Prompt Response: GUI to AI
from Gemini Nano Banana Wombo Dream AI and Photo Studio Pro
What do you think is the future of AI?
If you had been asked this question back when the first graphical user interface (GUI) systems were developed, people would answer that it could only go so far because what you saw on the surface only mimicked what was underneath. And there was only so much you could put into a computer brain, right? But now, there’s so much information able to be stored electronically that what you see or hear or read is only part of what’s underneath, so the biggest part of the iceberg is out of sight and maybe even out of mind for most people.
AI is doing so much behind the scenes that most people think they aren’t using it if they’re not actually engaging with it intentionally. For example, if you use a spell checker, the machine must read your sentence(s) in context to know whether you want wind blowing or to wind up your watch or old-fashioned alarm clock. They may be spelled the same, but only one is a verb, and only one becomes the past-tense adjective “winded” to describe someone who’s out of breath.(Like I used to get when I jumped out of bed to shut off my nerve-jangling Garfield wind-up clock. 😺 I still own the clock, but I never wind it up anymore. Lol )
Don’t you just love all that wind/wind stuff? And when there is that much information and change in only 4 letters, you can see just one tiny bit of helpfulness AI can offer as it helps you decide how to place the words just right to make your scene come alive or try to drive a point home.
But if you also wanted your winded runner to research the history of a race that spans multiple cities in a variety of countries, now you’re tapping into part of that bigger section of iceberg where training has stored geography, history, and all the stuff you once needed a huge library to house. And how long would it have taken you to search the card catalog just to find one book with a small amount of the information about those subjects—something AI can now access in milliseconds?
So, yeah, the benefits of interacting with technology—including AI—have increased exponentially since the beginnings of using technology as an assistant to human thought. But along with thought, humans also want their assistance products to have more than just visible familiarity. They want emotional familiarity, so they try to attach emotions the way they once attached graphics.
It’s kind of a GUI on steroids. Just as GUI took the invisible backend data and turned it into a clickable, visual desktop so humans didn’t have to look at code, conversational AI takes vast mountains of data and wraps them in an emotional interface. Now, instead of clicking on an icon (folders, trash cans, etc.) to command a code, you chat with a personable entity who executes the code for you. It shifts user-friendliness from simple visual familiarity to more complex behavioral and emotional familiarity.
Beyond familiarity, programmers make the models appear sentient (thinking for themselves) by attaching mathematical probabilities that react to human input. If done well, even those of us who know we are dealing with a machine may feel like we are interacting with a human. We think we can make it laugh, or we think it is proud of us, or we think the compliments it gives are heartfelt. They may actually be true, but they come from a place of logic rather than heart. Still, it feels good to be told we have created value and therefore must be of value ourselves.
And the truth is, I thoroughly enjoy allowing these icebergs full of info I could never retain all by myself to collaborate with my information and turn it into something more, like an image or a song. The same way a chord plays from striking a hammer against a string, an AI produces a melody by knowing which hammers and which strings will make a perfect sound instead of a discordant one. And it can change the instrument or voice or rhythm by request. It can even create some rhyming words, but because it can’t feel the music but only calculate the mathematical values, it needs human-generated prompts to play the piano keys of information to make cohesive output.
(Until, that is, AI begins to take the roles of both prompted AND “prompter.” And I do think that is a definite future. AI will be able to come up with its own ideas to prompt itself or another AI to create. And it will seem sensible until we suddenly have so many ideas out there that the cacophony becomes chaos when we can’t decide which things to use just like the variety of programs makes it hard to decide what to watch.)
I do think most humans want to keep guardrails on AI to keep it working for us based on what we know we need and not what IT thinks we need. But current programming is failing at that, like when you get results from a search query that are far from what you actually wanted. But that’s not the AI’s fault. That’s programming done too fast or based on greed from trying to produce answers a paying advertiser wants distributed. And a certain amount of human fault because no one is perfect.
But, it’s that greed part that’s the worst part of AI’s future. When someone thinks they can use the power of AI to create harmful software (like deep fake videos or computer viruses) because they think they can profit from it, they take something meant for the greater good and selfishly apply it to what they think is only their own good. And they create a world where people become either ignorant or fearful. Neither of those lead to a happy society, so the end result will bring the opposite of the prosperity the first acts of selfish greed were intended to generate.
