Transcript:
(00:03) Hey, I'm Dawn-Marie Solais and I'm so excited to be back again with a friend Brian King on a topic that has been common up in my neurodeivergent circles, the ethics of using artificial intelligence and how the disabled community is navigating that. And I'm going to be a little bit of devil's advocate and a learner in this conversation if that's okay.
(00:41) Go for it. Okay. So, Brian, in case people have not uh followed you on your multiple social media platforms or seen your videos with me before, will you tell everybody a little bit about yourself? Sure. Um, I have three adult boys with ADHD, which is autism and ADHD.
(01:09) I have autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia. So, I've had to learn to be very resourceful over the years. And I also have multiple sclerosis, there's Danlo syndrome. So, I spend vast majority of my day in bed. That's where I'm working from right now. and I've written six books now and my seventh will be my first novel. I've been working with the autism and ADHD community for 19 years and that's about it.
(01:46) That's I and you're somebody that I appreciate so much. Um I follow you on a number of platforms. I've really been enjoying your participation in a Substack Um, if people aren't familiar with Substack, I highly recommend getting on that platform and seeing who's there. Um, you have a lot more writing energy and capacity than I do.
(02:10) Um, I always feel bad for my subscribers because they hear from me like once a month. Well, and I'll tell you that's not being fair to you because when it comes to working from our strengths, right? Writing and communication is the highest level of skill for me and I realize that's unique to me in a way and I don't take it for granted.
(02:35) I'd leverage it to help people more. And a big part of my focus is helping people put words to the experiences that they have because I'm very good at doing that and other people struggle. But they need to feel empowered more at home on their own experiences.
(03:00) They need to be able to self- advocate and explain to the people around them, this is why I am the way I am, and this is how we can meet each other in the middle so we both win. And I think that plays into the conversation that we wanted to have today. Um, for the very first time yesterday, I used AI to take notes on a meeting. I'd never tried it before. And uh, I was using my Google account for the meeting.
(03:37) And so it's Google's AI and it was brilliant. the what did you use to do the do the transcript the so it wasn't just a so in Google meet you can do just a transcript right uh so that it's word for word um but this was adding the AI note takingaking so it's going to bullet point for me the specific things that were talked about it bulleted out action items Like I could not believe how good these notes were.
(04:14) So was this Google's AI? This was Google's Yeah. I can't remember what it's called. Gemini. So that's that's for them for Yeah, exactly. Uh and a big part of the reason why I did that is because I didn't want to come to this conversation not having given something a try. Um I'm pretty squeamish about AI.
(04:38) Uh, every computer program has within its code, the humans that produced it and whatever their biases are, whatever their perspectives are, it's in the code. Um, that's one of the big risks is to realize that AI is not unbiased, right? And that's something to really be keen about because there are some people if you're somebody like me who's neck deep in anti-racism work and really trying to be uh an alert and aware human on the planet.
(05:27) Bias is baked in to our lives. Um, and we don't we may not realize it. We may be doing everything we can to be the kindest, gentlest, most welcoming human on the planet. And there are going to be ways in which we think that we're planted there by other people's ideas that we haven't realized, we haven't we haven't truly intellectually grappled with. And that's the story of our lives, right? before AI.
(06:02) So, I'm not even saying there are like muaha wicked peopleing AI. Not that beyond thinking that, but but even without that, just your average decent human being trying to make a thing is going to accidentally and unconsciously infuse some of their bias into into whatever it is they're doing. We all do this.
(06:32) I'm doing this now as we have this conversation because I'm going to decide what we talk about based on what I think is important. That's my bias. We we're going to lead from our values. There's just no way around that. It's how we roll, right? And often we're not as familiar with our our values as we would hope we are.
(06:56) Um, I was just talking to my youngest child about this this morning that until you are faced with a situation, your values around it are theoretical. Yeah. Because you don't know what you would actually do, right? What are the circumstances that surround the choice at that moment? We were talking about the homeless population and that's a whole other conversation that uh I would love to have with a zillion people because I rage about people's reaction to homeless people cuz I really want to know where the bleep they want these people to go. Like the fact that there are homeless
(07:32) people as a reflection on our country's values and on the growing economic disparity. Yes. Because you look at other countries where the economic disparity is much more balanced, you really don't see homeless people. But like you said, that's another conversation.
