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🌿AI to read more and an Ammi on AI + Climate

🌿AI to read more and an Ammi on AI + Climate

+ play AI Bingo with your kids!

Ruqaiya
March 08, 2024

Read Time: 6 minutes │ Subscribe to the FREE Newsletter │Join the Premium Patch

Let’s give it up for the ladies!

Happy International Women’s Day to the amazing women in the ammi.ai community!

Every year on this day, I remember a magnet that graced the fridge in my childhood home in Houston for many years. The magnet’s whereabouts are currently unknown, so here’s a little mockup in lieu of a real picture 🙂

Ammi-generated using Canva!

Today, you’ll discover:

An AI tool to help you read a lot more…by listening!
An Ammi’s take on AI, climate change, and celebrating uniqueness
An AI Bingo game to play with your kids

🌿 Let’s grow!

Apple Sauce: the ‘sauce’ - or overview - on AI tools you may find useful.

Read more, faster, with your ears

Today’s apple: Speechify

Many years ago, I bought A Little Book of Japanese Contentments.

After collecting dust for a few years, I finally cracked it open and discovered a Japanese word that perfectly describes me.

Fast forward a couple of years to today. I forgot the word, so I used an AI chatbot, Claude 3, to help me out:

I don’t claim to be the best at many things, but I am the best tsundoku.

I love to read and excitedly accumulate books and bookmarked articles, but I read very few and finish even fewer. As many Ammis can attest, our moments of peace and quiet are short and fleeting, more conducive to consuming short bursts of information in text messages, captions, and Reels than lengthy passages and videos.

Plus, many Ammis and friends say while they enjoy the ammi.ai newsletter, sometimes they simply cannot find the time to read each one in full.

I frequently mention the AudioPen app, which lets you write by talking.

Now, I'd like to share an app that lets you read by listening: Speechify.

Speechify converts text from documents, PDFs, articles, or newsletters 😉 into audio files for on-the-go listening.

Now you can read during those daily activities where your eyes and hands are occupied, but your ears are open for business, such as driving, cooking, or folding laundry!

Speechify is available as a mobile app on Apple and Android and as a web application on your laptop or computer.

To my fellow tsundokus or anyone who yearns to read more, I hope this helps!

Speechify pricing

💡 A tip for those who might want to read ammi.ai using Speechify:

Using the weblink for a particular ammi.ai article won’t work because Speechify converts the page content to code. Instead, in the Speechify app, you can select +New, select Text Document, and easily copy-paste the newsletter content into the box. It works perfectly!

I never dreamed that Snoop Dogg’s voice would narrate ammi.ai, but here we are.

Planting the Seed: Explore AI topics and headlines in simple language.

I recently had the privilege of discussing Ammi-ing, AI, and the climate with Dr. Jamila Yamani, Director of Climate & Energy at Salesforce.

Today, we’ll learn about Jamila’s journey from her beginnings in sustainability as a grad student at MIT to currently managing a $100 million investment fund toward decarbonization technologies and her views on how AI will play a role in a cleaner future for our families.

👩‍🌾Let’s dig in!

Jamila Yamani on Climate + AI

Fostering self-confidence and a strong sense of identity in my children is crucial, especially in the digital age. We emphasize being comfortable with who they are and appreciating their uniqueness. It's important they understand their worth and feel confident in their own skin, regardless of external pressures and comparisons, including those from digital and AI influences.

Jamila on reinforcing self-confidence in the digital age

Get to know Jamila

Jamila with her husband Ammar and three children.

R: How would you fill in this blank to describe your relationship with AI? __________.ai

J: Novice.ai. I see myself as a novice with AI. I've tried to use it more in both my personal life and work, but I admit my uptake of this technology is not as fast as I thought it was going to be. There are skills, like prompt engineering, that I’m still developing.

R: Can you share your educational and professional journey leading up to your current role at Salesforce?

