Artificial intelligence can let us have conversations with folks who are long gone. Fascinating!
That’s what I thought when I read this by Stéphane Peter, founder and CEO of Catloaf Software, Inc: “Text With Jesus was created to help people engage with Scripture and faith in a more approachable and interactive way,” he wrote. “With Voicemails, users can request a spoken response when they want the conversation to feel more reflective, personal, or prayerful.”
Truly inspired, I got a conversation going with Albert Einstein. I loved texting back and forth with him and ignored the huge downside to this AI technology.
That downside seemed irrelevant until I got an email supposedly from Margaret Atwood, the famous author of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I was deeply honored by her kind words and curious questions about my writing. When I shared my hopes for broader visibility for my books, she generously connected me with her agent. She also had complimentary things to say about my writing and said that she’d help promote me.
But first, I needed to upgrade my website and Amazon content. She connected me to her consultant to do so. I was unhappy with the consultant’s fee, but negotiated it down considerably. However, her insistence on accessing the backend of my website as an administrator freaked me out. That’s when I discovered online that it’s common for marketing scammers to do this and hold your website hostage for a big payout. Was this all just an AI scam?