Freelancer with 18+ years in web development and digital marketing. I share stories on websites, marketing, SEO, and AI, plus honest lessons from life in the trenches as a solopreneur.
Just A Minute: I Have A Meeting With Mr. Poop Cruz?
Just A Minute!Hi Reader, A few weeks ago, my wife told me about a documentary that came out on Netflix called "Poop Cruise." My eyeballs popped open. "It's called WHAT?" I asked, certain I'd misheard her. "'Poop Cruise.' It's about a cruise ship years ago where the power failed and raw sewage leaked all over the ship." Ahh, yes, I thought. I remember hearing something about that. Gross. But that happened like a decade ago, right? Strange. Oh well. I wanted to remember to look it up later when I had more time and maybe even watch it (if I could stomach it). "Hey Siri," I said to my iPhone, "Remind me later this week about 'Poop Cruise.'" I laughed as Siri confirmed that I'd be reminded later about this documentary that sounded bizarre and disgusting but was slightly intriguing. After all, I went on a Carnival Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean about a decade ago... I wondered if maybe it was the same ship. Had I ridden on the Poop Cruise ship and not known it? I forgot all about this for a few days until I was in a Zoom meeting with a client, and I was sharing my screen. As I clicked around, showing some charts and graphs, I heard a "Ding!" alert, as a notification popped up on my desktop for everyone to see. I stared at it in disbelief and thought, "Just a Minute!" It said "Meeting with Poop Cruz" in two hours. Well, color me embarrassed—this was the strangest thing I’ve ever had happen in a Zoom meeting. Fortunately, we all laughed it off as I tried awkwardly to explain just what was on my screen (and why). Clearly, when I told my iPhone to "remind me" about the Poop Cruise documentary, Siri somehow misunderstood and thought—hilariously—that I was going to have a meeting with someone named "Poop Cruz" later in the week. So why am I sharing this inadvertently scatological humor? Because this is a perfect example of what I've been saying since AI chatbots came out a while ago... AI is very, very dumb. Even in 2025, with ‘Apple Intelligence’ built into my iPhone and MacBook Pro, AI only looks smart. Under the hood, AI doesn’t understand you. It just guesses based on your exact words. If your input isn’t precise, your output will be nonsense (or worse). To get the most value out of AI, never trust it blindly. You have to give it EXTREMELY clear instructions, then double- and triple-check the results before sharing them. If you don’t, you might have to explain to a judge why your legal defense cited court cases that don’t exist… or explain to your readers why your newspaper’s book list recommends titles that aren't even real. Or (worst of all) your computer might end up notifying your clients you’ve got a meeting with Mr. Poop Cruz coming up in two hours. That would be really, really embarrassing. Don't ask me how I know. Got a question you’d like answered in a future email? Just hit reply. Yes, it’s really me, and yes, I read every response. Ron Stauffer Lieder Digital |
Ron Stauffer
Freelancer with 18+ years in web development and digital marketing. I share stories on websites, marketing, SEO, and AI, plus honest lessons from life in the trenches as a solopreneur.
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