Artificial What?
A tech titan comes to my rescue
Here’s a fine example of artificial intelligence working at full capacity.
I bought myself a Fitbit. The cheapest one. I wanted to know how many steps I was doing every day.
I downloaded the app, followed the instructions, walked about, pressed Sync a few times, the app showed the same number as the pedometer clipped to my belt. I put the pedometer back in the drawer. I had a new gadget.
And we lived happily ever after, my gadget and I, until this morning.
Opened up the app, got a log-in page. Words about how I could merge everything into my Google account. An illustration. Mostly green.
I pressed Log in with Fitbit. Yes, I know Fitbit has been absorbed into Google. This wasn’t my first time on this app being interrupted by pop-up invitations to experience the wonders of Google. I’m contra-suggestive, that’s the word. Human, that’s the other word.
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I confirmed that I wanted to Log in with Fitbit. Entered my email address. The thing wanted my password. No, my tablet hadn’t saved my password, and no, I haven’t done anything clever like saving all my passwords in one hard-to-hack central location on the cloud, or whatever it is people do.
Faced with Forgot password? or Log in with Google, I logged in with Google.
Or more exactly, I didn’t. You can’t log in with this account, said Google. Because I’m using Google Workspace. They started billing me a while back, small amounts for what used to be free, so I suppose I am. You — I — can’t log into Fitbit using a Google Workspace account, apparently.
Got up off the sofa, crossed the room, rummaged around in the scraps of paper, found my Fitbit password.
Went back to the sofa. Not more than about 50 steps max, but a gain anyway.
Logged in with Fitbit. The screen showed me a new question.
Are you not ready to log in with Google? asked Google.
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