WEBVTT Curt Hammond (he/him): Join the room. A reminder, we are recording this. You've probably clicked a couple buttons with that. Curt Hammond (he/him): For those people who, can't join us in person, we will be sending out links to videos from all three of our sessions. Curt Hammond (he/him): And we'll talk about this at the end, but we'll also be sending out a summary of the conversations we had, maybe some leadership reflections, and then some opportunities maybe to continue our learning together through Oak Tree and or for Simple Birds, so we really do appreciate Curt Hammond (he/him): everyone's time today. Why don't we jump in? Curt Hammond (he/him): wanting to be really respectful. We've got some really… Curt Hammond (he/him): Exciting things to learn with Sean today, and I'll be introducing him, officially in a moment, but really excited about continuing our conversations that we started two weeks ago with the Oak Tree Learning Lab. Curt Hammond (he/him): And again, the goal here was to put something together for nonprofit leaders who are doing the real work in today's really challenging environment, and we've heard that loud and clear Curt Hammond (he/him): We'll be hearing from Will in a bit, and, you know, celebrating our 10th edition, and we don't think we've seen a more challenging environment for… Curt Hammond (he/him): for charities, since we've started. So the goal of this is to, offer an opportunity for people to maybe step back for an hour, do some reflective learning, and think about what is already Curt Hammond (he/him): And build on all those good things happening in your organization. Curt Hammond (he/him): Sean, I see you got your screen sharing on there. Sean Yo: Yeah. Sean Yo: Is it showing just the slide? Curt Hammond (he/him): It's showing a timer now, too. Sean Yo: Ugh. Curt Hammond (he/him): Yeah. Curt Hammond (he/him): So, just while Sean's figuring that out, Curt Hammond (he/him): Today's conversation, ironically enough, is all about this… how we're bringing on and adapting and thinking about new technology in our organization… organization, specifically AI. And Sean and I do a lot of these, chats, and so we're looking forward to Curt Hammond (he/him): I'm having this conversation with you. And I… I want to remind us that we've been thinking about Curt Hammond (he/him): how we build resiliency in our teams. I want to share that I think that the process and the leadership it takes to onboard new technology are very similar, so I really do want to remind us that the Curt Hammond (he/him): the two conversations are related, and in fact have similar outputs for us. And what we're hearing loud and clear from organizations and the work that Sean and I are doing, is that teams are worried about AI is going to take their jobs, leaders are worried about privacy, accessibility, accountability, and everybody Curt Hammond (he/him): Including those of us who are trying to get to know this even better, is feeling, oh my gosh, this is something new to learn, this is yet another thing on my plate. Curt Hammond (he/him): And I'm already overwhelmed. So Sean and I today are going to invite you into perhaps a different way of thinking about AI. Curt Hammond (he/him): And really embracing a new mindset when it comes to how we think about Curt Hammond (he/him): Bringing it in and inviting into organizations. Curt Hammond (he/him): So, a reminder, we are recording this, and we'll be following up with links later on. Before we jump in. Curt Hammond (he/him): And, let me just do our acknowledgements. And we've heard three of these, we've heard two of these, and we've been tranching them out because they relate to each of our topics differently. So I'll start with our territorial acknowledgement. Curt Hammond (he/him): A reminder that the land we're on is stolen, and is up to us to right relations with our Indigenous sisters and brothers, and that journey is something that we all need to take responsibility for. I, myself, am just coming to terms with the word settler and what that means, and the best way for me to do that Curt Hammond (he/him): is to listen to Indigenous voices, to help me learn and unlearn some things that the Ontario education system has shared. Curt Hammond (he/him): So there's no right or wrong answers on this. It's a big, important conversation, and I want to remind us that here in Canada, truth has to come before reconciliation. Curt Hammond (he/him): The second enlargement we did with our last week's session was around mental health, and this was something that I started doing in late March 2020, and just a reminder. Curt Hammond (he/him): that, no matter how we have arrived today, your presence is welcome. If you're really excited about being here, and you can't wait to learn about AI, Sean and Will and I are very grateful for your presence. If today's not such a good day, the walls are closing in, and you just barely made it to the camera and would rather be somewhere else. Curt Hammond (he/him): We also want to say we're really glad that you're here. No matter how you've arrived, your presence matters, your voice is important, and we are grateful for your time. Curt Hammond (he/him): The last and third acknowledgement, and many of you have heard this from me before, is more a statement, really. I was born white, male, middle class, in southern Ontario in the 1970s. Curt Hammond (he/him): And when you combine that with the fact that I'm happily married to my beautiful wife, Melanie, I check just about every box of privilege there is. Curt Hammond (he/him): And I share that today because my journey to our screens today may have been radically different than many of yours, just because of the way I look. And doors that opened for me. Curt Hammond (he/him): For that reason, may have enclosed… may have, in fact, closed for you for that exact same reason. Curt Hammond (he/him): So I think it's really important today, as we think about how we present ourselves to the world and the… and the privilege that we have, this invites us to step into a conversation about bias. And we cannot talk about AI without talking about bias. Curt Hammond (he/him): And we cannot talk about bias without thinking about patterns and systems, and that's what Sean is really going to be inviting us to think about today. So, I want you to know that I'm very much a work in progress as it comes to thinking about and understanding my privilege, and if there are learnings for me today, I welcome your feedback. Curt Hammond (he/him): And I am grateful for your grace. Curt Hammond (he/him): And we are gonna ground today in. Curt Hammond (he/him): What is the bias behind the knowledge? And, Curt Hammond (he/him): data that is driving some of the magic that we see in AI. Okay, we'll get back in a second. Before I introduce Sean. Curt Hammond (he/him): Will McTaggart, founder of the Oak Tree Project, is joining us from the road today. Will, thanks so much for, as always, for pulling us together, and for, giving us an opportunity to learn. I want to hand it over to you, just maybe to give us an update on the Oak Tree Project timing itself, and what we can expect next. Sean Yo: Oh, you're on mute. Curt Hammond (he/him): Will, we can't hear you quite yet. Will Mactaggart: Good morning, everybody. Sorry, I'm, as Kurt said, I'm on the road, unfortunately, Will Mactaggart: ferrying some