Episode #3 - Learn AI or Be Led by It: Why AI Literacy Matters for Everyone w/ Tiffany Whitener

Full Episode Transcript

This is the full recorded conversation from The Human Protocol Podcast, published by The Human Protocol Group. © 2026 The Human Protocol Group. Please link to and attribute the original episode when referencing this conversation.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (00:03.006)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Human Protocol, the podcast about staying human while building the future with AI. Technology is rewriting our world. This is the conversation about what we keep and what we change. We talk about AI, leadership and humanity, not in theory, but in how it shapes our everyday lives. Every week,

We explore the intersection of technology, leadership, and purpose, and how values, meaning, and impact endure in a world rewritten by code. And you may ask, why now? Companies write algorithms, governments write laws, someone has to write the human story. And this is what this space is and will be about.

Today we're gonna have a very interesting conversation and I'm very, very excited about our guest today and the conversations that we're gonna talk about. Today's episode, it's called Learn AI or Be Led By It. Why AI literacy matters for everyone. And I'm very excited that I'm joined today by Tiffany Whitener.

which she has spent three decades evolving alongside technology. She began as a newspaper designer, editor, influencing how readers engage with content. As the world moved to digital, so did she, shaping websites and enterprise software for Fortune 500 companies and global brands across a variety of industries.

With a background in UX design and architecture, content strategy, and front-end development, she brings a unique perspective to solving complex problems for users. Now a UX designer, manager at Cox Automative, Tiffany leads a UX team and champions AI adoption. She also founded AI at Tiffany's.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (02:27.656)
building AI assistance and educating others on responsible human-centered AI. Welcome, Tiffany. I'm very excited to have you on the show.

Tiffany Whitener (02:39.054)
Thank you, I'm excited to be here today.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (02:41.694)
Perfect, appreciate your time. And to kick things off, I would like to start with the questions that I asked every guest on the show. When we remove your title, your bio, your LinkedIn information, who is Tiffany's at her core?

Tiffany Whitener (03:03.116)
Good question. I think I would describe myself as a problem solver. So I feel like my entire career, I've always been someone who likes to help people and I like to solve problems. So I think that's really why my entire career has kind of evolved the way that it has. You know, I actually got into journalism just because I liked to write and was a creative person. But at the core of it, when I look back at my career, it's always been solving a problem for a user.

It doesn't matter if that user was a reader of a newspaper or someone who's using a website or an application or, you know, now we're working with AI, but the entire time there's been a user at the core. And then there's always been problem solving because I'm always looking for how do we solve a problem for someone who's using any kind of product, matter what the medium is.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (03:49.108)
That's awesome. That's awesome. And that's perfectly tied to the conversation that we're having today. Just so our people that are going to be watching the episode notes, the title of this episode is something that Tiffany really cares about and that she has been saying all along, which is a literacy. It's important for everyone, not only those that are directly working in technology, but people from all walks of life.

And that's why I think this topic and this conversation that we're going to have today, it's going to be so important for a lot of people that are going to be watching us, right? On why, based on your trajectory and your experience and what you're seeing, it's extremely important for people to understand and start working with AI, because that's really the future happening today, right?

Tiffany Whitener (04:42.99)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. feel like, and it's interesting how I got into it because I really, when AI came, when ChatGPT came on the scene, I thought, you know, I'm gonna have to learn that. It's new technology. I'm used to pivoting. And I thought, yeah, I got some years left. I'm gonna need to dive in. And I really was planning on just doing it to future proof my career. And then something funny happened. I started using it in the kitchen. You know, I was trying to, yeah, I I considered myself of trying to,

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (04:56.382)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (05:07.685)
Tiffany Whitener (05:13.048)
forced myself to use in my everyday life to get to know a little bit more about it. And so instead of looking up a recipe or checking something on Google when I was in the kitchen cooking, then I would go to ChatGPT. And so I was in the kitchen one day fixing cornbread and I ran out of cornmeal. And I realized that, man, you know, I, and so my first instinct was, let me find a cookbook and see if there's a different recipe. I thought I'm gonna go to ChatGPT. And so I did that and asked for a substitution.

