Optimising my innovative self

Three years ago, with my new friend ChatGPT, I was trying to figure out how to think in parallel with a new kind of intelligence that I could reach by text. Now the challenge is more dramatic: When should I refuse AI’s help, even when it is completing logical routines I have encoded? When should I hand over API keys entirely with no gates? And should I be concerned now that my trio of AIs are no longer just my assistants, but my news readers, my critics, and my booking agents?

When I use Frontier AI I feel like I am standing on a footpath above wispy clouds in the Rocky Mointains, looking at Kansas 200 miles away. I enjoyed that breath-taking view 7600 feet above sea level during three summers on my university campus in the 70s. If I could have seen 2600 weeks into the future as plainly as I saw 260 km back then, I think I would have wondered what kind of a mountain I would have to climb to get to where I am today.

I don’t think I would have thought that I would be able to call on a virtual assistant. The mainframes I used let me talk to them only with punch cards.

(Image from Amplify 2026 conference.)