The A.I. Journal I Want.

I am well aware of the risks. So much is being said about the risks of AI. But, what they all fail to point out is that all progress comes with risk. This is due to the fact that any and all tools we create can also be used as weapons. This fact will never go away. Life is a constant battle and this, to me, is the true meaning of the statement, “freedom is not free.”

Over time, I am certain, people will learn what AI is good for and what it is not good for. And, just like the hammer, in a few decades there will be hundreds of different variations that people will be able to choose from in order to help with very specific tasks. (I am now remembering the old, musty, creaky floored, family owned hardware stores of my youth. The kind of place a kid could spend an entire day looking around. Especially the wall of all the different kinds of hammers hanging on their hooks.)

I have been seeing more than a few stories about AI Journals lately. The algorithm seems to think it is time for me to know about these things. After doing a little snooping I see that none of them interest me as of yet. I have no interest in an AI trying to be a therapist. However, as someone who writes every day, much of which is personal, I can see a way that it could be useful.

What I would like is a journal app that has layers, like a calendar has. One layer could be my daily events, one could be the crazy thoughts going through my head, and another could be my dreams. The AI would not only look for patterns within each layer, but cross reference the patterns between layers. So, it could tell me that things I was going through today have a peculiar similarity to dreams I was having two months ago.

On top of this I would like to create an outside layer. For example, a devout Christian might make the Bible a layer that can be cross referenced with their experiences. Or, all the works of philosophy. Or, as I would like, all available fiction. I want the AI to be able to suggest a book, a work of fiction, not any self-help dross, that reflects what I am experiencing. Maybe it would see a pattern in my journal that was similar to a fictional character in a book I had never heard of before. Then, I could find the book and read it.

The idea is that fiction, as is all art, is the result of a person working through issues in their life. And, I can only hope that you, the reader, can understand the value to human development and the structure of civilization it would be if we could adapt to share our experiences much more effectively and efficiently.