for cornmeal and it said could use grits. And at the time, you know, that was when, you know, we weren't quite sure if chat GBT was pulling from the internet or where was the data. So I checked Google, of course, to verify and it explained that, you can use the consistency is similar. So you can use grits for cornmeal. So I asked for a recipe and it gave me that. And I thought, well, wait, I want to use the cornmeal I have. So give me a recipe for.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (05:44.052)
Hmm

Tiffany Whitener (06:05.902)
half cornmeal and half grits and it gave me that. And for me, I was like, oh wow, this is powerful. You know, I never would have thought, you know, in a few minutes, I could not only, I had a substitute for, you know, the ingredient I didn't have, then I had a recipe and actually made the cornbread with the grits. And so it actually turned out pretty good. My husband could tell there was a little difference. He was like, this is good, but you know, there's a little something different here. was like, can't do it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (06:30.292)
We can always do better, right? We can always do better, including AI.

Tiffany Whitener (06:34.344)
Yeah, I was like, hey, I'm bad at that, you know? So, but that's really how I got really hooked into realizing it was powerful and I could use it in my everyday life. That was my favorite.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (06:45.822)
I appreciate you telling this very personal story in a way that I think a lot of people will relate to it. Look at how something that was used just for trying to come up for a simple recipe has become this kind of transformative tool that you're using today on your everyday tasks and live. And it started at the kitchen.

Tiffany Whitener (07:01.143)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (07:10.54)
Yeah. Mm hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (07:12.668)
So that's very interesting. I really appreciate that personal touch on that story. Really. Yes.

Tiffany Whitener (07:18.328)
Yeah, and then just, and then it actually spiraled from there. I was talking to my mom about it, just about what AI is and trying to explain it to her. And my mom is actually, my parents are actually vegans. And so I was sort of spitballing in the ChatGPT and I said, hey, you you're a vegan. And I said, hey, you know.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (07:33.812)
Hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (07:38.862)
give me a meal plan for two people, you know, for a week. And so I kept iterating on the prompt, oh, you're going to need recipes. Oh, and she said, I'm going to need the ingredients. I'm like, yeah. And I kept just iterating about what she would need for two people as a vegan. And at the end, she's sitting there watching me. She goes, print that out. You know, so she was really excited. So I later was talking to a friend about it and said, hey, I'm learning the tool. This is what I'm doing. I was telling my mom about it. And the person said, well, to me, that's an app.

I was like, what? You know, because I thought, no, you know, I don't know if I'll need an app. And so they said, yeah, you should make an app, you know, for vegans who, you know, need meal plans. So then I thought, you know, let me think about that. but then I thought, well, I'm going to create one that is for everyone because maybe it's more marketable. So I actually created a custom GPT called Meal Genie Planner.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (08:14.824)
Hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (08:18.6)
There you go. Yes.

Tiffany Whitener (08:30.73)
and it's in the GPT store, but it does meal plans, recipes, nutritional information, everything except for go and shop for you, right? And so, you know, that would kind of be the next evolution of an agent or something that would connect to its, it's a car to something like that. But that's how I kind of got into it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (08:47.804)
And all that without having to be a developer or a software engineer, isn't that amazing? Right?

Tiffany Whitener (08:56.342)
Yeah, yeah, that's what I really loved about it because I, when I was learning it, I actually thought about do I need to go learn Python? Do I need to go back to my development roots? It wasn't really something I wanted to do, but I looked into that, but then realized there are a lot of no code, low code and no code tools that you can use and how chat GPT is leveling the playing field and you can use it to tell you how to create certain things. And that's really how I kind of.

