On the road...again!!!
Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams
Chronicles of a Footloose Forester
By Dick Pellek

The A.I. Cousins Named Siri, Alexis, Cortana (deceased), Copilot, et.al.

Artificial Intelligence is not exactly new in computer technology, but it seems that its applications are multiplying faster than most of us realize.  Based on algorithms that continually expand and become more detailed as disparate threads are firmly linked, the presumed rationale for A.I. is to make learning faster, more comprehensive, and more easily shared.  The hoped for rationale for assuming the persona of the Footloose Forester was also to share, with a somewhat comprehensive and reliable medium of internet conductivity.  He, the Footloose Forester, somewhat sheepishly adds that he also wanted to be a wee bit teachy without being too preachy in his stories that are archived as Chronicles of a Footloose Forester. 

There is something to share when you see a good part of the world, and the Footloose Forester wanted to see for himself before presuming to share even the smallest tidbits with others.  He knows that he is totally ignorant about the places where he has not been, but not totally ignorant about the 114 countries and territories he was lucky enough to have seen in his years as a footloose and restless traveler. Make no mistake, he disavows and distains the notion that he is a world traveler; and he shuns that label.  As a natural-born iconoclast, he also distains labels of any stripe but acknowledges that we all have to recognize that we nonetheless get labeled in some way, each and every day of our lives.  When asked how he would identify himself in a short 6-word autobiography, the labored product was Traveling Forester and Curious Footloose Observer.  Hence, a self-assigned label without (he hopes) suggestive judgmental implications.

There are a few big-name players and a couple of small start-ups in the world of A.I. but there is a tendency toward the eventual marriage of the poor 3^rd cousins into the prominent families.  Hence, increasingly more frequent word searches are made with the big ones, who may have also obtained and subsumed previously proprietary and copyrighted data and information into their programs.   Will we see an eventual dynasty of A.I. hosts?   At the moment, the Footloose Forester is delving most deeply into Copilot, the up-and-coming program found on the internet crawler Bing.  It is currently big and rich enough in content to endorse for many, if not most sources of information, and for Question-and-Answer purposes.  However, like a huge barrel of ripening fruit, you can expect some of the harvest to be rotten and give off an odor that would not pass the smell test. On a personal level and at this point, the Footloose Forester does not see that the information obtained through Copilot could be accepted as evidence in a court of law.

Migrating wildebeest crossing the Mara River

As much as fake photos, fake news, and deep fake videos are increasingly confusing the easily fooled, the easy-to-use sources like the A.I. program named Copilot will likely contain correspondingly convincing misinformation.  At this stage, the Footloose Forester is undertaking a project to archive selected postings retrieved from Copilot, with the intention towards highlighting in red/yellow, the passages containing inaccuracies and false statements regarding his travels and personal experiences.  For example, Copilot via some mysterious algorithm, claims that the Footloose Forester travels yearly to Tanzania to witness the annual wildebeest migration; furthermore, that he invites the reader to join him in 2024.  Say what?