Week 7/100

 Part 1 - Video Planning

Our group continued to use slack as our primary means of communication. Some of our group was traveling for part of the time we had so aligning synchronously was tricky early on. I think we got off to a slow start, with mainly one person pushing for progress. The rest of the group started to catch up, and I think this week we're seeing real action. I think if we set some preliminary deadlines and job split responsibilities from the start it might have gone better. Setting expectations and timelines for accountability helps for larger collaborative (and self!) projects.

Part 2 - videos

The harvard podcast was mostly about ethics of AI. They focused on a utilitarian framework and questioning how this fits with our capitalist economic system. One of my takeaways here is it's important to frame the problem to give context to someone's perspective. I am familiar with their analogy of "all gas, no brakes" from my time racing cars. We'd say that people who weren't smart only spent money on go-fast and never stop-fast, which results in accidents. Another car analogy they used is that people need to think and know how to use all the tools they have available such as looking around and monitoring conditions. Even when someone spent money on stop-fast, if they crashed we'd say it's not the car's fault, it's that the driver ran out of talent. You have to be talented and thoughtful to use tools ethically and safely. My last point about this podcast is that they framed AI just in terms of generative AI, not considering all the other methods and use cases that fall under the AI umbrella, which is what my first ted talk video touched on. The speaker described the use of AI to analyze potential copper mining sites to reduce mining error and waste, and maximize the amount of ore collected. People often overlook these non-generative AI technologies but they are often more impactful today. My second ted talk video was about how a lawyer fought and won against Exxon. Much like we use C and Java to program computers, lawyers use the law to program society. There is nuance and potential to do great harm or great good depending on how it's interpreted and used in practice, just like AI can be used for harm or for good.

I've seen Don McMillan before. He does a great job of showing exactly how powerpoint can be misused. If you're doing a live presentation, don't overpack the slides! Keep it simple is the long story short here, and leave room to tell the story with your speaking.