"Simulated Realities" - Book Release Interview on Generative AI with Dr. Jerry Washington
Oct 29, 2023Episode 96
Dr. Jerry Washington
Meet Dr. Jerry Washington, a United States Marine Corps Veteran and the soon-to-be author of "Simulated Realities." Dr. Washington, fueled by his fascination with AI, embarked on his writing journey when OpenAI launched ChatGPT. His vision of using AI language models to promote media literacy and critical thinking is truly remarkable.
During our conversation, we explored the beauty of language and the power of metaphors. As we delve deeper, we promise to enlighten you about the unparalleled implications of Generative AI on professional development. It's not a form of cheating but a valuable tool, an assistant aiding in the generation of complex information and skill improvement, as Dr. Washington asserts.
His book can be pre-ordered today and will be available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats on November 17, 2023. It is highly anticipated for its potentially groundbreaking perspectives on professionalism and Generative AI. So, get ready for an enlightening episode that could reshape your professional perspective.
Meet Dr. Jerry Washington, a United States Marine Corps Veteran and the soon-to-be author of "Simulated Realities." Dr. Washington, fueled by his fascination with AI, embarked on his writing journey when OpenAI launched ChatGPT. His vision of using AI language models to promote media literacy and critical thinking is truly remarkable.
During our conversation, we explored the beauty of language and the power of metaphors. As we delve deeper, we promise to enlighten you about the unparalleled implications of Generative AI on professional development. It's not a form of cheating but a valuable tool, an assistant aiding in the generation of complex information and skill improvement, as Dr. Washington asserts.
His book can be pre-ordered today and will be available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats on November 17, 2023. It is highly anticipated for its potentially groundbreaking perspectives on professionalism and Generative AI. So, get ready for an enlightening episode that could reshape your professional perspective.
Welcome back to unarmor talk podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue pleased to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is a awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the parade deck Just look in a show notes or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access To my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people. Welcome back to unarmor talk podcast. For this special episode, you guys know to deal with your host, mario P Fields, and today's amazing guest and soon to be author. Like literally, he's already an author, by the way, as a probably a few, a few days ago, hours ago, dr Jerry Washington. He's not just a marine veteran, he's my brother. I mean literally, like we are friends and he has helped me tremendously. What's going on, doctor Washington?
Speaker 2:
what's going on, brother? What's going on?
Speaker 1:
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?
Speaker 2:
You know talk about.
Speaker 1:
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 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 dollars generated from the YouTube channel and the audio downloads. You guys are making a difference in Pitt County, north Carolina and in the future, around the world, as those high school students graduate. Help us fight poverty. Get on wwwsteelservinginccom, donate a dollar. Come on, man, and let's continue to fight poverty. 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. It's called simulated realities, generative AI and the remanufacture of professionalism. Dr Washington, please let them know who you are, my friend.
Speaker 2:
Hey, appreciate it, brother. Jerry Washington, as you and I have discussed in the past, I I didn't do a doctorate in education Organizational change in leadership to be called doctor. 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 to the community.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, well, let's. Let's talk about that. 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. And 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 your will to me resources and technology and the AI kind of quadrant. To make things a little bit more accurate, jerry, let's talk about your book that's about to be released. Let's do it let's do it.
Speaker 2:
What do you want to?
Speaker 1:
know, let's do it first. Man, what motivated and inspired you to do it?
Speaker 2:
oh man, you know, I say the spark was probably last year November timeframe when OpenAI released chat GPT. I think it was three or three point five at the time and.
Speaker 2:
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, 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 I was right 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 what can we do? You know what? What? What recommendations can we can I provide to help, you know, increase media literacy for the youth?
Speaker 2:
And one of the pieces that came out of that I'm digging through information researching was how AI, 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. And so that really sparked it right, like how can AI, this new language model tool, really help us in spreading media literacy and critical thinking skills? So then, go ahead, go ahead. I'm sorry, no, go ahead.
Speaker 1:
No, no, I was gonna say because I love and I love how you mentioned how you got. You became curious and everyone. If 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. 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.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, I agree, 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. 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, for example, a metaphor of you know the world is about. It's about combat, it's about winning and losing.
