AI Meets Retirement
Whatever ideas I’ve had about my own retirement have faded with the reality of the times we’re in. Plans can’t be executed in a vacuum. They are morphed in part by some guardrails outside my control. Gosh, that’s annoying. Also liberating. I like the illusion of control. Professionals in wealth management specialize in the illusion of control. With paid work in the rearview mirror, the potential of a different kind of retirement is coming into focus.
In important ways, many things in my retired life have become easier. Genuine relaxation is a daily feature.
Murray and I chose to buy our retirement home in Governor’s Land (GL) in Williamsburg, Virginia, because it holds all the amenities, we would purchase a la carte anyway living in a different community. Having neighborhood access to trails, golf, swimming and a restaurant reduces the time and energy I have to spend to create those experiences, which are ways I’ve chosen to spend my time and money in this stage of life. All this at a fraction of the price many of our friends are paying in other places for similar spaces. This special place stands out for the sheer beauty of the river, forests, trails, and relative solitude of only 700 homes across 1,400 acres. The acreage isn’t in the home lots. It is in the forests, the beach, the golf course and the marina.
The last year included heavy work responsibilities before retirement, illness, surgeries, two moves and the loss of my mother-in-law. I’m ready for peace. My health is improving.
This morning, I type this from my serene writing studio as birdsong slips through my windows where the view of the sun splashed across the 5th green pull my eyes from the screen. In a bit, I’ll throw on my sneaks and walk a little over 5 miles in the tranquility of forest paths along the James River. Murray is headed out for 18 holes with the guys. The Queens of Clubs, my ladies golf group, gathered for a brunch recently and we golf together most Wednesdays. A food forward group who welcomed this newbie with open arms and good conversation, I may have found my tribe. Tomorrow night, we’ll dine with neighbors at the clubhouse restaurant. A couple of grandkids live across town. I know family and friends will delight in their visits here. We can’t wait to host more of them. This is what we worked all our lives for. We’re here for as long as we’re healthy.
Something else moved in with us though. AI has comfortably settled in most corners of our daily life. Much of it is welcome which I’ll get to in a minute, but some of it is actual trespassing AI calls a “connected experience.” I use Microsoft’s Word for writing (like this blog) and come to find out, AI is here too as it scrapes all content inside Word on my computer to feed itself. AI is a bit of a politician. When I asked AI if its content was original, it answered, “AI-generated content is a synthesis of existing data and patterns learned during the training of AI models, which raises questions about its originality.” Emphasis mine. I know, I laughed too. But then I remembered a post I saw that showed how to turn off the scraping of content by AI from little ole me. Sure enough, I went into Word settings, then options, then trust center, then privacy, then connected experiences . . . and unchecked all those boxes, I had to re-start Word to apply the my new found privacy.
Our new (to us) home was actually built in 1998. That means we are slowly changing over systems, appliances, lighting, security and sound to AI powered autonomy. Updating thermostats, the apps we use to enter and leave our home, and the “built-in” sound system will be re-worked for 2025 and beyond.
Skylight turned our formerly independent professional calendars into one calendar we can use on our phones, show family photos, and coordinate with family and friends using the AI assistant Sidekick. It can even handle meal planning and recipes while it hangs on the wall where what’s happening that day is crystal clear.
From the work I did on retirement planning, I’m well aware that an idle mind ages more quickly than and agile one. Perplexity, an AI product with a reasonably priced pro version, has become a constant companion to feed my own busy mind. In seconds, I can research any topic, which is then sourced, leading to more research. The rabbit holes are the point. It’s like a roller coaster with no stops, just the thrills. Retiring doesn’t eliminate document reading, they just change from work docs to medical, legal, government docs. That’s where Google’s Notebooklm.com has come in handy. Simply uploading the documents, lets me understand them quickly by asking questions about their content. It gets much better. Make your scrolling useful by plugging in websites in addition to documents. You can use this for trip planning, meal planning, fitness, writing – the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Want to hear it instead of read it? Make it into an audio file and you’ll hear the information delivered back to you in an easy he said/she said podcast format.
Real life problems don’t retire when you do. Recently, my oldest son who is also a dad, husband, and executive, had brain surgery at the University of Virginia to remove an aggressively growing pituitary tumor that threatened a loss of vision. My younger sister, who is also a mom, wife and new retiree, had surgery at Kaiser to repair a mitral valve prolapse that had been mild but turned quite severe, threatening her life. The fact that these were happening on the same Tuesday was just the universe winking at my devotion to planning life. I could collapse in a heap of worry or I could get better information.
Did you know The University of Virginia (UVA) Health Pituitary Tumor Program is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enhance the surgical treatment of pituitary tumors? This involves analyzing thousands of cases to provide decision support to surgeons, suggesting optimal approaches based on past similar surgeries, and guiding the surgical process. Kaiser's AI initiatives include efforts to streamline clinical workflows and improve diagnostic accuracy, which then benefit preoperative planning and postoperative care for mitral valve repair surgeries. Both my son and my sister are doing well having benefited from these institutions’ use of AI.
I have a repair coming up on my right STAR ankle which was replaced in 2011 and repaired the first time in 2017. Repair recovery can actually take a few weeks longer than replacement recovery so I’ll be non-weight bearing for 14 weeks this next time. With literally nowhere to go, you think I’m not excited about this new online world of research at my fingertips?
My next ankle repair involves a part made on a 3D printer. Using AI in the ankle replacement process can reduce up to 30 steps in the surgical process, decreasing overall operative time. AI, combined with weight-bearing CT scans, enables the creation of 3D virtual models of my ankle. This informs the design of the 3D-printed implan to mitigate long-term complications.
Some potential downsides to AI in retirement are connected to many of the same downsides as other activities. Using AI, one still needs to be aware of privacy! Look in the settings of AI products you use to determine if you can turn off the constant feeding of AI through scraping and data collection. Remembering AI is a tool vs a solution, seniors using AI can still be hacked. AI can also be wrong! Especially in health matters, keep it as a tool to use in asking questions with a competent MD. Remember, it is literally a product of all that came before it in terms of knowledge and opinions so it has lots of garbage in it. Don’t leave your critical thinking behind when using AI.
I see more upsides to using AI as a retiree including the creative pursuits that are often limited by a lack of time when working. Playfully pursuing personal expression, I can create digital art through Midjourney, then share it with others at a time of my choosing. Want cozy travel from your sofa? Most great experiences require virtual reality (VR) headsets and software both of which can be expensive. But they remain a fraction of the cost of real life travel. As much as I’ve enjoyed going overseas the last several years, it’s increasingly overpriced, overcrowded, and underwhelming. I can see a time when VR might overcome at least two out of three.
My retirement is enhanced by AI in so many ways including the time I save to use elsewhere. So far, AI isn’t making more of that.
