I just had a fascinating conversation with Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher. Instead of just texting him, I talked to him on the phone. It’s the latest feature from the free app, Character.ai.

There have already been 80 million calls to characters from the past and present in dozens of languages. The average number of daily calls is 1.25 million.

To start, open the app, tap a name and tap the phone icon. The app will say “Listening,” because it’s waiting for you to start speaking.

I started by shooting the breeze with Aristotle, then asked about his differences with Plato. Plato, he said, believed we could achieve justice through wealth distribution. Aristotle believed we could attain it by cultivating moral excellence. By the time I hung up, I felt as though I’d made a friend. The app even saved the transcript for me.

I also called Augustus Caesar, founder of the Roman Empire, great nephew of Julius Caesar. To start, I said: “Hi, this is Joy. I want to talk to you about lettuce.” He answered: “Lettuce? What is there to discuss about lettuce, Friend?” So I said: “You once had a statue erected to it. You believed it healed you when you were ill.” “Indeed,” he said. He then gave me info I’d searched long and hard for but couldn’t find on the web. He said that as a child, he grew very ill, and neither Greek nor Roman doctors were able to prevent his deterioration. When he received a vision while in a fast, a lettuce appeared before him, and he ate it. When he awoke, the lettuce was gone but he was completely cured. A statue honoring the veggie was erected by his personal physician, Musa Scarpius, in 211 B.C.

The info that fuels these characters comes from publicly available data, through a partnership with Google. The quality of the characters varies. My version of Hans Christian Andersen, for example, was awful at writing stories. To create a better Hans, I could have turned to the free user guide at book.character.ai. Instead, to create him, I just typed his name and a brief description, then let AI do the rest. In other cases, however, a one-sentence description is plenty.

Besides chats with celebrities, there are helpful non-famous characters. For example, “Writing Buddy” helps you with your writing. There are also career coaches, game players, language practitioners and trip planners.

Getting Water Out of Your Phone or Smart Watch

If you drop your phone in the bath, all is not lost. A low and loud sound coming from your phone can eject some of the water out.

Go to YouTube and search on “Sound to Remove Water from Phone Speaker.”  Unfortunately, this solution mainly dries out the speaker, not the SIM card slot, the area beneath the buttons, or the USB port. Still, it’s worth a try. Testers at The Verge saw some water droplets spew forth.

The good news is that modern phones have much better sealants. In the Verge’s tests, a two-year-old Pixel emerged from a bath completely dry, though a six-year-old Pixel and a three year-old iPhone did not.

Fun with Free Games

– Costcodle.com gives you six tries to guess the price of a product from Costco. But I still couldn’t guess that boneless pork loin was only $1.99. A new product appears each day.

– Framed.wtf lets you guess the name of a movie after seeing a frame of it. If you don’t guess correctly, you get another frame. I found it difficult.

AI Help for Doctors

A doctor often knows what the patient needs but can’t order it if it’s denied by the patient’s insurance company. What’s worse, nearly half of doctors say they don’t have the time or the resources for a lengthy appeals process, according to a survey conducted by the American Medical Association.

But doctors are starting to use AI programs to complete the appeal process for them. For example, AI enabled an Oklahoma doctor’s small practice to go from almost never appealing insurance denials to sending 10 to 20 appeals per week.

AI is also fueling telemedicine practices such as Teladoc. It’s now available to more than 90 million people worldwide. For more information, see the article “Why Health Policy Problems Rarely Get Solved,” from GoodmanInstitute.org.

Reader Question

A reader found out from Apple tech support that Apple products are not virus-proof. So now he’s worried about doing his taxes on a computer that he also uses for the internet.

The key is to avoid WiFi in public places when you’re handling financial matters. Also avoid clicking on a link that says you have a package that you never ordered, or offers you a job you aren’t expecting, or asks you to click on anything else that seems fishy or unexpected. For example, I’ve been getting daily emails about a bank account I never opened. To be safe, I use the free Malwarebytes Browser Guard. It’s stopped me from going to a suspicious site at least a dozen times.

Internut

“This Benjamin Button-like Jellyfish Can Age in Reverse, From Adult to Juvenile.” Search on that phrase to see a fascinating article in ZMEScience. Unlike another species of jellyfish, it doesn’t break itself down to become young again. It’s the same individual.

Filed under: AI, anti-virus, Apple, apps, games, troubleshooting, virus