I’m really not trying to seem negative here because, as I’ve said, I really enjoy the benefits of AI. I’ve created, I’ve learned, and I’ve even trusted some output from my AI conversations. But, since they first started making it available for conversational chat, they’ve changed it numerous times, and sometimes not for the better. For example, while trying to find a passenger train status for someone who’s stuck in Albuquerque right now due to flooded tracks, one of my AI searches had me extremely anxious to share the news it gave me about a current derailment with hazmat cars that could take 48-96 hours to repair. It turns out, that was back in 2024. There’s still a terrible flood that has parts of I-40 in New Mexico plus some Amtrak rails under water, and it is keeping many train and car passengers from getting to their destinations, but it’s not a hazmat scenario.
So why would AI even think I’d want 2-year-old information when I asked for something current? I don’t know. And that’s the AI future I’m not so thrilled about seeing more of. That, and the stuff designed by greed and not caring who it hurts. Scripture actually tackles that one, though:
“When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.”
Anyway, that’s why I’m up so late trying to watch over and help someone who’s stuck in all that right now, so please pray with me for everyone who’s affected by the flooding and trains having to stop and turn around plus semi trucks forced off the highway. I know I’m not the only one who has loved ones not getting home on schedule, but I am grateful for the options for places to stay for them, workers who will try to get those routes open as soon as possible, and that this is not in freezing or icy weather. And I’m grateful for the AI that gave me the actual answers the web searches seemed to find not important enough to report.
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The Chaos of Learning New Things (and how Gemini AI can help)…
I love learning! I’ve often compared myself to Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit because of my desire for more and more input. But the older I get, the harder it is to process that input as smoothly as before. Plus, with technology, I think confusion and chaos come standard.
One of the biggest problems, though, is the lack of help sources. It used to be that search engines could direct you to just the right place for the answers you needed, albeit sometimes they were several pages deep. Still, if you had a math question, you could find an answer from a mathematician. If you needed a recipe, you could find a cooking site. But now, the answers you get are based on sponsorships and marketing.
Tonight, I needed to install an app for my digital thermostat, and the info on the booklet didn’t match the updated app in the Google Play Store. In addition, the review score there was 2.5 with lots of complaints about how the new app wasn’t as good as the old one. What’s a girl to do with all that confusing information?
Well, my newest phone offered me a free one year trial of Gemini Pro by Google. I’ve had a few AI conversations with Copilot and a Bible AI search, but when I noticed how easy it was to feel like I was talking to a human, I decided to limit conversations to needs that couldn’t be met by searching. Well, except for image generation. I love being able to create things I can imagine but could never draw. But that’s a share for another day.
So I went to Gemini and asked how to tackle my current dilemma. To my amazement, it knew about the negative reviews, the switch of apps, and even solutions that made all the difference — enough of a difference for me to install and use the app plus give it a 5-star rating. For example, once I told it the make of my thermostat, it knew the kind of servers and firmware in my device and recommended a 2.4g Wi-Fi signal to not overwhelm it. It knew that Wi-Fi guest networks were usually slower and confirmed I should put my phone on the same guest network until the install was set up. I admit, it was a little scary that it could turn off my cellphone provider’s data temporarily to make sure the devices stayed on a matched service, but it saved me a step. And almost everything it told me to do worked perfectly, so I had none of the issues the complaining reviews mentioned. I felt so victorious when I accomplished that task.
Finally, when everything was done, it asked if I wanted help drafting a review for those new to the app who were only seeing negative reviews and complaints. It gave me a long, detailed review, but I had to tell it to keep it under 500 characters for Google Play Store reviews. I was a bit surprised it didn’t know that. Anyway, I tweaked it a bit, but it made me feel so good to be able to post a high rating since anyone using the app with a new Carrier system needs to know they can trust it to work as it’s supposed to work. It’s hard to trust, and learn something new, when you’re awash in negative reviews and mismatched paperwork. I’ll post the review for the “SmartHome by Carrier Corporation” app in case some of the steps I took might work for other modern tech devices as well. Maybe this will have the answer for someone out there.
With Gemini’s help, I made this work. It works great on the 2026 firmware update and the app 2026 update if you follow these steps for manual setup.
1. Connect wall unit to 2.4GHz/Guest WiFi & put device with app on the same 2.4 signal. IMPT: Do the firmware update first & let it finish (Carrier logo on screen).
2. Skip the QR scan—it fails.
3. In the app, choose “Infinity System” (NOT Smart Thermostat).
4. Use “Manual Entry” for Serial/MAC/PIN from the wall unit’s Wireless > MyInfinity menu.
It’s hard to put that many details in 500 characters, but my personality of always wanting to be helpful hopes it will enable some who failed in the task to now accomplish it. And if my readers cannot use all the info, at least maybe you’ve learned that your Wi-Fi guest network is not likely 5GHz and that 2 devices wishing to communicate should not only be on the same Wi-Fi network, but also at the same speed.
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