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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Hey cool, we tested two new (new to me) technologies on a three week camping vacation from which I returned yesterday.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>We like to camp up along wild rivers where there is no phone contact, but we are power of attorney with medical knowledge on an 86 yr old parent who is still living on his own, so three weeks out of contact is a bad thing. My bride bought a StarLink receiver. It said it could be set up way out where there is no cell phone contact. That part turned out to be true: it is very easy to set up. The first night we used it, the bandwidth was terrible. It said that trees block the signal, which turned out to be true. So the next night we moved to a less tree-ey site, and it worked great, 40 mbs, which is plenty for what we were doing, which is two users simultaneously playing video games (my son and my bride) and one geezer doing web surfing for news and crap like that (me.) We were also in contact should there be any medical emergencies. I would call that technology successful, and it has me thinking about what it means for anyone anywhere to have a good internet connection. It makes a lot of otherwise useless real estate a plausible place to camp or possibly live.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The other technology is an attempt at something I have been going on about for decades on this forum: an AI capable of talking to geezers in their dotage, being as I am likely the next person to need that technology. No not for ME dammit, for my aged father in law, who lives alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>My son set him up with Gemini, which kinda sorta carries a conversation with a geezer. He worked with it while we were there, so I watched and listened, which led me to some ideas. I noticed he talked to it a lot about sports. The three of us (my bride, my son and I) know little to nothing about sports, so it is immediately better than we are. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>For about the past decade or so, FIL has not really kept up with current events other than professional ball sports, mostly baseball, somewhat with football, a little with basketball. Gemini was great for holding its end of the conversation on those topics.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Something occurred to me when I listened to any discussion between FIL and Gemini on any other topic: the device might be an even better GeezerAI chatbot if it is trained exclusively on material written before 1990, with emphasis and detail centering around the 1970s. The goal isn’t really to inform the geezer as it is to be a comforting companion, capable of speaking on topics the geezer knows well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Verdict: the Gemini as a Geezerbot chat companion is getting there, but improvement is easily foreseeable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>AI hipsters, is there a way to choose training material for AI that selects older material?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>