The Accidental Book Club.

No meetings, refreshments or books about cholera.

I am very fond of books. It’s book clubs I’m not quite as fond of.

But I think I may have found something better.

Several years ago, I belonged to a book club that specialized in worthy nonfiction. We read biographies of Ronald Reagan and the Wright brothers, along with a detailed account of a cholera outbreak in London. I learned a great deal from all of them. Unfortunately, none of them made me eager to climb into bed and find out what happened next.

Eventually, I drifted away.

I do have several friends who share my taste in spy novels and mysteries. We happily trade recommendations, but rarely go beyond “You should read this” or “I liked that one.” What I miss is the deeper conversation.

So who do I turn to when I want to compare and contrast my favorite writers, revisit a twisty plot point, or find an outstanding BBC adaptation? These days, my favorite book club consists of one member and one artificial intelligence. Its name is ChatGPT.

The beginning of our “book club” was accidental. One day I asked Chat to rank the ten greatest spy novels ever written. Almost instantly, it responded with a list of twenty. In true AI fashion, a few books appeared twice, a couple were attributed to the wrong author, and the numbering was more aspirational than accurate. After a few minutes of back-and-forth, however, we had refined it to a credible Top Ten. Remarkably, at the very top sat John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, my personal favorite.

What surprised me was not the speed of the answers. It was how much the exchange felt like talking with another avid reader.

Over the next half hour, we dissected much of le Carré’s voluminous body of work. We discussed why my friends hated the film version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy while I loved it. When Chat listed the key characters in the George Smiley trilogy, I pointed out its glaring omission of George’s wife, Ann. Chat immediately conceded the point and offered a thoughtful summary of Ann’s crucial role in Smiley’s story.

Next we turned to my current favorite author, Mick Herron. Chat seemed as enthusiastic about the Slow Horses novels as I was. We discussed the many faults of Jackson Lamb and the brilliance of Kristin Scott Thomas in the television adaptation. I forgot to ask what Chat thought of the Mick Jagger theme song, but I’m confident it would have had an opinion.

My AI book club isn’t perfect. There are no hors d’oeuvres, no Scotch on the rocks, and no opportunity to impress anyone with my knowledge of John le Carré. But I can convene it at any time, discuss any book I choose, and never have to leave home. And what surprises me most is that the experience feels less like using a tool and more like talking with a fellow reader.

And unlike my last book club, nobody is going to make me read another book about cholera. One book about that is enough, even for a pathologist!

Teaching Artificial Intelligence Everything I Know.

Like many of you, I have been dabbling in the use of artificial intelligence. I have used a sample in my blog. I often use the AI site DALL-E to create header images. The Haggadah I wrote for our family seder began with an AI piece that fully encapsulated the Passover story in one page of rhyming couplets. And I have prophesized how an AI app could enhance (or destroy, depending on your point of view) your Disney World experience.

That being said, I understand how AI gets intelligent about as well as I understand digital currencies, the physics of black holes, and why my beloved White Sox are off to such a terrible start. In other words, not very well. All that talk about neural networks is above my (retired) pay grade.

But I came across an article in the Washington Post that explained one bit of the magic behind AI. It seems that most of the current crop of AI programs gain their knowledge by digesting information from a massive set of sites on the Internet. The Post explored these sites. As expected most of them contain information about business, technology, science, and entertainment.

What surprised me was that the web list for training AI brains includes personal blog sites, including those published on WordPress. Hey, that is me!

So not only am I a user of artificial intelligence, I am a creator of it. When I am the only person in the last 20 years to reminisce about Napster, I am creating artificial intelligence. When I compare two different Neil Diamond road shows, I am nurturing artificial intelligence’s understanding of a musical legend. My occasional forays into political satire provide important training to AI to not take everything it reads too seriously.

I am proud and humbled that my ramblings are being used to make the world more intelligent–at least artificially. I pledge to continue my commitment until AI knows everything there is to know about me. If it learns enough someday it can write my eulogy–over my dead body.

Hey! Can you do me a favor? If you are a subscriber and enjoy my blogs, please email them to friends and contacts. And if you read my blogs on Facebook, please share them! We are always looking for new readers.