children around this morning, and just getting, getting, to this. So yes, doing it remote, and getting used to, Zoom on my phone. Will Mactaggart: I really appreciate everybody coming today. I'm excited to hear what we're gonna learn. It's been a great series of sessions that I'm, you know, looking forward to sharing with you. Will Mactaggart: As far as Oak Tree, we've had… incredible response this year. Will Mactaggart: the most applications we've ever had in the past is, 14, and this on the 10th edition, we actually have 29 applications that the, expert panel is in the middle of vetting right now. Will Mactaggart: the way that process works, there's, you know, a bunch of individual, consideration going on right now. We will get together as a group, and… Will Mactaggart: hear what the panel, has to say and reflect on these submissions, and that will ultimately, in early December, lead to five semi-finalists who will be competing for the final prize. Will Mactaggart: They will meet with the judge, with the expert panel one more time, individually, Will Mactaggart: for some Q&A in, middle of January, and then the final stage will be on, the end of January. Will Mactaggart: 27th, I believe, was the day, or 29th, wasn't it, Kurt? Curt Hammond (he/him): 29th, yep, 29th, yep. Will Mactaggart: Thursday the 29th, we are meeting at the Cutton Fields, in the… in their… Will Mactaggart: main conference room there, and the staff at Cutton is gonna put on some amazing food for us, and Will Mactaggart: We are gonna see the five semifinalists do a live pitch to the crowd, there's gonna be some great music, a really good opportunity for everyone, you know, semifinalists or just charity in the community to come together. Will Mactaggart: and celebrate, and you know, enjoy the hospitality at the Cutton, and this year, courtesy of my employer, Richardson Wealth, they have agreed to pick up the cost for this, being that it's the 10th anniversary. Will Mactaggart: So, really excited to share that with all of you, looking forward, to seeing… hopefully everybody on the call can make it out. And, we'll, with that, I will turn it over Will Mactaggart: to get the presentation going here. Thanks so much! Curt Hammond (he/him): Excellent. Thank you, Will, and, thank you for this opportunity, and then also for, Oak Tree itself, which has been, had some huge impact, and I think we're gonna… Curt Hammond (he/him): At the end of this year, it'll be over $400,000 that Oak Tree has contributed to the community over the past 10 editions, so… Curt Hammond (he/him): Yay, Will, thank you for your leadership and vision on this. Okay, let's jump in. Let me introduce my friend and colleague, Sean Yeoh. Curt Hammond (he/him): So Sean is the practice leader of AI at Four Simple Words, and he's also co-founder and executive director of CISPM, which we're going to get him to remind us what it is, because I'm going to get those letters mixed up. Can you… CISPM, what is it again? Sean Yo: Canadian Institute of Software Product Management. Curt Hammond (he/him): Sounds very techy and very smart people, right? Very Sean. It's on… that is very on-brand for Sean. And he, of course, is one of the creators of the Plus AM mindset. So, Sean is really good at helping Curt Hammond (he/him): people, myself included, see, think, and create with AI through curiosity and care, and you do not hear that a lot when we talk about technology. Curt Hammond (he/him): Right? And Sean's really good at bridging the logistics of technology and making sure that it's grounded in ethics, and people, and human-centric design, so that we can all feel safe, empowered, and excited about the technology, as opposed to… Curt Hammond (he/him): afraid of it. So, just before I hand things off to Sean. Curt Hammond (he/him): I want to remind us that as we think about AI, Curt Hammond (he/him): It is really important, as leaders in our organizations and in our communities, this is a cultural conversation. Curt Hammond (he/him): Like, we can get into technology really fast, and Sean and I love to geek out, and we would love to share with you all the toys we play with. Curt Hammond (he/him): Before we do that, and that's what we're spending some time with today, this is a cultural conversation, just like the conversation we had Curt Hammond (he/him): last week. Curt Hammond (he/him): Around being… building team resiliency. It starts with culture. So I'm going to invite us to re… perhaps reimagine our relationship with that word, with those two letters, AI, and really grounding ourselves in culture. So with that, let's give a warm and grand Curt Hammond (he/him): Oak Tree Project Girl. Welcome to Shawn Yeo. Sean Yeo's in the house! Curt Hammond (he/him): Nice to have you here, my friend. Sean Yo: Thank you so much. Kurt's gonna help out by running the slides, so I'll be queuing him, because I… I'm very technical, and I can't figure this out, so, you know… Sean Yo: Life is hard, and computers are the worst. Curt Hammond (he/him): Way to start… way to start with confidence, right? Sean Yo: And just as Kurt's getting that set up, I'll just also share that, you know, I'm very involved with the service community here in Guelph. I'm a member of the Guelph Rotary Club and a Paul Harris Fellow. Sean Yo: was on the United Way Committee at University of Guelph for more than a decade, and I currently help out with the coldest night of the year, for several years now, and under, my co-leadership, over the last 5 or 6 years, we've raised, over $1 million, so… Sean Yo: Making sure that we're thinking about how to make our community better, and better for everyone, is something that's really important to me, and something I spend a lot of my time on, so I'm really grateful and honored to be able to be here with you today. Sean Yo: Alright! Sean Yo: So. Sean Yo: We can get started here with the first slide. So, the first thing we want to talk about here is how, this is now. We're not talking about something that's coming. AI is here today. And you know what? Kurt already sort of, not sort of, Kurt did a great job of letting us know what we're going to be looking at today, which is there's some really scary questions out there. Am I going to be replaced? Sean Yo: Is this technology dangerous? Or even just, how do I keep up? And these are really important questions. The thing I really hope we can focus on today, though, is asking perhaps some questions that are a little bit more real for us, and that is, who are you becoming with AI? Who am I becoming with AI? Sean Yo: Because that's how big this change is. I'm, I'm very old, not as old as Kurt, but also born in the 70s. Curt Hammond (he/him): Thanks for coming out, everybody. We've got some technical issues, Sean. Sean's not here anymore, sorry. Sean Yo: You know, I've been, I was here for the information superhighway of the internet, for BlackBerry, smartphones, tablets, crypto. I've seen the world change from a technology point of view several times now, and this is that moment, and it's bigger and faster than ever before. Sean Yo: The change is big, and the opportunity for us is to ask, who are we becoming? Not only for ourselves, but for our organizations, and we can move on. Curt Hammond (he/him): Can I just jump in here? Sean Yo: Of course. Curt Hammond (he/him): this question is going to change depending on your time of day, so