AI Doesn't Care About Your Fears
Three Things I Learned This Week: Doves, AI and Bumblebees
Mourning Doves
A pair of mourning doves has adopted my air conditioner as a place of pause. The doves appearance (and insanely loud landings) made me wonder about the famous rumor: Do they actually mate for life? I started reading, and the verdict wasn’t clear. Some sources say they stay together throughout the mating season. Others say that yes, in their short 2 to 4-year lives, they stick it out beyond one brood of chicks. Curiously, though, so do other kinds of birds, according to Audubon magazine, including Bald Eagles, Mute Swans, Scarlet Macaws, along with California Condors and Black Vultures, among others. Some may winter apart, then find their way back together, each spring. Maybe even back to my air conditioner….
AI Voices
Opinions on artificial intelligence aside, I’ve been playing with AI voices, from Maya and Miles demos on Sesame to generators on ElevenLabs. Sesame’s voices claim they’re spun from recordings of actors to capture the true nuances, pauses, and intonations of speech. (I’ve found, though, some artificiality still lurking: much like the odd mid-sentence lilts of early Siri.) ElevenLabs has a broader selection: you can turn text into simulated voices and then download the files as MP3s. There are more voice options here (fun!), but their tonal range is limited — and they’re not conversational the way Sesame’s voices are. (You’re listening to the audio output here, not chatting with the AI.) Look, AI is not going away. How the tech will fit into our lives is just starting to unfold. Fearing AI, hoping the tech disappears won’t work? A better tactic is learning how the new tools and systems operate — and having a bit of fun.
Bumblebees
Children are fearless. I spent a morning in the meadow with a group this week, and a few gently encouraged nectar-drunk sleepy bees (yes, bumblebees sleep!) onto their hands for a rest. I loved watching the kids with the fat bumblebees in our native bee sanctuary. Even those who were a bit nervous about holding the bees helped others locate the fluffy bumbles on pollen-laden flowers from our coreopsis to bee balm. Bumblebees do sting, of course. And unlike honeybees, they can sting many times because their stingers don’t have a barb. But only the females sting (there’s a lesson in there) — and typically only if they feel threatened. The students were beyond gentle, allowing the bees to walk onto their gloved hands — and off. One fat bumble even landed on a hat. No stings were delivered, and after a bit, we left them to their task.