I’m always happy to be doing public outreach; it’s good to get outside (proverbially speaking) and talk to some people beyond ASU. I had two opportunities this month to do that!
David Linderholm invited me to speak to the Arizona Park Ranger Coalition in early January about how AI might help park ranger managers do their work better. I was truly honored to help, as I and my family have greatly enjoyed parks all over Arizona throughout our lives here. I talked a lot about finding what works, rejecting what doesn’t, and using tools to meet problems (instead of “doing it to do it”). It was a really great day in Avondale. Thanks again to David for thinking of me! I don’t usually talk with park rangers, so I gave a brand new presentation on their behalf. My talk slides are available for that one:
I also co-wrote a long blog post on AI and the job market that was published at Humans in the Loop, my college’s AI blog. It was a challenge writing the piece, as the pace of market change has been intense in the past few months: In September, I gave a talk to Write the Docs Phoenix about AI’s impact on the job market, but now just a few months later the picture looks different. AI’s impact on the labor market was murky then, and somehow it’s even murkier now. There are many trends that seem to run directly counter to each other happening at the same time. Still, there are positives we can take away from all that’s happening: students being trained to use AI ethically and carefully are in demand in many fields (even if many organizations don’t quite know what they’re doing in terms of implementation).
Thanks to Adam Pacton, PhD for inviting me and Saba Rudsari, Ph.D. to write a blog post on this topic for the Humans in the Loop blog!