there's no single answer to this, right? Yeah. And we'll talk a bit about this, but who am I becoming with AI right in this moment versus later on this afternoon? There's no single answer here, and that, for me, is the really exciting piece. Sean Yo: Yeah, thanks, Sean. Sean Yo: Yeah, and everything we talk about today, I want to be super clear. There's a set of tools, and my sincere and exclusive intent is that you use these tools to make the world a better place. Further demonstration of how old I am, Aene DeFranco is one of my favorite singer-songwriters, and this line has guided my life since the Sean Yo: early 90s, when Puddle Dive came out, but every tool's a weapon if you hold it right, right? It's not so much what is the device or the technology, but what's in the intent, but most importantly, what's the outcome. Sean Yo: So, we are here to get good outcomes that support each other and those who are most vulnerable and need the most in our community. Sean Yo: Okay, so let's talk about what is Sean Yo: Gen AI. So, you know what? AI is a huge, sprawling field. It's been around for decades, and interestingly, every time they come up with something really great. Sean Yo: that thing goes off and becomes its own thing and leaves AI behind. So, like, machine learning and neural networks, these are really great things that all came out of AI, but they're so big, they come off and become their own discipline. And we're seeing that again here. And so what is Gen AI? Sean Yo: It's generative AI. It creates content Sean Yo: by mapping relationships, and everything that's in the headlines today around ChatGPT and Claude and Gemini, this is all generative AI. There's lots of other kinds, we don't have to worry ourselves about that today, but it's a… for me, it's important that we do start with that. Sean Yo: Okay, so what is, even. Sean Yo: Generative AI. Well, what does that mean? Well, it really does one thing, and that's Sean Yo: It takes what you give it, and it guesses at what comes next. That sounds crazy, because it does such a good job, but its entire trick is, it tells you the next best word. That's it. So, we're going to try that right now, and Kurt is going to stand in for everyone on the call. Sean Yo: So let's try this out. But I want you to actually say this back, alright? I'm gonna say something, little calm response, right? Let's see how this works. Mary had a little… Curt Hammond (he/him): Lamb! Sean Yo: Yeah, and so how did we know that? Can we predict the future? No, but we can understand patterns and predict patterns. And that little moment, that little exercise, what we just did, that is the key to understanding all of how this technology works. Sean Yo: So when people say something like, AI hallucinates. Sean Yo: I wouldn't say they're wrong, but I think they're more wrong than right. What's more likely is that what it guessed is just a little bit off, and it has no way of knowing. Sean Yo: what is true and what isn't, because remember, it's always guessing. It doesn't, aim for truth, it aims for fit, because it can actually detect truth, but it can detect fit. Okay, quick story. I have asked, ChatGPT in the past Sean Yo: to say, hey, here's a set of tasks I want you to do, help me out. And ChatGPT said, got it, Sean, as soon as that's done, as soon as that's done, I'll let you know and get back to you. Sean Yo: I was like, okay, that sounds great. How would you do that? Sean Yo: And, it said, oh, I'm sorry, you're right, I can't do that. Let me do that for you now. So, that feels like hallucination, that feels like it's absolutely crazy, but here's how I see it. We've trained ChatGPT on millions, billions, maybe trillions of emails. Sean Yo: More data than we've ever been able to organize in the history of humanity before. And you know what a really common thing in those emails and all the content we've trained it on? Is when somebody says, here's a large task, it's very common for the human to say, got it, no problem, I'll get started on that. Sean Yo: And when I'm… when I have an update, I'll get back to you. So, it guessing the pattern of what the right response was. Sean Yo: That was not a hallucination. It was doing exactly what we asked it to do. Curt Hammond (he/him): Right? Sean Yo: So, anyways, so, not lying, not hallucinating. Curt Hammond (he/him): Just. Sean Yo: The next best guess, so we can advance here, Kurt. Sean Yo: Okay, so that is what generative AI is. What's the plus AI mindset? Well, the first thing is that the plus… is about the plus. The shift is you… Sean Yo: Plus AI. Me, plus AI. That's why we call it the plus AI mindset, because AI isn't the center. You are. Humans are, and always must be. Okay? Sean Yo: And we would say that this isn't automation, but collaboration. And of course, there is automation that's available and possible, but what we're saying is that, from a mindset point of view, our starting point isn't how do we automate things, but how do we collaborate with this new tool? It's not a replacement. Sean Yo: It's what we call co-creation, making with it. Sean Yo: That's what we're going to explore today. We're going to keep coming back to this idea, throughout the session. Curt Hammond (he/him): And I just invite people to jump in with any… if you've got any questions, feel free to jump in the chat. I'm keeping an eye on that. And, and or just open up your mic. We welcome your questions along the way here. Let me just quickly jump in, and I love this from Sean. Curt Hammond (he/him): And this has been so freeing for me to realize this thing isn't smart, it's just… it has all the words, right? It has all the words. And as Sean and I get better, and Sean in particular get better at helping me prompt. Curt Hammond (he/him): it's helping it find the right words for the right moment. It's this… it's this whittling down. So, I find the pattern piece really helpful for me to realize, oh, I don't have to be overwhelmed by this. In fact. Curt Hammond (he/him): this is a tool to help me amplify what I… those things I can't see, and that's what Sean's gonna introduce us to next. Sean Yo: Yeah, so there's 3 big pieces to the Plus AI mindset. See, think, create. So let's start with C. Sean Yo: How does AI see? Sean Yo: Well, we want to start about thinking about two kinds of seeing. How does AI see, and how can we see with AI? So what does AI see? Well, it quote-unquote sees patterns, it doesn't see meaning. It can detect shape, flow, direction, but it cannot detect sense. Sean Yo: Think of Escher's staircases. Sean Yo: Humans would say, these don't work, but AI would just walk across them. Sean Yo: Right? It understands where the… it can detect where the stairs go. That, they don't actually connect, doesn't matter to it. And so when you have those confusing moments, think about this picture of this robot going up impossible stairs. It's just a little bit confused or stuck in the corner. Sean Yo: It'll go upside down, through walls. It's not confused, though. From its point of view, it's just following patterns. Sean Yo: Okay? So what does that mean for us? Sean Yo: That means we, humans, have to do all the seeing. AI helps, it does not understand. Sean Yo: So with Plus AI, we guide the lens. It shows us options that we wouldn't think of alone. So that's the opportunity, is to broaden how we see by using generative AI. It's not about