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Sep 13

Finding Her Voice Through Artificial Intelligence

by ccue

Since last year, my day job has been about Artificial Intelligence (AI), more specifically Generative AI. I believe AI is a real deal not just for its utilities but also for its many game changing potential on human needs. I spend time sharing tips and encourage more to use the technology for their benefits. I spend a decent amount of time in an effort to democratize AI. 

The most beautiful AI interaction turns out to be in a situation when I least expect it to be.

Soon reaching its 100 years old, International Toastmaster Club has over 200,000 members in more than 14000 clubs in more than 140 countries.Toastmaster is all about communication excellence, and for 100 years and counting, Toastmasters have been expressing themselves better, practicing, and evaluating in a fun club environment, shining all around the world. Once a distinguished Toastmaster club president, I stay as an active Toastmasters, making speeches occasionally. 

A few months ago, I could not be more surprised to find a new member with speech disability joining the club. Let’s call her Lady M. Lady M makes unrecognizable squeaks, her hand movements are sporadic, her facial expressions are different, her muscle movements are obviously compromised. That constantly reminds me of the limitation and likely hardship she encounters. Her presence brings that tiny discomfort that no-one really wants to show.

Over time, Lady M has proven to be an enthusiastic member. She is very brave. She wants so much to participate, including the table topics where one gets a short prompt to deliver a one to two minute impromptu speech response. Technology has come to her aid. She can type up her thoughts in group chats instead of speaking. Yet, her chats are hard to comprehend, the sentences are grammatically incomplete, and we cannot make sense of the words. Needless to say, most, in the club, have felt uneasy because of our limitations to interpret meaningfully what she has shared.  We have been candid to share that we do not understand. She is not deterred and has kept participating to my utmost admiration. 

Something happened in one recent meeting. In that meeting, I hosted the table topics. I called out a few club guests, gave them prompts, for them to deliver an impromptu speech.  I was about to conclude, when I got a glimpse, on the zoom window, that lady M was waving vigorously to get attention and to participate. I ended up posting the prompt in group chat for her to post a response. The reply was equally incomprehensible. AI has come to our aid this time. The president came up with the idea to use AI.  Rather than reading out the group chat of Lady M word by word, the president copied and pasted to the AI ChatGPT, and asked AI to help us to comprehend.  Afterwards he read out the AI-enhanced impromptu response.  How well has AI interpreted lady M? Judging by the reaction of lady M, it came across that, AI has read her mind better than any human toastmasters attending at the time. I have not seen lady M happier. That expression of feeling heard and feeling understood made a beautiful face.

Maybe we are bound by our learned grammar, words and languages. AI has gifted us this ability to better understand each other without that boundaries.  

A week after, at the Club, lady M was there again. This time, she shared that her father just passed away. In times of life’s most difficult moments, we hope her participation with the help of technology has brought her comfort and courage. We found her voice through Artificial Intelligence. 

About Learning ai Dear Diary Misc. Public Speaking / Toastmaster public-speaking

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Jul 20

Echoes of wisdom: three commencement speeches

by ccue

My Toastmaster Club President asked if I would like to be a speaker in the upcoming club meeting. It is not any special request. Such a request serves as a trigger about what meaningful speech I would like to share with the fellow club members, many of whom will have many ventures and career years ahead of them. The Club president did not have much of a suggestion of the topics. June is the month of college graduation. I decided to use a speech to echo the wisdom of three commencement speeches. The first of the three speeches was dated in 2007. I read the speech transcript from “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”, a book with so much wisdom.  The other two speeches were more freshly delivered in June this year. 

My speech transcript re: “Echoes of wisdom: three commencement speeches”. 

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How many remember the commencement speeches from your college graduations? Because I don’t remember anything, I could not put into practice the wisdom from the speech of my college graduation.  As you have many ventures and years ahead, I have three commencement speeches from three great persons to share with you today. 

Charlie Munger at USC Law, 2007 
Munger is known for his 60 years of partnership with Warren Buffet, and the unusual successes of the company Berkshire Hathaway. His wisdom and humor have lived on in his speech and his book. He said “acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty”.  

The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want.  You want to deliver to the world what you want to buy if you were on the other side.  It is a golden rule. 
Be a learning machine.  Develop a multi-disciplinary knowledge in important domains:  business, psychology, math and history. 
Hard work and strong work ethics are essential.  As obvious as it is, we often forget it when things are not going well.

His speech is full of gold and offers values for anyone. 

Roger Federer at Dartmouth, 2024
Roger is arguably the most beloved tennis player of all time. He retired in 2022. I was there in London watching him to play the last match at the London O2 arena, and his emotional farewell. He did not finish high school. Yet his tennis accomplishment earned him the honor of a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Dartmouth. 

