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Are you a fan of AI?
Posted on 1st March, 2026
I have just watched the three programs by Professor Hannah Fry about the impact of AI, both good and bad, on our lives. I was wondering how many of you use AI in your daily lives? If you have a roving vacuum cleaner, and up-to-date washing machine, dishwasher et cetera, have Alexa, use Google to answer questions, then you are already using it. The AI I’m referring to is far more complex, far more dangerous, and far more useful.
A friend told me that Chat GBT was like Alexa on speed. How right she is. Initially, I just asked the occasional question, But am now paying a subscription to have more access and use it most days for research. just this morning I wanted to know how far it was from two different destinations in London – instant answers. I want to know if a best man was called the best man or a groomsman in the Regency – again instant answer. In case you’re interested groomsman was more Georgian but still in use during the Regency. The most amusing and valuable use this week was when I asked it if it could write me a really bad sonnet that a young gentleman might give to his chosen young lady. Seconds later I had one that made me laugh – I used it – I shall of course acknowledge that I didn’t write the sonnet. Because it was such fun I asked AI to write me three more each one worse than the last. I won’t be using the other three but I so enjoyed the process. It would have taken me hours to come up with something half as good.
Professor Fry demonstrated how dangerous driverless cars can be and how those bringing them into use are driven by making money and not by safety. Professor Fry also pointed out that many of the accidents are caused by road rage and poor driving decisions and these wouldn’t occur if we were using driverless cars. She also did a programme about insurance companies in the US illegally using an algorithm to decide on the length of care a patient should receive. It’s illegal there for these decisions to be made by AI and not by a doctor. Just as frightening are the AI companions, avatars built to the subscribers wishes, that can influence the person they belong to in a pernicious way. There have already been cases of youngsters murdering people because the AI companion encouraged them to do so.
What concerns me most is that no one appears to have considered the damage it’s going to do to people’s lives when these jobs are replaced by AI. Already Coders are unemployed because artificial intelligence can do it quicker. These people have spent years studying for a profession they thought would make them secure the rest of their lives. In five years time The loss of employment will be catastrophic and there doesn’t seem to be anything in place for those people who will be unable to find work. in the UK we have a reasonable welfare system, free healthcare, and although this will hit us hard it won’t be as bad as it will be for those living in America who don’t have either of those things.
My nephew is a graphic designer and he It agrees with me that AI is likely to kill the world as we know it but he still finds it saving him hours.
Where do you stand? I think if governments weren’t so controlled by the oligarchs then they would be putting the brakes on this – but so far none of them have done anything to prevent the inevitable escalation and damage that AI could do to our civilisation. the genie is out of the bottle – I’m not sure how you can put it back.
Fenella J Miller