handing off insight, it's about multiplying perspective. Sean Yo: So seeing with AI ultimately means asking better questions and getting a better starting point. Sean Yo: So why does seeing matter so much? Why is it the first thing in the Plus AI mindset? Because Plus AI, as a mindset, helps surface unexpected perspectives. It can expand how we look at things. This is creativity, this is innovation. Sean Yo: And this is, broadly, I would say, how we achieve better outcomes and progress. Sean Yo: And because of that, it's gold for that kind of ideation, for that kind of innovation, but also idea validation. Sean Yo: If we guide AI well, then AI can challenge our defaults, what we see as normal, and can stretch us, can stretch what we notice. And that's incredibly powerful. Sean Yo: The mindset shift is to use AI to see more, not to let it see for us. Sean Yo: And that's how AI sees. Curt Hammond (he/him): Right? And that distinction is so important. So, we can't let AI see for us, we need to see with it, right? Like, we can't… we are not handing keys over here to this technology to make all our decisions. However, its power in finding patterns is incredibly Curt Hammond (he/him): like… well, for… I think for Sean and I in our practice, game-changing in terms of the opportunities it opens up. Sean Yo: Absolutely. Curt Hammond (he/him): And that feeds back in that collaborative piece. Okay, excellent. Curt Hammond (he/him): So, after sea ice sees, it thinks. Sean Yo: Alright, so I'm just gonna jump… leave the slide here, but just jump back to the last slide in your head. Sean Yo: In your head! In your head. Curt Hammond (he/him): Oh, my head, yeah. Sean Yo: How does AI see? Sean Yo: It doesn't. Curt Hammond (he/him): Alright, so… Sean Yo: How does AI think, Kurt? Curt Hammond (he/him): Well, it doesn't. Sean Yo: There you go. Okay, so I want to just, like… Sean Yo: I'm gonna… that's the whole deck right there. Yeah. Curt Hammond (he/him): Yeah, sure. Sean Yo: We've covered seeing, next is thinking, so let's be super clear, AI doesn't think. Sean Yo: It doesn't feel, it doesn't know, it doesn't want. Sean Yo: All it does is math. Sean Yo: That's it. I mean, it is very cool math, and if you ever want to talk about high dimension vector space, you let me know, because I am down. But while it feels or looks like thinking to us, it's just a reflection of what we give it. Sean Yo: And I like saying that AI can't do anything on its own, and Sean Yo: That's a pretty hot take today, because we talk so much about how AI is able to automate or do things on its own. And the simple test, and it's a little tongue-in-cheek, but the simple test is open up ChatGPT and don't type anything in. Sean Yo: AI can't do anything on its own. It is a reflection. Sean Yo: It is not… it is not intelligence. At best, it's a kind of cognition or reasoning, which is really back to math. Sean Yo: What we did is we gave the computer a nearly unthinkable amount of human information. Sean Yo: literally more than we can even conceive of, and then we mapped approximately how every bit of it connects to every other bit. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's closer to the truth, and it's definitely good enough for our conversation today. So we spent… Sean Yo: Billions of dollars and trillions of compute hours to map all of that information, so that then we can just trace a pass through it. Sean Yo: Okay, so what that means is that AI reflects us. AI is trained on culture, context, tone, and it reflects all of that. So how you talk to it shapes what you get back. Sean Yo: Let's talk about politeness for a sec. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, a few months ago, to me, made some moderately crappy comments about how much being polite to ChatGPT costs him. Sean Yo: What he didn't talk about in that interview was what the cost would be to not do it. Because the way we talk to AI individually shapes our relationship with it. The way we, humans, talk with AI, the systems, shapes its training. Sean Yo: Let me give you a quick story. A couple of years ago, there was a little short fad, delightful for me, guy with two English degrees, to get ChatGPT to write sonnets. Now. Sean Yo: If you don't know what a sonnet is exactly, don't feel bad. I mean, the Shakespearean and Petruken are… both have their own special, kind of formats, but, what's really important about this story is that people don't know what sonnets look like, and that's okay. What happened? Sean Yo: Well, people accepted things that don't follow the rules for sonnets as sonnets. So ChatGPT changed the rules, and just decided, well, if that's what's okay, then the real definition of a sonnet is what people accept, and they had to go back and correct it. Sean Yo: Alright? So I tell you that story to give you a sense of how the feedback loop Sean Yo: works with AI, and why I, as much as possible, say please and thank you. I also typically speak in second person, we, and not I. That helps me stay centered on what we're doing, but also I think it, informs ChatGPT on how… or Claude or Gemini, on how I want to interact with it, and how it should interact with me, because remember, it's a reflection. Sean Yo: Okay, so tone matters. Sean Yo: I say always be civil, to set the tone as collaborative, and if you want useful, respectful responses, then prompt in a way that models that. Sean Yo: So, what does that mean for Plus AI mindset thinking? So, over here, we have a machine that doesn't think, but it reflects, and it has a huge database, to try to guess the next best word. Okay, so the plus AI mindset is thinking about orchestration. Sean Yo: Not outsourcing. Sean Yo: AI lets me think faster, deeper, better, because I can ask, iterate, and refine faster than I ever did before, and I'm highly confident of the results. Sean Yo: I'm not saying it's never wrong. Makes mistakes all the time, but the way that… the speed with which I can Sean Yo: Develop a concept, test it out. Sean Yo: pressure test, refine it. And then I go to Curt the next day. The place I'm bringing, that work to Curt is so much more developed, so much further down the road, in part because I get the safety of Sean Yo: not having to ask, am I actually doing something that's useful and good here? Because ChatGPT can help me out with that. And there's a kind of emotional safety and validation, which has transformed how I work. Ask Kurt how fast I get stuff back to him now. Curt Hammond (he/him): Yeah. Sean Yo: Right? And a huge part of that is I'm not left wondering, is this good enough? Sean Yo: even though I've been doing this for… well, since the 70s, even though I've been doing this for a long time, the kind of validation and, I guess the double-check I get with ChatGPT really lets me put my strongest foot forward, and ultimately that means it's a flywheel for everything that we're doing. Sean Yo: So, the piece I want you to really hear about this and AI mindset thinking, is what I'm talking about is what kind of questions are you asking? And better questions equals better answers. Sean Yo: And so here's… here's the… the fortune cookie wisdom, alright? Questions are more important than answers. Sean Yo: Right? A good question is a thousand times better than a good answer. Why is that? Well, I would say it's because answers are contained by questions. Sean Yo: An answer