AI and What's So Funny
We ran feral. A Saturday visit to Grandma's house meant untethered hours ripping through the acres of forested floodplain that surrounded her small farmhouse as a kid. Ignoring her incessant warnings (i.e. mud, poison ivy, ticks, etc.), we proceeded with abandon. I've started using AI more intentionally with both caution and curiosity. It's been a powerful tool that has helped me understand unfamiliar topics, create and improve websites, and consider pending decisions. Like other technologies that have come before it—I remember my joy and relief using an early spell checker—I anticipate it becoming a regular part of my tech toolkit, one that capable of saving time and money and, most importantly, helping me work better. The disappointed reaction of friends when I tell them I've started using AI more regularly has been a surprise. I started this journey, which has been accelerated by working with Carl, my friend and coach from Mindteam.ai, because I recognized it's a powerful technology that is both necessary to know and to use with clear, thoughtful intention. "There is no values-free Design," my graduate Design History professor extorted us once during a lecture on the Third Reich. It is a sentiment that can be applied to many activities, technology included and rarely is. Playing tag, building forts, and running rampant in Grandma's "backyard" provided lessons about risk, wayfinding, the pleasures and pitfalls of unbridled play. Unlike AI, there were safeguards: a limited geographic range and nearby parents. Working with Carl the other day, I ran up against the daily usage limit of my AI account and felt not frustration but relief. Greed can so easily handicap responsibility. For now, I'll leave this limitation in place.
