Technology

My eldest sister called me in a panic. Our middle sister, who lives with Parkinson’s, was struggling to get the in-home care she badly needed. Since we all live thousands of miles apart, I felt helpless. “Did you ask AI,” I asked. “No,” she said. “I’m not getting anywhere near AI. I don’t trust it.” She sounded terrified…

There is something bothering me about the conversation we’re having around artificial intelligence. We’re giving the machine too much credit. Sometimes we’re giving it credit for what’s good. Sometimes we’re blaming it for what’s bad. Either way, we’re forgetting about the person sitting in front of it…

For this final article, I wanted to cover two things that might seem unrelated but actually belong together: matters of the heart and matters of the home. Both involve trust. Both involve letting someone new into your life, whether that’s a person or a contractor. And in both cases, AI can help you move forward with a little more confidence and a little less risk…

In a moment of panic, I purchased two years of a password manager service. Nothing had actually happened. I had not been hacked. No mysterious person in another country was trying to buy electronics with my credit card. I had listened to a podcast about security breaches and decided that I needed a password manager immediately…

My washer stopped working the other day. No error message, no clear explanation. Just a machine that wasn’t doing its job anymore. Years ago, this would have meant a phone call, a service appointment, and a wait. Instead, I opened the washing machine door, found the metal label with the model and serial numbers, and took a photo…

If you read the first article in this series, you already know about the night I had barely any food in my refrigerator. So, I told AI that I had cabbage, onions, eggs, and needed suggestions for how to make a meal. I ended up with the best baked cabbage I’ve ever tasted…

My cousin posted an old photograph on Facebook a few weeks ago. It was of my father, in his early 20s, sitting there in a sweater, a white shirt, a skinny tie, and a tweed jacket. The picture was taken in the late 1950s. I had never seen it before in my life. He was so handsome it stopped me. I had been experimenting with a new kind…

Susan expected the call to last 10 minutes. “I need another pair of eyes,” Michael said. They had worked together years earlier, when Susan still spent her days in conference rooms reviewing marketing campaigns and trying to understand why customers didn’t always behave the way research reports said they would…

It was dinner time, and I had barely anything in my refrigerator. I was hungry but didn’t have a clue what to make. I decided to see if AI could help. I started typing. “I need an easy recipe using cabbage, onions, and a few eggs. And I have some spices.” That was all I typed. AI gave me the most amazing baked cabbage recipe…

I’m a horror movie fan, so when the new Insidious movie came out this weekend, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a long time. I went to a movie theater. And I was genuinely excited. Not just interested or casually looking forward to it. I was excited like a little kid. I got my popcorn, found my seat, settled in, and for a moment, I realized just how much this simple experience meant to me…