AI Ate My Homework

Wow, every day I am bombarded with new language and new concerns: Chatbots, robots, Artificial Intelligence taking over the world…..we are told that there will be a doomsday if we are not careful….but that is not my biggest worry. Here it is: my vast “arsenal” of excuses is coming to an end.

I’ve now reached the stage of my life where I no longer have excuses I can use at the drop of a hat. Remember back in the day, or as we like to say, “in the good old days”, we always had an excuse.

When in school, it was always a well-received excuse, when I would say with a cute little frown, “My dog ate my homework.”

How about another oldie but goodie, “my paper fell in the mud puddle and the ink smudge made it unreadable.” I like this one: “My homework got lost on the bus…..someone else must now have it”.

Always a dependable excuse was, “I simply lost my papers “…clean and to the point. The important point to remember as a kid, was that it was plausible that my homework ended up in the dog’ bowl by mistake and he happily ate my well researched 6th grade “thesis”.

To my senior friends, colleagues and clients, welcome to a new world of Robots, algorithms, digital media, 3D printing and the cloud…..It’s now impossible to say I forgot. Why? Because it’s in your iPhone or iPad. No longer can we use the tried and true excuse of avoiding to see people, until “after the holidays”. You can see them any time on Facetime.

How about “I can’t come to work today, I’m under the weather”?

Open up your computer…..you can work in a bathrobe or pajamas!

These tried and true excuses have been put in the trash and need replacing. Maybe this can help — My robot had a stomach ache and could not do my homework. My algorithm went haywire, and it could not make the bed. Siri forgot to wake me up so I was late for work! And here is a good one to use in all kinds of circumstances: My chatbot and Siri are dating so they took a personal day off.

So as my good friend, Obi Wan Kenobi of Stars Would say, “May the Force be With You.” As I would say, good luck.

Take it for what it is….It’s just as I see it.