Generative Artificial Intelligence

Today I am attending a seminar internal to my company about generative artificial intelligence or GenAI for short. It is very interesting and while I have played with the technology before, today we get to dive into a number of different topics. In my last session, we talked about the ethics of GenAI and acceptable use within my company, Sony, and how bad actors might be able to use it.

Yesterday I wrote about scam websites. I found it interesting that we would cover how someone could use GenAI to scam people. A few years ago my dad got an e-mail from a neighbor traveling in Europe who got into a bind and needed money. Wanting to verify the story, my dad called his neighbor. Yes, the neighbor was in Europe but no, he didn't need cash. Now using GenAI, the bad actor could call my dad using a fake voice that sounds exactly like the neighbor. What can you do to prevent such a scam from happening to you?

The obvious answer is to do exactly what my dad did before: call the neighbor directly. How you get off the phone is up to you. My favorite is faking a disconnection but the important point is to call the neighbor directly using a number you already know and not one provided by the scammer. This is especially important when the person asking for help is a close family member. While you may feel you can tell the difference between a son or daughter and some GenAI tool, the tools are becoming so advanced, it is getting tougher to hear differences.

As with any technology, GenAI can be used for good but it can also be used for harm. You don't have to become an expert in it to keep yourself safe from potential scams. You just need to understand what is possible and use your own common sense to prevent potential fraud.

Beware of Scam Websites

My wife and I have a sailboat that we keep on the Great Salt Lake. Several years ago, the lake level dropped to the point we had to pull our boat out of the water. Fortunately it came up enough last year that we could put it back in. Unfortunately our outboard engine did not survive being out of the water and not getting used. We nursed it along last year but have decided we need a new one. The old engine was a 2000 Honda 9.9 outboard and it is so old they stopped making parts for it. Otherwise I would only need to spend $35 and replace and exhaust gasket.

I called around to a few local marine stores looking for a new engine and then I expanded my search online. I carefully picked a new engine and then found a number of places to get it. My preferred online vendor sold the motor I wanted before I could place my order. I looked around at some more vendors and late one night found the motor I wanted for a great price. Sure it was for a previous year's engine but I was sure I found the engine I wanted. I thought about ordering but decided to sleep on it. I'm glad I did.

The next morning I decided I would give the place a call and ask about warranty information. The number forwarded to a Google Voice line and eventually rolled to voicemail. The person asking me to leave a message had a British accent, which prompted me to do a search to see if it was a scam. It didn't take long to discover the truth and I am glad I never placed an order.

I eventually found another online dealer with great prices and excellent reviews. I ordered a new engine and hope it gets here before the weekend.

Here are some hints to help you avoid a scam website:

• Prices too good to be true
  
• They only accept PayPal or Cryptocurrency
• They list a phone number on the website but nobody answers it
• You find multiple similar sites with locations around the world

One thing that will help should you be tricked by a scam website is to only pay with a credit card. Should it turn out to be a scam, the credit card company will keep you from having to pay thieves.

Not All Acronyms Mean the Same Thing

Lately at work I have been having a lot of trouble with acronyms. While I may think I know what the letters stand for, they sometimes they mean something else. For instance, everyone knows that MVP means most valuable player. In software development it means minimum viable product and refers to the bare minimum that has to be completed for a program to be considered ready for users.

Recently I attended an internal company forum in Tokyo and a speaker threw out  the term ROAS. I had no idea what it meant as it is a marketing acronym and that is not my specialty. The guy that got up and spoke after him said, "ROAS or return on ad spend," and I knew what the term meant. Unfortunately I unfocused from the presentations while I tried to figure out the meaning of ROAS and missed some important information.

Should you be sending an e-mail or speaking at a conference and use acronyms, please do everyone a favor by introducing the acronym with a quick description. While you may think everyone knows what it means, there might be one or two people in the audience that will thank you for it.

As another anecdote, I once read an article on "PC" thinking it was about personal computers. Nope, the article turned out to be about political correctness. I could have saved myself a few minutes if the title had been, "The Problem with Political Correctness (PC)," instead of "The problem with PC."

Not All Smartwatches Are Created Equal

My wife and I are training to climb Mt. Rainier this summer and that means we are exercising daily. I am using my smartwatch to help with my training and the more I use it, the more I like it. There are specific features I didn't know about but have now discovered and really facilitate my training. At Christmas I got my wife a smartwatch and we are discovering that not all smartwatches are created equal. Once you become accustomed to certain features, it is tough to go without them.

My smartwatch is the Suunto Baro 9 and came with a rather expensive price tag. Fortunately I could use my significant discount and I didn't have to pay the list price. I let my wife pick out her smartwatch but probably should have helped her more than I did. She decided on the Garmin Lily 2. As a sailor, I am a huge fan of Garmin products. Their GPS devices are second to none in accuracy. Unfortunately the Lily 2 smartwatch does not have a built-in GPS and relies on the Bluetooth pairing with your smartphone to get position information. While it sounds good in practice, it doesn't work very well. My wife is constantly not getting correct exercise information and is frustrated to the point she wants a new watch for Mother's Day.

This has me looking at the features of all the different smartwatches available. I know a lot of people swear by their Apple smartwatch but they lack a lot of the features that are necessary for an exercise aid, primarily battery life. They are also really expensive for what you get. Naturally I started listing out the features my wife wants in a smartwatch:

• Built-in GPS
• Built-in altimeter (not the same thing as a GPS)
• Heart-rate Monitor
• Heart-rate shown while exercising (a Garmin software update turned this off on the Lily 2 and my wife spent a lot of time with Garmin customer support turning it back on)
• Don't cost as much as a new smartphone
  
• Small watch face

The small watch face is what drew me to the Lily 2 and pretty much eliminates most of the smartwatches on the market. When you are buying a watch specifically for exercise, I think manufactures assume you won't mind the extra weight on your wrist and make watches very large. I love mine but it still won't fit under any of my long-sleeved-dress shirts.

I've searched a number of sites that claim to have reviewed all available smartwatches only to find some of the reviews are out-of-date. There is also the problem of trying to cater to everyone. If you live in Kansas, you don't need an altimeter. When you are climbing mountains, it is a critical piece of your gear. I don't know how many times I have found a watch that should work only to have my wife remind me that it doesn't include the altimeter.

Ultimately I think we have decided on the Garmin Venu 3s. The "s" means small as it has a smaller watch face than the regular Venu 3. Fortunately there is a sale for Mother's day and it is $50 less than usual. It is still an expensive watch at $400, especially since I can't return her old one I got at Christmas.