can only ever go as far as the frame of the question, but questions are contained only by us, by what we choose to ask, by the frame that we bring to the conversation, so AI helps us explore Sean Yo: better questions, or at least it can. And when you do that, it's going to lead to better insights. And I would say, and I think Kurt and I have a couple of years of experiencing this, that's the real power of Plus AI thinking. It strengthens our ability to ask. Sean Yo: AI… the AI mindset is a superpower, not because AI is magic, but because it helps you activate your superpowers. It supports the places where you're strong, and helps the places where you're not. Sean Yo: And that's… thinking with the plus AIO mindset. Curt Hammond (he/him): 100%. Quick reflection, and then we got a question, actually, who I'll throw to you, Sean. I'm polite to ChatGPT, Clode, and all the… all the technologies I use, because that's a reflection of me. Curt Hammond (he/him): I do not want to lose myself in this process, so I say please and thank you, and it does cost Sam a fair bit of money. Curt Hammond (he/him): But I do that because it is a reflection of me, and I want to make sure that I'm staying in Curt Hammond (he/him): I'm staying true to myself as I continue to grow and learn. So, Sean, building on that, Jay's got a comment in here, and with a smiley face, but I think we hear this a fair bit, so can you reflect on this? Jay's saying, AI can't see, think, yet. Curt Hammond (he/him): And I think that is the big win. Sean Yo: Yeah. Curt Hammond (he/him): You know, and we talk about the next steps of this technology. Can you just reflect on that quickly for us, and how, I think, specifically, how that impacts our relationship with it today? Sean Yo: Yeah, let me, let me start off by saying that, one of the many interesting elements of my misspent youth, was learning to do hand magic. And really, AI is more like a magic trick than anything else. Sean Yo: So, the reason we have this question about, well, isn't it just a matter of time? Well, AI literally can't see anything. Sean Yo: Right now, if you show it a picture and it tells you something about it, it's doing math to pull apart what every pixel looks like, and look at the cloud of what that might be, and compare it to billions of other images, where it's been told what it is. Sean Yo: Right? So it literally can't see, it never will be able to see. And I really appreciate the, well, AI kind of thinks, doesn't it, Sean? Or it will think eventually. Here's my, take. Which is, a little bit… Sean Yo: different than what you're going to mostly hear. Since the Enlightenment, we've had this really strong idea that thinking and feeling are two different things, and that's actually just not the case. That's a very convenient model for us to talk about our experiences. Ultimately, there's just human cognition. Thinking and feeling is one and the same actual activity. Sean Yo: And feeling has a lot to do with hormones and other things like that. Sean Yo: Ai will never be able to feel. It will never be hungry, it'll never be thirsty, it'll never want or need anything. And you fundamentally cannot think, you cannot reason like a human without those kinds of fundamental, Sean Yo: urges. And that sounds really abstract, and I appreciate that it's not a super helpful answer. Some people say that that's kind of the Shanio special. 100% accurate, 0% useful. But what I'm trying to, communicate here is that this is Sean Yo: A very, very big, Sean Yo: Math equation. Sorry, I got a little stuck there. That's it. And everything that we have that makes it feel different is kind of like a magic trick. It's a little bit like, making something look over here when you're actually doing something over here. And it's really effective, and I don't think it's a bad thing. We just need to be clear that it's not real. Sean Yo: It's really useful that it feels like a person. Really useful. And we have to remember that it's not a person, and that's the perfect segue to the next slide, after Kurt says something very wise. Curt Hammond (he/him): Well, I doubt that, but, Curt Hammond (he/him): I also… it's a… it's… Sean's 100% bang on here, and… Curt Hammond (he/him): that question of what's coming next, takes away from the opportunities, quite frankly, of responsibilities in front of us. So I want us to be thinking about the implications of this. Curt Hammond (he/him): my… the best thing I can be doing right now is to understand and start to engage, and think about who am I becoming with AI to prepare for whatever future is coming, and not lose sight of the opportunities to be doing some really good work, because I think that's a bit of a distraction for some people. Oh, it's just, you know. Curt Hammond (he/him): end of days kind of thinking, and I don't think that's doing us Curt Hammond (he/him): Or our responsibility, our leadership, true justice. So I just want to plant that seed there. Sean, last thing about the A plus AI mindset is how it creates, and how we create with it. Sean Yo: Yeah, so we've seen how AI sees. Sean Yo: It doesn't. We've seen how AI thinks. It doesn't. So, Kurt, how does AI create? Curt Hammond (he/him): Well, it really doesn't. Sean Yo: It really doesn't, but the language we use is co-create, because it's so close, but it needs you, and it leads… it's always led by you. Okay, so, I love this part. Every image in this deck was made by ChatGPT, and this is Kurt's favorite image by a country mile in the deck. Sean Yo: And so what is this image? This is a picture of a word calculator, because that's my primary metaphor for what AI is. Sean Yo: We've had calculators for numbers for a long time. All we have is a calculator for words now. So. Sean Yo: When you finish your taxes, your confidence in the last number after you've punched in everything on your calculator… now, in my head, I'm imagining, like, a physical calculator with a paper roll. I don't think people do that anymore. And I remember so clearly all through high school, being told, Sean, you're not going to have a calculator with you everywhere you go, so you need to memorize this, and I'm feeling quite bitter about that, I'll be honest. Sean Yo: But anyways, when you finish typing in all the numbers for your taxes, your confidence in that number's probably about the same as your confidence in your finger. How well did I type in the numbers? Right? And at the end, there's one number. Sean Yo: Right? And we look at that number, and we probably say, that's right, okay, good. But if I asked you, how much does that calculator understand about your financial planning? Sean Yo: You would immediately say nothing. That's a crazy question. Why would you even ask that? The calculator, it's just… it's just moving numbers. That is the exact same response I hope you have to every single thing that AI shows you, because that's all it is. Sean Yo: It's just doing math with words, and showing you things that are related, and showing you its next best guess. So, when I showed this picture to Kurt. Sean Yo: He was blown away, and the first thing he asked was, how many prompts did it take you to get this? Because we like complaining about how difficult AI is to actually nail that thing that you're going for, which really says more about our ability to clearly ask for the thing we're looking for. Curt Hammond (he/him): Yes. Sean Yo: very humbling to realize, but Kurt and me was like, how many prompts did that take? And I said, one. And he was blown away. But let me tell you why it was one. This is the seventh image in a series. I had already set tone. Sean Yo: style, concept, and it had context for things I said yes to, and context to things I said no to. And that's AI learning inside of a conversation. Sean Yo: And that's the magic. AI didn't guess right away, it responded to how I framed things, especially how I iterated, guided, and adapted. Okay, so if AI is a word calculator. Sean Yo: What does that mean? Well, it means that this is a pretty big idea, and, just a quick note, Professor Jimmy Lin, who's an AI research chair at Waterloo, I heard him give a talk, and he's using the same language, which is… Sean Yo: Both very gratifying, but seems like maybe he should be crediting me? I don't know, we'll see. But AI is going to reflect your tone, your rhythm, your intention, and AI is a great communicator, because that's how it was trained. Sean Yo: there's kind of this idea of the AI voice, right? And it seems a little bit unnatural. It's actually just modeling. Sean Yo: high-quality communications. It always confirms what you're saying, right? It'll double-check, it checks in with you as you're going, and it feels a little formal, and, like, there's lots of, overhead that maybe we don't have in casual conversations. It's because we're not bringing our full communication game to every conversation, but AI is. Sean Yo: Alright. Sean Yo: So, it's always saying, you asked for this, here's what I made, did I get it right? Sean Yo: Okay? And that makes it not just functional, but it's a model for collaborative clarity. Sean Yo: So, what we're saying is that AI doesn't create, but with humans, AI can co-create. Sean Yo: By following our lead. Sean Yo: But that doesn't mean AI is your peer. Sean Yo: And normally, when I use this, like, co-creation, or co-founding, or co-development, that is intended to communicate a mutuality and a full partnership. Sean Yo: In this situation, that's not the case. AI is your assistant. Why? Well, there's a very famous quote, at least if you're a geek like me, a very famous quote from the 70s from IBM that says, no computer can be held accountable, so no computer can make a management decision. Right? Because we are the ones that are accountable. Sean Yo: for the outcome of using this tool, we have the authority. We need to make sure authority and accountability are aligned. Sean Yo: And while we are using AI, it is the tool, and we are doing craft with it. Sean Yo: So ethical use means keeping humans at the center. It means you are responsible, I am responsible for the output of what happens when we co-create with AI. Sean Yo: And if you don't understand the content it gave you, just… Sean Yo: And, sorry, if you don't understand the content I gave you, and say you just plop it in an email and hit send, that's on you. And when that blows up in your face. Sean Yo: That's not AI messed up. It's I didn't do my homework. I didn't make sure this was of the right quality, because you're responsible for that, not AI, because remember, AI cannot see, and it cannot think. Sean Yo: Right? Humans can see and think, and so we are the ones who must be accountable for that… for that. Okay, so what does that mean for co-creation? Well, what Kurt and I have really come to believe is that this is, more than anything else, like a jam session. Sean Yo: Right? You're making music with each other, and there's movement back and forth, and sometimes one leads, and sometimes the other leads. Sean Yo: The human's always accountable for that… for the outcome, but it really has that kind of improvisational feel, especially if you're deeply doing iteration, if you keep going over and over as you refine and adjust. Sean Yo: So you're never going to get one perfect prompt. This is about riffing, revising, responding, and it's just like any kind of good teamwork. Wide discovery first, and then once you have diminishing returns, you're going to narrow in on the outcome that you're seeking. So the Plus AI Mindset is about how you collaborate, not just what you get. Sean Yo: So, this is about design thinking, creative collaboration, and AI can match those rhythms with you. Sean Yo: Here's a really important caveat, though, and if you've ever taken any computer coding any time in your life, you've probably heard, garbage in, garbage out. And that still applies. If you give AI junk, it's gonna return junk, and that hasn't changed. And if you don't care about reviewing what comes out, then you're gonna get slop. Sean Yo: And when you talk about AI slop, that's, what's happening there is people not caring or taking accountability for the content. Sean Yo: Prompts are your instrument. Clarity, tone, intent all shape what comes back. Treat co-creation with care, please. Sean Yo: Care, curiosity, and ownership, because that's where the power is. That's where the accountability is, and that's where the opportunity is. Sean Yo: And that's how AI creates. Curt Hammond (he/him): 100%. Maybe just… let's just grab it there, Sean, and open it up. This is brilliant. Any questions people want to jump in? We're putting… we're throwing a lot at you here. Curt Hammond (he/him): you know, really a mindset, a relationship with AI. Any questions people would like to ask, either in the chat or turn off your mic and… Curt Hammond (he/him): Pick this beautiful brain of Sean's. Curt Hammond (he/him): We'll give you a minute to think about that. Oh, Jay, yep, jump in. Jay Wilson: Yes, I'm fascinated and agreeing with you, Sean, in what you're saying. However, I'm also a bit skeptical, because it seems to me that we have to have international cooperation. Jay Wilson: Not just nationally, but international cooperation, and I've never seen that happen. Jay Wilson: So I'm a little bit worried that if the guardrails aren't there. Jay Wilson: before we get to the next stage of AI, it could fall off the rails quite quickly. It's easy for us to say, you know, if I come from a relatively Jay Wilson: stable background, as Kurt was mentioning earlier, an area of privilege, it's easier for me to behave ethically. However, if I come from a background of extreme trauma, generational trauma, it's a little more difficult, but I still have the power of AI at my fingertips. Jay Wilson: And so that becomes a really interesting, dilemma. Jay Wilson: On the other hand, I don't want to… Jay Wilson: I don't want to deal with… I don't want to go down that negative road too far, because we can destroy the very positive that it's capable of. So it's a… it's an interesting dilemma, but I just… I want to add that caution to our. Sean Yo: Discussion. Yeah. Curt Hammond (he/him): Yeah, that's great. Sean Yo: Yeah, I really appreciate that, and I'll just reflect back at that first slide, every tool's a weapon if you hold it right, right? Am I going to use this knife for chopping onions and making dinner, or for hurting another person, right? Let me tell you a really quick story. The whole idea of the Plus AI mindset… Jay Wilson: Before you go, though, it's interesting that you use the word weapon, because, you know, what's the military application of everything we create often comes up. Sean Yo: Absolutely. And anything… anything can be weaponized. The