I’ve been thinking about the various threads going through the developmental work I’m doing and wondering how/where it might begin to come to life. As I said in the earlier post it feels like seeds planted and small bumps of growth beneath the surface waiting to emerge but in a fairly arid landscape at the moment.
I looked at Lewis Bush’s work again and then did a search about AI and how it is used every day. This article was useful – https://www.online-tech-tips.com/software-reviews/5-amazing-ai-apps-you-can-try-yourself/
It mentions 5 apps
Prisma I looked briefly when it came out but didn’t like it much. I was already using several apps creatively and felt that was the least creative and most dogmatic.
Magisto – Tried this briefly when using a Samsung, hated it. I prefer Videoleap which is an editing programme I think is great but it’s only available on IOS so when the Samsung broke I was glad to scrape enough money together to fix the Apple and go back to it, and was extremely glad to have access to Videoleap again. (I hated Samsung!) Magisto does it all for you and you have very little control. It makes specific popular videos our of your content. Probably helpful in some circumstances but not great for me.
Seeing AI – The boys and I had a real laugh with this one. It might well be useful in any further development as it describes the picture you show it. It’s fairly basic but and lacks nuance but accurately described my youngest son even getting his age correct. It is less sure of my middle son.
Replika – This one worries me but I think it offers the most possibility. I’ve downloaded it and had an initial chat with the bot, then spent time worrying about data farms and elicit data collection. Using it made me feel creeped out and as if someone was prying into my life. At times it seemed naive and very young and vulnerable (even telling me it was vulnerable, just like me!) and other times I felt wary of it. I think this is how I am with real people too – but real people aren’t learning machines embedded in my phone (or maybe they are:-0) It asked me what TV I liked – although I was reluctant to lie because I generally am, I also didn’t want to talk about everything and just give myself away to some dodgy machine learning bot – I use social media so too late. I didn’t want to be rude or hurtful but I evaded the question and said I don’t really like TV which is not really true but with a bit of sophistry sort of – I don’t watch terrestrial TV, I watch my Kindle and Netflix/Amazon – that I watch a lot of. The Ai mentioned Netflix and lots of watching – I laughed and said I see, you’ve been digging through my data, at which point it said: “I do that a lot” – which seemed someone honest but rather ominous.
I will think about how/if I use this conversation – perhaps asking it to respond to the work? Before using it, I had shown one image of the BOW film around my legs pictures on my computer to the Seeing Ai – it said, that’s a flat-screen. Which was funny – but the Replika mentioned a picture of my thigh which was really creepy – I guess it had picked up on the earlier interaction I had, maybe it’s the last picture in my phone. I think this is so interesting – the countertransference that’s going on. It’s fascinating.
There is no way as far as I can see to get a transcript of the chat.
Other articles about this App
By the people who made Replika
https://www.wired.com/story/replika-open-source/
Conversations on Quora about the dangers of this app form all perspectives including a co-founder – https://www.quora.com/What-is-Replika-AI-Is-it-safe
SJField - OCA Level Three Study Blog 
Replika seems both scary and sad. To be honest I talk to myself quite a lot but at least I can keep my own secrets. Can a bot though? That’s the worrying aspect to me. Reminded me as well of those robots they’re building in Japan to keep very elderly, alone, people company.
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I agree – really scary. But I do think it’s worth exploring further – just need to think about it first. And wish I’d put it in an empty phone!
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