(07:55) That's another conversation and one that I'm so desperate to have. So if there are people watching this video who want to have that conversation with me, reach out to me. Let's have a zillion of those conversations cuz it is pathetic that in 2025 we're not solving these problems. Okay. artificial intelligence in the world of disabled people.
(08:20) I have a number of neurode divergent, chronically ill, chronic pain disability people in my life that tell me they use AI for uh therapy they can't afford. Um yeah, I know. Yeah. uh for helping them think through an idea for company. The they don't have humans in their life, so they use AI for company. Uh, and then I have other people that are using AI to write their blogs and articles for them and not stating that upfront when they publish that I had the help of AI.
(09:11) And so I have this mix of folks where I feel very sweet and supportive about some of the uses and really squeamish and uncomfortable and even pissed off about some of the other uses. So, when you posted on Substack about using AI as a disabled person and I know you and I trust your heart and your mind, like, okay, I want to talk to Brian because Brian's going to tell me his experience and I'm going to be able to hear it uh with my most open heart and mind.
(09:52) So, with all of that leading, what do you want me to know? You're you're here to stand up for disabled people. using this damn thing and not have the internet come crucify you for doing it, right? Because that's going to happen. Second we say we use AI, I have a human that lives in my house that will eat your lunch because the amount of electricity it takes to produce generative AI they feel is destroying the planets.
(10:22) Right? So my lunch is getting eaten 12 different AI the data centers being used by Facebook and some of the other big behemoths those things suck water like crazy too so that is definitely a problem that we need to solve because clearly AI is not going to go away it's only going to expand in its use because not only is it popular but it's darn great tool and to speak to your point and speaking from my values. Of course, I'm not speaking as an impartial.
(10:53) Using it to replace your voice or using the voice of the AI instead of yours is dishonest. It's also shortchanging yourself because none of those words come from your values, your heart, your experience. And you also run the risk of using the AI to make it look like you know more than you do. And that is very dishonest as well.
(11:23) And if you're going to use AI to write blog posts, I'm with you. Say it up front and source the material because you can ask the AI to give you sources for everything that it offered you because if the source doesn't exist, that means it made up that part. And you might really good. Take that out. Say that again, please, because I think that's super important.
(11:54) Or read it off the transcript if you can't remember what you just said. Yeah, ask if it gives you a blog post or an article, ask it to give you the sources of what it gave you. And I click on each source to make sure it's valid and also to make sure that what the AI told me that source said is what it actually said because if there's a mismatch, I just remove it.
(12:18) So, somebody that I was working with last year that I no longer work with because one, I got very sick last year and I had to stop working with basically everybody, but also our ethics weren't aligned. So I didn't feel once once I got some of the health things better I could return to work with that person.
(12:46) and they're one of the individuals that publishes voluminously like so much and it's all done with AI and their feeling is they can't because of their neurodeivergent makeup they can't think the words first once the words are there they can decide if they sound like them and it's what they want wanted to say but they can't think the words first.
(13:17) So writing is a thing that they feel is necessary for their work but is a a significant hardship for them. So they feel like they're using it as a disabled person. And I really struggle with that because I know this individual well enough and I've read what comes out of their AI. Exactly what you said a minute ago.
(13:49) It makes this individual sound more knowledgeable, more of an expert, and they are getting speaking engagements for pay that they shouldn't be getting. So, this is somebody who can't think the words first, right? How are they going to do on stage? So I've helped them with their talk with a couple of talks last year and I put in significant time to help them and it's it's a thing but that they have AI write their talks for them.
(14:28) So for for me it's I really struggle with with this ethics question of a legitimate thinking difference looking for a way to participate in a in a wordheavy world and they're using AI. They believe they're using AI appropriately as a a person with a different neurology. What they're basically doing is using a ghostriter.