Speaker 1:
You got to always win. Are you referring to how I used to be Jerry?
Speaker 2:
No, no, no, but we got to understand that that's a metaphor we're using to understand how the world operates. 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 winning or losing Right, and that's not reality. Reality is multi dimensional, it there's so many aspects to, to to life and reality, and how we interact with that is through language. So we have this tool. Now, what is this tool based on right now is based on these large language models. It's language. So we can use this tool, one to help us understand things differently, right to to gather information. We can fact check ourself and we can fact check the generative AI itself. We can go to encyclopedias and we can.
Speaker 2:
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, and I'm going to that a little bit more here. But language is really what connects us. Language is really what, what, what connects me and you? Right now 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. It's a video representation of me, but those are all algorithms and numbers, you know. But it's a simulated reality and it's becoming even more ubiquitous. You know, across our reality.
Speaker 1:
And you know, and I love how you use the word re-manufacture. You know the words you use that are non binary. You know, there it's not this a or B, or like how I used to be in 2018, when, or lose and everyone, darius, but like okay, mario, 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 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 to get out of this man?
Speaker 2:
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 general generative AI.
Speaker 2:
We want this thing to be available to everyone, and the only way it's going to 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, 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, 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. The only way that this thing will be democratized is that we have to use it. Many of them are free. We need to challenge what's coming out of it too.
Speaker 2:
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 prompt here, this chat. There's a bias coming out of it and we need to try to do something about that.
Speaker 1:
I love it.
Speaker 2:
You can't know it if you don't use it.
Speaker 1:
I'm glad you said that, because I was that person. 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. When I used it I said, oh my goodness. So I totally. You know, I don't even agree. It's up to right. Understand it and don't be rigid.
Speaker 2:
Don't be either or right. Don't be either or right.
Speaker 1:
Who you, like Marviel P, used to be. 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 follow me. You're gonna tell me more. You know what. I'm good, you know, marviel. 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, your book, jerry?
Speaker 2:
So it'll be available on Amazon. It's available for preorder 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 preorder it. If you want 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, it will be in all three formats, which is also in hardback.
Speaker 2:
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, but I also want people to understand the difference, and you and I have had this conversation that you know.
Speaker 2:
The first thing that people see about it and when they're using it is immediately oh, that's cheating. 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. It's like literally right here on my side right now. This is a tool okay, 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, 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.
Speaker 2:
Now, it can be used as a form of cheating Absolutely, and if somebody says, hey, this is cheating, you know 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. I 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 as a tool to help you increase your proficiency.
Speaker 1:
Jerry, that's, 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 couldn't have done it better than you. You guys heard it and I and I say it all the time in my employment workshops Jerry has taught me and he just so eloquently stated is human generated. You know, and I'm 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, but but, but the discipline and approach. That is a very dynamic approach where human generated, again, ai says keeps it authentic and it again, it provides you different variations that you can can say let me do some research, what does that mean? And and yeah, so thank you, because I would have screwed that up and everyone would have heard me say my, what the heck is human generated content with AI? And I'm not really talking about Jerry, I love it. You've changed your education and awareness to me, change my life.
Speaker 1:
This is this episode, one of meaning to come. Like Jerry said. You know, this is just the first release of meaning to come up for discussion. 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.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it may be a deeper conversation later. 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? What does that say about how professionalism might be changing? That's what's in that book.
Speaker 1:
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. It will be October 30, but you guys heard it November, the 17th of 2023. That's when it's all available. But you can preorder. Get out there and get it. The links will be in the show notes. They'll also be in a YouTube channel in the banner simulated realities, generative AI and the re-manufacture of Professor Lizzo, dr Watson, my brother, marie, veteran Jerry. Happy early Marine Corps birthday and happy early Veterans Day, my friend.
Speaker 2:
Thanks, brother, appreciate it. Bye everyone.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, where everybody till next time. I hope you guys enjoyed this special episode, but you guys know how I sign off. God bless you, god bless your families and God bless your friends. We'll see you soon.