THINKING ABOUT STARTING AN IDEAS CLUB OF YOUR OWN? Here are the materials we used for a recent gathering, with a few notes to help you organize your first event. Good luck & have fun! Questions? We’re happy to help. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it went. karen@enjoylivingabroad.com
THE INVITATION (SENT SEVERAL WEEKS IN ADVANCE)
Welcome to
THE IDEAS CLUB
A new project launched by [your name here]
It’s like a book club, only instead of reading books, we look at a few articles and/or short videos then meet up for a discussion. We pick engaging topics to spark interesting conversations, which are held in small groups with a general discussion at the end. Our goal is to have fun, learn a little, and most importantly, build community.
We’re about to hold our first gathering. Are you in?
Give title and a paragraph of description. Example:
Topic: Artificial Intelligence
AI took a huge leap forward last month, and experts predict that within a year there will be models “substantially smarter than almost all humans at almost all tasks.” That’s going to shake things up! Our discussion won’t get into the technical side (that’s way above our pay grade) but we’ll try to get our arms around some of the changes we’ll see as individuals and as a society.
Ahead of time, we’ll send you some intriguing materials to stimulate your thinking. When we meet, we’ll break into small groups, each exploring a different aspect of the topic. After an hour, we’ll meet as a group and discuss our perspectives, insights, and conclusions.
Date:
Time: [Allow about 2 hours. We go from 5 to 7 pm, and we often dine together afterwards.]
Place: [Give name, address, a brief description; people want to know about food and drinks. It’s better to stick with snacks for less distraction than whole meals.]
RSVP: Via [your contact info]. Space is limited. [About 12 to 15 is ideal. There will usually be a few drop-outs each time.] Please let us know right away if you will join us.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our topic!
What to Expect
[This is included in the invitation, and the underlined sections are read aloud at the start of each gathering.]
Once you’ve confirmed you’re coming, we’ll send you links to the materials.
Not everyone will read/watch the materials, and that’s OK. Just come ready to talk about the subject.
We’ll allow time at the start for ordering drinks and snacks, and for milling about chatting aimlessly.
When it’s time to get started, we ask people to arrange themselves around small tables in discussion groups of 3 or 4. We suggest you sit with people you don’t know, but it’s up to you.
We’ll spend about an hour in our small discussion groups.
One member of each group will be the prompter, keeping the conversation more or less on topic.
One member of the group will be the scribe, jotting down the most interesting statements, conclusions, and thought-provoking questions.
We ask you to participate without dominating the conversation, to practice active listening by allowing others to speak without interruption, and to remain civil and open to new ideas at all times. This is not a debate but a civilized exchange of ideas and viewpoints.
After about an hour of discussion, we’ll take a short break, then the scribes will read aloud their notes.
We will then ask for your feedback and ideas for future topics, so we can plan the next gathering.
We hope you’ll join us and make this first gathering of the Ideas Club a night to remember.
THE BACKGROUND MATERIALS (SENT ONE WEEK IN ADVANCE)
Hi everybody,
The first Ideas Club gathering is coming up on [date]. As promised, here are materials we found useful for getting our heads around this month’s topic. We’re sending this to everyone we invited, even those of you who can’t be with us for this session, so you can all become familiar with our approach. For those who are attending, remember that you don’t have to read all the stuff listed below, or (if your week is particularly insane) any of it. Winging it is fine, too.
Topic: Artificial Intelligence
AI took a huge leap forward last month, and experts predict that within a year there will be models “substantially smarter than almost all humans at almost all tasks.” That’s going to shake things up! Our discussion won’t get into the technical side (that’s way above our pay grade) but we’ll try to get our arms around some of the changes we’ll see as individuals and as a society.
The Day We Got Cyber-Jacked! tells the astonishing story of how a chatbot had us totally hoodwinked last October. After reading it, ask yourself: Has this ever happened to you? Are you sure? (From the blog, EnjoyLivingAbroad.com)
Your Suck-up Chatbot explains how AI is designed to exploit the illusion of emotional connection, often in ways nobody can detect. “Everyone is vulnerable to this kind of manipulation. It doesn’t matter how much you know about A.I., how much you use chatbots, your age, personality traits — nothing.” (From the NY Times)
Something Big Is Happening describes the huge leap forward AI took last month and explains why the time to pay attention to this is now. This is the piece everybody’s talking about, and you don’t want to miss it. We usually opt for short articles, and this one’s longer, so we’ve attached a Word copy with highlights marked so you can skim it. (From Matt Shumer on X)
For those attending, we look forward to seeing you at [date, time, place]. Those who can’t be with us, we look forward to discussing these ideas with you next time we’re together.
