In a world where everywhere you turn “AI” is thrown at you like a baseball pitching ace. It comes in hard and fast but often comes with a curve. It has slowly taken over our creative processes and AI users say it does a better job, or it gives us ideas, or maybe it is just a lazy way to say it helps us accomplish more of the rote or mundane aspects of our jobs.
While I am not against AI and have tried it many times, I am not sold on it. I like to know that what I am reading is produced and imagined by a human. I shudder at how some AI uses will eliminate jobs in the future. Some may be good but, and that is the scary part, some may be a brutal reckoning for many people.
Just trying to stay current of all the AI models and what they can do and how to use them can be exhausting. Or take the lazy man’s approach and don’t worry about what it can do, say or replace and use it as needed.
In Troy Shoppe Jewellers, some of my staff will use it for ideas or for a point form layout. I do not allow it to replace the human touch, that is, the chance to build a relationship and answer with a personal response. There are a lot of people in and out of the jewellery industry that would call me out as being old fashioned. After all I am born in the middle of the baby-boomer decade. Of course, gen Z, X, Y and whatever new versions of generation are given a new name all feel that they know best and will not hold back from using AI.
I wonder about some of the weird things I hear and read about big AI mistakes. Things like hallucinations or making up incorrect information seem to be a regular item that accompanies AI generated answers to questions. And then the pro-AI users say this is rare and old news.
How is this at all related to jewellery and my experience?
Just a few weeks ago, my wife and I visited Hawaii, specifically Maui, for our second anniversary. Lots to see and do and beautiful weather for sure. Really an enjoyable place to visit. While in Maui, there was a tsunami warning. I told my wife I planned exciting anniversaries, but this was a little bit different and honestly, was very worrisome. At the time of the first siren belching out a warning, around 2 PM, my wife and I were at a mall shopping. I grabbed her and my sister-in-law and said it is time to leave, “right now”. It was a good choice because within an hour the road from the mall to our condo, only a ten-minute walk uphill from the mall, was clogged and moving at a turtle pace. The siren warning was belching out a very discomforting sound about every hour. This was no fooling around as radio and TV told everyone to get to higher ground and expect the wave to hit the Hawaiian Islands around 7:20 PM.
All of us were safe at our condo and about 200 feet above the shoreline. There were still hours away from an impending and scary wave coming. It was also eerily quite except for the clogged road to higher ground. All of us went for a walk thinking a coffee might be nice. By the time we reached the nearest stores, everything was closed, and staff were heading home. In a parking lot, we met a family looking for the same as us, from Idaho and California. They were at a much lower level condo than us and my wife in her typical caring and concerned for others manner, gave them our phone number and address in case the waves were high and they needed a higher spot for refuge.
As it turned out 7:20 PM came and little else. To say it was a relief would not be accurate. It was more like popping a helium ballon. The pressure, the worry, the safety concerns were gone. There were small waves and the following day the ocean reached its finger of waves much higher up the beaches we visited.
Again, how is this related to jewellery?
OK, my answer is coming! Patience.
While we were in our condo I looked up the news on TV. It was very sketchy and not really saying a lot. I went on my laptop and wanted to see the news feeds there. And that is where the AI request came, “can I help you find something?”. Of course, I thought, let me drop my baby-boomer angst and disbelief of all things technical, or at least that is what my smart millennial sons would say, and asked the AI for information about the tsunami. Let me set the stage for the screen shot below. I asked this about an hour after the tsunami was supposed to hit the shoreline and while my phone was bleating out a emergency warning buzz and the sirens were going off.
The above was the page that came up. Hmm…I found out that I could actually create a fake page like that with AI. Talk about confusing!
And somehow is this accurate?
Pretty scary stuff when it is seriously important.
Now for how this relates to jewellery. Recently, a blog question was asked of AI about opals and if they are a good gemstone. One part of the answer came back saying, “opals have been known to increase a woman’s libido”. OK, that is crazy!
Another blog question about jewellery design came back saying that a specific ethnic group liked to give jewellery as it enhanced their desirability. Again, crazy! We would never say that!
Another example of bad information is when people ask how to remove a stuck ring. An answer that comes back consistently is, “use the dental floss method”. I can’t tell you how many people have come into the store to have a ring removed and have tried the dental floss method only to find their knuckles swollen even more and painful. This method rarely works and usually hurts your finger. Please visit us before you try any DIY methods, and we can cut off your ring in a way that will minimize damage to your ring, and we can then size your ring to the proper size when the swelling in your finger has gone down.
The issue is that when some AI questions are asked regarding jewellery, the responses are just bad, inaccurate or misleading. No hallucinations here, just plain old bad information.
When it comes to AI, and jewellery, I would strongly recommend finding a person to talk to at a store with a great reputation. They will give you better information than a poorly trained AI model.
Down the road AI will get better and may even be a way to answer complex questions. For now, I don’t see it as a good alternative in the jewellery industry. Visit Troy Shoppe Jewellers in Calgary, AB, and we will answer your questions and give you informed answers.