Welcome to a special episode of the Unarmored Talk podcast! In this engaging conversation, we meet Dr. Jerry Washington, a dynamic individual with a deep interest in generative AI and the impact it can have on our lives. Dr. Washington's upcoming book, "Simulated Realities, Generative AI and the Remanufacture of Professionalism," is at the heart of this discussion, as he shares his insights on the potential of AI to transform the way we approach information, critical thinking, and professionalism.
Meet the Guest and Their Bio:
Dr. Jerry Washington, a highly educated and curious mind, holds a doctorate in education, organizational change, and leadership. He emphasizes that his pursuit of a doctorate was not merely for the title but to delve deep into the realms of knowledge and to disseminate valuable information to the community. His latest work, "Simulated Realities, Generative AI and the Remanufacture of Professionalism," is a testament to his commitment to sharing transformative ideas and sparking discussions.
ð Key Takeaways:
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Generative AI and Its Potential: Dr. Washington was inspired by the emergence of generative AI, particularly OpenAI's Chat GPT, and its ability to provide multifaceted understanding of the information we consume. He explores how AI can enhance media literacy and critical thinking skills, ultimately leading to more informed decision-making.
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Democratizing Generative AI: The fundamental goal of Dr. Washington's work is to democratize generative AI. He believes that for AI to truly benefit society, it must be accessible to everyone, not just a select few. By engaging with AI tools, understanding them, and providing feedback, we can make AI a more inclusive resource.
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AI as a Tool, Not Cheating: Dr. Washington emphasizes that AI is a tool, not a form of cheating. Much like having a calculator at our disposal, AI assists us in various tasks. However, to harness its potential, we must learn how to use it effectively and understand its capabilities.
ð¡ Discussion Highlights:
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AI as a Tool for Improvement: The discussion touched on the idea of AI not as a means of cheating, but as a tool that can be used for enhancement and improvement. This challenges the preconceived notion of AI as a form of cheating.
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Impact on Professionalism: The conversation explored the profound impact AI can have on professionalism. With the ability to produce high-level work, even with limited skills, AI has the potential to significantly transform various industries and fields.
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Democratizing AI: The fundamental goal of Dr. Washington's work is to make AI accessible to everyone. By understanding and engaging with AI tools, and by providing feedback, AI can become a more inclusive resource.
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AI and Media Literacy: The discussion also delved into how AI can help in spreading media literacy and critical thinking skills. This is particularly relevant in the current age where the verification of information is vital.
Listen to Podcast:
Watch Episode:
The conversation between Dr. Washington and the podcast host delves into the concept of AI as a tool for improvement, challenging preconceived notions of AI as "cheating." They explore the impact of AI on professionalism and the potential transformation it can bring to various industries and fields.
Resources:
â¡LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrywashington/
â¡The Book - "Simulated Realities"
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Transcript by Buzzsprout
(00:21)
Welcome back to unarmored talk podcast for this special episode you guys know to deal on how you doing man I'm doing amazing and it is just it don't even feel like I got you on the show can we talk so much that this just seems like a normal day when we have time and we're not getting in trouble you know talk about five hours man I'm doing good man it's good to see well before I allow you if you will to really connect with our listeners and viewers you guys want to do some admin notes again we are close to 100 episodes we'll close this year year out and we will get to 100 episodes almost at 10 ,000 downloads you guys are rocking it and we are about to eclipse about $2 ,000 and charitable doll
ars generated from the youtube channel and the audio downloads you guys are making a difference in pit county north carolina and in the future around the world as those high school students graduate help us fight poverty get on www .steelsurfinginc .com donate a dollar come on man and let's continue to fight poverty.
(02:01)
Let's break that cycle by helping students develop those essential skills and create those academic opportunities. All right, the admin is done. Every one, you guys got to check out Dr. Washington's new book.
(02:13)
It's called Simulated Realities, Generative AI and the remanufacture of professionalism. Dr. Washington, please let them know who you are, my friend. Hey, appreciate it, brother. Jerry Washington, as you and I have discussed in the past, I didn't do a doctorate in education, organizational change in leadership to be called doctor.
(02:43)
I did it because I wanted to dive deep into some information and learn some things. So Jerry Washington here, I do have a doctorate and I'm hoping to spread some information to the community. Yeah, well, let's let's talk about that.
(03:01)
I mean, there's been lots of discussion about generative AI. You know, is it good? Is it bad? Whatever you took the steps to initiate some discussions. And I will tell everyone that it has changed my life.
(03:19)
Dr. Washington Jerry, as he says, has been the pivotal person if you were behind helping me gain a better understanding of how to leverage new, if you will, to me, resources and technology and the AI kind of quadrant to make things a little bit more accurate.
(03:40)
Jerry, let's talk about your book that's about to be released. Let's do it. Let's do it. What do you want to know? Let's do it. First, man, what motivated and inspired you to do it? Oh, man. You know, I say the spark was probably last year, November timeframe, when OpenAI released chat GPT.