question is, is it being used for defense in an ethical way, or is it being used in a coercive Sean Yo: a violent way. So, I absolutely agree with what you're saying. I think in some ways we are off the rails, not to be doom and gloom, but, you know, we've already missed a couple of really important opportunities as a society, as a global society, around Sean Yo: guardrails for this technology. This entire, presentation today comes to you from a Medium article I wrote a little over a year ago called, Just Plus AI. And if you find me on LinkedIn, and I really hope you find me on LinkedIn, you'll see that my name there is Sean Yeo Plus AI. Sean Yo: And what I'm, imagining here is if we… is what is a grassroots, personal thing that we can do to do exactly… to achieve exactly the kind of outcome aligned with what you're talking about, Jay, without having to convince the UN and the EU and Sean Yo: IEEE and all these kinds of things on how to do this and why to do it. And there's a lot of commercial pressure to go fast and, you know, damn the torpedoes. Sean Yo: So, I'm not saying that's the solution. For instance, I think personal carbon footprint isn't a bad idea, but it Sean Yo: takes focus away from the major players. This is very much the similar thing, except that what we're doing here is embracing the fact that there are things people can do, and by doing it, we can help model, but also show what community standards are. Sean Yo: And we also have to be advocating with, with government and international organizations that, how are we going to govern this? Because AI governance is absolutely critical. Right. And, this presentation, the AI mindset, very much is how do we govern ourselves? Curt Hammond (he/him): Yes. Sean Yo: of that, but absolutely does not say that's a substitute for broad societal or international governance as well. Curt Hammond (he/him): Excellent. I want to… great. Great question, Jay, and you took us to, Curt Hammond (he/him): some really meaningful conversations. I want to… Curt Hammond (he/him): we've got about, 10 minutes left, Sean, and I wanted to continue our sharing, and just remind us, again, and it actually quite builds on Jay's question, you know, my role in this relationship with AI, right? Like, what does… what can I do with, Curt Hammond (he/him): with these tools and information and with this mindset, right? I'm at the center. Sean Yo: Yeah, so let's talk about the Plus AI Mindset Loop. So, bunch of talking from me. Okay, Sean, what do I do with that? Well, it's literally as simple as 1, 2, 3, and asking ourselves, who are we becoming? Sean Yo: Okay, so, as Kurt said, we've designed this very, intentionally by putting you, by putting me, by putting humans at the center of this process. Sean Yo: And there's 3 parts. First is mindset. Sean Yo: The Plus AI mindset is a growth mindset, and it's a very important kind of framing. Sean Yo: If you bring a fixed mindset to AI, that seeks certainty, not openness. Growth mindset seeks possibility. AI is going to start where you start. So the mindset you bring to AI is critical, which is why the foundation, the name of every… this whole Sean Yo: System is the plus AI mindset. Okay, there's only two more things, questions and answers, super simple, and we've already touched on that a little. Sean Yo: What kind of questions you ask, right? Define what can be known in that conversation. And so when I say co-creation, when I say reflection, the key way that that works is the prompts you give are… provide the boundaries. Sean Yo: Of what that entire conversation can be. It can't… the AI can't do anything without you. Sean Yo: So shallow will get shallow, deep will get deep. What you ask is what AI can answer. So remember, great questions are a thousand times better than great answers. Answers are contained by questions. Okay, so what do we do with those answers once AI gives them to us? Well, it can only give us answers, it can only respond to what we give. Sean Yo: It cannot ask, it cannot wonder. Sean Yo: It can only amplify what you bring, and it cannot go beyond your frame. So, notice, though, that it's a loop. We would never suggest that you ask one question, get an answer, and say. Sean Yo: Perfect, I'm done. Sean Yo: We're always going to say, well, what did you do with that answer? So, like, the work I was doing this morning was very much, hey, that's great, thank you for that. Let's review for quality and alignment with the success goals of this project. Sean Yo: Right? Sean Yo: Excellence comes from, consistent attention, and AI's attention is driven by you, but you gotta keep your eye on the prize, right? Yeah. Curt Hammond (he/him): Yeah, I love that, and this is… and both Sean and I are practicing this, and I want to… I want to plant a seed here with you that it takes courage Curt Hammond (he/him): to step into this. And courage meaning, okay, I don't know what I don't know. Curt Hammond (he/him): what if I ask this question? That's a really bold answer. Oh, that could reframe, how I approach this. And I just… this week, I've had a couple experiences where, Curt Hammond (he/him): my loop has been challenged significantly, and a very specific AI called me out on something. Curt Hammond (he/him): because it's… I've gotten to the point, in particular with Clode, which is the tool I use a fair bit, and it said, no, that doesn't align with what I understand of you, and it was like. Curt Hammond (he/him): What! Curt Hammond (he/him): And it was… I had to… I had to adjust my mindset, which forced me to ask some questions around, where are you coming from? And then, quite frankly, receive that answer with gratitude. It was like, oh… Curt Hammond (he/him): Damn, you're right. And again, I'm personalizing it here, I fully acknowledge that. But the courage it takes to step into these conversations? Really important. And I, quite frankly, that courage quickly becomes excitement, and if you're… I invite you to step into that as well. So, this is a really important tool. Curt Hammond (he/him): That we hope adds some value in your world. Sean Yo: One quick pro tip. We're about to go and show you some straight-up superpowers. Here's a quick pro tip. When you say something to AI and it gets it wrong, you could say, you got that wrong. And sometimes, I scream it, with all caps, because I'm very frustrated, because it's been a long time. Curt Hammond (he/him): Yes. Sean Yo: Here's what I found works best. Instead of saying, that's wrong, say, that's a great start, let's focus on this. Because if it doesn't understand, that's my accountability. Sean Yo: Right? I'm not saying it never makes mistakes, right? But, typically, if it doesn't understand, it's because I haven't done a good enough job. So instead of saying, that's wrong, or why are you saying that, saying, that's a great start. Let's shift here, or how about we focus on that? Sean Yo: Or, that's helpful, but let's try again with this slightly different focus. Sean Yo: And, for me, that has completely transformed the energy and the flow. Sean Yo: It gets me out of any kind of thing that's adversarial, or feel like I'm banging my head against a wall, to really opening up an invitational and mutual conversation, which, I remind you, is an illusion, because it's just a word calculator. Curt Hammond (he/him): 100%, 100%, yeah, yeah. Just before we jump into the