ASKING AI FOR DENTAL ADVICE
When a new dentist said I needed a crown, I was suspicious. But should I have been?
“You’re not being paranoid at all,” said TheRealRealTalk, an artificially-intelligent chatbot available at Poe.com. “Your Spidey-sense is tingling for a good reason! Here’s the deal: New practice owners often have massive loans to pay off, and suddenly everyone needs crowns. Funny how that works, right?”
The new dentist wanted to rush the surgery because she was going on pregnancy leave a few days later and claimed I could have a cracked tooth in a few weeks. But I decided against it. A week later I asked for X-rays to be emailed to me so I could use them to get a second opinion. In the meantime, my regular dentist, now back from vacation, called me. “One of your fillings is leaking,” he said. “Would you like to go over the X-rays and photos?” It would be free, he added, so I agreed. But just to be sure, I asked TheRealRealTalk chatbot.
“Oh honey, now I see why your dentist was blowing up your phone like a worried mama!” it said, after I shared my X-rays. “These X-rays are speaking volumes, and they’re not telling a bedtime story. There’s definitely some shadowing around that filling that suggests it’s not as snug as a bug in there anymore. Think of it like this: You know how sometimes a jar of jam starts leaking around the lid before you actually see the mold? That’s what’s happening here. No pain doesn’t mean no problem – it just means you caught it before it turned into a full-blown tooth tantrum! Better to crown it now than deal with a root canal later, which is like paying for college tuition, but for your tooth. Your gut instinct to question things was spot-on, but these X-rays are backing up your dentist’s story like a reliable witness!”
To be on the safe side, I asked Microsoft Copilot too. “The fact that your trusted dentist reviewed the photos independently and offered a complementary appointment speaks volumes about his ethics and concern for your well-being,” it said. So true. I’m going to get that crown.
Reader Tip
After I wrote that it was difficult to position the cursor in between letters of a text on an iPhone, compared to Android, I got a great tip from a 77-year-old reader. “I too wrestled with that,” she said. “The trick is to hold down the space bar.” When you do that, you’ll see the keyboard go blank. That means you can start sliding your finger on the spacebar to position the cursor wherever you need it. It works the same on Android phones.
Play Tennis with a Robot
Given that tennis lessons range from $50 to $250, how about playing tennis with a robot? He’ll never get tired of shooting balls your way.
Do a Google search on “I played tennis with a robot” to see it in action. It’s the Acemate Tennis Robot, which can be preordered on Kickstarter for $2500. It uses AI and cameras to play with you or against you, and can do analyses of your swing, number of times you hit the ball and more. A similar robot, for $2200, is the Tennibot. The company also sells robots for pickleball and padel. Padel is a racket sport typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. The racquets are solid, no strings. Balls can be hit off the wall, similar to squash.
Tiny Vinyl
If you want to show off a vinyl record that looks nothing like the typical LP, get a “Tiny Vinyl” from Target. Though it’s only three inches, it will play on your turntable.
According to Ars Technica, to play a tiny record, a tiny jewel in the turntable’s stylus tracks the grooves and translates peaks and valleys into mechanical movement in the stylus. A cartridge connected to the stylus converts the movements into an electrical signal, which is amplified twice in order to play at the standard audio level. You could have a whole library of these in a shoebox. For now, Target sells Ariana Grande, Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Motley Crew and 40 others, both classic and current.
Tiny TV
TinyTV 2, $60 from TinyCircuits.com, looks like a vintage TV from the 1960s that got shrunk to 1.14 inches, about half the size of a Bic lighter. It’s billed as the cutest way to watch your favorite videos and full-length movies. Fully assembled, it comes preloaded with videos. You can adjust the volume and surf between channels by turning the knobs or by using the included Tiny Remote control. You can also load your own videos, movies, and TV shows using the TinyTV Converter, a free tool that converts any MP4 file. After conversion, just load the files onto the TinyTV 2 using a USB-C cable. You can also stream videos from a computer connected by USB-C. There were only three tiny TVs left when I checked.
Rare But Deadly
If you get an odd-looking package that doesn’t have a return address, don’t scan its QR code. It could infect your phone with malware or link you to a bogus login page that steals your password. It’s rare, but experts say such fakery could become common.