I could not have been more wrong. I am now fighting for my survival.

As an amateur writer, I like to sit down and pen my thoughts with a lot of nuanced thinking and catchy phrases. Not anymore. The AI-triggered writing tools are constantly finishing my sentences, putting words on my screen, if not in my mouth, and otherwise controlling my narration to the point where I end up writing (if the activity can even be so described) the exact opposite of what I meant to convey.

Driving a modern car is nothing short of a nightmare. Why does the audio system try to announce everything and have a conversation with me? If I stray as much as a few millimetres into the adjacent lane, the steering wheel corrects itself with a screech, as though I just committed murder. And heaven help me if I am trying to reverse my car into a narrow space - the vehicle starts beeping and flashing like a police car. I strongly believe human beings will be unfit to drive cars of the future, and those who do will end up in an ER with a heart attack.

Many times it feels like I am living in a world of make-believe. Heating and cooling in my house is automatically controlled based on my pattern of breathing. My refrigerator reorders supplies depending on what is (not) available inside. If I am not well, an AI tool analyses my symptoms, comes up with a diagnosis and indicates a set of medicines to be taken. And travel and vacations are a breeze these days - I simply follow the suggestions (more like orders) from my digital assistant who, obviously, knows what is good for me better than I do.

The sheer speed with which AI is taking over various aspects of life is stunning. Change is not incremental. It is more like, 'impossible yesterday; perfectly done today'. I cannot open my computer or smartphone without being told what to view next, what to eat next or when to take a walk. It is like having an unwanted but powerful companion attached to my hip.

The biggest impact of the AI phenomenon is the generation and distribution of (fake) news through willing participants on WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms; news is disseminated faster than a wildfire, with unintended, sometimes catastrophic, consequences.

The tragedy of the whole scene is that I seem to be the only one incapable of living with and benefiting from this great gift to mankind that everyone else is cooing about. I seem to have truly met my technological nemesis!