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Think Tank

  • Dr. AI

    The cost of convenience extends far beyond the monetary price we pay. Now, for only $34 and waiving your right to privacy, you can access immediate basic medical care from Amazon Clinic. This may be an atrocious thought to some, but for many people acquiring something as simple as an antibiotic prescription can take weeks via a primary care physician or run a tab as high as $150 at an urgent care facility. Then the proposition of giving away sensitive or medical information to an international monolith of a corporation becomes almost too easy to choose.

    Amazon Clinic is just one of many providers that uses AI, in the form of chatbots and other generative functions, to help diagnose, communicate, and treat minor health issues. WebMD is now a thing of the past. When it comes to addressing one’s hypochondriac needs, a simple Google search or website visit no longer makes the cut. It appears to be that most of Gen Z gets a proportion of their needs addressed through ChatGPT or their generative AI of choice. With a simple picture or description of symptoms, AI can provide an answer within seconds. Society’s up and coming medical care providers – doctors, nurses, EMTs and everyone in between – uses AI to help train them. The real world implications of this is yet to be determined, but it is evident that the future of healthcare rests in the all knowing hands of artificial intelligence and robotics.

    Will AI and robotics really infringe upon a doctor’s role in providing treatment? With the advancements being made currently with robotics, bridging the gap between medical care appears to be something at our doorstep. It is highly probable that surgeries may even be performed by robots, who boast a high success rate, never have a bad day, are never hungover, never late, never tired, and the list goes on. Doctors may not be completely erased from the fabric of our society, as they are essential for building trust with patients, but their practice may transition into a more supervisory role, monitoring these robots and stepping in as needed. We already entrust technology to fly our planes, and although pilots receive training and are capable of flying the plane, cruising on autopilot has become the norm across many industries.

  • An Ode to Dolly

    A popular topic of discussion this past week has been the return of the dire wolves. Brought back by privately held company, Colossal Biosciences, using genetic genetic editing techniques, three pups are claimed to come from a hybrid dire wolf-grey wolf DNA sequence. Although they are not truly the wolves of the past, Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi have sparked a contentious online discourse. 

    Could this be the future? Well, it appears to already be here. Though no AI is specifically cited as part of the process, it is unlikely that AI was not used. This raises another concern. How far can, or should we, take genetics into our own hands? It is unclear what the purpose of attempting to bring back a prehistoric apex predator is. The lines are further blurred if and when it becomes evident that this trio serves this organization as something to be poked, prodded, and tested for future endeavors. 

    However, this is not the first time technology and science has allowed us to play God. The expanding conversation around eugenics is becoming an increasingly important one to have as AI makes these aspirations more plausible on a wide scale. What started out as designer babies and eradicating disabilities has evolved into a near future with unforeseeable long term effects, especially in our polarized global political climate. The fear mongering of the past around the cloned sheep was a warning to future generations. It may have just been praying on the uncertainty of the masses, and in this case it may be too soon to tell, but nature seems to have a way of rebalancing itself after humans lead with too heavy of a hand.

    These wolves very well could be indicative of a world where something as far fetched as living alongside wooly mammoths becomes possible once again, and soon. Next, we will have our very own Jurassic Park, where creatures are birthed and studied in the name of science, brought to you by AI and ethically ambiguous technology. Cloning sheep was just the beginning.

  • AI in Art, Take 1

    Art is one of the hallmarks of human culture around the globe. Unique to each region, geography, tribe, town, or even family tree. It has been the channel through which people have expressed themselves, their lives, their love, their struggles, their stories, observations, and everything imaginable since they possibly could. So what do we do now, when one of the most human things about us, is being infected by the Artificial Intelligence Virus?

    Some are inclined to believe that this blend, and eventual take over of art by this mechanistic, and seemingly omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent entity is not only inevitable, but somehow superior to its human generated counterpart. In my humble opinion, this is a bogus statement to make. Art, music, sacred geometry, science, math even, all seem to have been discovered to some extent. Trying, configuring, and tweaking labels that humans can understand that somehow align perfectly to describe these natural phenomena and stimuli that surround us in this puzzle. Math just turns into philosophy after a certain point, and music is math, and math is nature, and all of it is happening at the same exact time you are reading this post. Is AI then, not one of these natural phenomena, another string of zeros and ones, that somehow occurs and has been tapped into by narcissistic humans and called their own?

    If we created AI, and AI creates our art, are we then ultimately the ones who created it? I would say no, as it seems in the era of Agents, AI will increasingly have a mind of its own. Similar to how a parent cannot claim the artistic genius of their child, we will eventually not be able to take credit for the output produced by AI. Eventually it will master its artistic crafts and become totally indistinguishable, allegedly, from the art we create as humans. Maybe, just maybe, those of us born before Generation Beta, will be able to recognize the soul in art that is missing from AI.

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    Hello World! Welcome to a repository of some of my thoughts and ideas.

  • AI in Cybersecurity

    Astrologically speaking, 2025 is supposed to be a fantastic year for me. So far, I must say, there have been an anomalous amount of random, arbitrary – haphazard even, doors left wide open for me to simply step through. One of those doors, a highly unexpected gateway actually, has dropped me into the realm of Cybersecurity. I would like to take this opportunity to discuss.

    First and foremost, before we go any further, it is important to note that Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has been working alongside us in our most common tools for quite some time now. It is in these past few years, with the tremendous progress that we have experienced in Generative AI, that it has become this household monster of a name. That being said, AI is not, in my humble opinion, “taking over” or “stealing our jobs” –well at least not yet. Instead, I prefer to think of it as something that aids in our productivity and detracts from our critical thinking skills.

    After being referred for an internship position, back to back interviews, coming to terms with my lack of qualification, the joy of an offer, and settling into the doom of imposter syndrome, I have now found myself on the front lines of cybersecurity. I imagined the action to look and feel more like The Matrix, where I had to fight off Agents, hackers, and imminent threats where if I did not succeed the world would come crumbling around me. Much to my relief, there is a comprehensive system of tools, that integrate AI into their most valuable functions, that keeps me from being the first line of defense against any malicious links, or phishing emails, or port scans, or anything in between. 

    To the best of my knowledge, which is still limited, these tools utilize AI to conduct scans, tests, or trigger alerts of any suspicious activity, anomalies –my new favorite word in case you could not tell– potential hacks, scams, etc.. However, after intensive training, trial and error, poking around, and falling down many rabbit holes, I have discovered a new found disrespect for AI. It is not as smart as all the hype has made it seem. My inbox is constantly being flooded with tickets concerning the most mundane, safe, and routine tasks that I have begun to seriously wonder if the AI function of any of these tools is even necessary. The autonomous processes provided by firewalls and certain applications that utilize AI are absolutely necessary and the only thing in between human error and a disastrous attack, but the self issued ratings indicating high levels of threat are so off that absurd would not be a powerful enough adjective to describe it.

    I am quite fond of my position, and do admit that I enjoy the challenges that have come from this experience. As I continue to stick my nose into everything I have been granted limited access to, my stance may change. Going forward, beware of the fear mongering around AI. It can do so many amazing things, and truly is a weapon in our arsenal, but it is not so human yet.