In this morning’s email was a message from Inc. magazine with links to some articles in the magazine. At the top of the list was, “4 Unimaginable Ways A.I. Will Change Your Life Within the Next 5 Years, According to Bill Gates.” Gates says that in the next five years, you will have your own artificial intelligence assistant, or agent, that will be a frequent voice in your ear and will help you with everything from deciding where to go on vacation to managing your friendships and more. Let’s think for a minute about Gates’ 4 Ways and how they might help us enjoy amateur radio more.
1. You won’t bother with software or operating systems anymore.
How cool would this be. You could simply tell your AI amateur radio assistant, “Let’s operate 20-meter FT8 this afternoon,” and the agent would set up the radio and begin looking for contacts. If the band wasn’t open, it would come back and tell you, “I’m sorry, Dave, but propagation on 20 meters is terrible this afternoon. May I suggest 30 meters instead?”
2. Your agent will be a frequent voice in your ear.
Gates believes that most of us will wear at least one earbud most of the time so that our agents can talk to us whenever they need to. So, for example, it might be monitoring the activity on 6 meters and notify you when the band is open. Or, you might want it to notify you when a particular contest or operating event is coming up so that you don’t miss it. “Dave,” it might say, “remember that the 2-meter club net is at 8 pm tonight.”
3. Your agent will get involved in your personal relationships.
We often don’t think of amateur radio as having a personal aspect, but it really does. For example, don’t we enjoy talking to some people more than others? Your personal agent could monitor your club’s 2-meter repeater or 40-meter CW and notify you when your friends are on the air.
Gates also notes that you could have your AI assistant talk to your friends’ assistants and set up lunch for you. Well, you could also use that capability to set up an on-air sked.
4. It might even help you solve personal problems.
The article notes, “One of the most intriguing predictions Gates made is that your agent could also become your therapist” While many hams probably do need therapy, I’m not so sure how applicable this will be to amateur radio.
What I could see happening is using an AI assistant to help you choose your next rig or maybe help you troubleshoot a problem. Here are some scenarios:
- You ask your AI assistant what rig you should buy next. Since it already knows what bands you like to operate—and the state of your finances—it can analyze all the options and find a radio that meets your operating needs and fits into your budget.
- You might describe your backyard and the bands that you want to operate, and your AI Assistant could come back with antenna suggestions.
- You ask your AI assistant about a problem that you’re having with your rig. It comes back with, “Dave, if you would just RTFM, you will find the answer on page 67 of the operating manual.” Or, after scanning the appropriate online forums, it would tell you, “Dave, several other owners seem to be having a similar problem. Here’s what they’ve done….”
All of this sounds kind of fun to me, but I can understand some of you having reservations. What do you think? Can you think of other ways an AI assistant would make amateur radio more fun for you?
Rob W4ZNG says
I’m not so sure about an AI whispering to me via a single earbud, but there is a little voice in my head telling me to get back to the woods with my FT-817 in this fine N FL fall weather, especially before the thick of deer season begins. It is a funny thing, but after all these years of living in the future, I’m finding myself increasingly a retrogrouch.
Ed KC8SBV says
Time to revitalize “CW Geeks guide to having fun with Morse Code AI”, man, I hope not!!
Yohei N8YQX says
I would like to see AI providing hyper customized CW lessons for both learning CW and increasing speed. Not just surface level automation like which letters are missed more often, but figuring out what pace (speed) is best for the individual, detecting fatigue in the learning process and making the lessons longer or shorter, etc. Maybe even offering passive learning where the lessons can be played more like a background music or podcast.
On the decoding side, can AI provide better automated CW decoding? Current software’s pretty good with solid CW from another computer, but suffers with some sloppy fists or QRM/QRN/QSB.
Jason NT7S says
Having a digital mommy whispering unsolicited life advice in your ear sounds more like a living hell to me.
LLMs would be better put to use like N8YQX recommends, as our servant. Not as our master.
Steve Goodgame K5ATA says
Like Yohei N8YQX said, the ability for AI to create custom lessons and cater instruction to individuals based on their preferences and performance is where we will see a huge impact.
Also, just think, AI could monitor our operating habits and let us know when we are being a lid… or maybe even automatically monitor remote stations to see if there are others on the same frequency we are on but just can’t hear…. We could get that little message in our ear, “Dave, you appear to be interfering with a station on this frequency in Germany”.
Fun stuff to think about.
Winston Lawrence says
I can see it now:
Ocky, stop saying “umm” so much when you’re on a QSO it’s annoying.
Ocky, your car payment is due in two days stop drooling over that HT and it’s your wife’s birthday next weekend she doesn’t need or want a DXpedition “berth-for-two”.
Ocky – the club found the QRM and your new security alert system is +10 over 9 on 20m
ummm
maybe we can wait another decade or two?