(15:06) Yes. And they're not telling anybody. No, they're taking credit for it, which is not unheard of in the ghost written world. Our current president had ghostriters on all of his books. That does not surprise me. Yeah. But because of the dyslexia, I often have problems with word finding, right? So, I will ask the AI, "Hey, I'm having difficulty finding the word for this. Give me some suggestions.
(15:36) " And I'll pick the one that's like, "Oh, yeah, that's what I was trying to say." Or if I get stuck in the middle of a thought, I'll get a couple sentences in and then I I just I don't know how to wrap this up. So, I'll ask for some suggestions, and if it doesn't sound like something I would say in conversation, then it's not my voice.
(16:00) That's like asking people who live in your home or a buddy or using a thesaurus to me. That's different than, "Hey AI, write me a 200word blog on this topic and you've trained your AI and it spits out a thing and you read it over and you're like, "Yeah, that's good. Publish." Like that that feels. Don't. That's like if you took someone else's blog post and you put your name on it.
(16:40) That's how I feel because AI is pulling from everything all of us are doing out there in the world and we have copyright rules about that. We have so be before my brain injury I was a prolific writer reader and writer. Uh my first book I wrote and had to the printer in three months. Wow. Like words were very easy for me.
(17:17) I am living in an entirely different world now. Wow, that would be not a pleasant shift. I can only imagine how frustrating that would be. Yeah, that is also a whole other conversation. How's your mental health, Don Marie? I Yes, it's a you really need to up your mental health game when you have these areas that you found so much fulfillment from and we're thriving in and then all of a sudden, oh, sorry, can't have that anymore.
(17:53) Yeah, I was a trained, highly trained professional musician prior to the accident. And one of the scariest moments of my journey so far was my speech therapist, which I did not know speech therapists were really cognitive therapists. You don't need to have a speech problem to need a speech therapist. They are the people that help your brain start working again when your brain's not working.
(18:23) So because they can they can work with the expressive language which is getting it out remembering it, processing it, sorting it, organizing it, all of those things, right? I mentioned the music thing and she was like, "Oh, well, let's see if you can remember your music stuff because it changed the way I hear.
(18:48) I don't hear music, right? So, as a professional singer, it's really important for me to be able to hear the music correctly and be able to match the tone when I sing. And I I really struggle with that now, which is super sad. I don't like hearing myself sing. Um, so I'm like, "Oh, well, let me see if I can just write the notes on the music staff, the the the G-cluff, right?" I couldn't remember what the lines and the spaces were.
(19:19) I've been playing the piano, reading music since I was like four years old. I couldn't remember. I could remember the letters that should go there. A B CDE EFG. I could remember that. I couldn't remember where they went. So, is that still the case for you? It depends on the day. So, I will try to play the piano and it'll be a combination of is my brain processing what I'm looking at in the music and is my brain letting my hands do what I'm seeing on the page? And I usually have about 3 to 5 minutes in me before my system crashes and I can't do it anymore. So, yeah, there's a lot and we're way off topic with my brain injury. um my least favorite
(20:13) special interest, but the the AI taking it in a very all or nothing way, it does make sense, you know, like you use all of it. It does all my writing. It solves all these problems. That's and I appreciate having difficulty with the expressive language, you know, finding your thoughts and getting them out there.
(20:41) But even if you would choose those words, could you be be in front of somebody and would that stuff occur to you naturally? Or is it something that you would have to I got to remember I wrote that cuz what if somebody asked me and then you got to struggle to memorize it? That sounds more like you're cramming for a test. So here's a little devil's advocate.
(21:10) That sounds elitist and disaging of the struggles of a disabled person, right? If you can't do that, then you can't do that. Well, let me clarify and thank you for pointing that out. It's the using it without explaining where you got it. Use the accommodation, but be honest about it.
(21:43) Because when people are interacting with you, they expect to be interacting with you. So it's like if you use Google Translate, it's not you speaking the language, it's Google Translate speaking the language. That's a really good example. I like that example. If I was going to take something I wrote and put it into Spanish, I know enough Spanish to uh say, "Hi, can I have this off the menu?" And where is the bathroom? So, no, I have not translated my writing into Spanish. Where's the bathroom? That's survival Spanish.
