Angels and monsters and WalMart in your chatbots

Hello and welcome to Future Community. 😄 Greetings to Pete, Daphne, Pallavi, Shane, Julia, Sarah and Maggie. If you have questions or want to chat just hit reply. Or here's my calendar.

Join me tomorrow (or today for some of you)

Join me and Jen Frazier for a 30 minute UnTangled conversation at noon eastern tomorrow. A few topics that might come up:

• How do orgs manage with too much to do and fewer people / funds?
• It's not just you...everyone is feeling like systems and programs are falling apart. People are losing jobs and the market sucks (to be generous). How do we navigate the cognitive dissonance of news, life and work now?
• Speaking of work, what does year end fundraising look like now?

RSVP + WATCH

Angels and Monsters

I'm putting together a short talk about AI, community and imagination. In part, it's for next week's Cool/Scary AI Impact Forum (register if you're in Denver).

So I'm thinking on this passage about AI, imagination, and power in Ruha Benjamin's book Imagination: A Manifesto...

As each new generation expands their imagination, let them also develop a keener ability to detect bullshit. Each of us can foster the kind of discernment that tells the difference between new stories of collective well-being and faux fables deciding our collective fate. One way to tell if your vision of the future is new or just new-ish is whether it seriously aims to alleviate the injustice and suffering of the present.

The choice is not between effective and ineffective altruism but between solidarity and indifference when it comes to flesh and blood people whom those planning long term would rather we abandon. If our imagination turns its back on the experiences and insights of those buried under the weight of brutal social structures in the hear and now then it can only ever be -ish.

The monsters of AI have been unleashed by people with access to extreme amounts of money and power. They're people who position their power in narratives of inevitability and existential crisis. By declaring (and controlling) a story that AI could destroy humanity they're saying that only they are smart enough to save us.

Well...that's convenient.

Strange then that the greatest public-facing product of AI thus far is the oh so needed ability to buy from WalMart while using ChatGPT.

If there are to be angels of AI they will not be the products of Open AI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft or others whose investors demand a return on their billions. (Good luck, folks!)

The angels of AI will be communities who together use AI that they control. It will be AI that helps turn imagined ideas of collective thriving into usable maps, plans, guides that support opportunity for everyone in the community. It will be AI whose models are willingly built with content, ideas, and labor supplied by the communities who can benefit.

To some this is a vision that seems small, a path that is harder to fund, and means products that are harder for tech leaders to control and extract value. I think to many, it means a healthier, thriving community. And, to paraphrase Ruha Benjamin, less bullshit. Is that so bad?

Bright Ideas

A few good reads...

From Dan Sinker: What I Need You To Understand, Notes from Chicago in Late October

Oof. The vibes here in “Can’t believe I’m just a dateline to my friends” by Jael Holzman, one of the best climate writers out there. Check out their stories in Heatmap. Holzman is also a member of the band Ekko Astral who just put out the song Horseglue.

Steven Waldman of Rebuild Local News on how to solve AI's community news problem. [Tech Policy Press]

Building community-centered AI collaborations by Michelle Flores Vryn and Meena Das.

And last week I mentioned Guillermo del Toro's drawing parallels between tech leaders and Victor Frankenstein. I saw Frankenstein Monday night and its hard not to view it as a commentary on today's tech leaders who, like Frankenstein, are largely privileged white men with damaged souls and a God complex.

Future Community Jobs

These are the latest links. Check out the full job list here. Want to post a job? Send an email.

Hiring? Consider shipping a featured job out into this amazing community. Learn more here.

🗞️ Audience, content, journalism and news roles

• Director, Civic Lex Weekly and Director of Impact : Civic Lex [Lexington, KY]
• Chief Operating Officer : Charlottesville Tomorrow [Charlottesville, VA]
• Content Marketing Manager : Western Governors University [Salt Lake City]

🗣️ Communications

Mostly at nonprofits/NGOs

• Director of Communications : New Jersey Center for Nonprofits [Mercerville, NJ]
• Associate Director, Digital Communications : Annie E. Casey Foundation [Baltimore]
• Senior Director of Communications : The SCAN Foundation [Remote in the US / Long Beach, CA]
• Senior Communications Manager, Federal Policy : National Parks Conservation Association [Remote in the US]

⚡ Nonprofit organizations

• Senior Technologist : Knight-Georgetown Institute [Washington, DC / Remote]
• Events Associate, Marketing and Communications : Climateworks Foundation [Remote in the US]
• Senior Director, Policy and Advocacy : Center for Reproductive Rights [Washington, DC]

💰 Fundraising and Development

• Vice President of Development : New Classrooms [Remote in the US]
• Director, Donor Communications and Recognition : American Museum of Natural History [New York City]

💸 Foundations and Philanthropy

• Program and Grants Manager : Home Planet Fund [Remote]
• Grants Manager : Colorado Gives Foundation [Arvada, CO]
• Associate Director, Digital Communications : Annie E. Casey Foundation [Baltimore]
• Senior Director of Communications : The SCAN Foundation [Remote in the US / Long Beach, CA]
• Program Officer : Northwest Area Foundation [St. Paul, MN]

💻 Agencies, politics, products, projects & more

• Product Designer : One Project [Remote in the US]
• Director, Racial Justice Center : SEIU [Washington, DC]

Future Community is a product of Ted Fickes and Bright+3. Reply or visit Bright+3 to get in touch and learn more about our work.