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AI - The Endless Possibilitie by Laura Ubelhor (cont. EOTi Article)

AI is all about looking at the future and imagining what can be. What does AI make possible. Let’s take a peek at just one possible future, embrace the potentials, and race to what can be.

Sometime in the not so distant future…

This morning I woke up feeling energized. The Saturday morning sun was shining and lifted my spirits. I decided I would go out for a morning run. I tossed on my tennis shoes and made sure I grabbed my Fitbit off the charger. With the new generation of Fitbit, I can not only track my steps, but it determines nutrients and calories that I will need to consume after my workout. It also gives me verbal health reminders, including alerts when something needs attention.

After my run, I sat in my living room waiting for the coffee to finish up, admiring the view through my clean windows. Jenny cleaned the windows from top to bottom yesterday and they are gleaming. Just then, Jenny brought in not only a steaming cup of coffee but also a spinach and feta omelet. As I dug into my eggs, she starts up the morning news on virtual tv.

Jenny is a robot and I have to say that she does an awesome job, never complains, always does what is asked and needs very little maintenance. Finishing my omelet, it was time to review my to-do list for the day with another helper.

“Alexa, read my to-do list,” I said.

“Okay. Your to-do list is as follows:

  • Dusting
  • Cleaning
  • Laundry
  • Grocery Shopping
  • Find home caregiver for grandma
  • Buy clothes for the upcoming COMMON AI conference
  • Vmails
  • Prepare Monday presentation
  • Picnic lunch with Diana
  • Tech research
  • Pick up dry cleaning
  • Banking
  • Visit Donna after her surgery
  • Theater date with Dawnaree and Amanda
  • Arrange dinner and hotel accommodations downtown

It was a long list, but manageable once I got ready for the day. I headed to the closet. Opening the door, I pressed the big button to sync my plans for today. The magic started.

My wonderful high tech closet is the best birthday gift I’ve ever received. It reviews the weather, my schedule, and my mood, which it does with a bio scan. Then it turns into a whirl of motion as the closet mechanism kicks in. As it assembles outfits, the closet starts talking.

“Hello, Laura. You have a busy day – you will need an extra outfit for your theatre outing and overnight stay.”

While it works on that, I head to the bathroom. I settle into a comfortable chair in front of the, I asked for hair and makeup. The Look Your Best mate works her magic while I relax. My LYB mate is the female model “Peg.” Peg washed, dried, and styled my hair and perfectly applied my makeup. Knowing that I’d be spending the night out Peg also packed all the toiletries that I’d need for my outing including the new antivirus pill everyone is required to take to protect against the latest virus going around.

Back in the bedroom, an outfit lay neatly on the bed for me. As I dressed, Jenny reviewed the overnight bag that my closet and Peg prepared. With a few slight adjustments, my bag was ready to go and Jenny took the bag to the car.

I was ready to tackle the to-do list now. Jenny and I discussed the dusting and cleaning and agreed – Jenny would be going over the house from top to bottom today after I left.

Next up, laundry. There were 3 full baskets from the week. Jenny suggests we change detergents and use a new one since our normal detergent had recently changed ingredients to include XYZlophorine.  Jenny knows I’m allergic. She’s so wonderful I don’t know what we’d do without her.

We move on to the grocery list. Jenny syncs with the frig. We agreed to get asparagus rather than green beans after Jenny points out that they are currently in season and available at the farmers market. We also decide to add perch to the meal list – Jenny heard Paul mention he had a taste for perch.

At this point, it was approaching 10:00. Time to discuss a caregiver for Grandma. Using my virtual computer with voice recognition, I pulled up the caregivers that had previously been researched. We had it narrowed down to two.

“Call Grandma, Mom, and Dad,” I say, looping them into the conversation. We all say hello and settle in for the final interviews. Grandma needed a caregiver to be able to stay in her own home. Someone to make sure she takes her medication, help with tasks around the house and alert the family and healthcare providers when needed.