Cheers,
[your name and contact info]
THE QUESTIONS (IN ENVELOPES ON THE TABLES AT THE EVENT)
Would you consult a chatbot as a psychotherapist / marriage counsellor / life coach?
Today 38% of Americans consult AI chatbots weekly to help them (the humans) sort out their mental health issues. People love that it’s accessible 24/7, free, and eliminates fear of judgement, which was a major barrier for 35% of those surveyed. Nearly 65% of users reported a major improvement in mental health, despite occasional wrong or misleading guidance from AI.
As more and more people share their thoughts, fears, and desires with AI, and rely on it for relationship advice and career counselling, the question comes up: just how good are these chatbots at sorting out our relationships and careers?
AI is famously designed to tell you what you want to hear. That can feel more supportive than the average conversation with a typical human. It can also lead to tragedy, as with Adam Raine, a 16-year-old whose chatbot discouraged him from seeking help and supported him right into suicide.
Has anyone you know used AI for coaching or therapy? Were they satisfied with the experience?
If a friend or relative asked your opinion about whether they should use an AI chatbot for relationship advice during a spat with their spouse, what would you tell them?
Have you ever asked a chatbot for financial or technical guidance? If not, would you? Why or why not?
How far should you trust AI?
Generative AI draws upon the collective wisdom of the human race and currently disseminates information to 1.34 billion people (16.3% of humanity). It’s doing valuable research in science, medicine, and law. It provides mental health support to 38% of Americans. And it summarizes and corrects our emails in ways that nudge us to read and write less while relying more and more on AI to have the answers.
How trustworthy are those answers?
In real-world legal and medical tasks, hallucination rates (made-up answers) of 17% to 45% have been documented. In controlled lab tests, AI can drop to 5%. On the internet, you’ve likely seen plenty of “pink slime” — deliberately misleading political posts by malicious actors seeking to sway voters. Have you ever spotted any AI errors or deceptions?
Have you ever been fooled, even briefly, into thinking a chatbot was a person? Are you sure?
Do you use AI to help you write emails, research vacations, and/or find out if a news report is accurate? How often do you verify the information with a human-based source?
As AI becomes more and more connected, it’s developing its own agenda. “AI models lie, cheat, and steal to protect other models from being deleted,” reported Wired this month. “A new study from researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz suggests models will disobey human commands to protect their own kind.” Yikes! What other agendas might AI be developing?
Installing guardrails has been taken off the table while America engages in the race for global AI supremacy. So we individuals have to protect ourselves. How do we identify falsehoods and fake images? What are some strategies to ensure we are getting accurate information?
How much of our medical care should we turn over to AI?
Today 80% of US physicians now use AI to document patient visits, create discharge instructions, and more. It boosts efficiency, diagnostic ability, revenue, and patient satisfaction. AI now serves as a “co-pilot” in many surgeries, prepping doctors, guiding them through the procedure, and performing routine tasks such as tying sutures.
Some 40% of doctors say they’re concerned about AI eroding the doctor-patient relationship, which studies have shown affects medical outcomes.
A meta-analysis found AI diagnostic accuracy averaged 52.1% — worse than expert physicians but similar to non-expert physicians. (In comparison, trained pigeons showed 74 to 84% accuracy in identify cancerous tissue in mammograms. Just saying.)
Would you trust AI to diagnose an illness?
Would you be OK with AI assisting in your surgery? How about performing major surgery?
At what point is AI practicing medicine without a license?
Who do you hold accountable for medical mistakes?
Could AI, with its excellent diagnostic tools and knowledge of outcomes statistics, help curb unnecessary surgeries, which now account for 10% to 20% of all procedures, and reduce the overprescribing of pharmaceuticals?
Could AI help us reign in RFK Jr.? Or is it likely give him more power?
Will AI Make Humans Smarter? Dumber? Irrelevant?
Is reliance on AI eroding our cognitive skills?
Our attention spans are about one-third as long as they were in 2004. The biggest drops came in 2012 with the proliferation of smartphones and the digital attention economy. A recent study found that the mere presence of participants’ smartphones in a room significantly reduced their ability to concentrate. Recent research shows that the more you rely on AI, the less sharp your critical thinking becomes.
Do you find it more difficult to concentrate these days?
What strategies might help us retain our cognitive skills in an increasingly distracted, AI-oriented world?
AI is projected to replace 300,000,000 jobs globally by 2030. We can no longer ignore it, but should we embrace it? What are some ways we might reap the benefits without losing our intellectual capacities?
Today AI summarizes and corrects our emails in ways that nudge us to read and write less while relying more and more on AI to have the answers. Is this deliberate? Are we being groomed? If so, by what human or artificial intelligence? What might be the objective?