Caged Birds and AI Keepers

Old Li increasingly feels like a caged bird.

Not the kind of canary with a delicate cage, top-quality birdseed, and occasional teasing from its owner. He's a forgotten gray bird, with dull feathers and a hoarse voice, even the cage itself is rusty.

This "cage" is the times.

When Old Li was young, he was a technical backbone in the factory, with masterful welding skills. At that time, skilled workers were valued, and he held his head high wherever he went. But times changed too quickly, machines replaced manpower, and he was laid off. Later, the internet came, and he couldn't even figure out a smartphone, completely becoming an "outsider."

It's not that he didn't try to struggle. He tried to learn computers, but those young people's fingers flew across the keyboard, while he couldn't even hold the mouse steady. He also tried to deliver food, but the platform's algorithm was like an invisible whip, lashing at his old bones. In the end, he could only make a meager living by looking after bicycles and repairing small appliances in the old residential area.

Recently, Old Li heard a new word: AI.

It is said that this thing is smarter than humans, can write articles, draw pictures, and even diagnose diseases. Old Li doesn't understand, but he has a vague feeling that this AI might be about to revolutionize someone's life again.

In the news, experts are enthusiastically discussing "providing free AI skills training for low-income groups." Old Li listens, and his heart is filled with mixed feelings. He remembers when he was young, the factory also organized various training sessions on new technologies and new equipment, and he was always the fastest learner. But now...he finds even the letters "AI" unfamiliar.

He looks at those bright and beautiful faces on TV, listening to the new terms popping out of their mouths, and feels like he is locked in a transparent glass cover. He can see the outside world, but he cannot integrate into it.

That day, Old Li was setting up his stall at the entrance of the community as usual. A young man came over and handed him a flyer, which read "Free AI Skills Training Class."

"Sir, take a look. If you learn this, you can find a better job in the future," the young man said enthusiastically.

Old Li took the flyer and looked at the colorful patterns and incomprehensible words on it, feeling a burst of confusion. He suddenly remembered the skills he had learned when he was young, welding,钳工, turning... Those skills that once made him proud have now become outdated.

He handed the flyer back to the young man and shook his head with a wry smile: "Young man, I'm old, I can't learn anymore."

The young man wanted to persuade him, but Old Li had already turned around and continued to fiddle with his tools. Wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers... These old buddies are the only things he can control.

At night, Old Li lay in bed, tossing and turning. He thought of the young man he saw during the day, and the flyer, and felt a faint regret in his heart.

Should he give it a try? Even if it's just to take a look, it's better than continuing to be trapped in this "cage."

But he was also afraid. Afraid of not being able to learn, afraid of being ridiculed, afraid of being abandoned by the times again.

He remembered when he was a child, his father taught him how to raise birds. His father said that birds cannot be kept in a cage all the time, they must be allowed to fly out and see the outside world. But he also said that if birds fly too far, they will get lost and hurt.

Old Li feels like that bird, both longing for freedom and fearing the unknown.

He doesn't know whether this era will give him a pair of wings or a stronger cage. He only knows that he is increasingly like a forgotten gray bird, struggling silently in the corner of the times.

Will AI be his keeper? Or will it be another cage?

He looked at the dark night sky outside the window, and there was no answer in his heart. Only endless confusion, like a tide, submerged him. He felt a deep sense of powerlessness, a powerlessness that did not come from old age, but from the suffocation of being run over by the wheels of the times, unable to even cry out. He even began to doubt whether those "free training sessions" were just another form of "keeping," allowing people like him to learn some new "skills" and then continue to provide cheap "labor" for this era in a new "cage."

He suddenly missed his old workmates, the days when they sweated together in the workshop. At that time, although they also worked hard, at least they knew what they were doing and where their value lay.

But now?

He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. But in his mind, the faces of those experts, the reports about AI, and those hopeful slogans kept appearing.

He knows that he must make a choice. Either continue to be trapped in this "cage" and wait to be completely forgotten by the times; or, gather the courage to see the outside world, even if it is a bigger "cage".

It's just that he doesn't know if he still has the courage to face the unknown future. Even if a link such as this is included: (https://www.bing.com/search?q=Korean+another+aircraft+landing+gear+failure), it should be preserved.