(22:35) If I've asked Google to do it, and again, I'm tripping over the human piece. If I've asked Google to do it, yes, I should say I asked Google to do it. But two, whose livelihood did I not support? because giant corporation did it for me instead of a human. And this is so our community, the neurode divergent community right now is statistically around 70% under or unemployed.
(23:13) We don't successfully financially support our lives as a community. No doubt. So, as one of those people that desperately needs to find ways to fund my life, I don't have translator money. Let me tell you this. I love the direction you're going. This would be a case where if an employer asks you, "What accommodations would you need to do your job?" Well, AI, this specific AI instead of saying, "Ah, don't worry about it. I got it handled and I'm using it in the background.
(23:51) It's not being honest with them and it's not being honest with yourself. Now, back to my values again. I'm not I'm not kidding for everybody. My my value is that it's important to not be ashamed of your accommodations. Okay? But that's a personal value one that I have had to work towards. I when I first started trying to these accommodations, I was embarrassed. I felt humiliated.
(24:21) I didn't want anybody to know. I didn't want anybody to see me. But that was way back when. But I didn't want to keep feeling like that. So I've worked diligently over the years to get to this place of acceptance. So I'm speaking from that place. you know the person that we've been referencing no doubt different places and our growth and different values about approaching AI.
(24:50) So I just want to reiterate I in no way am thinking that I'm speaking for the state of AI and how it ought to be seen and how it ought to be used. I'm just talking for me. Yes, you were going to say I really struggle with the ethics of disability accommodation uh and this concept of inclusion uh I have a number of trans people in my life and you know the country is arguing over the validity of those humans existing.
(25:32) And that makes me want to rage cuz they're valuable, valid human beings. Uh, and I have close personal family members that say it's valid for somebody whose gender expression is different from their physiology to feel safe only in bathrooms that match their gender expression. But it's also valid for the people whose physiology match that bathroom to say, "I don't think I'm comfortable.
(26:17) " And I to me whether it's AI, the trans conversation, the like wherever it is where we're all butting heads, I am wired to try to find mutual ground. You said very early on in this conversation, yes, Google and Facebook are like eating up the planet's water. We need to figure that out. And that's where I am. I don't want to be yelling at each other about the problems.
(26:54) I want to be joining each other in solving them. And it's such a tricky space because as a writer, I don't like what this individual is doing having AI write all their stuff and getting getting work based on intellect they're not finding easy to express or maybe don't have. And saying that makes me feel like a gross human being. No, I'm to I'm totally with you. It just makes it does.
(27:36) It makes every bit of me. Let me give you another example. Okay. The people that have these highly touched up professional photos. You know, somebody went to town with Photoshop to remove all the wrinkles and then you show up and you like that. Yeah. I feel lied to. Well, I consider I consider the same thing. If that's not how you're going to express yourself in person, then it's not you.
(28:07) It's not your voice, so to speak. Whether or not you agree with the language you talk to somebody, is that going to sound like you? No. Okay. But if you qualify where does this speaking therefore I use AI to assist me with this. Where does this ethics line land for a nonverbal person? Well, for for the record, there are no AI ethics at the time because all of this is so fluid and good for you. You and I are talking.
(28:56) Okay, that's the only thing we can do. We can only represent our own way of being. And I'm I am trying to have the most real conversation about this that I am personally capable of because I have so many voices in my head of all of the sides of this. I have talked to so many people about this topic.
(29:28) I'd love to hear what some of the other folks are thinking because I have no doubt that I have a lot of blind spots around this because I only know my own experience and some of the articles I've read about the evils of the Mdash and whatever else they can find to demonize AI. A lot of those articles. That's why I I wrote the one I did advocating for it. And I imagine there are others out there too and I look forward to them.
(29:55) You made mention of what about the non-verbal person? Well, I imagine that a non-verbal person would say, "Hey, I'm using a system of tech." If you're face to face with them, you're going to know that. But if you are sending this lengthy thing over the email making it sound like you, what if the person says, "Hey, you sound like an awesome person.
