AI and I

Writing about AI here on Vocal feels a bit too easy a choice for this challenge, but there's a reason I decided to go ahead with this piece. Frankly, I was a bit surprised when I considered how I feel about it these days. I've developed a love/hate relationship with the technology. (There I go, personifying it already, and that's one of the things I hate about it.)

Part of the process of examining my feelings was accepting the fact that AI is here to stay, which wasn't an easy process. I wasn't happy with Vocal's decision to allow its creators to use AI as long as it was declared. It was my opinion that it would be abused, and it has been. If you know, you know.

I will never allow AI to write anything for me. I'm proud to say that everything I write, both here and elsewhere is my own.

On the other hand, I end up having to respond to it for things I do on a regular basis, such as a Google search. I've actually fought with Gemini (personifying it again) to get it to stop popping up on my smartphone every time I hit the power button to turn it off for a reset. The fact that I have press 2 buttons at once and then confirm whether I want to power down or restart chafes something in my brain.

Now, before you go committing the old guy here to the funny farm, let's try this experiment: Have you ever wondered just how many AI-powered mechanical robots are out there these days? Here's a quote: “More than 140 companies globally manufacture humanoid and advanced AI-driven robots in 2026, with total active deployment numbers reaching thousands of units in controlled industrial and pilot settings rather than a single unified global count.”

The source of that quote is theresarobotforthat.com and it was delivered as an AI Overview, by none other than Google. That's not an isolated incident, by the way, Any search you submit will start with a summary by Google's AI bot, whichever it is or they are.

On the positive side, I didn't have to include the trademark symbol to use “Google” in this article, although Google holds several trademarks. And I know that because I did a Google search and got a nice AI Overview, followed by a more verbose response, broken down into when it's required and when it's not. And that's exactly what we expect it to do.

So far, I haven't even covered the automated AI-controlled robots used for manufacturing all sorts of the things we use, including, by the way, walking, talking robots. Nor have I attempted to name the names of the particular AI software behind any of these and other applications of the technology. There are too many for me to keep up with, assuming I wanted to do so.

The other burr under my saddle (old guy metaphor) is the data centers popping up everywhere, including close to the town where I'm sitting here, writing this. If you're writing here on Vocal, there's a good chance you're feeding their databases, and that's not really something Vocal has control over. No doubt you've seen the internet ads about class action suits. “Did AI steal your data?” Another side effect of AI; something new for lawyers to capitalize on.

Data centers are something most people are already familiar with: server farms. Companies have been leasing space to hosting resellers like me for a couple of decades. AI data centers are the same thing, on a scale that's hard to imagine. These servers operate on CPU's that generate an incredible amount of heat and will burn themselves out without cooling, and fans like the one cooling my laptop won't do the trick. They need water. A lot of it.

Here's where another life experience gives me some background education. That water has to be cooled. The most common way for that to happen is through temperature exchange in cooling towers, and a portion of the water is lost to evaporation. It eventually gathers with other airborne water vapor to make clouds, which return it to us as rain. Unfortunately, most of it won't be returned to the original location. The bottom line is, data centers are being located where they can draw from massive underground aquifers, and not replenishing it as efficiently as you may believe.

They also require massive amounts of power to run all of those servers and the supporting processes like water pumps. There are 3 options, and as far as I know, all of them are in use:

Local power grids: Guess who had to deal with a 5-hour electrical outage a few days ago. Guess whose electricity provider just upped their prices per KWH.

Diesel generators: These are the reason you'll hear that towns located near the facilities are complaining about air quality.

Nuclear generation: Yep, locate the centers near nuclear reactors, build small-scale reactors right there on site. No risk there, eh? It's “clean”, though.

Keep in mind that each of these choices needs back-up systems, AKA batteries, and the engineers and architects are still trying to determine the best choices or those. Lithium, for instance, is one choice, but it doesn't stand up well to fast output changes, and data centers tend to create immediate changes in demand.

That leaves just one more fun little item you'll be hearing about where AI is concerned: Will it eventually take over and kill us?

The candid answers from AI models presented with that question vary. Most are visibly and vocally shocked at the suggestion. An interesting reaction, considering they learned it from us, and that we often use phrases like, “Why would I?” to avoid giving a direct answer. Keep in mind that sci-fi authors have built stories on just such a premise. (The I-Robot series by Isaac Asimov is only one example.)

The takeover and our demise have been predicted by some pretty big names, and here's the thing: When our bots are in control of everything we need to survive, but they don't need it, the scenario doesn't seem quite so far fetched. It's simply science fiction becoming science fact – again.

So, my friends, that's where my thoughts are on this fine day! I'd love to hear yours. You know where to click!