Earlier this afternoon, I was thinking how AI has changed my Internet research habits. We watched the swearing-in ceremony of the new Sri Lankan president on Sunday evening our time. Sri Lankans finally had a chance to vote after the 2022 uprising and they clearly showed they were ready to replace the existing political landscape. The caretaker president was given power by a vote of the parliament. He put off a general election and hung on to power to 'help the nation'. He came in a distant third in the weekend race.
The low-key event was held in the 94-year-old Parliament building near Galle Face in Colombo. Fittingly that was a focal point of student demonstrations two years ago. I spotted a few statues on its lawn and wondered who they were representing.
Rather than a traditional search, I opened up Google Gemini AI. My answer was beautifully written in a format that made me smile as a former technical-writing instructor. There was a brief summery of each of the three initial Prime Ministers of the island nation too.
I often use Google Gemini or MS Copilot to answer everyday questions. I have a lot to learn, I guess. However, I now realize how quickly things are changing. I hadn't opened ChatGPT in ages. I didn't realize how useful the addition of persistent memory (between conversations) and its listen-and-answer interface is. It can stay running in the background. It feels like a real conversation with a person smarter than most of my friends.
If you haven't tried this app on your device, you should definitely give it a spin. This is how we'll be doing most everything in a few years, I expect.