(04:06)
I think it was three or 3 .5 at the time. And I'm just watching, you know, I didn't play around with it very much. Saw some things on LinkedIn and Facebook, read a few articles, and then it started to pick up, right?
(04:22)
Like, like people were starting to write more about it and and people would post things on the internet of what chat GPT said when they prompted it for some information. And so I started playing around with it, you know, around that same time.
(04:40)
I was writing my finishing up my dissertation, writing about media literacy and how we can make sure that teachers are supported to be able to teach media literacy to the youth. And towards the end of my dissertation, I framed, you know, know, what can we do?
(05:00)
You know, what, what, what recommendations can we, can I provide to help, you know, increase media literacy for the youth? And one of the pieces that came out of that, I'm digging through information researching, was how AI, this, this, this, this chat tool, this language model could help with understanding the information that we're consuming and help us make sure that the information we're consuming is factual.
(05:37)
And so that really sparked it, right? Like, how can AI, this new language model tool really help us in, in, in spreading media literacy and critical thinking skills? So then, go ahead, go ahead, I'm sorry, no, go ahead.
(05:57)
No, no, I was gonna say, cause I love and I love how you mentioned how you got, you became curious and everyone of you guys are following Dr. Washington, Jerry on LinkedIn. Shame on you. You got to get on his LinkedIn account and look at these discussions.
(06:12)
Jerry's approach is not I have the right answer. Here's the key. It's less discuss because there's unlimited discussion opportunities to learn more for the betterment of mankind. Jerry. Yeah. No, I agree.
(06:28)
I agree. You know, I want to take it back even further. Let's go back some time. You know, I'll go back about five or 10 years. And you know this Mario language, how language works in our mind has always fascinated me.
(06:47)
It's always fascinated me. One of the concepts of how language works in our mind is the ideas of our use of metaphors. You and I have had this discussion lots of times. So a person can use a metaphor.
(07:03)
For example, a metaphor of, you know, the world is about, it's about combat. It's about winning and losing. You got to always win. Are you referring to how I used to be Jerry? No, no, no. But we got to understand that that's the metaphor we're using to understand how the world operates.
(07:26)
And if we don't hold multiple different metaphors or multiple different perspective, how the world operates, then we're kind of putting ourselves in one place and we're only seeing the world in concepts of either or.
(07:43)
Winning or losing, right? And that's not reality. Reality is multi -dimensional. There's so many aspects to life and reality. And how we interact with that is through language. So we have this tool now.
(08:03)
What is this tool based on? Right now it's based on these large language models. It's language. And so we can use this tool, one, to help us understand things differently, right? To gather information.
(08:19)
We can fact check ourself and we can fact check the generative AI itself. We can go to encyclopedias and we can, so now we're getting this multifaceted understanding of our realities, you know, and so that kind of brings you back to my book, Simulated Reality.
(08:36)
And I'll go into that a little bit more here. But language is really what connects us. Language is really what connects me and you right now. Like we're sitting on this video call. If you think about it, it's a simulated reality because I'm really not sitting in front of you.
(08:54)
It's a video representation of me. But those are all algorithms and numbers, but it's a simulated reality. And it's becoming even more ubiquitous across our reality. And I love how you use the word re -manufacture.
(09:13)
The words you use that are non -binary, you know, it's not this A or B, or like how I used to be in 2018, when or lose, you know, and everyone Darius was like, okay, Mario, I'm not gonna do any of the options.
(09:30)
And then how you highlighted, you know, words are raw material, generative AI and some of these resources, all that's showing you is a different pattern, different way to look at raw material called words in a different pattern.
(09:48)
And what does that mean? And so speaking of that, what are some of the goals in simulated reality, in your amazing book that's coming out, what are some of the goals that you kind of are seeking and that you hope they get out of this man?
(10:05)
You know, I think the fundamental goal, I'll start with the fundamental goal and then I'll add some context below that. But the fundamental goal is to democratize generative AI. We want this thing to be available to everyone.
(10:23)
And the only way it's gonna be available to everyone is that if everyone begins to get involved with it and understand how it works. If you're reading an article about generative AI, you have a conceptual understanding of it.
(10:38)
But if you haven't engaged with it, if you haven't used it to accomplish something, then you may not know as much as you believe. you do. You know, I go back to that idea of the person sitting in the box that has all the information about the color red, but has never seen it.
(11:01)
Like everything, how we visualize red, they got it all in the book, right? All in the book about how to visualize, how our eyes use the light and refraction and all of this to understand the color red, but has never seen the color red.
(11:20)
The only way that this thing will be democratized is that we have to use it. Many of them are free. And we need to challenge what's coming out of it too. We also need to make sure as we're using it that we notify the people that has made it, hey, there's a bias coming out of this.
