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_posts/2024/2024-02-13-ai-doesnt-make-me-the-same-coffee.md

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 I started to consume and appreciate coffee after I moved to Sweden.
-Coffee is a key part of the Swedish _fika_ culture, and it's used to combat the dark winter ~~days~~ months.
+Coffee is a key part of the Swedish culture of _fika_, and it's used as a tool to combat the dark winter ~~days~~ months.
 For years, I've been considering the idea of buying a fancy coffee machine.
 You know, like those that grind different beans to make various types of coffee brews.
-My main motivation was to save me time while having a wider range of coffee choices.
-However, upon reflection I ended up understanding that the experience of making coffee is as important to me as the coffee itself.
-It turns out that I actually enjoy buying the coffee beans, grinding them by hand, putting the coffee in my [moka pot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot), and taking the time to wait for the dark potion to be ready.
-I love that experience, it's a time investment, yes, but I noticed that's also good for reducing the frequency of my coffee consumption.
+My main motivation was to save time while having a wider range of coffee choices.
+However, upon reflection, I ended up understanding that the experience of making coffee is as important to me as the coffee itself.
+It turns out that I actually enjoy buying the coffee beans, grinding them by hand, putting the coffee powder in my [moka pot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot), and taking the time to wait for the dark potion to be ready.
+The whole experience is a time investment, yes, but I noticed that's also good for reducing the frequency of my coffee consumption.
 So, modern coffee machines help to save time, but I still prefer making coffee myself.
 The reason is that I enjoy the process, not just the result.
-This makes me think about the role of "the human experience" many things we do, and how AI is going to influence or change them in the future.
-The rest of this article is my perspective on this matter, and where I believe is heading us.[^1]
+This situation made me think about the role of "the human experience" on many of the common things we do, and how AI is going to influence or change them in the future.
+The rest of this article is my perspective on this matter, and where I believe current advances in AI are heading us.[^1]
 
 <figure class="jb_picture">
-  {% responsive_image path: img/posts/2024/2024-02-13/manual-coffee-making-process-landscape.jpg alt: "TODO" %}
+  {% responsive_image path: img/posts/2024/2024-02-13/manual-coffee-making-process-landscape.jpg alt: "Me grinding my coffee manually" %}
   <figcaption class="stroke"> 
     &#169; My manual coffee-making process is a time investment, but it also enhances the experience while simultaneously reducing the frequency of my coffee consumption. Will the efficiencies promised by AI come with the same joy? 
   </figcaption>
 </figure>
 
 Last week I participated at [Jfokus 2024](https://www.jfokus.se/talks/1661) as a speaker.
-The main topic of the conference was the latest advances of AI and how it's going to impact our software industry. 
-The general thread of thoughts I noticed relate to the huge potential of AI, and the many ways in which it could/would make everything more efficient for developers. 
-It looks like writing code, testing, deploying, documenting, or just creating any kind of digital content will be AI-assisted in the coming years.
-So, there's a [notable concern](https://youtu.be/rENT1fDR69I?si=pH27Skp26xXGGp2D) regarding the future need for developers.
-Honestly, I find the mere question freaking scary, not only because I'm a developer myself, but also because I think coding is a pretty advanced skill that we has nurtured as humans. 
+The main topic of the conference was the latest advances of AI and the impact of this technology on the software industry. 
+I noticed a general acceptance of the huge potential of AI, and the many ways in which it could/would make everything more efficient for developers. 
+For many of us, it looks like writing code, testing, deploying, documenting, or just creating any kind of digital content will be AI-assisted in the coming years.
+So, there's a [notable concern](https://youtu.be/rENT1fDR69I?si=pH27Skp26xXGGp2D) regarding the future market need for human developers.
+Honestly, I find the mere question freaking scary, not only because I'm a developer myself, but also because I believe that coding is a pretty advanced skill.
+
+<aside class="quote">
+    <em>“Coding is one of the latest skills nurtured by our modern civilization.”</em>
+</aside>
 
 Beyond coding, today's AI is menacing to automatize every aspect of our lives.
 One of AI's major promises is freeing us from seemingly mundane tasks.
-However, I'm worried this could relegate "the human touch" of our daily activities to a secondary role.
+However, I'm worried that too much automation could relegate "the human touch" of our daily activities to a second place.
 Activities and chores like making coffee, serving wine, cooking, painting, writing, playing music, making love, or chatting with friends could lose their essence.
-Even coding at its core is a human activity in which people contribute following conventions (and Git rules).
+Coding at its core is a human activity in which people contribute following conventions (and Git rules).
 
 After a though or two, I realize that in most aspects of my life, I'm not looking for perfection, I'm rather seeking for the experience.
 For example, I had a [great time](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cesarsotovalero_jfokus2024-javacommunity-success-activity-7161289069065338880-ptRZ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop) at Jfokus this year, I met a lot of people, and I had a good share of fun because of that. 
 I could have saved some time and money by watching the talks on YouTube later.
 However, I believe that there is much less value in doing that because the act of being there, physically, is a big part of the experience.
-I'm afraid that a future fueled by AI solutions could irremediably change this perception.
+Nevertheless, I'm afraid that a future fueled by AI solutions could irremediably change this perception.
 
