A brief introduction
This site has existed for many years as a place for posting public thoughts, positions, and works. The postings have reflected my interests, and work paths... which have been many! Civic tech has been a leading interest, and I written about governance, citizenship, the commons, and importance of public sector software.
Along the way, I have imported South African wine, built public art, established non-profits, and launched a startup. As mentioned, there is, and has been, a lot to do.
Much of that writing has been unpublished to make space for exploring AI. There are moments when technology can pivot history. While many technologies have advanced during my lifetime, none appear as consequential to me as the rise of artificial intelligence.
I have been working with code my entire career. For many hours, I manage an agency whose mission is to build better software for the public good. Through this work, I have followed advancements in AI. I knew that slow progress was being made, but also that there were real technical limitations. When breakthroughs occurred, I noted the articles and reports. Fei-Fei Li's work on ImageNet unlocked data limitations. The 2017 Transformer paper by researchers at Google was key. Nvidia's GPUs began to provide the compute power needed to push the models forward.
When AlphaGo learned to play Go and bested the top human player, I was no longer just idly interested. I became fascinated. When AlphaFold solved the protein folding problem, I was stunned.
Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, recently described the societal impact of AI as a step function and the technological growth of AI as an exponential curve. There are moments, like the release of ChatGPT, that suddenly raise interest and awareness of the technology. However, this awareness always lags behind the growth of the technology itself.
Right now, AI is developing at a rapid pace. There will be great applications developed with AI that will improve our lives. There are also AI applications that are deeply concerning. For example, earlier in 2024, the US Air Force completed a dogfight between a human pilot and an AI pilot. It has not yet been revealed who won.
To mitigate risks and maximize benefits, regulations need to be put into place. Yet, we cannot regulate in a reactionary ecosystem. Policy cannot follow the step curve. Policy, AI ethics, and philosophical considerations need to evolve from the leading, exponential edge of the technology.
With that in mind, I've updated the focus of my writing, thinking, and vectors. I will use this publication to record thoughts and share papers and sources I find interesting. At the very least, this is a journal of thoughts, a pathway through the rapid onslaught of news and developments. At best, some approaches on how to best manage AI in the public space will emerge.
As for "thoughts on walking"... well, see above for my propensity to have many interests. Yet, there is a reason to include that here in these words on AI. AI cannot walk the earth yet. It seems to me that it is important to consider this new element (entity?) in our society from the foundation of a human, with a body, strolling over a hill, down a valley, or through a plain, stopping to view the stars or to peer over a cliff.