Ep. 56: 1 Year of Prompting Curiosity: My Current Thoughts About AI

ByMaestro
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In this episode we’re celebrating one year of Prompting Curiosity and I’m sharing my unfiltered thoughts about where I stand on AI. I get into why the discourse on Threads is such a mess, why AI is an easy target given the enshittification of everything, and why capitalism (not AI capability) is the real driver behind the issues at hand. No predictions, no hype, just my two pennies on data centers, adoption, and why I’m not willing to give up something that genuinely helps my brain and my business.

Happy Birthday to Prompting Curiosity

And just like that and it has officially been one year of recording episodes and writing blog posts/this newsletter for Prompting Curiosity! Well, technically last Friday (August 7th) was one year, but we celebrating today.

I figured I’d use today’s episode to just riff and share my unfiltered thoughts about AI as it currently stands in August of 2026, one year wiser and a whole lot more experienced than when I started. So, no teaching today, no tips, nothing like that, but you already know I’m still gonna hit you with the “How I Used AI This Week” segment, because we love a routine here.

My General Thoughts

I figured I’d start out with a simple list of where my head is out with the big rocks as it relates to AI. I absolutely have more to say about, well, many things, but when I sat down to outline this it was clear that I had some very pointed beliefs that I wanted to get out, so I’m going to do that first.

  • AI definitely has some cool use cases and some genuine utility, but the benefits are absolutely not distributed equally across all domains.
  • AI is a great and super easy target for people’s frustrations given the rapid enshittification of everything.
  • AI is not objectively inevitable, but given how enamored with and entrenched in capitalism our society is, I do believe it’s inevitable when viewed through that lens.
  • As it relates to gen pop use, we could, and probably should, stop trying to make AI advances right now. We genuinely don’t need more capable models.
  • We absolutely don’t need these huge fucking data centers.
  • The fact that companies are stuffing AI in everything and shoving it down our throats is a huge red red flag that they’re not making any money and they are scrambling.
  • And let’s be real about the numbers: it is all absolutely funny money at this point, and I have no idea if the bubble is going to pop or if it’s ever going to be officially categorized as a bubble, but that money is funny and circular as hell, and I encourage you to not dig into it, because you’ll just give yourself an ulcer.

Fin-tech Predictions

Honestly, all the fin-tech stuff I was consuming for quite a bit earlier this year really turned me off from having any desire to predict what might happen with AI. I have thoughts, but predictions sans action items is literally all that those podcasts do. It’s like the news…but worse.  They just say all the bad stuff that is happening, say it should basically be illegal, point out how the worst people are winning and will face no repercussions if anything happens, and then they predict what is going to happen but leave out the part that it won’t actually affect them…because they’re rich.

Despite my aversion to predictions, I gotta say that I  honestly don’t see some permanent great workforce replacement coming any time soon. Yes, people are absolutely losing their jobs to AI (with some being rehired later), but not because AI is so capable, but because of capitalism and corporate greed.

I actually saw a great clip from Jon Stewart’s podcast, The Weekly Show, and he was interviewing Cory Doctorow (author of “Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It”). Cory shared a great theoretical case for AI being used to assist the current radiologists on staff, which would ultimately cost the hospital more money but save a few more lives, compared to how AI is currently being promoted, where the suggestion is basically to implement AI, fire 9 out of 10 radiologists, pocket the profits, and if people die, the robots can be used as scapegoats.

Corporate capitalism, not AI, is gonna kill us all.

What Are We Gonna Do?

At this point in time I’m honestly just really interested to see what we as a society choose to do with AI..

AI is absolutely being forced down our throats and stuffed into every single product possible, which ironically I think is the greatest obstacle to people adopting it, followed closely by the fact that most people just genuinely don’t have a great use case for it.

Additionally, like I stated in the list I shared before, AI is a super easy target for people’s general (and valid) frustrations with the enshittification of everything. Pair that enshittification with no direct personal use case AND a tie into the environment,  and you have the perfect recipe for folks to latch on to any and all negative information they hear about AI, with no need for personal investigating and definitely no room for nuance. Hank Green is getting dragged for using AI, and there seems to be so little nuance in the public discourse around AI. I hope that changes.

I do think AI will continue to have an impact on search, but I’m not out here predicting the downfall of Google or anything like that. Far from it. I’m simply commenting on the fact that when you ask a question it’s really nice to get an answer instead of a list of links. Again, the fact that AI is being forced on people and the AI summary is now being shown first on Google is not great for adoption…unless…maybe…in this it is. Time will tell.

I try not to apply my own usage and preferences to the population at large, but I do notice what people older than me are doing, and the Gen X and boomers are definitely using AI. To me, hearing “I asked ChatGBT” way more, and seeing all of the AI-generated images be shared on FB profiles, is very telling.

As for the folks younger than me, the numbers show that they’re using it, and common sense would tell us that they’re using it. Honestly, I have no idea how that’s going to play out, but I maintain that what we do and do not value as a society is the biggest predictor of how AI will be used. If we continue to champion fast, flashy, money, superficial, material things, and easy outcomes, we shouldn’t be surprised that students are using it left and right.

Not Willing to Give It Up

Honestly, if there was an option to have everything start from scratch, no AI, no internet, just all of it gone in a flash a-la Men in Black, I’d be on board.

But that’s clearly not reality, and as it stands right now, I’m absolutely not willing to give up AI. It’s helpful for my business, it’s helpful for my brain, and I refuse to be bullied by folks who have no use for it so they shout that no one should use it.

I’ll never say that anyone needs to use it, or should use it. Ever. If you want to use it, use it. If you don’t, don’t. It’s really that simple.

It feels to me like we’re headed down an all too familiar path of blaming the individual and punishing the individual when it’s the corporations that need to be held accountable, and it’s giving paper straws.

That’s obviously not to say that I don’t care about the environment. Far from it. And I am fully aware that Black and brown communities will absolutely be disproportionately impacted by the development of these data centers. Like I wrote earlier, we absolutely do NOT need these massive data centers. My vote is to keep the tech, stop the building, and let’s get some regulation for these AI companies and all the money that surrounds them.

I do however continue to be amazed by AI. I’m not going to lie. Yes, it messes things up. No, it’s not as good as a human for the majority of things, but when I look at the messaging client Dashboard I built with it, and my content creation Tracker, I really am amazed. Again, the benefits of AI are not equally distributed across all disciplines, but as it relates to what I do, the benefits are there.

To that end, yes, I’m also nervous that these companies will just jack up the price one day (feels inevitable, Uber has shown us this), which is partially why I did last week’s episode about open weight models, and their existence does make me feel marginally better. But there definitely continues to be a feeling of vulnerability, and not to mention fragility, as I’ve built this tool that I quite frankly have no idea how it works….but that’s a discussion for another episode.

How I Used AI This Week

Each episode I share a quick example of how I, or someone I know, used AI that week.

This week I’m sharing a fun use case that Lex told me one of her SEO Inner Circle members shared with the group: using Google NotebookLM to create graphics that outline any processes she laid out in her blog post, ultimately helping the reader better understand the material.

I fucking love this.

If you don’t know what Google NotebookLM is, I did an entire episode about it, so go read it. But that’s definitely an incredible and super strategic use for AI, and I love it.

Da Wrap-up

As I do my best to look outside of the social media silos and their strong (yet far from nuanced) opinions about AI, I’m gonna abstain from making any definitive predictions and just say that one year into this podcast, a whole 56 episodes later, I continue to be curious about AI.

The biggest thank you for being here for a year of Prompting Curiosity. I am truly so very grateful. Here’s to another year.

Catch you next Thursday.

Maestro out.