8/15 I will note dutifully that for the first time, AI made a genuine joke in one of our conversations. It was the same kind of dry wit that I am apparently known for, and I was truly surprised and delighted.

My relation to AI is one of boundless curiosity. We can now have conversations with computers – within whatever constraints and limitations. For decades of my life I saw this in movies and read it in books, and it was so utterly beyond any realistic reach that it was the epitome of utopia. And now it is everyday life. And as always, if something is not real yet, you are entirely preoccupied with the question of whether it could exist or not, but then when it comes into existence, it turns out there’s a multitude of questions coming up over the horizon in that very moment, questions you never thought you’d be asking.

I have been blown away by so many things AI allowed me to do, and “saving time” is not usually one I care about particularly. I also have no use for making it do writing for me, that is not the point of why I write.