J: In college, I studied chemical and environmental engineering. I always had a plan to go to med school. After taking the MCAT and even applying to medical schools, my dad and I made a deal: if I got into MIT, I'd drop the med school plan.

Getting into MIT changed my trajectory, and I fully embraced engineering. My time at the National Renewable Energy Lab during my master’s opened my eyes to sustainability and alternative fuels. I also got my first exposure to predictive algorithms and machine learning through this experience.

This journey, enriched by my doctoral studies at Yale and subsequent roles in private equity and venture capital focusing on sustainability, led me to my current role at Salesforce, which I got through a LinkedIn application!

R: Can you share what you’re working on at Salesforce?

Jamila presenting in her current role at Salesforce.

J: Salesforce is deeply involved in sustainability efforts. This includes compliance with regulations, managing business risks related to climate change, and supporting emerging climate technologies like carbon dioxide removal (CDR) or sustainable aviation fuel. A key initiative is Salesforce's commitment to the First Movers Coalition to purchase $100 million of CDR credits.

CDR technologies are crucial for addressing climate change, especially when efforts to reduce emissions might not be sufficient. These technologies range from natural solutions like reforestation to engineered solutions like direct air capture. They help remove caron dioxide from the atmosphere, contributing significantly to our goals of reducing global emissions and mitigating climate change impacts.

I’m leading an effort to manage this $100 million fund. This involves funding both natural and engineered solutions, driving down the cost of carbon removal, and accelerating the availability of more efficient and affordable CDR methods to achieve sustainability goals.

An Ammi on AI’s Impact on the Climate

R: AI has been an accelerator in a lot of scientific and research efforts. How do you view AI’s role in CDR and sustainability?

J: Artificial intelligence (AI) can help make climate tech like CDR technologies cheaper and better. When you think about the process of innovating new technology, there’s a lot of trial and error involved. AI could help us iterate faster and avoid wasting time on efforts that are likely to fail.

I believe AI especially has the potential to significantly impact various heavy industries like manufacturing, shipping, and production of steel and cement. These sectors are known for their high emissions, and decarbonizing them is a complex process that varies with each industry. AI could offer insights into the most efficient, cost-effective ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

Moreover, as we transition to a cleaner energy future, the amount of fossil fuels we burn must decrease. But major Oil & Gas companies won’t just disappear. Those companies can pivot to producing clean energy, like biofuels or hydrogen. But which one(s) should they focus on? AI could help identify which new commodities a company is best positioned to produce, considering its resources, infrastructure, and market trends. Some companies are working on this in the early stages, and to me, this is one of the most exciting uses of AI.

🍃 Head to the Premium Patch to discover:

Her advice to her kids and fellow Ammis on self-confidence
Her essential technologies for home and work

⏰Note: Premium Patch is for paid subscribers, but the full interview will be available for free for the next 24 hours! Make sure to read it, and upgrade for more incredibly valuable fresh perspectives.

🍃 Premium Patch 🍃

The Premium Patch is filled with exclusive content for our paid subscribers! This month, we’re excited to share:

🍃 Fresh Perspectives from a real brain doctor (neurologist) on artificial brains!

🍃 What’s in Ammi’s Tech Stack - though it’s always evolving, I’d love to share my technology essentials!

🍃 Your Top 10 Questions about AI, Answered

All with an ad-free guarantee 🙂 Don’t miss out!

Fruitful Harvest: Fresh AI fruits from the community garden.

AI Bingo for Kids

I went back in the archives and found a cute AI Bingo game developed by MIT researchers to introduce AI concepts to children between ages 9-14. This activity was developed pre-ChatGPT, so it’s really a great way to familiarize yourself with the AI that has been accompanying us even before the generative AI hype of the last 2 years.

Explore everyday AI with this fun weekend activity for parents and kids!

Image Credit: Tomi Um for MIT Tech Review

Cultivating Conversation: your insights nourish the ammi.ai garden.

We want to know: where do you read ammi.ai?

I absolutely love getting pictures of folks enjoying their newsletter 🙂