I think there's an argument to be made that AI is being used here to help you tackle the more trivial tasks so you have more time to focus on the more important, and challenging tasks. Albeit I recognise GitHub CoPilot is legally questionable.

But yes, I agree with your overall point that AI has still not been able to 'think' like a human but rather can only still pretend to think like a human, and history has shown that users are often fooled by this.

Was that a problem before?

> Pundits always say that this is going to kill the old businesses - eventually that happens but not anywhere near as soon as they say.

So to me maybe he was implying that he did think that web apps would eventually take over, just not at a rapid speed.

A few months ago, I met up with a friend I hadn't seen for 2 years. Often, and for the entirety of the bus journey back home, I saw him scrolling through his phone. When this first occurred, I thought maybe he had received a message from someone, or that there was something important that he needed to do. I become curious so I ask him what he is doing. His response? "Oh, I'm just looking at Instagram." Perhaps it could be concluded that this is just the behaviour of one individual but I think behaviour like this is becoming increasingly more common.

I have endeavored in recent times to stop using my phone so much. In particular, I have completely removed Instagram, and Twitter from my phone, both of which feature endless scrolling. I absolutely do not regret doing so, nor do I miss these apps. Instead, sometimes I might read a book, or an article, or perhaps I'll just do nothing, and reflect on the day, and what I'm going to be doing next. And I think the issue with technology is that there's always something to do. With a newspaper, eventually you'll read everything you're interested in, and you'll stop. Same with a magazine. But when you're scrolling through Twitter, there is always something to keep you engaged, and to stop you leaving. And this is not by accident but rather it is intentional because, of course, the more time you spend on the app, the more ads you see. I now feel so much better mentally when I stopped such apps.

There are, of course, benefits to technology. If that weren't the case, I would not be here now. But I am a bit concerned that we are indulging to much in the distractions that technology brings rather than the amazing things it can do for us.

When it comes to free speech, many hear speech they deem to be abhorrent, and thus their reaction is that it ought not to be legal to say. And this feeling is understandable but perhaps demonstrates that the individual has not been educated on why to value freedom of speech. They often do not understand how dangerous it can be to allow someone to decide which speech can, and can't be allowed.

Additionally, I have been reading the book Fake Law, and what I have found striking is that large parts of the public are completely uneducated about the law, and why access to justice is important, and I myself learnt new things from the book. But the book also demonstrates how the media, and in turn politicians exploit this lack of education to slowly take away our rights, and restrict our access to justice. And this makes me reflect on my own education, and I now wonder whether that was intentional.

Switching companies is really easy. You just contact the ISP you want to switch to, and they pretty much sort out everything from there. Prices across the market are pretty similar although there is some non-price competition going on. For example, Sky (the UK provider of satellite TV) will give you a discount if you subscribe to their satellite service making your internet cheaper than it otherwise would've been. In the UK there is the concept of the 'loyalty penalty', a term not only used in regard to the ISP industry but also other services like gas, and electric. It is used to describe the situation where people who stick to one provider tend to be paying higher prices than those who frequently switch providers, and hunt for better deals therefore people are often encouraged to take advantage of how easy switching is.

I hear these stories from the US where people find they only have one provider in their region which is a completely foreign concept to myself. And when I was in British Columbia where some of my family reside, I noticed there seemed to be a duopoly on the ISP market: Shaw, and Telus. They also remarked on how expensive their service was. I don't know what the comparison is but it doesn't surprise me at all under such a market.