We virtually chatted with the caregivers for a while before turning to review the paperwork. The prices on both were competitive, ratings were great, and both delivered not only what we asked for but also had a lot of additional services and features.

“I like the second one best,” Grandma said. “That robot was more personable in the way she spoke with me. She reminds me of my Aunt Susan, so we can call her Susan.”

With a tap of my finger on the virtual image, I entered the name Susan, hit the checkout and we were ready to go and set for Grandma to receive Susan on Tuesday.

Grandma has been a little apprehensive to embrace all the technology changes. We have worked with her to help increase her comfort using the virtual pc. The virtual caregiver is allowing her to stay in her home and is bringing peace of mind to the entire family. Earlier this year when Grandma fell, pushed a button on her bracelet, and an ambulance was sent for. When she arrived at the hospital, most of the family was waiting there already, picked up by the driverless fambulance. Grandma broke her hip and has already recovered. It’s amazing how well Dr. AI works. The worldwide connection of data accessed and used by the Dr. results in amazing results for healthcare.

On to something fun – clothes shopping for conferences. The COMMON AI conference event is being held in Florida this year, meaning I need warm weather clothes. Using the virtual pc and choosing my favorite online store, my regular virtual chatbot Rachel pops up to assist. It is amazing how real Rachel is. We’ve been working together for some time and it has been a joy.

Shopping malls are long gone and are replaced by virtual shopping. Rachel asks all the right questions and in no time has several choices to try on and choose from. I stand on virtual Eye In The Sky dot and the overhead virtual beam turns on. It allows me to see how the outfits looks and fits. In a matter of 30 minutes, I have a whole warm weather wardrobe ready for conference.

It’s time to meet Diana for lunch. We decided for a quick lunch in one of our favorite spots on Coronado Island for a picnic by the waterside. I love watching the ocean while we eat, it’s so different from my everyday view in central Michigan.

It’s amazing how the Transnational Express (or TNE) has changed our lives. A few years back it wouldn’t be possible to grab lunch with my sister. But now, in 45 minutes, I’ll be arriving in San Diego California. Climbing out of my driverless car, I join the hustling and bustling of the station.

The TNE delivers my chill pill to me at the ticket counter, whooshing up in a small tube capsule. Think of the old-time bank deposit tubes, but miniature. Popping the chill pill, I am ready to board the TNE.

Chill pills make TNE trips possible without a visit to the restroom. It’s simply amazing how AI helped with creating such a thing. I walk up to the comfy transport pod and settle in before pulling my to-do list up on the virtual screen. Time for vmails.

Emails went by the wayside some time ago. Vmails take up a lot less time. There are so many offerings for Vmail services today. It’s so much easier. The vmails pop up visually and are read aloud. You then verbally respond, save and set timers for attention, search and store what is needed, all in the cloud. I love the new feature that allows for virtually hearing verbal snippets that are important from previous vmails.

Now on to preparing the presentation for Monday morning CEF meeting. The meeting is centered around a study regarding education for the future of IT students. It summarizes what we’ve learned in the post-COVID era and discusses how to prepare students for the current world needs. With virtual notes on hand, OBS and green screen set up and virtual recording it was easy to quickly finish my presentation for Monday.

Soon to arrive in San Diego there was just enough time to play and edit and place the 15 minute MP99 recording into Monday’s virtual meeting room aligned in the proper time slot. With 5 minutes to arrival time allowed for freshening up my face and a little daydreaming. My daydreams lately often drift to how more people can be helped with technology that is available and affordable. The world sure has changed.

We pulled into the San Diego station right on time as I finished the presentation. Diana’s electric driverless car was waiting for me. We hugged and used travel time across the Coronado bridge to catch up. I virtually shared the items purchased from my earlier shopping and also some recent photos with Mom, Dad, and other close family. We used the vc to order our picnic lunch from our favorite seafood restaurant on Coronado Island. We found a lovely spot in the park on the waterfront as my vp beeped, letting us know lunch was ready.