Effortless is a myth: For many who have watched him play, his play looks easy and effortless. This is misleading. He explains that he had to work very hard to make his game look easy. Next time, when  you see some successful people get an easy promotion, think again.
It’s only a point: A tennis match has many points, just like our life has many points. Federer shares that during the point, you see the point as the most most important point in your life that you put 100% in. When the point is over, win or lose, you need to learn and move on, so you have your 100% for the next point. 
Life is bigger than the court: Federer has his foundation that helps children in Africa get an education. It’s important to have a purpose in life beyond your career.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia at CalTech, 2024
Jensen famously said the following : “To me, no task is beneath me, because I used to be a dishwasher, I used to clean toilets and I’ve cleaned more toilets than all of you combined”. In his commencement speech, he shared with the graduates a detailed history of Nvidia, and the journey. 

Develop an informed and reasoned belief  in something unconventional and unexplored.
Find a craft to dedicate the lifetime to perfect. He famously said that he has nothing to do other than being the CEO of Nvidia. 
Prioritize. Jensen has a prioritized list, and first thing in the  morning, he takes care of the most important priority, leaving him plenty of time to take care of people and other priorities

With technology, many commencement speeches are available on YouTube, waiting for you to discover. Consider checking out a commencement speech. That may turn out to be the best use of the time and you would go to bed wiser than in the morning. As Mr. Munger once said, acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty. 

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Jul 17

Are we becoming more worldly with technology and AI?

by ccue

The transcript of a speech I delivered in a couple of Toastmaster clubs on this topic “Are we becoming more worldly with technology and AI?”

I want to explore with you one  question, one human-centered question  in this era of AI. “Are we becoming more worldly with technology and AI? “ 

Our great grandparents lived their whole life in their own village.  They never left the village.  They knew a lot about their village, their families and neighbors, They were close to knowing nothing in places that were not reachable to them.  If you ask them what they thought of other villages.  LIkely they would say they didn’t know, or they thought all villages were similar.

Fast forward to this generation. Information is at our fingertips. Phone is with us. Travel is part of our life. We know the world has a lot of variances. With AI, we can understand different languages without putting in the effort to learn it. 

How many think “we are becoming more worldly with technology and AI”

Now I am going to share three experiences about different perspectives. The differences may be surprising, or even a bit unsettling.  

First, with the internet, we can access and digest different channels. How many of you subscribe to a channel that consistently has a different point of views from yours? I did, on this channel of a YouTuber, the channel has good subscribers and has an incredible voice. He is negative, always finds flaws, and mostly only reports bad doings of the government. It is not easy but I want to understand his perspective. Over time, I still disagree with his point of view, but I start to see him as a person, get his perspective, and hear from him the dark side. I sometimes leave a comment.  How do you become worldly or know the different perspectives?

Second, you have heard about Surveillance. Who thinks it is a good thing? Who thinks it is bad? I think it depends, and I don’t really mind to be monitored. Most news tends to be a bit negative about surveillance.. So I prompt different LLM “​​what do people think of surveillance”. While some LLM still share the negative before the positive, most show two sides of the opinion.  AI can give us different views.  Many friends told me they feel safer, they worry less, there is less crime, less drugs.  

Third, the media all have their positions. We don’t want them to think for us. Example, XinJiang, China has been on CNN or BBC quite a bit. I prompt LLM to “tell me the latest news about XinJiang”.  What did LLM say about XinJiang? Allegations of forced labor in supply chains, destruction of Mosques and religious suppression. It so happens that this week, seven of my siblings and in-laws are traveling to XinJiang, China. We have a real time connection using WhatsApp, I feel I am in California, I am also virtually visiting XinJiang, very cool.  From my siblings, everyday, I am getting lots of pictures from them, eating local food, visiting local museums, talking to locals, and even dancing with the locals etc. They are obviously having a great time. The locals, they talk to, are happy people with their dreams for the future. They run into people doing road trips on their own, not that unsimilar to people doing road trips in America. Are you aware of the different perspectives?

With these perspectives, I ask again “are we becoming more worldly”?

AI gifts us more ways to see the world and the differences. It is one of the greatest gifts from technology and AI.  We all can take advantage of the AI-powered world to become more worldly.  

My speech is a tiny step so that we can become more worldly. You all can take bigger steps.  You can prompt and push AI to give you different perspectives. Your choice from today onward makes all the difference whether we will have a world of acceptance and peace or a world of conflicts and wars. 

Leave comments to share your thoughts on the topic too.

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