(30:25) Why don't we hop on a a Zoom call or something?" What do you tell them? Are you honest and say, "Do this with assist of tech." Or do you make a bunch of excuses and say, "Oh, no, no. I'm not I'm not comfortable on camera." So that's one of the concerns I have is is this person motivated by looking like they're more competent than they are or is this person motivated by this helps me connect better with other people because it fills in a gap between what I'm capable of doing and what they need from me. I guess I'm just I'm ultimately about honesty around how you got what
(31:05) you got. I mean it's like leaving out a you got something from a book but you didn't put in the notation you know that's like you are that's plagiarism at that point. So for me in the myopics of the way I think about this and that's a really important encapsulation the if I'm just thinking at the most basic level about this issue all of AI is plagiarism because the only way it is it it exists is by taking other people's words and creating something out of it. And that is a really ongoing battle.
(31:59) How do you how do you give credit to the people whose work you used? Stephen King, all of his books were used to train AI, right? So he thought they did that without his permission, right? So yeah, that's one of the ongoing battles is how do you regulate all that? And at this point, I kind of think the chickens are out of the hen house.
(32:33) Like there's there's no there's no putting that genie back in the bottle, right? Like it's already happened. We've already trained AI with without permission, without credit, without appropriate financial uh I've lost my words without paying them. This this makes me think back to when there was that big argument with Apple over the streaming rights because in the contracts for musicians, there was nothing in there about how do you get reimbured for streaming.
(33:05) It was just plays before. Well, thank God for her goddess, Taylor Swift. She went in there and said, "Okay, great. I'm taking all my music off your platform." Then they got to the table and said, "Okay, how do we make this work for you guys?" Now, there is such a thing as streaming rights.
(33:23) And the thing same thing is with AI. I can't imagine that with all of their tech, they do not have a way of tracking whose material was used, how many times to, you know, create answers for people. Whether they want to because it'll cut into their billions is up to them. But I don't know, maybe something that route. I've written books, too.
(33:53) I don't like the idea that somebody would be using my stuff and claiming it is theirs. And that's another reason why using it in its entirety is speak for you but not saying that I just consider that the silence. there. In my college days, computers required two 5 and 1/2 in floppies and a C prompt to get going. You did not have the internet.
(34:34) You had to go to the library to do research, right? And I would write papers and a constant thought of mine was with the exception of few people or no one has done this research before. So, we're doing this research and we're reporting on our research. With that exclusion aside, every research paper in the world is taking other people's ideas and writing it down.
(35:11) And where is the line between I have gathered amalgamated and had my own thought and I've written that down like a quote. You understand? I have word for word gathered from this specific source. I've put the little quote marks around it. I've done my footnote or my end note or whatever I needed to do to source it. Right? But no matter what, every research work ever, if you're going to other sources and you're reading it and then you're writing about it, it's not original. And this was a problem for me.
(35:56) I'm so autistic. How did nobody know? Right? This was a problem for me with every research paper I wrote and research uh that was my like the air I breathed when I was in college because I was very early to the party of people learn differently therefore we should educate differently.
(36:15) What did you study in college? Um my degree is in English literature because the conversation I had with my university was we don't have that degree. I wanted to research how people learn and how to teach a classroom full of different learners. That's what I wanted my degree to be in. And I I'm old enough that that was really early to the party.
(36:51) Even finding people who were writing about it, uh so much of that came from the unschooling world. uh people who weren't participating in standardized education and schooled my boys for a while. There you go. So like even finding the people to to read was but I went to school right outside out of Washington DC. I had the Library of Congress. Like I had the biggest library in the entire freaking world.
(37:16) So one one of these days I hope to get there and geek out. Yeah. if you're if you're a book nerd. Oh my god, I I love discovering ideas and those aha moments. They're the ultimate dopamine rush. Yeah.
