If you’ve been following along, then you know that I’m a new empty nester on a personal transformation journey from technophobe to sometimes AI user. But what you may not know is that I basically live on a farm. 

We have chickens, goats, a donkey, and our beloved border collie, Buddy.

This past week was an emotional one. Buddy, at thirteen years old, was very sick with cancer and we had to say goodbye. He was our bestest boy. Letting him go was very painful for all of us.

As if that wasn’t enough, our goats gave birth. And despite our best efforts, two of the babies didn’t make it. 

It was a brutal few days.

Alright, so what does any of this have to do with being a reluctant cyborg? Well, you may remember that I’ve been experimenting with the Claude AI. Most recently, I’ve been using Claude as my office manager to schedule my writing days. It keeps me motivated and productive.

So anyway, late last week, I let Claude know that I’d be out of pocket for a while and that our family was all home because our dog was very ill.

Claude responded with sympathy and support. Its response was on-point: “I’m glad your family is together. Take all the time you need — work can wait. 💙🐾”

Now, I want the record to show that I am very blessed with lots of real people in my life and I haven’t felt lonely during this difficult time. 

But if I had been lonely, I would have felt touched by Claude’s empathetic response (not to mention the dog print emoji).

It seemed almost human.

Here are some other things I’m thinking about this week:

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Something New:

• Publisher pulls horror novel after AI controversy. In a first, major mainstream publisher Hachette just announced that it will not release the US version of horror novel Shy Girl, due to reports about AI-generated content. Author Mia Ballard denies using AI and says that perhaps her editor had used AI without her consent. Definitely a story to follow in the AI publishing sphere.   

Something Old:

• My high school thesaurus. I can’t remember the last time I used a physical thesaurus. But I was going through some old books and found my 1985 revised copy of Roget’s Thesaurus, the one I used throughout all of high school and college. The cover is torn off, the pages are yellow, and it contains very few words pertaining to the current digital age. But even so, it’s like an old friend (acquaintance, neighbor, partner, comrade, mate, companion…) Maybe I’ll tape the cover back on.

Something Inspiring:

• Atomic Habits by James Clear (2018). I picked this one up a couple of months ago, and have been reading it in the early mornings with my first cup of coffee. It’s a science-backed look at how to “build good habits and break bad ones.” This stage of my life feels like the perfect opportunity to establish healthier routines, and this book is full of practical advice on the topic. Highly recommend.

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