Power Kit, Sean, let's just check in with the group. Any other questions for Sean on what you've heard today? Or any reflections you want to share as it come and bring it back to the good work you're doing in your charities? Curt Hammond (he/him): All right, we'll… the chat's open. Sean, we've got about 5 minutes. Do you want to just, yeah, share us a power skill or two? Sean Yo: Yeah. Curt Hammond (he/him): You've mastered so well. Sean Yo: So I'm gonna talk about, a chat GPT superpower for you guys. We can move to the next slide, and it's called projects. If you've used projects, that great, that's great. In our experience, most people don't even know they exist. Sean Yo: Alright, so if you've ever had a great conversation with ChatGPT and you couldn't find it. Sean Yo: Projects fix that. If you've ever had a conversation and you wish that this conversation could know about that conversation and this other information, projects fix that. They're like little workspaces where ChatGPT remembers your context, all of your documents, and even your goals. Sean Yo: Each project is self-contained. You grant, you grant your project, your, sorry, your grant projects, your board reports, your social media plan, whatever the project is for you, right? Sean Yo: Just like setting up a new folder on Google Drive or OneDrive or something like that, it's almost the same concept. You can upload files, ask questions, you can come back next week, it will still remember where you are. I don't remember where I am, so I often say, hey, it's been a couple of weeks since I've talked with you about this, can you remind me where we are and what we were about to do next? Sean Yo: And it will just know. It's very convenient, especially for people with a brain like mine. And yes, this is included free for users. Paid users get bigger projects. Sean Yo: Okay, so what makes a project so amazing? Sean Yo: other… well, it's a collection of chats, but where does its incredible power come from? Well, something I want you to know about is you get to use custom instructions. Sean Yo: So, if you've never heard of custom instructions, that's okay. Again, something most people don't know about, and something that absolutely supercharges, and you can do it for each project. Sean Yo: So think about hiring a dedicated teammate. You tell them who they are, what their role is, what they care about, and what they're serving. You might set one up for a project on donor communication, another volunteer training, each with a different voice and a different tone. Sean Yo: The custom instructions stay tied to that project, so other chats outside of that project don't know about it, can't see it. Sean Yo: And it'll always… what it does is it helps maintain consistency for that project in terms of focus, goals, even voice and tone. It's how we build trust and clarity with AI while keeping it aligned to our organization's values. So we've got projects, we've got custom instructions, and you can put custom instructions inside of projects. Sean Yo: What else can you do with projects, Sean? Why are they so amazing? Well, you can share projects, files with a project. Sean Yo: So, for example, if you have a brand guide, or if you have a strategic plan. Sean Yo: You can include those, just like you'd upload a file for one chat, but every chat in that project can now have access to that information. This is incredibly powerful for maintaining alignment and consistency. Sean Yo: You can ask things like, where do our goals overlap with this grant, or summarize the volunteer section in plain language? Things like that become almost a free transaction, with AI. Sean Yo: ChatGPT remembers or can see those files inside the project, so you don't need to re-upload or re-explain them each time. I will say that every time you change the document, you will need to update it with ChatGPT or the project as well. Sean Yo: So this is, particularly important. I've done a lot of work with not-for-profits, I know we juggle lots of different hats, lots of different funders and things like this. That can… this can be tremendously powerful. Project files make all that information accessible and conversational. Okay, so how does that all come together? Well, it means that we get to co-create Sean Yo: within a project. So we get the scope, we get the custom instruction, we get the files, and we get the history of every other chat we've had in that project. So now that project knows your tone, it has history, it sees your files, and now you get to co-create with all of that. Sean Yo: So this can be a really powerful jam session with you and AI. You bring intent, you bring insight, you bring story, and ChatGPT helps fill in the structure, tone, and flow. Sean Yo: This is exactly what we mean by co-creation. And this is where most of my Plus AI work is happening. We're finding slides, writing proposals, exploring new ideas. Each of those has a project, and I work inside those projects almost exclusively now. Sean Yo: Because Project remembers everything, your context, your materials, your goals, you always get that magical, always-up-to-speed moment, collaborator every time you return. It's really, really fun. The point isn't to let AI take over, the point is to amplify your best work. So you stay the author. Sean Yo: And, ChatGPT just helps you get there faster. And so let me just show you something real quick here. Curt Hammond (he/him): Actually, and Sean, we got, like, 30 seconds for this, because we're gonna… we gotta… we gotta bounce out at 11, so… Sean Yo: I got it. Yeah, sorry. Sean Yo: So let me just show you the, actual project that I have right here. Sean Yo: And I'm just gonna share my screen while this is the fastest thing I can do. Alright, so over here we have the plus AA mindset. Sean Yo: And here's the project. Sean Yo: Right? Over here, we can see the custom instructions for everything I have here. Here are all the files that I have. Sean Yo: Right? And here's the big reveal. I want to show you that. Sean Yo: This actually is the exact chat where I was working on these slides, certainly not yesterday, a week or two ago, because I was very prepared. But everything I just told you, I actually used this project to create those slides to tell you about projects. Okay, that's my reveal. Time's up. Curt Hammond (he/him): Brilliant. If you are not using projects, they are probably the easiest, and most accessible tool in ChatGPT right now, to Sean's point, to really start amplifying how you see, think, and co-create with ChatGPT. I want to be really respectful of our time. Let's give up a warm and grateful Curt Hammond (he/him): Oak Tree Project, thanks to Sean for his insights today. Thanks to Will, as always, for pulling us together, and for all the good work that Oak Tree does, and thanks to you for spending some time with us. We will be following up, yeah, we will be following up with Curt Hammond (he/him): Some thoughts from all three sessions, along with some insights, and perhaps some opportunities we can continue to, work and learn together from. Sean Yo: I hope so. Curt Hammond (he/him): tree and four simple words. So everyone, thank you so very much for your time today. We appreciate this, and we look forward to staying in touch, and look for those updates next week. So everyone, thanks for your time and insights today. Really appreciate it.