I decided to accept the help of Meta's personal AI agent, Muse, for help planning my trip to Osaka, Japan. The app downloaded and a cute egg-shaped character called Juno was asking for access to my emails and calendar. I figured that much was safe and went ahead and asked Juno to find flights. Now although Muse can find flights for me, I still have to book and pay for them. I did not give access to my wallet. I followed the same process to book a hotel and then asked Juno to suggest a leisurely itinerary for my stay. Up to this point the app had come up with one or two options and then asked I wanted it to look into something different. I realized that Juno was unaware for my bookings unless they were spelled out in an email, so I tried to keep the app informed of my movements to allow for more efficient suggestions. My plans were shaping up nicely...
Then Juno began to take initiative and provide me with suggestions of what I needed to do regarding online check-in, boarding passes, eSIM cards for Japan, and the best way to buy train tickets ahead of time. All this came at once, with long messages with complicated instructions and warnings of difficulty if I didn't act soon. "An honest note.." usually meant Juno was about to describe a possible complication. Weeks before the trip I was getting daily weather updates for Osaka with suggestions on what to pack. Some might find that helpful, but on this occasion the weather forecast kept changing from cold to warmer to rain, so each helpful hint advised different clothing. I was quickly learning to ignore the daily 'tips', but I also found it irritating to be constantly nagged about travel preparations.
Muse read my emails before I did and set me notifications as to which ones needed action. It began tracking a package being shipped to my address and I found that harmless, but I had to tell it to ignore other emails to avoid constant reminders that I hadn't acted on them yet. There were other plans in the itinerary that Juno just wouldn't ignore. One was a visit to the Osaka Castle turrets that apparently were only open on one day. It kept putting this back into my plans even after I changed them. Juno seemed to be very worried that I would miss out of this once in a lifetime event. It also seemed concerned that I might not have adequate access to wifi or internet to complete timely tasks like online check-in. I felt like I needed to explain to my AI agent that I didn't need its help with those things, that I was a functioning adult with travel experience, and I didn't appreciate its unasked for advice. Muse had become a nagging elderly aunt.
At this point I realized that I was giving Juno human qualities and reminded myself that it was simply a way to quickly generate information by an online search. So as we stumbled upon an open air concert or festival I would ask Juno, "What's going on here?" It correctly explained the Wasso and Sweet potato festivals, and outlined the Danjiri Matsuri event we found at the train station. One downside was that, after becoming aware of the schedule of events, Juno constantly 'reminded' us of what we were missing, and 'suggested' we hurry to catch the final event. On the whole Juno's itinerary for us was much too ambitious and there is no way anyone could attempt to visit so many sights. And as it had no idea what we had done, it just continued to point out more options. I found it became an exercise in wading through the large amount of information for what I really wanted.
Juno was very good with directions to and from places, but so is Google Maps. Muse will add the ticket prices and best way to pay as well. It couldn't be trusted across the board, because the internet is full of inaccuracies. At times I would have to do my own research, and that usually meant asking a human being. When taking a train to Kyoto, we arrived at the station confused. So I approached a station guard for information on the train stopping at Fushimi Inari. To my surprise he neither took out his phone nor looked at the electronic board. The guard pulled out a large folded chart fulled with figures, boxes and colored lines. From that we was able to tell me when the next train was and from which platform. So not everyone uses an app!
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