The existential questions AI raises are important, but they shouldn't paralyze you.
You might be forced to be dynamic and capable of navigating uncertain scenarios amidst a sudden shift of circumstances. Being clear, calm, and able to leverage your available resources in a time of chaos is hyper-valuable in the job market in all fields.
The revolutionary act of the moment is to consciously choose your path, deliberately look into your being, question your learned behavior, and lean into the knowledge within yourself. Our intuition is unique to us.
Our intelligence no longer holds the same unique position among species on this planet.
We are humans; evolving is also what we do.
The key lies in recognizing that we aren't merely passive observers in this transformation.
Agency remains our greatest lever.
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AI Safety Bites
The Quiet Erosion of Freedom
Given the historically unprecedented stability of the past 80 years, dystopianism seems too abstract and hypothetical to happen in our lifetime.
But what's happening now isn't theoretical or slowly on the horizon — it's here. Right now. AI-enhanced surveillance isn't just reshaping how federal agencies operate; it's redefining the very ground we stand on. The protections we thought were baked into the American democratic experience — privacy, freedom of speech, due process — are being hollowed out not with fanfare or debate but through silent shifts in code, contracts, and command chains.
And under the current Trump administration, the pace of this transformation has exploded.
Executive orders have dismantled prior safeguards — especially Biden-era regulations that at least paid lip service to ethics, oversight, and civil rights in AI governance.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ), and other agencies are now running full speed into the AI age, embedding machine learning and biometric surveillance into nearly every facet of enforcement and administration— immigration, border control., social media monitoring and internal employee surveillance, without transparency, make the list grow longer daily.
And it's not just what they're doing — it's how they're doing it:
Tools that decide if someone should be detained.
Algorithms that scan your online posts for "extremist rhetoric."
Programs that watch federal employees for "disloyalty."
Systems no one voted for.
There is no meaningful oversight or transparency, just machine-led high-stakes decisions in human lives.
The DOJ has issued cautious warnings — highlighting how these tools perpetuate bias, reinforce systemic injustice, and lack accountability. But these warnings are drowned out in a political climate where loyalty trumps legality, and surveillance is treated as a feature, not a flaw.
Think about that for a moment.
What happens to freedom of speech when algorithms decide what's a threat?
What happens to your privacy when drones, facial recognition, and social media mining are stitched into a seamless watchtower?
What happens to agency — to your ability to express yourself, dissent, and live — when AI is deputized in the name of efficiency or security?
We often imagine the loss of democracy as something loud. But what if it doesn't collapse?
What if it's quietly refactored?
This isn't the future; this is now. The groundwork has already been laid—the root systems are deep.
By the time the stalk breaks through the soil, by the time we feel the consequences, the control infrastructure may already be too embedded to uproot.
Freedoms vanish—not overnight, but decision by decision, policy by policy, contract by contract—until one day, we wake up and realize those freedoms we once breathed like air—speech, privacy, agency—are no longer in the room with us.
The inspired origin story of the LLM: a diverse, international collaboration.
When we think about how large language models came into being—these tools that now shape our creativity, communication, and even the way we think—it's easy to imagine it as a cold, technical achievement. But the true story is far more human and far more magical.
In 2017, eight researchers—working out of neighboring Google buildings in Silicon Valley—put their names on a paper that would quietly and then thunderously change the world.
"Attention Is All You Need" wasn't just a scientific breakthrough—it was the product of a rare and beautiful alchemy: unorthodox thinking, relentless iteration, deep collaboration, and the spark of imagination that can only happen when the conditions are just right.
They weren't chasing hype—they were chasing a better idea.
They challenged the dominant methods of the time—recurrent neural networks and their patchwork fixes—and instead championed a concept called self-attention. It was a radical idea, initially met with skepticism, even at the dinner tables of some of the authors' own families.
But they believed in it, and more importantly, they kept experimenting, building, debating, debugging, and dreaming. They stayed up late, crashed on office couches, scribbled on whiteboards, and pushed through walls of uncertainty—because they were onto something.
