Talofa reader,

I went down a rabbit hole of ChatGPT and AI this week. It’s been a hot topic for a short while now since ChatGPT’s release in November, 2022 and there’s no shortage of articles about it in myReadwisefeed.

There’s been a lot of takes, some pro, some con. My friend DZ’snewslettergot me thinking about the darker side of AI and so I thought I’d read up on it this past week and write some stuff down.

It’s a bit of a read so if you don’t mind a bit of profanity and bad punctuation, enjoy.

Talofa reader,

Allow me to provide a bit of background for all future tech rants...

Well, I think we're all aware by this point, I'm Ron. A NZ born Samoan, Tuvalu and Chinese guy who works in tech (in a nutshell). And I think it's relevant because it helps to know who the person is saying a bunch of stuff in a newsletter and get an idea and some context around why they might look at the world a certain way, and say the things they might say.

I'm the second eldest in a family of five boys (no biological sisters). Both my parents immigrated from Samoa in the 70's. Dad worked as a land surveyor and Mum worked at the Post Office. Dad eventually went on to study to become a Presbyterian Minister at Knox College and dragged us down to Otago until he graduated after which we then headed off to Pleasant Point, South Canterbury for his first church assignment. We were the only Samoan family in a small farming town of about 1500 people, pretty much all palagi's (Pākehā). We spent 5 years behind enemy lines.. kidding, we all got along (eventually), and I actually look back fondly at that period in my life. After Pleasant Point, Dad accepted a new assignment in Glen Eden, West Auckland and we were off again. We went from an all palagi environment, to an almost all Pasifika one in a matter of months transitioning from the South Island to Auckland.

“TheCoconet TV” did ashort documentaryabout my family on their series about Pastor’s kids.

And Auckland is where we stayed until the end of high school.

Talofa reader,

Let’s start at the beginning...​

This isn’t my first rodeo, or newsletter. I started a newsletter back in 2018 and ran it for several editions before it got lost somewhere and came to it’s inevitable end.

It’s always hard starting something back up again, but if experience has taught me anything, it’s that once it’s up and running it’s not that bad.

Like going to the gym. The first few weeks are probably going to be painful, but if you stick at it, eventually it sucks a little less each time.

Why am I starting a newsletter?​

Believe it or not, it’s not to be a writer.