In 2017, shortly after delivering a TEDx talk and numerous workshops, I disappeared. I burrowed deep into one of Silicon Valley's largest technology companies. The nature of my work meant sharing my voice and ideas exclusively with my colleagues. The benefit, in exchange, was getting to learn about breakthrough technologies, including the upcoming next chapter for AI, years before the launch of ChatGPT. The cost was being able to do what I loved: publish and share news, information, and new ideas with the world.
Changing Landscape
The media environment has changed radically as I've watched from the sidelines, and conversations about politics, innovation, and culture have changed radically too. When I stepped back, large technology companies could seemingly do no wrong. Today, that's no longer the case, and the public has become much more critical. Meanwhile, young people feel increasingly whip-sawed as they try to figure out how best to use their time earning increasingly expensive degrees in preparation for an ever tighter job market. Then there’s the burning question (at least for now) of whether generative models that produce everything from language, sound, pictures, and video will upend the entire workforce – both white and blue collar.
Specialized Voice
When I observe the voices in this space, I find that the push is to more polarization, not less. I also see very few experts who are working hands-on with the technologies in question speaking up unfiltered and in depth. There are very clear reasons for that – much of this work is done in secrecy as companies work within their rights to preserve any sliver of an advantage they can have in this hotly contested space. After all, the population of people who want to get into the nitty gritty details of how tensors work is small even as the impact of tensors these days is very, very large.
Returning to My Passion
What we create, how we create it, and its impact on society is where my passion lies, and I know far more now than I did before about the new tools, creators, and the potential impacts than I did when I was a writer, reporter, and editor sitting at a desk in Washington, D.C.. So I am picking up my pen again, building a new company, and stepping behind the microphone and in front of the camera, because I feel a deep obligation to both help inform others and continue to intentionally inform myself about the roiling intersection of media, technology, and design. It's also what I love to do.
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