{"id":6465,"date":"2026-10-14T10:32:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/?p=6465"},"modified":"2026-10-14T10:32:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:32:40","slug":"owt-flip-the-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/2026\/10\/14\/owt-flip-the-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"OWT:  Flip The Switch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A couple of things over the past few days have brilliantly illustrated why I\u2019m not as worried about the AI apocalypse.&nbsp; I started having serious doubts while listening to John C. Dvorak on <em>No Agenda<\/em> before his demise;&nbsp; RIP, Buzzkill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, there were many breathless stories about how self-improving AI would soon improve things to the point that it\u2019d be impossible to stop.&nbsp; JCD\u2019s point was that the continuation pace of improvement was impossible because of entropy;&nbsp; things can\u2019t improve forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But during the run-up to the holidays last year, I watched <em>Christmas Vacation.<\/em>&nbsp; Clark Griswold had completely covered his Chicagoland house with lights.&nbsp; He assembled the family, along with many of the house guests for the glorious lighting, plugged in the extension cords, and <strong>nothing happened<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National Lampoon&amp;apos;s Christmas Vacation: The Griswold&amp;apos;s Christmas Light Fiasco (Clip) | TBS\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oHVG2UrWNh0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It took me a while to find the particular clip, but that\u2019s it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The AI World-Ending kill shot won\u2019t work because someone left the light switch in the garage in the \u201coff\u201d position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After reading via audiobooks, (remember that Meghan O\u2019Gieblyn\u2019s excellent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/778492\/will-and-attention-by-meghan-ogieblyn\/\"><em>Will and Attention<\/em><\/a><em>,<\/em> I committed to try to use various AI tools to try to automate tedious tasks<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hey, Grok, can you add the Social Security Disability Insurance payment dates to my Google calendar?&nbsp;<br>I can do that if you give me your birthday.<br>*Enters birthday*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Grok contemplated for a few seconds, and added the SSDI payment dates to my Google Calendar.&nbsp; It did set the series to end in November.&nbsp; I manually adjusted the end date for something far in the future.&nbsp; I would probably need to check the exact age when the SSDI would go to regular SSI.&nbsp; (And the chances of me living that long aren\u2019t great, so I didn\u2019t bother checking.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve also been trying to use tools to add my rides to and from Georgetown for this study where I\u2019m a subject.&nbsp; The provider emails attach somewhat-incomprehensible reservation PDFs.&nbsp; Neither the AI tools or I can often pick out information from the PDFs, but Apple iOS does allow me to import the information to my calendar from the SMS messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Okay, this is cool!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I have AI tools schedule my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmata.com\/ride\/accessibility\/metro-access.html\">WMATA MetroAccess Paratransit<\/a> rides for an event on Wednesday Night?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nope.&nbsp; That didn\u2019t work.&nbsp; Let\u2019s see if Grok can do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">May I have your client ID?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Doesn\u2019t work;&nbsp; let me try to login manually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My account is locked.<br>Dial the phone number, and they\u2019re closed until Tuesday.<br>Damnit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s see if <a href=\"https:\/\/muse.ai\/\">Muse<\/a> can do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After about 25 minutes of work, it hit the same roadblock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shoot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After fumbling with this on Sunday and Monday, I came to the conclusion that, yes, I was going to have to wait until <em>a person<\/em> was sitting in the office at L\u2019Enfant Plaza on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That entire process took something like twenty minutes.&nbsp; Seems that my authorization had expired, and I didn\u2019t notice it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rep I finally got through to was able to reactivate my account for something like 60 days, and put me through to the reservations operator to let me schedule my trip for Wednesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The outbound trip was handled by one of the local taxi companies.&nbsp; They use a text-messaging system;&nbsp; I was able to add the trips to my Google calendar using an iOS device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The old time-bound and process-bound hiccups are what make it nearly impossible for AI tools to accomplish the nightmares envisioned by the AI doomsayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tools, however, do allow for quicker, perhaps more-effective use of the old tools.&nbsp; When I filled out the paratransit pass renewal, I didn\u2019t need to print anything out.&nbsp; I sent a PNG of my Virginia DMV ID QR code, along with digital photos of my state ID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This, of course, is worse for humanity than me sitting in the Department of Motor Vehicles facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The AI tools aren\u2019t going to kill us all.&nbsp; They are going to help us fill out that weird form originally-created in 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m skeptical, but I am okay with this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of things over the past few days have brilliantly illustrated why I\u2019m not as worried about the AI apocalypse.&nbsp; I started having serious doubts while listening to John C. Dvorak on No Agenda before his demise;&nbsp; RIP, Buzzkill. Last year, there were many breathless stories about how self-improving AI would soon improve things [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scarred-brain-murmurings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6466,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6465\/revisions\/6466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}