- ammi.ai
- Posts
- 🌿 An Ammi on Maternity Leave
🌿 An Ammi on Maternity Leave
AI to navigate paid parental leave + postpartum prompts!
Ruqaiya
October 31, 2024
Since the last time one of these newsletters landed in your inbox, ammi.ai has celebrated a couple of exciting milestones.
First, the ammi.ai newsletter turned 1! We have a growing community of over 500 Ammis and friends, and I look forward to continuing to pursue a healthy future with AI with you all in the years to come.
Second, we welcomed our third child. 👶
I am still in the midst of a self-imposed maternity leave, so I figured I’d write about AI and…maternity leave! #loophole
Feel free to forward this to someone who might find it useful!
Today, you’ll discover:
🌿 Let’s grow!
Apple Sauce: the ‘sauce’ - or overview - of AI apps you may find useful.
AI to Navigate Paid Parental Leave
Today’s apple: paidleave.ai
Fun fact: for my first pregnancy, I was the first Ammi—or birthing parent—among U.S. employees at my company to take parental leave. I was - cómo se dice -horrified that the company’s parental leave policy was only a single paragraph at the time. This left lots of my questions and concerns unaddressed, but I assumed parental leave must be pretty black and white to allow for such a succinct policy, and I proceeded to take the 12 weeks of leave offered by my employer.
Due to the circumstances of my delivery, if I had more guidance or been more well-researched, I would have known that I was eligible for several additional months of partially paid leave through the State of California.
Fast-forward to my second pregnancy. I was determined to maximize my paid leave from my employer and the state. After hours of research and almost hiring a paid leave consultant, I cobbled together a six-month maternity leave. I took one month off before my due date and 3 months after my baby was born. I then returned to work for a couple of months and even took my four-month-old, whom I was exclusively nursing, on a work trip to Paris! I took my two final months of leave at the end of the calendar year.
Although the U.S. has minimal parental leave support—none at the federal level—nine states, including Washington, D.C., have some paid parental leave policies. However, adoption is less than five percent because it's so tricky to navigate and understand precisely what you're eligible for, how to go about it, what you need to submit, and when you need to submit it. I can 100% attest to this.
This time around, I'm self-employed and still had questions about whether I'm eligible for any sort of paid leave through my state. Luckily, there's now a resource called paidleave.ai by Moms First, founded by Reshma Saujani (also the founder of Girls Who Code).
Expectant parents and caregivers can leverage this app to ask your questions and hopefully navigate paid leave more smoothly than I did!
A simple interface: a chatbot to ask any and all questions about paid leave. Don’t be bashful, ask away!
#questioninspo
Preparing for a new baby is rife with uncertainties, challenges, and anxiety. Getting the support you are entitled to should not be.
Planting the Seed: explore AI topics and headlines in simple language.
The Gestation Period of AI
If you’re an Ammi or Abba, you’re pretty familiar with the process and timeline of human gestation. Alternatively, if you took ninth-grade biology, you’re also probably familiar.
Large language models (LLMs) like the GPT models that power ChatGPT also undergo a complex development phase before they're ready for the world. Let's explore the fascinating journey of an LLM from conception to birth.
Awwww, she looks like her mommy.
Conception - Planning Phase (1-2 months)
An LLM starts with careful planning. Researchers envision what they want to create, establishing the model's purpose and setting guidelines for its behavior. They map out ethical boundaries and determine the resources needed, similar to parents preparing for their journey into parenthood.
Early Development - Data Collection (6-12+ months)
Like a developing embryo that needs proper nutrients to grow, an LLM requires vast amounts of quality data to form its foundation. During this critical phase, researchers gather and clean enormous amounts of text—books, articles, and websites. This is called training data, which the model will learn from. Just as a fetus is sensitive to what the mother consumes, the quality of this data will fundamentally shape the model's capabilities.
Organ Formation - Architecture Design (1-2 months)
Similar to how a fetus develops its vital organs, this stage involves designing the model's core architecture. Researchers engineer how the model will process information - like developing a brain, nervous system, and other essential organs.
Growth Period - Training Phase (2-4 months)
This is like the rapid growth period of a fetus, where the model begins to "grow" by processing its training data. Just as a developing baby practices movements and responds to stimuli, the model learns patterns, relationships, and understanding from its training data. This intense phase requires tremendous energy and resources, like the substantial nutrients a growing fetus needs.
Development Checkups - Evaluation Phase (2-3 months)
Similar to regular prenatal checkups, researchers continuously monitor the model's development, running tests to ensure it's learning correctly and behaving as intended. They check for any abnormalities or issues, much like doctors monitoring a baby's health and development milestones during pregnancy.
Birth and Early Life - Initial Deployment (1-2 months)
The model's first release is like a birth - it's finally ready to interact with the world. Just as newborns need careful monitoring and support, the model is initially deployed in a controlled environment where researchers can closely watch its performance and behavior.
Ongoing Growth - Continuous Monitoring and Improvement (Ongoing)
Like raising a child, this phase never really ends. The model continues to be monitored and refined based on its real-world interactions. Researchers make adjustments to improve its capabilities and address any issues that arise, similar to how parents guide their child's development and learning throughout their life.
Just as every pregnancy is unique, the development timeline of each LLM can vary significantly depending on its complexity, available resources, and specific goals. The entire process typically takes 12-24 months from conception to initial deployment, with ongoing development continuing indefinitely afterward.
Luckily, while human pregnancy, birth, and raising kids can be an expensive affair, it pales in comparison to training and maintaining LLMs.
See? At least diapers are cheaper than GPUs.
Fruitful Harvest: fresh AI fruits from the community garden.
Here are a couple of fresh picks for you!
🍐 Which AI model answers pregnancy questions better?
Trick question: always consult your OBGYN for pregnancy-related questions! However, scientists did conduct a study to identify which AI model answers pregnancy questions better. Spoiler alert: Google’s Bard/Gemini model > ChatGPT-3.5. Disclaimer: the study used outdated models.
🍇 Movie Night Pick: A Film About Artificial Wombs
The Pod Generation follows a couple navigating parenthood through an artificial womb program. The film explores the tension between technological advancement and natural processes, particularly in reproduction and parenting. It is streaming on Hulu or available in-flight on Southwest Airlines😃
🍉 The First 40 Days
I created a shared ‘Space’ in Perplexity to explore the significance of the first forty days postpartum and how Ammis worldwide approach this critical time of healing and bonding with a newborn. Check it out for recipes, book recommendations, and more…and feel free to continue the exploration with your own prompts!
Cultivating Conversation: your insights nourish the ammi.ai garden.
We 💚Your Answers
Last Poll: Do You Have a Fear of Needles (Trypanophobia)?
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yes (17%)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Somewhat (33%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 No (50%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ I’m not sure (0%)
We 💚Your Insights
I recently came across this intriguing thread on the aptly named app, Threads:
I am so curious about what you all think!
How much paid maternity leave would you feel comfortable having with your newborn? What's the minimum you'd be okay with?Feel free to share your Name and City and elaborate in comments! |
Thanks for spending a few of your precious, precious minutes with us.
I want to close by saying there was another milestone, a terrible one, that passed in the last month: one year since the beginning of the catastrophe in Palestine.
For the duration of my pregnancy, I can recount at least one headline per week on horror(s) inflicted on pregnant women, embryos, fetuses, newborns, and infants. And that’s only what was recorded and shared.
To all the Ammis who are mourning, I mourn with you. And I pray that this catastrophe ends before another year passes.
Until next time,
Ruqaiya
Ammi by day, Ammi by night
Reply