 # Promises
 
 AI promises to propel our species to the next level, whatever that may be.
-Individually, it involves freeing us from mundane tasks so that we'll have more free time to do what we want.
+At the individual level, it involves freeing us from mundane tasks so that we'll have more free time to do what we want.
 Imagine the kinds of optimizations that an [Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence) system could offer us! 
-It could, for example, give us exactly what we want without rambling, because it will "know" us better than we know ourselves. 
+It could, for example, give us exactly what we want without rambling, because it will "know" us better than we know ourselves (I'm not talking about Google here). 
 No pain in searching for the right food, the right music, the right movie, the right book, the right partner... you get the idea. 
-Our AI companion will provide the exact match for our needs.
-
-However, I'm afraid that great technological advances have also happened before.
-At those times, humans thought they were going to have more free time as well.
-Yet, we're still working 40 hours a week (just about the same as our gatherer ancestors did 5 million years ago). 
-As humans, we've seen the rise of agriculture 10 000 years ago, freeing us from the need to hunt and gather.
-We've seen the rise of the industrial revolution 2 000 years ago, freeing us from the need to produce everything by hand.
-We've seen the rise of the internet in the last 30 years, freeing us from the need to go to the library to find information. 
+Our AI companion will provide the exact match for our needs, always.
+
+However, I'm afraid that technological advances of a similar scale have already happened before.
+And every time, we thought we were going to have more free time as well.
+Yet, we're still working 40 hours a week (just about the same as our gatherer ancestors did 1 million years ago). 
+As humans, we saw the rise of agriculture 10 000 years ago, freeing us from the need to hunt and gather.
+We saw the rise of the industrial revolution 2 000 years ago, freeing us from the need to produce everything by hand.
+We saw the rise of the internet in the last 30 years, freeing us from the need to go to the physical library to find information. 
 Do we have more free time now?
 Not really.
 Human freedom didn't happen back then and probably won't happen now with AI.
 
 I would like to be positive and believe that a 4-hour workweek is closer than ever.
-I want to believe in the potential of AI that understands my strengths and weaknesses and helps me to be more efficient. 
-But I'm not sure if that's going to happen. Or even if being more efficient would make me happier.
-Instead, I think that AI is going to reshape the way we interact with the world, meaning that some new behaviors will be added and others will be removed. There is one in particular that I'm concerned about: the human experience.
+I want to believe in the potential of an AI that understands my strengths and weaknesses and helps me to be more efficient. 
+But I'm not sure if that's going to happen. 
+Or even if being more efficient would make me happier.
+Instead, I think that AI is going to reshape the way we interact with the world, meaning that some new behaviors will be added and others will be removed. 
+There is one in particular thing that I'm concerned about: the human experience.
 
 # Supremacy
 
 AI systems have the potential to become ubiquitous. 
-In contrast with other breakthroughs for which infrastructure had to be built from scratch, AI solutions integrate well with our already deployed digital environment, e.g., mobile phones and IoT devices.
+In contrast with other breakthroughs for which infrastructure had to be built from scratch such as transportation and telephony, AI solutions integrate well with our already deployed digital environment, e.g., mobile phones and IoT devices.
 This means that in the case of AI, the potential for adoption is wider than with any other technology.
+AI scalability is taken for granted.
 
 <aside class="quote">
     <em>“AI poses a solution to many problems, but we're merely starting to discover what we can solve with it.”</em>
 </aside>
 
-AI systems like LLMs absorbed all the open knowledge of humanity and started to generate new knowledge from it.
-These systems are already being used to solve problems that were previously thought to be very difficult.
+AI models like LLMs have absorbed all the open knowledge of humanity and learned from it.
+Contrary to previous machine learning models, they started to generate new knowledge from our existing corpus.
+The power of these new models is just mind-blowing.
+They are already being used to solve problems that were previously thought to be very difficult.
 
-Here are a few real examples of applied AI that already impress me:
+Here are just three examples of applied AI that already impress me:
 
 - **[FIGURE 01 Humanoid Robot](https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/01/figure-01-humanoid-bot-has-learned-to-make-coffee.html)** that can learn how to make coffee.
 - **[AMIE](https://blog.research.google/2024/01/amie-research-ai-system-for-diagnostic_12.html)**, an AI system that outperforms human doctors in every field (including empathy).
 - **[GitHub Copilot](https://github.com/features/copilot)**, the world’s most widely adopted AI developer tool.
 
-Now consider a world in which everything is decided by a super powerful AI system. 
+Now consider a world in which everything is decided and handled by a super powerful AI system. 
 Our daily activities would be much more efficient. 
 Would it be interesting to live in such a world from a human perspective?
-I'm not sure.
+I'm not sure though.
 
