“I am concerned enough about AI that I need to know more, learn more, and be involved with AI in my realm of influence. I need to be able to harness it. If you think about it like a horse, you can be afraid of how huge it is, or you can get up and learn how to ride. So my opinion is [to] hold on and ride.”
“I help people first understand AI, and then how to network personally to use AI effectively. That personal connection is very important. I’m also on an advisory board of a STEM committee, where I help young, specifically minority women get into STEM … using AI and working with AI … My goal is to be kind of the cornerstone, to guide people along this journey and do it effectively, but safely, and [to] make sure that everyone has access.”
“[For] my middle adopters, I removed barriers. So I initially said, ‘What’s in it for [them]? [What are] the things they need to streamline? What’s bogging them down? What’s holding them back? What is something that we can do to help you with so that it doesn’t have to be AI?’ It can be just reconfiguring what you’re doing, or giving you something else that can help you. But there are things that AI can do that can save you a lot of time … For instance, a person had three new hires, and they didn’t know what to do. So, [the] first thing you do is identify the training that needs to be done [and] you identify the timeline. Then you give it to AI to give them the most efficient timeline and in which they can be done. Secondly, you use the AI to understand their reading level and find out what’s the most efficient way to teach them. We don’t all learn the same way. So we can change it and make it easy for them to learn things quickly.”
“When I think of AI, I think of it like a pyramid, as far as the jobs and what we’re doing. So the bottom or the top are the jobs that AI can take over: jobs that are doing basic writing or basic editing. If you are working at that level, you should focus on how to do an analysis of your job. For instance, if your job is writing reports, and now AI can do a first draft or can edit reports, you should be thinking of doing the analysis of that report. What we’re teaching, in basic training for companies, needs to be more on the analytical side. It needs to be not, ‘Can you turn this widget now?’ It is,’Can you manage the thing that turns the widget?’ You know … reasoning and logic skills … that’s not what’s taught in schools now. That’s my big concern.”
“You are the person who’s in charge … Don’t let AI or anything be the onus for your work life … AI is an assistant. AI will help you, but it is not your job. Step up your game and believe that you can level up . Once you start believing that you can level up, start doing it. Start making it happen. People’s fear of AI taking their jobs is narrower. They need to see their job and their life in their own hands. It’s the late adopters, or the non-adopters [who] I’m most concerned about: the people who are afraid to change. Work has changed. Life is change. If you can’t make changes … you’re going to be left behind. That’s not just AI, that’s just how the world works.”
“People trust us with their data. We have to be cautious about what we’re doing in the public sector, because people depend on us. So I made a point not to allow any external-facing AI in our company. I don’t allow AI to be used without a [human] sign-off on it … It is a helper only. It’s an augmenter. If you had an extra thumb next to your pinky, it would help you grasp better. It’s not your hand. It’s one digit. So you still have five that are yours. That’s what AI should be for you . If you’re afraid of it, you’re going to let someone else run it. We want to be in charge of our own fate. This is one of those things … that’s going to change the world. I’m scared of [AI], but I’m scared of it to the point that I need to know more and I need to be able to harness it. If you think about it like a horse, you can be afraid of how huge it is, or you can get up and learn how to ride. So my opinion is [to] hold on and ride.”
“I’ve worked with soldiers [who] don’t have degrees necessarily. When I looked around, I also noticed that when you talk about minority groups, the same situation occurs. You could [have] worked for 20 years and not have a degree, but you’re gonna get knocked out by someone with five years experience and a degree. Who does this affect? It affects minorities. It affects [the] military. It affects [the] middle class and [the] middle-to-low class. It’s hugely important to understand that we need to be in this room [making decisions about AI]. We’re talking [about] your jobs. We’re talking about laws. [We’re talking about] people making assumptions based on AI. Who would write the AI? Who’s in there to correct the errors that are there? It has to be you, it has to be me. These are imperative things. “
“When I helped soldiers find jobs, I was the person who would try to make sure that [their] resume was perfect to connect with employers. I would always go the extra step because I believe everyone deserves a person to help them. You can be the beacon where they need you to be, but you can’t own their problems. That was why I was always a person who streamlined processes. I always made things easier for companies.”
“We were redoing the State’s website, and we needed to process a lot of text very quickly. There was so much information that needed to be edited within three days, which we thought [was] impossible. We had to turn to AI to make sure that we [knew] what was missing versus what was all there. [We asked it] how was [the site] worded? How was this communicated? [Were] we missing information? … [It allowed us to start] having honest conversations about what we were giving [our constituents] versus what they need[ed], and what we could do better. It allowed us to see some of our blind spots which are really beautiful things. When we’re talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion, sometimes just by oversight, we don’t see.”
“Most of my concerns are human problems of AI. When I started doing this … I realized no one looked like me. There was no one who looked like me at all. It disturbed me greatly. I like data analytics, and missingness [in data] scares me to death. When they say missingness in data, it’s usually us. It’s usually minorities in some way, shape and form, whether that minority group is people with disabilities or people who look like me or people who have a skin color or people who have learning differences or whatever it is. AI can be used for bad [when] they’re segregating or separating you. AI can also be used for good. If you know better … it’s your onus to fix it. Everyone needs to be in this room. The more people in this room in the AI space, especially in AI and data analytics, the more equitable it will become. Without it, the people who make the rules get what they want.“
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