(11:45)
This prompt here, this chat, there's a bias coming out of it. And we need to try to do something about that. I love it. And you can't know it if you don't use it. And I'm glad you said that because I was that person.
(12:00)
And I love your description because I was like, that's me. I saw it. I heard people say it. I would see articles. I read it and I was like, I would develop my own belief. And I never used it until you educated me.
(12:15)
And when I used it, I said, oh, my goodness. So I told you, you know, I don't even agree. It's up to. Right. Understand it and don't be rigid. Don't be either or right. Don't be either or right. Who you like, Margo P used to be.
(12:33)
Go out, stop being rigid. And definitely if you don't get his book, then we got some issues here. Everyone listens and viewers. If you guys don't get his book, you know, just you go ahead and just stop following me.
(12:46)
You all can tell me, you know what? I'm good, you know, Mar, you know what? Yeah, we're out. All right. No, but seriously, in all seriousness, how can how can any of our listeners and viewers get a copy of your book, Jerry?
(13:01)
So it'll be available on Amazon. It's available for pre -order right now scheduled to be released. So if you do a Kindle book on the 17th, it'll be in your Kindle library. If you pre -order it, if you want a.
(13:18)
A non simulated reality version of it, then you want to order a paperback. So this first edition, I'm only going to do it in Kindle and in paperback. So ebook and paperback. The next second edition, which I'm already working on.
(13:38)
It will be in all three formats, which is also in hardback. You know, there's a concept though, Mario, we skipped over. You know, I talked about the, you know, I'll start with the fundamental. I want people to use it.
(13:54)
But I also want people to understand the difference. And you and I have had this conversation that, you know, the first thing that people see about it and when they're using it is immediately, oh, that's cheating.
(14:09)
You're cheating. Yes. No, no, you're cheating. You know, a simple analogy is, you know, when I was younger, you're not going to always have a calculator in your pocket. Right? Like, I literally have a calculator in my pocket all the time.
(14:28)
It's like literally right here on my side right now. This is a tool, OK? And it's not going to make something unless you give it directions. And if you're giving it directions, and you want something complex out of it, then you need to give it some complex directions too.
(14:50)
And you need to read it, you need to research it, you need to make sure that it's relevant to what you're trying to do. So it is a tool and it's not a form of cheating. Now, it can be used as a form of cheating.
(15:05)
Absolutely. And if somebody says, hey, this is cheating, I won't go there. But it may be more about what they believe than what it's actually doing. The system, it works for you and with you. It's like having someone with the contents of a cyclopedia and you're able to conversate with it to generate information.
(15:32)
So just wanted to put a little more context under that fundamental, I want people to use it, but I also want people to understand it is a tool to help you increase your proficiency. Jerry, that was perfect because I know you're still having fun out there and I was going to, and I'm glad you brought that up because that's what I was going to kind of close out with is the concept and I'm, and I've couldn't have done it better than you.
(15:59)
You guys heard it and I say it all the time in my employment workshops. Jerry has taught me and he was using your words, Jerry, human generated AI assist. Human generated content, like Jerry said, if it's, if it's, I'll use my words, if you want some JV stuff, give us some JV stuff.
(16:27)
But the discipline and approach that is a very dynamic approach where human generated, again AI assist keeps it authentic and it provides you different variations that you can conceive. Let me do some research.
(16:45)
What does that mean? And yeah, so thank you because I would have screwed that up and everyone would have heard me say, mind what the heck is human -generated content? What are you talking about? Jerry, I love it.
(16:59)
You've changed your education and awareness to me changed my life. This is just episode one of Meaning to Come. Like Jerry said, you know, this is just the first release of Meaning to Come up for discussion.
(17:12)
It's not the right or wrong solution. It just is. Dr. Washington, any closing words, remarks for the listeners and viewers as we get ready to go on this AI journey with no limit to discussions. Yeah, it may be a deeper conversation later.
(17:34)
However, if this generative AI can help you improve your skill level to get things done quicker, to be more precise, to be more concise. How does that change how people view a professional? A person that comes in with limited skills, but is able to produce high level work.
(18:00)
What does that say about how professionalism might be changing? That's what's in that book. Nice. Nice. Well, hey, I know you're having fun, my friend. I'm not going to hold you too much tonight because it is a Sunday night and when this episode is producing about 10 hours from now, it will be October 30th, but you guys heard it.
(18:25)
November the 17th of 2023. That's when it's all available, but you can pre -order, get out there and get it. The links will be in the show notes. They'll also be in a YouTube channel, the banner simulated realities, generative AI and the remanufacture of Professor Lizzo Dr.
(18:45)
Watson, my brother, Marie, better Jerry. Happy early Marine Corps birthday and happy early veterans day. Thanks, brother. Appreciate it. Bye everyone. Yeah, man. Where are we? Until next time. I hope you guys enjoyed this special episode, but you guys know how I sign off.
(19:02)
God bless you. God bless your families and God bless your friends.
