Four For Friday | Oct 6, 2023
LF85 | Metaphors for AI, systemic loneliness, the Business of Age & the Golden Bachelor
Welcome to a Looking Forward’s Four For Friday. Four things that have piqued my interest this week. Enjoy!
Metaphors for AI companies
What are good metaphors for AI companies? As new and increasingly capable AI solutions are arriving every day, it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on. One way is the use of metaphors; “the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.” The article suggests AI metaphors comes in two flavors: Anthropomorphic ones: Oracles, Companions, and Assistants, and Systems ones: Maps, Libraries and ‘Blurry JPGs’.
It suggests understanding which mental models / metaphors are being used can help manage expectations; for example if you treat ChatGPT more like a a Blurry GPT (approximation of the web), you’ll likely have more success in using it and be less shocked by hallucinations, than if you think it’s an Oracle.
Loneliness as a systems issue
We need to address loneliness and isolation as a systems issue. The article notes we’ve made progress on thinking about physical health as a systems issue, so why not mental health?
What we measure gets done, and often today’s economic environment will reward individual performance and worker efficiency over the power of collective contributions.
The Business of Age
Here’s a data-filled resource for commercial audiences on the business of ageing by UK professor John Bateson. It offers up stats, quotes, resources and case studies on topics such as ageism and news. [Thanks to LF reader Stuart Evans for sending this across.]
Popcorn and tissues please: enter Golden Bachelor
On the one hand you’ve got to be excited about a new dating show for older people looking to find meaningful life partners for their last chapter. And on the other hand, does this approach reinforce the sense that to be successful in later life you just need to be a as sexy, attractive and wrinkle-free as younger people.
I’ve not seen the show, but in general I’d say kudos to the producers for ‘going there’ and it’s a dating show, so looks are likely going to feature strongly. Bit by bit.
That’s all for this week. As always, feedback welcome. Feel free to share insights or links of interest.
- Stephen