Being Behind a Few Steps Is Not a Bad Thing

My old Terms of Service had this notice:

AI Research

Not a single piece of content on kevdees.com can be used as training data for large language models (LLMs), artificial general intelligence (AGIs), and other generative AI systems.

After two years, I am taking that notice down. Today.

Not because I am accepting AI or because I am finally "relenting" to AI. It is because reality is real. I have already seen my content show up in AI chat before. AI bots are going to acquire the information on my site one way or another, so having that notice there started to feel like wasted breath.

I still do not agree with how AI is acquiring data and claiming it as "research" instead of being direct and saying copyrighted material is being taken outright without credit. But I also have to be honest: I am starting to use AI more each day, and it is helpful to the tasks I am working on.

Helpful to humanity over the long term? That part we will see.

Pretty often I think about the impact of AI on my kids, who will grow up in a world where autonomous robots and AI are part of everyday life. I have seen this kind of everyday impact before, in the real-time impact of smartphones on people.

"It" is powerful, but also harmful if not respected.

Not having "it" can make you feel left behind. The "it" can be anything, like the smartphone back around 2010. Today that "it" is AI.

But maybe being left behind a few steps is not a bad thing.

That is to say, we should take intentional slow steps. Slow does not seem as exciting as a full sprint, but slow can lead to real payoff in the long run. Slow, intentional steps in the right direction can keep you from running in the wrong direction and then needing to backtrack.

And yes, running in the wrong direction is not always a full 180 degrees of error. There is not always a cliff at the end of a sprint. But the journey to getting somewhere is part of the story too.

With slow: You soak in the landscape more. You trample fewer people. Maybe, just maybe, you have time to give a hand while you are at it.