I really started using it in my personal life in that way. And then, you know, I'm sure a lot of people went through the whole phase of photos, right? I spent a whole week in creating a hundred photos, you know, that's how I learned how to prompt. So just from there, for me, was, what else can I use it for? And I started using it for finding restaurants and, you know, comparing products. If I was buying a computer, you know, not too long ago. And I thought, well, let me compare the

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (09:30.089)
Mmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (09:34.06)
Right.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (09:42.612)
Hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (09:52.194)
types of computers that I'm looking for and that saved research for me on the products because I'm a big like proponent of doing research on the things I purchase and then started using it for work as well. But for me, it's been a evolution of how do I use it in my personal life and I don't think I would have gotten as good at it as I have if I wasn't using it for something that I really enjoy, know, something that I really need. Yeah, so.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (10:14.484)
Absolutely. Something that you feel kind of, I'm excited about that. Let me try to find a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more brought you here. Right. And that's usually how things start. We need to feel compelled. We need to feel excited about learning something. And once you start finding the benefits of what you're learning, representing in a way that you feel connected to it, the rest

Tiffany Whitener (10:20.43)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (10:24.021)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (10:33.645)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (10:38.221)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (10:43.078)
It doesn't feel like learning. You go through it because you want to continue to improve and get better.

Tiffany Whitener (10:48.029)
That's exactly what happened. And then the helper in me, I wanted to help others. So I started, you know, educating others on it and posting on social media and, you know, realize that that was resonating with people because, you know, people were in the same boat I was. They were trying to learn, didn't know where to start. And I took some classes as well, but there were, I found that for me, the getting in there and learning it doing it and educating others helped me to continue to grow as well. So.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (11:15.976)
Yeah, that's awesome. That's part of the reason why I want to pass on this message to as many people as they can see us. It's like, this is what AI literacy means. You need to start somewhere. And you usually start at a place that you probably don't know a lot, but you need to find something that you are passionate about, something that you are excited about finding out.

Tiffany Whitener (11:32.909)
Yeah?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (11:42.598)
And step by step, little by little, start building that knowledge. And with practice, things get better. But AI is here, right, Tiffany? And it's not going away. And this is why your story is so important for people watching us, because everyone needs to get on board, and everybody should start learning AI.

Tiffany Whitener (11:46.69)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Tiffany Whitener (12:06.968)
Yeah, yeah, think it's so important and it's, guess for me, it seemed to me it was a natural shift just because I've gone through different technological shifts from print to digital and, you know, and so for me it was sort of, well, this is just the next shift. But then also what I try and explain to people is that even though there is, I know there's a lot of fear out there in the community about is it gonna take jobs? Is it gonna replace people?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (12:24.84)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (12:35.424)
I have a different take on that though. The way I look at it is the technology can't replace a human because you as a human always have a value that you're bringing. Now it may, you know, change your role. Absolutely. Roles are going to change. We're going to be operating differently. Absolutely. But for me, I don't look at that as replacing me as a human. I use the AI to elevate my skills. You know, I'm still me at the core.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (12:45.673)
Hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (13:02.22)
So being able to use AI is no different to me than using the internet, right? Like we've used tools to help us throughout our lives. But I think one of the things I try and get people to understand is that if they don't learn the technology, then there's a couple of challenges with that, right? We can't lead AI if we don't learn it. And if we don't learn it, we're gonna get left behind, right? Because you're gonna have to find another job.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (13:02.461)
Right.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (13:22.685)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (13:29.396)
if you don't learn the AI because things are going to change. So when companies realize the skills they need, if you're a person who isn't learning AI, then you're going to have a hard time getting a job. But then the other thing is, it's like, if you do learn it and get on board, then when the jobs change, you're going to be easier able to move into a new role because you have the skills. So I think we should look at it as a half glass full instead of half glass.

empty, you know, and look at, yeah, things are different. Maybe we don't know exactly what's going to happen, but if we learn, we're going to be able to make things a lot easier for ourselves.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (14:08.189)
Yeah, and we've have had you and I this conversation in the past and I love it every time you say it and I would like to repeat it for those back in the room. Like what happens if you don't learn AI? AI will lead you, right? Absolutely.