This wasn't a solo genius moment. It was an unfolding, a dance of minds. One person would hear something in the hallway, another would catch wind of an idea over lunch, an intern would sketch a diagram, and a veteran engineer would rewrite the code from scratch.
Everyone contributed and shaped it. In the spirit of shared ownership, they listed themselves as equal contributors. The order of names was random because what they built couldn't have existed without every voice in the room.
And what a room it was.
Six of the eight authors were born outside the U.S., and the other two were children of immigrants. This wasn't just a team—it was a global microcosm of talent, perspective, and cultural richness. That diversity wasn't incidental. It was instrumental. The technology that emerged—transformers—was rooted in global thinking, the subtle power of difference, and the profound strength of collaboration across borders, languages, and disciplines.
What's most remarkable is that this seismic shift in AI didn't come from a grand corporate strategy or some top-down initiative. It came from people with an idea, in the right place, at the right time, willing to think differently. It came from a belief in possibility, a mindset open to surprise, and the joy of building something new, not because the world demanded it but because curiosity insisted.
This is the heart of innovation—not just intelligence but imagination, not just logic but play—precisely what we believe in at AICharmLab: that real breakthroughs come from unlikely moments, unconventional minds, and bold, creative collisions.
The future of technology isn't just about machines—it's about mindset. It's about creating spaces where people feel empowered to ask "what if?" and supported enough to try.
This is the world we want to help artists step into—one where innovation isn't gate-kept; collaboration is currency; diversity is the engine, not the footnote, and creativity—wild, unpredictable, and deeply human—isn't a nice thing to have but the very foundation of what we're building.
Because sometimes, all you need is attention. And the courage to follow it where it leads.
Artist Lisa Lebofsky Featured in Apple TV's Severance
The artwork featured is by artist Lisa Lebofsky, read on to learn more.
4 Questions for the artist.
We asked Lisa four questions about her artwork and the process of working with the TV series Severance.
1. Can you share a little about the inspiration behind the painting featured in Severance?
A coincidental backstory is I referred to this series of iceberg paintings as my "Severed Icebergs" but went with the less violent-sounding "Melting Icebergs" for the title of the series. The idea was I was severing these icebergs at the tip, isolating them in space, and melting the paint with water in each pass to speak to their fragile and slow demise. I saw these ice islands alone on this death march following their break from their home glacier. I witnessed this specific iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
2. How did the opportunity to have your work appear on the show come about?
They found me! I can't speak to their process, but they contacted me after seeing my work online. I'm not sure what resonated about this specific iceberg, but the original is 48x72 inches and they originally inquired about the original piece. Since it was unavailable, they requested a jpg that could be printed at that scale. Imagine my delightful surprise seeing them choose to print it so small in the show. I think it's rather fitting and more powerful the way they presented it.
3. Were there any particular themes in Severance that resonated with your artistic practice or influenced this piece?
There is so much about Severance that resonates not just with my art but with life. Aside from a clear aesthetic affinity, the show was filmed in several locations where I've lived: New Paltz, the Catskills, Nyack, Newfoundland. The last episode of the second season was way too close to home, and I secured many appointments to come with my therapist. I have to give everyone involved credit because I've rarely seen that portrayed with such respectfully faithful and genuine emotion (I'm being intentionally vague because I don't want to drop any spoilers!). But conceptually, so much of my work is about the separation of the body and mind, the fragility of existence, and strained perspectives of space and our relationships to what is real vs abstract.
4. Finally, what's next on the horizon for you—any projects, exhibitions, or ideas that excite you?
On the horizon- I see what you did there! I have a few projects on the go. I'm working with a group of artists exploring the Watershed of NY as a source of inspiration and sustenance, considering how this pristine land has been historically ravaged and configured for human consumption. Dovetailing off of this project is a new body of work in progress both conceptually and physically: utilizing chroma to cut through an image, disrupting space and the rhythm of the landscape, perhaps as a metaphor for how people engage and interact with nature.
Learn more about Lisa's work and follow her on social media, or click here to check out her available workshops and read more about the artwork featured in Severance.
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