Articles tagged with AI

1. My Brief Experience with AI

   My initial foray into AI was in 2025. I wanted it to suggest suitable software to plot the curves I needed for my blogs. That was when I first became aware of the strengths and weaknesses both of AI in general and of different AIs in particular.

   In this blog, I chronicle my adventures in AI-land. I recount in detail five specific examples in the use of AI, and the experiences that unfolded. Later, I distil the generic lessons that I have learned so that other users might benefit. I conclude by quoting a paper that points out the dangers of emotional entanglement with an AI, especially by the young.

2. Biocontrol of Tropical Fire Ants

   The tropical fire ant, Solenopsis geminata, has been a destructive marauder in my garden for more than a decade. In the search for an organic biocontrol, I enlisted the help of AI. It suggested the remedy of drenching the soil near ant mounds with the solution of a fungus called Beauveria bassiana that would selectively kill the topical fire ants, but leave other insects, fish, and humans unscathed. This resulted in a temporary decrease in ant numbers at the place of drenching. But the ant colony was not eradicated. It merely relocated to where the treatment was not applied. The measure was palliative rather than curative. A truly long-term, reliable, and repeatable organic solution to this problem awaits future research.

3. YouTube and the Trust Deficit

   YouTube is awash with slick videos that offer seemingly authoritative advice on health, wealth, current affairs, and many other aspects of life. But if you were to look behind the curtain, all you would see is smoke and mirrors—not human experts. There is an uncanny resemblance to the revelatory scene in the movie, The Wizard of Oz. This is especially annoying and alarming, and is typical of the devaluation of truth that we are currently experiencing. And I think that AI, in collusion with human frailty and fallibility, has facilitated this trust deficit.

4. Differential Equations

   A differential equation (DE) connects a function with its derivative(s). In calculus, the function \(y(x)\) is known, and its derivative, \(y'(x)\), needs to be found. In differential equations, the derivative, \(y'(x)\), is known, and the function, \(y(x)\), needs to be identified. As with indefinite integration in calculus, the solution will throw up one or more arbitrary constants. The values of these constants must be determined by the initial conditions provided in the problem in order to obtain a unique solution.