Tiffany Whitener (14:21.486)
Right, yeah, yeah, we gotta learn AI so you can lead AI. Because if we talk about it, like we wanna be at the forefront to be able to shape it. And we wanna be able to help make it responsible. And we wanna be able to help with those things. So if we're concerned about a lot of the things that we're all concerned about about AI, we can't even be at the table to have a seat to help if we're refusing not to.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (14:27.485)
Yes.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (14:32.34)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (14:48.418)
throw a hat in the ring, right? It's like you gotta get in the ring, right? So that you can help. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (14:51.538)
Yes, exactly. you know, concerns are valid. I share those concerns myself. I know you do share those concerns yourself as well. But it's also a mindset shift, right? Every time you are in front of a challenge, if you treat it as an opportunity, you will see opportunities and not problems, right? Like anything in your personal life, in your professional life.

Tiffany Whitener (14:56.396)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (15:01.581)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (15:12.162)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (15:18.836)
Problems will always be there, challenges will always be there, but everything is how you approach them and what is your attitude and the energy where you take on those. And I would like to find in challenges a way for us to be better. And I think one of the benefits on AI, it's really enhancing our creativity in a way that we did not have before. It's a tool and a technology.

Tiffany Whitener (15:33.954)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (15:43.638)
Yeah

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (15:46.376)
that is allowing everyone to have a voice, to think, to use logical reason, to create things in a way that we did not have before. So it's all about facing this in a way that this is coming, this is here, it's not going away, and it is important. And this is the message that you and I, we keep saying everywhere we go, we all need to learn. We all need to learn to live with AI, right?

Tiffany Whitener (15:49.356)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (15:56.108)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (16:03.81)
Yeah? Yeah?

Tiffany Whitener (16:14.838)
Yeah, yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (16:15.796)
It is required, it will be required, there's no other way around it.

Tiffany Whitener (16:21.478)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I just hope more and more people embrace it because I think when I think about it, it's when I was in the newspaper industry, I remember the newspaper industry and I hate to say this, but it's just true. I lived through it. I don't think the industry as an industry shifted soon enough.

I can grace the technology of the internet soon enough as a whole. And so, you know, I remember me, that's one of the reasons why I made the shift to digital. Like I would be sitting there witnessing a conversation between, you know, editors talking about, well, should we post this story online or, you know, we don't want to scoop the paper? And he's in there thinking people, one team, you know? And so I knew I was like, you know, hey, like I'm not gonna...

retire as a print designer, I'm gonna need to get some digital skills. At the time, I didn't even really know what that meant, but I knew that I was gonna retire as a print designer, I need to get some digital skills. And for me, I thought, I'm just gonna move over to the digital side of the paper, and that's what I'm gonna do. But ended up, I rolled in a degree and got a degree in web design interactive media, didn't know I'd have to learn how to code. I thought learning how to design for the web was gonna be just a learning. I just thought, yeah, I'm gonna.

do this digitally, but I didn't know I was gonna have to learn how to code and be a front end developer. And that was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do, but it was the best thing I ever did for my career. Never had a problem finding a job, you know? And that was at a time where there were a lot of things going on, you know, just in general. And so I made that shift from print to digital and survived the .com boom. So for me, it's kind of like...

This is very similar. So I know it's maybe easy for me to say it because I've lived through it, but it was, yeah. But if I could just tell anyone, like, that's a perfect example of what we're in now. Had I not done that, who knows how things would have changed, right? And, you know, not knocking.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (18:06.14)
because you've been through exactly.

