kc?si=2eTcmhPMFsJgIpKi. And https://youtu.be/OWasOBv15qk?si=zjaMW5gnKDcX8j2H
- Medical I.D. You can tell your phone and your watch your ailment and prescription details. Now, I know we should be wary of giving computers too much sensitive information but as far as I know, this information can be gained from my watch by medical professionals in times of trouble only.
- Health monitoring. The watch can give you all sorts of information about your health. This includes a step counter, sleep monitor, it can even monitor your walking steadiness. It is even said that it can detect atrial fibrillation although you might want to check that out yourself. The more expensive models have blood oxygen and ECG apps included. I went for the cheapest model, the SE second generation. (£219 at the moment). I think that is sufficient for my personal level of hypochondria.
- A torch. Nifty ! There are a couple of ways to get the screen to light up, giving you roughly the illumination level of a candle. Sufficient to help you find the toilet during night time excursions in unfamiliar hotel rooms. Use Siri (yes, the watch has Siri) and simply say ’Torch on’, or for Harry Potter fans, say ‘Lumos”. To switch off, simply place your hand over the watch face.
- Answer the phone. If your phone is in another room and rings, you can accept the call from your watch, speaking and listening to your watch. You can also send text messages to your watch using Siri.
- Alarm clock / timer. Simply ask Siri to set an alarm. It wakes you with vibrations on your wrist. This is actually a really pleasant way to be woken up.
Things to be aware of.
The Apple Watch works in conjunction with your iPhone. It won’t do much on its own.
I haven’t looked in to this, but I’m pretty sure that there are alternatives in the Android world that will do pretty much the same thing.
There are other, far cheaper brands of Smart Watch available. I tried a £40 model but I had to stop using it because it made my wrist itch.
Oh, and just one more thing, especially for the gentlemen in the group.
From How An Older Man Should Dress | Older Man’s Clothing Tips 2024
Older Man Clothing Tip #4: Own the Latest Technology