I still chuckle every time I see the deliverybot. They dart toward the ordering party by tracking location through your vp. They are 2 robot legs that take what seems the biggest steps possible with what appears to be a big picnic basket resting above the legs. The deliverybot’s arms appeared, opened the picnic basket, swooped a tablecloth across the picnic table, and set a beautiful serving for two. The lunch went by way too quickly but sure was nice to spend time face to face with Diana. As quickly as it had arrived the deliverybot packed up, cleaned up all trash, composted the scraps, and dashed off back to where it came from. With a last hug and love you I was back to the TNE station.

While traveling home, I decided to tackle banking. The virtual teller from bank of Ubly USA walked me through the dashboard showing all my personal finances. We reviewed a spike in expenditures for robot maintenance and discovered there were hefty increases in maintenance fees for the gardenbot. Banking also revealed we’re on track with budget expenditures for the year and savings goals. It seems ever since the banks started providing the gold standard and providing services like bitcoin security, balancing, forecasting, and budgeting, financial analysis has become simple.

Arriving at the hospital it was easy to slip into the valet circle. Jumping out of the car my GM driverless vehicle was on its way to the car stack. The car stack is commonly used to provide vehicle parking in a very compact amount of space. Using the car stack, one simply clicks the app on their VP and the vehicle is promptly retrieved and placed on the outbound valet circle. Heading into the hospital, I make a quick stop at the gift shop to pick up a lovely bouquet of Donna’s favorite daisies. Checking out is so easy with the new virtual app. Simply swiping to initiate the app and walking through the checkout ring is all one has to do. The ring reads the virtual codes on the items being purchased in this case flowers, a card, an apple, bottle of water and balloon. The receipt is virtually displayed and simply swiping again the transaction is automatically completed, deducting direct from your bank account. Stores are no longer manned with staff.

Entering the hospital room, Donna smiles up at me. She looks amazingly well. The nursebot assisting with exercises pauses.

“We will be finished in 2 minutes,” it says. “Please take a seat and make yourself comfortable.”

Continue reading here for Eye on the i readers…

They continue with their final stretches before the nursebot helps her back into bed and leaves the room. I give Donna a big hug. She had a knee replacement last week. The new kneecap was 3D printed to fit perfectly. This type of surgery is proving very successful. Since IBM invested so heavily in healthcare technology, many advancements have been made including a knee replacement done by DRbot and requiring minimal down time. Rather than attaching the knee with a metal plate inserted, the new knee replacement uses bands that have AI built in. Once the cap is in place, the bands automatically stretch to find muscle and ligament and attach safely. This requires less down time and much better results.

An hour later, I leave Donna, smiling at her daisies, with a promise I’ll visit next week once she’s home. With a virtual click on my VP app, I know my car will be ready and waiting in the #3 outbound valet circle at the hospitals entrance.

It is time to head into the evening activities and I head downtown. We chose to stay at the Fisher Grand right next to the Fisher Theatre for convenience. The Grand is a special experience. Pulling up, a valetbot opens the car door and retrieves the bags from the car. The valetbots at the Fisher have such friendly faces and voices, making the experience even better. The roboclerk checks me in and my personal valetbot leads me to my room. The valetbot will rest outside the room ready to answer my beck and call. I always ask it to UV the room. Some think this is silly but my thought is better safe than sorry. They don’t mind, so the extra pass is sure to comfort anyone that the room is clean and free of germs.

I stifle a yawn and realize that, unbelievably, I have time for a quick nap. My valetbot Bob was kind enough to pull back the blankets, tuck me in, set an alarm for ½ hour nap and play soothing music. The music fades and the lights go up slowly to provide me a gentle wake-up call. Feeling refreshed, I jump out of bed, dress in the evening outfit my closet picked for me, and have Bob help me touch up my makeup and hair. Ready for the theatre I make my way to the hotel transport to meet my friends.