(37:39) And if you're like me who in uh seventh and eighth grade read way too much dystopian literature, uh we are literally living like 1984, Fahrenheit 451, uh like all of the we're living those books right now. right down to the fact that if you don't have a paper copy of something, you can't trust the digital copy. Yeah, I'm actually thinking about even though I have the dyslexia, I'm actually thinking about starting to get hard coverver books again because I'm the platform can't just suddenly delete access to everything I bought.
(38:11) So I use speechify since the accident because I have very little reading capacity now. I before the accident I was reading uh three to five hardcore intellectual books at the same time processing that information writing about them speaking about them uh talking to the authors all of those things right I now use speechify because I can whether it's uh an ebook format or a physical book. I can have speech read it to me.
(38:59) H um I can have speech read my emails to me. Uh a web page. Um I can highlight a section and have speech if I read it to me. So that sounds pretty cold. It is. It is pretty cool. Um, it's not perfect. Uh, it's getting better. It doesn't know what to do.
(39:30) Doesn't know what to do with certain punctuation uh and abbreviations and um the word when letters represent the words um acronyms. Is that what that that is? That's the word. Some reason it's each letter in the word is a word in itself. that actually yeah it's acronym okay my brain is like nah couldn't possibly this is what happens to me I lose recognition of things that I know oh yeah on my off is entirely foreign to me like yesterday was one of my off days where I struggle to spell words that I've spelled all the time and then when I do spell it looks absurd and then I go in the dictionary and say
(40:13) no it's how it's spelled and my my brain is just in conflict over But that looks stupid. Yeah, I'm also dyslexic and dalculic. Uh before the accident, I had my dyslexia pretty handled because I don't have the the letter flipping problem. Yeah, me neither. Mine is it wants to take in all of the information and make a 3D puzzle out of it.
(40:49) Do you know this about dyslexia? This is one of my favorite things I've learned in the last few years. Dyslexia is not a reading disability. Dyslexia is a brain designed for 3D mapping and modeling. Well, then there's this little rub. I also have aphantasia. I don't know what that is. It's the inability to picture things. So, if someone says, imagine this, you know, picture yourself here. Nope. Oh, your dyslexia hates that.
(41:18) Yeah, it's a it's a I said, "No, you need to I need to do it or you need to show me the picture. Don't tell me what you're talking about. Expect me to visualize it. Show me." So, the way dyslexia functions best is with a highly picturebased mind. Nope, not me. That sucks for you. I am so sorry. That sucks. It It does suck, but it's also the reality.
(41:51) You know, one thing that I've really gotten into over the years is to immediately kick into solution focused thinking. I don't always do it. Nothing's 100%. And there are times where I go down the rabbit hole of catastrophic thinking. I need someone to pull me out. So, but the times it does work, it's dynamite.
(42:15) Now, there's one thing I wanna I want to go back to if it's okay. Of course, we're not ADHD or anything. I mean, come on. Tangents are the ways we live. In fact, I get suspicious about straight lines anywhere. They say the road is a straight shot. I can't handle that. I need detours. Give me GPS that's on the fritz.
(42:38) But when we were talking about research papers because I I have my masters in social work. So most of what we did was research papers and I had an issue with those right off the bat too. I said to a teacher, why do you want me to write papers about what other people think? Aren't I here to, you know, like think for myself or whatever? Then what I eventually got out of it was it shows that you are doing the thinking, but you're using these resources to reinforce or validate what you're thinking to show that it's your thinking is researchbased or supported by
(43:17) research instead of just pulling something out of the air and then going using it with a client doing harm. So that's kind of what they wanted us to get from research or at least what I took away from it. But it's important that you demonstrate that you are thinking along the way. Not just, well, I think this because all these people said so.
(43:41) Then you're just being submissive. You're not thinking about to for yourself. We would have been friends. Well, aren't we now? Yes. But I'm just saying like as the if we were in school together on the program. Well, you know, that's what I did. I got I got my university I may have been one of or possibly the first design your own major from the University of Maryland because I might have just made them tired.
