Make phone calls for me

I am not an AI doomer. Just like anything else, AI is a tool to be used. Humans remain the master, at least until AI can think for itself.

For now, there is one thing I want AI to do for me: make phone calls. For whatever reason, I never like making phones calls. Remember when you had to actually speak to someone on the phone to activate a credit card? Man am I glad we can just log into our bank accounts online for that. Call to schedule a doctor’s appointment? There’s an app for that now.

But of course there are some things you still have to pick up the phone for. Like calling 911, though I’m not here to suggest AI call 911 on my behalf. I’m talking about stuff like calling the parts department of a dealership to check on a backorder I placed months ago. Email probably could have sufficed, but I wanted an order update immediately.

Whoever invents an AI agent to make phone calls will get all my money. I can train it to imitate my voice by reading to it a few paragraphs. It doesn’t have to be a perfect facsimile: these calls are made to complete strangers. (I’m not using AI to call my friends!) So long as the AI can carry a conversation in a normal speech pattern. If it sounds more like Stephen Hawking (rest in peace), that’s probably not going to work.

Possible, right? I mean, AI can make a song with Drake on the track - without Drake the actual singer being involved at all. Voice imitation is already nailed. The Siri assistant on my iPhone talks back to me fairly naturally, so we know computers can do colloquial speech. I think the major hurdle is creating a fast enough generative loop between input from human voice - on the other side of the line - and output by the AI telephone agent.

All you Chinese AI software engineers getting paid half a million a year better get on that!

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Under construction.

Burner phone

I reckon the newly announced Google Pixel 4A would make an excellent burner phone for travel.

What exactly do you need from a smartphone when you are in a foreign country anyways? For me, it boils down to two things: be able to take excellent photographs, and be a competent Internet communications device. All other apps and features we’ve grown accustomed to, such as digital payments or access to Netflix, become superfluous once I am outside of the States. i mean, you really shouldn’t be binge watching shows during those precious vacation hours, should you? Might as well just say home at that point.

What I use a phone for when I travel to China is taking many pictures, and accessing the Internet for maps and keeping contact with friends. While my regular carry - an iPhone 11 Pro - indeed can and does both of those things splendidly, that phone also contains a lot of private information that would be rather cumbersome to carry through border crossings. Unfortunately, I am not a stranger to having my phone searched when coming back into America, and I think getting a burner unit with only a minimal amount of necessary information put on it is worthwhile for my own protection.

Mind you that’s not because I am some criminal mastermind, but rather I am hoping to avoid as much extraneous hassle as possible at customs and immigration. Agents want to search my phone? Go right ahead: there’s nothing but vacation photos and records of places I’ve searched for on Google maps.

This brings us perfectly to the Pixel 4A: at $349, it’s just compulsive enough of a price for me to buy one without much further justification. Google’s Pixel phones are renowned for their photographic capabilities, and the Pixel 4A reads like it does not deviate from the lineage. I wouldn’t be missing out on the equally awesome cameras on the iPhone (except for the 2X zoom). From looking at the specs I presume the 4A is a competent Internet device as well, so that’s my other travel need taken care of. It doesn’t matter the 4A doesn’t have fancy aluminum and glass construction, or it can’t do wireless charging: for a such a relatively cheap price, you don’t expect it to.

But heck, it’s got an OLED screen!

While I don’t suppose I’ll be travel anytime soon (thanks, COVID), it’s never too early to be prepared, right? Let’s see if the price of the Pixel 4A gets even lower come Black Friday (or whatever semblance of that may be this year).

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Ready for action.

No phone for a week

The modern smartphone has become an indispensable part of our lives. From the moment we wake to the seconds before we fall asleep, we are practically glued to our smartphones, constantly on the search for the next dopamine hit of news, memes, or image of hot women on instagram. Sometimes I wonder what I’d do if I didn’t have my phone for a period of time. Would I go crazy? Or to the contrary, would I actually be better off?

Due to life’s circumstances, I got the opportunity to test out the hypothesis. For a solid week earlier this month, I was without my iPhone XS, and it turns out, life goes on just the same. I was fine.

First it must be said that I of course still had access to a computer and the Internet at home and at work, so I wasn’t completely out of the loop. The absence of my phone simply made it so I was unable to access information at anytime, anywhere. I can’t check twitter while waiting for the bus, or look up a certain items immediately after inspiration strikes me; it all had to wait. During those times where I would otherwise be entertained via my phone, I was forced to be in my own head. There were no music or podcasts to listen to; I had to get comfortable with stewing amongst the thoughts in my head, and I have to say, it was surprisingly meditative.

Not having my phone also forced me to concentrate on my tasks at hand, increasing my intentionality. I couldn’t check the latest news every 10 minutes, or see if my friends have texted me over chat. It’s confirmation that I definitely have been distracted from my work by my smartphone, and that it’s quite the time sink. Waking up and not having the ability to check twitter for half an hour in bed was oddly liberating, not in the mere action of reclaiming those minutes, but rather, starting my day with the right intention.

Of course, there were negatives: I lost active contact with my friends for a week; I couldn’t check when the nexts bus is due to arrive; and in the event of an emergency, I’m unable to contact anyone, and vice versa. The biggest challenge though in not having the phone with me is the lost of the camera: no device to capture the beautiful or peculiar scenes I encounter throughout my day. Truly, the best camera is the one you have with you, and I lost mine for a week.

Now that I’ve got a phone again, I’m going to take the positives points of better focus and wasting less time, and apply them going forward. It’s definitely nice to have my phone back, but perhaps I’ll be more cognizant of precisely when do I pick it up from the desk.

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Always.