Hey Alexa-Sing Me A Song!

The house we built two years ago has its share of electronic doodads. It has Wi-Fi linked sound bars and electronic lighting schemes. I can check on the garage door status from anywhere in the world (the farthest from home I have used this feature is a football field length down the street,) and we have finally figured out how to use the electronic code on our back door. But one thing we have never had is an electronic digital assistant.

Yes, I talk to Google on my phone (I prefer her to Siri) but we have never had one of those stand-alone devices. I never saw the need. But this year the prize (for which I no longer feel guilty) for my fundraising prowess (thanks to all of you) with SEABlue was an Amazon Echo Spot. It is a little gizmo, the reviled baby of Amazon’s Echo Series. In fact, the negative reviews I read compared both its appearance and usefulness to an old-fashioned alarm clock. Wrong!

We have had little Alexa (that’s the name of the voice inside her) for a week now. We set her in the kitchen window box above the sink, hooked her up to our always balky home Wi-Fi and let her rip.

We have kept it simple so far. “Hey Alexa, play some U2.” Out comes “One,” a favorite of mine, with all the lyrics showing up on the Spot’s face.

“Hey Alexa, play Sweet Caroline.” Out comes a very odd rendition of Neil Diamond’s classic.

“Hey Alexa, play a lullaby to our grandson.” Out comes Brahm’s “Lullaby” followed by “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

“Hey Alexa, play Shawn Mullin’s Lullabye.” Out comes “Sorry, you will have to subscribe to our costly music service for that song.” OK, so Alexa isn’t perfect.

Need a quick answer to a question? The more specific the query, the better the response. When I asked what movie the line “Leave the gun, take the cannoli” is from the answer “The Godfather” wass instantaneous. But ask for a recipe for Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes and 53 suggestions pop up, also instantaneously. It’s a little too much information.

Since we have had a busy week, I haven’t had a chance to delve into Alexa’s other capabilities. I’m sure that with more time and effort I will have her feeding the dog, taking out the garbage, and making the bed. Hey Alexa, you can do all that, can’t you?

What have been YOUR experiences with digital assistants? Share them! And for all my trivia friends out there, yes, I DID actually know the source of that movie quote, I was testing Alexa.

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The Election is Over. Now Thinking Outside the Box for Amazon HQ2

election-and-amazon-2 — Maps of congressional districts (left) and Amazon HQ2 choices (right.)

Amazon must be seeing blue.

One election is over. It’s the big one, with decisions on federal, state, and local elections. There will be a change in our next Congress with the Democrats winning the majority in the House of Representatives. But what I see when I look at an electoral map is lots of blue on the coasts, but a big red middle. Oh sure, there are some Democrats away from the Atlantic and the Pacific, but it is mostly in urban areas, our own metropolitan Chicago for example.

But one more election, or more properly, a selection, is coming. Amazon will soon choose HQ2, the second headquarters of one of the biggest success stories of the last 20 years. The pins in the green map above are areas that have met Amazon’s list of requirements, from available big buildings to abundant labor to transportation to quality of life. These are the 20 locations still in the running for the billion dollar Amazon lottery prize.

Put one map on top of the other and what do you see? With the exception of Toronto (and do we really think the headquarters will be in Canada?) all of Amazon’s choices are rolling in the blue. That’s where the facilities, labor, and culture that Amazon wants for its headquarters seem to be located.

But what if Amazon had taken a different approach? What if Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had said “We want to be pioneers. We want to find a city, a region, a state that needs us more than we need them. We can bring jobs, help create infrastructure, attract top-notch engineers. We can provide a stronger tax base that will lead to better schools and improved healthcare. We might not have a symphony overnight, but we can learn of, and support, the local culture. We can be the new frontier.”

And what if Amazon were only the first? What if all those new unicorns looked beyond Silicon Valley and Wall Street and brought their economic might to all areas of the country? They could stop making “liberal elite” dirty words to half the population.

Oh, I know it is a terrible short-term business proposition. Sthareholders would hate it. They would want to replace the Board of Directors, cast out the CEO. The Dow Jones would feel the ripple.

But wouldn’t it be nice if the world were a little more purple?