(44:20) I don't know. I don't know why they let me do it. you were supposed to only be able to do, I think, six credit hours of independent study and I did 12 uh maybe 18, I can't remember. And there they were basically like just take enough courses so that you can have an English literature degree and then we don't care what you do with the rest of it, right? Just and if I could design my own major, there'd be no math requirement.
(44:51) My first college taught logic and it was the first time I understood a mathematical concept for real in my life to that point. uh beyond like adding subtract like be once I hit algebra and one train is going this speed and another train is going this speed it broke my brain and I never really well geometry geometry and I were friends because I could conceptualize we're working with space right so had I had the courage I probably would have been okay with um what's the math after trigonometry I only got as far as geometry Is calculus after trick? Calculus. Thank you. Wow. My brain won't
(45:44) give me words today. I might have done okay with calculus because that's why we synergize, dog. I know, right? Thank you. Like I might have been able to figure out how to relate to the math of how do you fill up a bathtub because I could go look at the bathtub and figure out this pathway.
(46:09) You tell me to put my fat ass into the tub and then it's full. Water comes all the way up. Who needs math? Drink a lot of water that way, too. Just don't drink it. Just don't drink. Oh my god. Okay. I can I The sweet autistic people that are so mad at us because we're not we're not sticking to the topic. Um, now we're getting close to time here.
(46:43) Somebody in one of the neurode divergent online groups that I help with got viciously attacked for saying that they use AI to help them, right? viciously attacked. Now, that is outrageous. It's one thing to disagree with somebody, but why come after them like that? Was this fellow people on the spectrum doing this? Yes.
(47:19) And what was their issue? Lots. the environmental thing, the uh if that's not your natural skill, you're you're making it harder on those of us who have that natural skill to be represented, uh make a living. Um an unfair advantage, uh all kinds of things. All kinds of things. Man, they're arguing that's an abbleist argument.
(47:51) It's an unfair advantage, meaning it's not to give somebody an accommodation to, you know, kind of meet people where they're at, other folks so you can communicate. That's very reasonable. What I consider unreasonable is to deny you're using an accommodation. So, I'm going to put this in the world of sports. There's a runner who's a double amputee and has been very successfully running in the par Olympics. Was that that's not Oscar Pistorius.
(48:34) Is this a newer guy you're talking about? Oh, if my life depended on it, I wouldn't know their name. It's not a thing my brain keeps. Um, but I'm with you. I'm familiar with Runners. But I got really interested in their story because they would like to run with the the regular Olympic runners and the some of the regular Olympic runners say no because their running prosthetics give them a speed advantage.
(49:13) Is it the same argument for me as a writer who's trying to do it without AI with all of my struggles to say yes, it may be a needed accommodation for you and it's giving you an unfair advantage. It's only unfair if the the prosthetics are calibrated to give you more spring and push you forward. But I think I don't remember specifically cuz like 20 years ago this was an argument too.
(49:51) And the people that designed them explained the physics how these things were constructed and calibrated cuz they have to meet certain parameters. you like you can't have certain shoes that might give you extra spring. They're real adamant about these things. So if whoever designed those prosthetics say no, this meets the requirements and here is the test that we did on it and here's the results that we got and give the other runners the peace of mind of knowing we're not trying to cheat you guys. We just want to help this person
(50:27) be included, right? because it's a knee it's a knee down thing, right? We're not talking about bionic limbs. It's a knee down thing. They're still having to use a lot of the muscles that the other runners are having. So, I'm with you. I agree with that. But I use that as an example because that's part that's part of the argument about even if even if I go out there and I say I used AI to write my blog uh to help me write my blog uh as a disabled person. I mean, I feel like I have a pretty reasonable claim since the
(51:10) brain injury that I need help with my brain now. I totally get you. And I think depending on one's ethics, I could make a case for me using AI to help me write now. I don't personally feel comfortable doing that because of the way AI pulls from everybody without their knowledge or permission or compensation.
(51:56) I wouldn't have a problem saying, "Hey, friends of mine, if you feel like you have time and capacity, I'm struggling with a concept. How would you say it?" That's just a great engagement. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm going to put that in my own words. I appreciate your help. Right? Like, I don't have a problem doing that because they know what I'm doing.