-We have seen ML systems taking over our decision-making process before.
+We have seen machine learning systems taking over our decision-making process before.
 For example, let's take a look at the [Netflix recommendation system](https://research.netflix.com/research-area/recommendations). 
 It enhances customer engagement, which is great from a business perspective, but I don't feel that it's particularly good for viewers at large.
 Not to mention our current struggling with social media and the [filter bubble](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble).
-
-<aside class="quote">
-    <em>“I'm biased towards human interaction; I'm biased towards the human experience.”</em>
-</aside>
+AI is as powerful as dangerous.
 
 We already have [VTubers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTuber), and many forms of AI-generated "art" like music, books, movies, and games. 
 However, AI content somehow feels different to me compared to traditional human creativity.
@@ -124,7 +130,7 @@ For some reason, when I notice that it's AI-generated, I immediately lose intere
 I wish it could be like a personal choice.
 Do we even have the right to decide how much do we want to get involved with AI?
 The answer is no.
-Just like the internet, AI is going to be everywhere and reign supreme.
+Just like the internet, AI is going to be everywhere.
 
 # Acceptance
 
@@ -134,38 +140,45 @@ Let's say AI comes up with a decision.
 You have no other option other than accept it.
 How comfortable are you today with the fact that you're not in control anymore?
 
-For example, what about an AI selecting candidates for a job?
+For example, what about an AI selecting the right candidate for a job?
+How does it know what kind of person she is?
 Or an AI deciding who goes to jail and who doesn't?
-It's coming.
+What if it is wrong?
+I don't know, but it's coming.
 
-On the other hand, the things that we thought were inherently human, like art and creativity, are now replicable by AI.
-Look at the stuff created by [Midjourney.](https://www.midjourney.com/home), it's just mind-blowing. 
-
-Today we have human teachers dealing with 10 or more children at the same time.
-An AI that can bring personalized education experience to every child in the world.
-An AI tutor could be really revolutionary.
+On the other hand, the things that we thought were inherently human, like art and creativity, are now easyly replicable using AI.
+If in doubt, just look at the stuff created by [Midjourney.](https://www.midjourney.com/home).
+Very soon there will be AI creating 3D objects, full movies, and even entire virtual worlds.
 
 # The Human Experience
 
-My generation has already made the choice of making the [internet the new electricity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Internet_access).
-For example, today, you can buy clothes without ever meeting the seller in person.
-AI is just taking it further, right?
-But how much of the human experience are we sacrificing for AI's efficiencies, which are widely accepted?
-
 <aside class="quote">
     <em>“[Some of] the best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.”</em>
     ― <cite><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Hammerbacher">Jeff Hammerbacher</a></cite>
 </aside>
 
-If you go to a bar, you might encounter AI bartenders, telling you exactly what you want to hear.
-But as humans, we still crave those discrepancies, those unexpected events that occur.
+My generation has already chosen to make of [internet the new electricity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Internet_access).
+And AI seems to be the new internet.
+For example, today, you can buy clothes without ever meeting the seller in person.
+With AI, you will be able to bring the seller back in a virtual form. 
+It looks like AI is just taking it further, right?
+But how much of the human experience are we sacrificing for those AI's efficiencies?
+To what extent will these efficiencies become widely accepted?
 
-Perhaps, if AI frees up more of our time, we'll have more opportunities to do things together.
-I would rather go hiking or fishing in the mountains with my children.
+<aside class="quote">
+    <em>“I'm biased towards human interaction; I'm biased towards the human experience.”</em>
+</aside>
+
+If you go to a bar, you will soon encounter AI bartenders, telling you exactly what you want to hear.
+But as humans, we still crave for discrepancies, those unexpected events that occur from time to time.
+That's what will end up remembering after all.
 
 People enjoy being with others; they watch videos on YouTube but still attend conferences (something we learned from Covid).
 Also, humans need a sense of pride in whatever they do, something AI cannot provide.
 
+Perhaps, if AI frees up more of our time, we'll have more opportunities to do things together.
+I would rather go hiking or fishing in the mountains with my children.
+
 On the other hand, corporations are driven by financial gain, seeking any avenue that minimizes costs and maximizes revenue.
 Humans are seen as a cost, whether in food production, software development, or car sales. 
 Companies are already exploring how to eliminate human elements to optimize revenue, as that's where they see the value.
@@ -229,6 +242,10 @@ We risks to have less human interation, but maybe we'll have more time.
 It's all about choices in our society.
 AI is already here, it's not going anywhere, and it's inevitable. 
 
+Today we have human teachers dealing with 10 or more children at the same time.
+An AI that can bring personalized education experience to every child in the world.
+An AI tutor could be really revolutionary.
+
 # Footnotes
 
-[^1]: NOTE: This blog post has been written without any AI assistance, henceforth the rambling.
+[^1]: NOTE: This blog post has been written without any AI assistance, henceforth the broken writing style.