The Fisher Theatre has been around for years but is just as special and wonderful today as is it was the first time, many years ago when I saw my first play there. Amanda and Dawnaree found comfortable seats in the theatre lobby. With a ½ hour before doors open for the play, we order up a glass of wine to sip and settle in to chat. The barbot promptly served up our favorite wine selections. Tipping bots isn’t accepted. Our bot this evening was charming and jovial and made you want to leave a tip. Soon, we are all laughing and toasting to happy times.

We share virtual pics, updates on current activities and discussed the play “Those Weren’t the Days” a comedy pun on how we lived our lives without AI and robots. We joked about what might be included and has gone by the wayside including use of paper and coin money, drivers’ licenses, mobile phones, cleaning house, and washing clothes. So much has changed. The doors open and we make our way to the theatre, pleased to have such wonderful seats.

The play is an absolute delight. The cast is a mix of human actors and starbots. It’s hard to tell the difference between them and it’s such fun to guess and play the game “bot or not.” Theatres have changed so much and now include a whole different experience. The new seats are so comfy and the virtual walls used for groups make the experience seem so personal and cozy. The virtual walls are optional. Most Broadway shows play at theatres like the Fischer provide a whole new experience with smell, touch, and motion. The orchestra is also extraordinary this evening. We find they are also a mix of human musicians and musicbots.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the play, we all join in vibrant conversation buzzing about our experience. We agree that we need to bring our husbands along for another night out. Amanda does a quick search and finds tickets available in exactly one month on Saturday night. All 3 of us in unison asked Alexa to mark the date on our calendars and to purchase tickets.

We go to dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. Being dressed up the theatre, we head to a fine dining venue and ask for a seat with a view. Our greeterbot promptly displays seating options and we choose one in the corner near the tall windows where the live music will not overpower our conversation. We are shown to our table by our waiterbot Tommy. Tommy politely pulls out our chairs and fills our water glasses. The menu is displayed from the middle of the table. Weird how the 3D menus can be seen from any seat at the table. It is really like a 360 degree CAD image and is so cool. Handing out a compressed paper menu to each person is long gone.

“Can you zoom the menu in a bit?” Dawnaree asks, earning teasing that she needed lense floats to improve her vision.

“How large is the glazed salmon plate?” I ask and the virtual menu displays a life size virtual image of the dish. I lean forward to catch the scent it puts out of the of the dish.

“May I suggest, Amanda, that you try the alfredo linguine with roasted mushrooms in a wine sauce?” Tommy suggest. He and the menu also sync with your VP, looking at your reviews of what you like and didn’t like in order to make recommendations. Tommy takes everyone’s order. After a thoroughly wonderful dining experience and such wonderful company, we were all ready to call it a night. With hugs and goodbyes, we are off to our rooms.

Today was full and so much fun. It would not have been possible without all the AI, robotics, and tech that we take for granted. I was able to finish all the necessary tasks, align a caregiver for grandma, shop for clothes, order food for the robot club meeting, plow through vmails, prep for meeting, have lunch in California, review my finances, visit Donna at the hospital, and enjoy the theatre and a lovely dinner with lovely friends.

~*~

I hope you enjoyed the imagined glimpse into what might be possible through AI. Many of the imaginary AI changes aren’t so farfetched and all of them are possible. In fact, many are already in the works.

So how will you continue your AI adventure? How do you make AI happen in daily life? What tools can be used? Where do I start? A great answer to these questions is COMMON. COMMON is planning for NAViGATE this fall in Virginia Beach, VA. Many of the sessions include technology, skills, learning and information on AI. IBM’s site is loaded with all kinds of AI information including videos, free downloads, coding competitions “Call for Code” and much more.

In the wake of the pandemic, AI likely will have a big impact on how we prepare, safeguard, manufacture needed goods, organize supply chain, coordinate national and international efforts, utilize virtual tools, provide healthcare, find solutions, raise awareness and much more. Jump on board. Utilize your IT skills. Let’s embrace and race to what can be.

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