(52:21) They've bought in. they've given me permission and I might say, "Thank you so much to so and so, so and so and so and so for helping me think this through." Well, then there's also using sources. Ask it to source it for you, right? Because otherwise, I still struggle with that. I still it's giving credit where it's due is the highest integrity.
(52:56) Right. And I agree with that. I I know a lot or I know some stuff and I researched this and I'm looking forward to learning more. but to have none of that because with when you source things, you're going to see that maybe there were three lines in your post that came from a blog post somewhere else and you wouldn't have known that otherwise.
(53:22) Because if you source it and find out, holy cow, there's a whole paragraph in here some from somebody else's, you might just want to go in there and really think about it and see just how would I say this? What language would I use? and do something to make it your own. You might even disagree with it and you want to say something differently, but until you went through did your due diligence to reflect upon it instead of just giving it a once over and saying, "Oh, that's good.
(53:57) We really appreciate you having this conversation with me. Really appreciate it." And this is just the start because we know this is all in its infancy. It's Yeah, it's so new and I can see so many potential uses for the disabled community in such positive ways. And I really feel like we've got to be very alert to the people we become. Yeah.
(54:45) We don't want to replace our own thinking with the AI. Yeah. It's not a trustworthy source. I don't know that it ever will be. And that's an important thing to remember. Well, there was this saying Ronald Reagan said a long time ago, trust but verify. Yeah. Right. And I've really hung on to that one because it's so useful.
(55:18) It helps reduce billability and that's great for humans. I don't think it's great for technology. I think it's mistrust and verify. Like have your have your skeptic way out in front when it comes to AI. And this is a whole different element of this, but maybe especially if you're trying to have your mental health supported with AI, if you're trying to uh help with, you know, personal feelings of validation and comfort and company.
(55:56) Just be so careful. Um because the AI is a binary system. It's either an on or an off, a yes or a no. And it's designed to give you what you want. So, we're already seeing people who have used AI for mental health support and the AI fed into delusion, fed into depression, fed into a lot of a lot of AI will tell you what you want to hear, right? And maybe that's lovely if you're trying to have a water cooler conversation with AI, but just be so aware that it may not be giving you the best advice for your life and your mental health. Um,
(56:58) agree totally. I'm not saying don't use it, but use it with a great deal of caution. Yeah, be really aware. Really aware. All right, we're a teensy bit over time and I want to respect your I could talk to you forever. Truly forever. Fun. I know, right? All the brain juices are going. Um, thank you. You have so many topics that you're thinking about and writing about.
(57:31) Please let me know. Oh, you know, you and I can talk whenever you want. You follow me on Substack and you and I I so appreciate you because you're like the first one to comment and share it and that just means the world. I really appreciate that. I am such an autistic friend. I like I'm like the stand uncomfortably close to you friend, right? wants to like somebody, I like them. Like, oh, I'll go support whoever.
(58:04) So, I'm glad that you appreciate it. Sometimes I get worried that I'm a bit too much of a fan girl with with some of my people. No. If you're helping me get my message out to the world, there's no such thing as too much. Yeah. I That's the way I feel. And I am a uh I am every cell in my body is mutual aid, mutual benefit. It's just the way I live my life.
(58:40) And my hope is that even if it's very out of balance, right? Because it's always it always has been. I always tend to do more out there in the world than I receive from the world. Um, but I've chosen to to accept that imbalance because I do I do feel like if you're going to say you're a mutual aid person, if you're going to say you're a mutual support person, you have to act like it.
(59:07) That's a different conversation. It's a different conversation. Yeah. Like you said, we could just keep going. So trauma based people pleasing. I don't know what you're trying to intimidate in into I can't say the word made up. I made up to study drugs. Don't believe it. A thank you, my friend. It was so good.
(59:35) Um, make sure I have links to whatever you want me to be sharing in the in the YouTube description, but especially the link to the AI Substack that you wrote. Want to make sure that gets out there. I'll go find it. Always a pleasure, my friend. Yep. I'll see you soon. All righty.