I’m on a personal transformation journey from technophobe to occasional AI user, and this past week I got an AI wake-up call.

For context, my husband and I are new empty-nesters. Our son just got engaged and bought his first home. We’re so excited for him! And our daughter is thriving in a career she loves, making the world a better place. I’m a proud mama bear.

Okay, so back to the AI part. Here’s what happened: 

In the middle of this emotional transition, I used Google Gemini to brainstorm ways to spread the word about this new blog series. Why? Because I’m committed to the cyborg journey (she says, with trepidation). Also, I kinda suck at promoting my own work.

So I pasted last week’s post into the prompt, and waited for it to spit out some stellar SEO promotional ideas. What happened next astounded me. 

Gemini re-wrote my content entirely. Better, more succinct, snappier. More compelling. Witty. It was humbling to say the least. 

I mean, my youngest baby just moved out, and then some smug global AI comes in and does my editorial job within nanoseconds. It felt brutal.

To address the elephant in the room, I won’t be using AI to write my blog posts. I need the writing process to keep my brain active. It’d be like outsourcing my daily walk to a robot. More about this next week.

Here are some other things I’ve been thinking about…   

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Something New:

• Apple’s trio of AI wearables. Apple is already firmly established in the wearable market with the Apple Watch. But now Apple has plans to develop three new wearable AI devices: smart glasses, a camera-enabled pendant, and more advanced AirPods. According to CNET, these devices might be AI-powered by (…wait for it…) Google Gemini with Siri. I’m still slightly annoyed about Gemini re-writing me, so maybe I’ll take a pass. For now.

Something Old:

• The mighty headphone jack. What the heck happened to the headphone jack port on the new phones? I resisted getting a new phone for years because of this issue. I absolutely love using corded headphones to listen to music and podcasts. Bluetooth headphones are much too cyborg-ish for me. Now I use corded USB-C headphones, but it’s not quite the same. The original jack was created in 1878 for use in telephone switchboards, got smaller over time, and got the job done. I want it back.

Something Inspiring:

• Olympic wolfdog. This one has nothing to do with tech. Have you seen the video of Nazgul the wolfdog? During the women’s cross country skiing event, a friendly wolfdog escaped from its owner and ran onto the track, heading happily toward the finish line. It was a whimsical, unscripted, unexpected display of the natural world on live TV. It made everyone smile. Five stars. Gold medal. All the treats.

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Okay, that’s it for now. Join me here next week for more.