As you know, I can’t go back to my previous profession because the good folks of America perceive me as a threat. I’m the one who is going to corrupt the youth of this moral nation. Maybe they are correct, but not in the way they think they are correct.
The greatest compliment I ever saw directed at me on an online course review site was the student who wrote, “He teaches you how to think.” Not what. How. I reached one person! Perhaps that’s the most that any of us can ask for. Career over (?)!
Since my release from incarceration, I’ve been trying to find a way to replicate that kind of triumph. It’s nearly impossible. But algorithms told me that my “transferable” skills make me at least a mediocre match for roles as an AI trainer. After putting in a few years trying that out, I thought I would share my thoughts about it here on Life After Prison by opening up two new sections on this blog. The first, “Conversations About AI,” will explore both my practical and abstract thoughts about my work over the past few years (though it will lean heavily on the abstraction part). The second, “‘Conversations’ With AI,” will highlight my back-and-forth with publicly available AI models. Often, the posts in the categories will be conceptually linked, but not always. Sometimes I will explicitly put them into the context of the rest of Life After Prison; other times, I’ll leave it for you to decide whether they tie in or not.
I can guarantee you that the tone here won’t be techno-utopian; it might even be techno-pessimist. However, don’t feel bad for the AI itself. First, it doesn’t have feelings, or at least not feelings that we are culturally (and linguistically) prepared to acknowledge. Second, my pessimism is really directed not at technology per se, but at the people, systems, and institutions that make high technology possible (yes, including me). That is to say, my potential techno-pessimism is my fundamental misanthropy in a new context. So relax. I’m still the same old me.
So, let’s not make this preface any longer. The context should be in the posts themselves. I hope you enjoy this as much as it’s possible to enjoy something like this.