Summer blues? Or red hots?
Writing this in July, trying to keep my fingers from dripping onto the keyboard. Maybe I should finally follow Detlev’s tip to just voice record these. Geez, what a smart idea. In early July, we had over 39°C (103°F), and then I read that Argentina was having its coldest winter in over 35 years. What does this mean? Nothing. Just a crazy world we live in.
I have spent a lot of time on, with, and around bicycles the last few months. Probably too much time. Those who know me understand, while others, well, just accept it. I love being on a bike. Any day on a bike is a good day. Any time I can leave the car sitting in the driveway makes me feel good about myself and my town.
What have I been reading?
A.I. and the bubble it has created.
I am old enough to remember the Dot-Com period. Heck, I was in the middle of it and survived as well. Everyone was opening a shop in this World Wide Web thing while others were off to the side predicting that this Internet thing would be just a fad, over before it happened. Today, every day, there is an article talking about the next big AI thing.
Money, money, money
I have been watching and reading how all this money is being focused on AI of all kinds.
Anysphere’s AI coding tool Cursor surges to $9B valuation
Four months after a $3B valuation, Harvey AI grows to $5B
Meta reportedly offers top OpenAI researchers up to $300 million over four years
Jobs
What does the growth of AI mean for jobs? I have a regular talking point on this with Dave and he is much more bullish on this.
For Some Recent Graduates, the A.I. Job Apocalypse May Already Be Here. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has jumped as companies try to replace entry-level workers with artificial intelligence. (paywall)
AI is leading to job losses, but not in the way we expected
60+ Stats On AI Replacing Jobs (2025)
AI is taking over our jobs – or is the reality more nuanced?
What have I been doing?
I have already mentioned all the time I have spent with bikes: working with the local biking advocacy group here, expanding the free cargo bike services, and helping out a new bike repair shop with their online growth efforts. I have done some work.
AI Browser
I was listening to a podcast, and the topic was “AI Browsers”. So, I decided to give one a try. I chose Dia, but there are others out there. So, what is an AI browser? That was my first question as well. The AI browser kind of looks like a normal browser, but has a chat window like you might know from ChatGPT on the side. Since I'm still very new to this, I'm not going to go into too many ideas of what it can do because I haven't tried them. But I did make one attempt.
I wanted to know when the next version of Apple's iOS beta was coming out. My go-to website is macrumors.com. I opened it up within the DIA browser, and then in the chat window, I asked exactly that question. As a chatbot would, it came back with information according to this website, it will be available, of course, I could have done that in a Google search or in a normal chat GPT or something like that. But then it also told me where on the page that information could be found.
So I went onto the page and scrolled down to the fourth or fifth article, and there was a collection of items the article was talking about, and one was the upcoming iOS version. From the view on the website, there was an excerpt you could read, and then there was a "click here for the complete article" button. The information in the excerpt wasn't there on when the next iOS version was coming, but Dia had access to the whole article. And I found that intriguing. I guess more trying is forthcoming.
https://www.diabrowser.com/
Voice transcription
This is something I mentioned up top. I should be recording all that I'm writing and not typing. On the same day that I installed the A.I. browser, I also found an app called Flow from the company called Wispr. You'll notice how Wispr is spelled. I'm using it right now to record this text.
What's interesting is that this works in every app that has a text box. I've used this several times for responding to emails. And its voice recognition is really, really good. I'm sure there are lots of other good places to do this. It works in 99 languages, too. More trying is forthcoming.
https://wisprflow.ai/
Grumpy Old Man
In July 2018, I started recording short videos explaining the Internet from a grumpy old man's perspective. I would film these in public places while I was on business trips. I made 7 videos but never published them. Perhaps I had an early feeling that my management (at that time) might not appreciate the “humor” of it. Guess I did have a good grip on that!
Well, it is time to bring back the Grumpy Old Man. Heck, I’m 7 years older now, so why not? Some of the ideas are:
Squiggly red lines under the text on the screen? USE A SPELL CHECKER!
Ever heard of margins? YOU’RE NOT PLAYING BUMPER CARS HERE!
Why are all your Instagram posts beige? YOU’RE NOT SELLING OATMEAL!
You think using AI is cheating? No, Harold, it’s called working smart — YOUR COMPETITION’S ALREADY USING IT!
I would love to have any ideas you might have. Just drop me a note!
Final Thoughts
This month, I'm striking a balance between reflecting on our changing climate, pursuing my cycling passion, and keeping an eye on the AI revolution sweeping through industries. I hope you've enjoyed these musings from my corner of the world.
Whether you're sweltering in summer heat or bundling up for winter (hello to my Southern Hemisphere readers!), I'd love to hear what's keeping you busy these days. And don't forget to send your "Grumpy Old Man" video suggestions my way!
Until next month,
Andrew
P.S. If you've encountered any interesting intersections of technology and everyday life lately, I'd love to hear about them. These observations often make for the best newsletter content!