Tiffany Whitener (18:20.46)
you know, anyone who didn't make that choice, right? Because it's a choice. There's nothing wrong with those who didn't make that choice. But for me, you know, that was what, for what I wanted to do, that was the choice that was best for me. But it was good for me because it opened my whole world. Like back then, user experience wasn't a separate discipline. Like it was a part of, you know, web design and, you know, because websites, you know, they need user experience and...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (18:43.731)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (18:45.696)
When I, but then I started learning about, okay, I need to work on enterprise software products. And you know, so my entire world changed because I was willing to continue to grow and learn and continue to learn, you know, to keep getting the next job. And so that's really what has brought me to where I am now. And so when I look over the past, really like I, you know, dating myself, but when I look over 30 years, like it really has just been me. And I never looked at it as

I need to learn this to get this job. I was looking at it as, hey, I want to continue to learn because I'm growing with what I'm, you know, with what the next, like it was to learn to get the next job. That was a part of it, but it wasn't like I said, I want to be a developer or be a UX designer. That wasn't even really what it was. It was like, I'm pivoting to learn the skills because the market I'm in is changing. I'm going to learn these skills so I can keep

myself marketable and keep up the companies that I'm working for. And so that's really, but it was really me trying to, I'm a problem solver. I'm helping the users of the products that I'm building for. And so that transformation is why I ended up in the different roles. But at the end of the day, when I look at it, I've been doing user experience my entire career. Like it's just back then in the newspaper industry, our users were readers, right? We tested the paper, we still refused.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (20:08.489)
Ryan.

You adjusted and adapted to the new time. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (20:12.876)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But the process of designing a product for a user, that process has still been the same. It's just different medium. We have different technology. We have different software programs. And some of the methods have changed along the way, but it's been the same kind of theme of how do we solve the problem for a user? Yes.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (20:33.8)
Yeah, and that's what I think, Tiffany, for those that are going to be watching us and listening to this, it's the power of human transformation and human reinvention, right? And sometimes we don't test that enough. We don't know what we are capable of until we really go through transformation periods and we come up at the other end of it with new skills, right, and new desires to continue to do better.

Tiffany Whitener (20:43.596)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (20:48.856)
Yeah

Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (20:56.333)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (21:03.085)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (21:03.282)
And when I look at your history from newspaper, a printed newspaper, right, to digital, UX digital, which is totally different than AI, you have embraced all these new technologies and all these challenges and you have said, you know, I'm going to learn it because this is where we are heading. So so it's really how we human beings will continue to reinvent ourselves in this new future with AI, which is what

Tiffany Whitener (21:21.208)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (21:29.667)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (21:31.272)
this type of conversation will be about. We need to reinvent ourselves. Business as usual will be a thing of the past. We really need to get on board and try to develop those new skills and whatever is needed in this new future with AI.

Tiffany Whitener (21:33.815)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (21:52.248)
Yeah. And I would say also the other thing is like, people also have a choice if they don't want to get on board, that's okay too. But like think about what's your plan, right? Like if you're not willing to get on board, that's cool. But think about what, what are you going to do if that's not your thing? So I feel like we're just, we're in control just as humans, just for us to remember that.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (22:01.502)
Yes.

Tiffany Whitener (22:13.39)
Somebody has to tell the robots what to do, right? So, you know, instead of saying the robots are gonna take our job, like, let's think about how am I gonna learn the skills so I can coexist with what's happening or take control of what do I want to do that doesn't have anything to do with technology. There's nothing wrong with that either. That's a choice. But like making the choice instead of just not dealing with it at all, I think is what I would encourage people to

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (22:15.678)
Hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (22:32.467)
Yes.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (22:38.76)
Yes, yes, absolutely. You nailed it right there. It's always going to be our choice, but not making a choice one way or the other. It's really not going to add any value to whatever the future will hold, right? So think about all these, right? Start looking at options. And like Tiffany was saying at the beginning, try to find something that you like, that you're passionate about.

Tiffany Whitener (22:44.812)
Yes.

Tiffany Whitener (22:51.862)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (23:00.206)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (23:07.004)
and little by little start playing more and more with this new technology. And there are so many ways to get started with AI. And I wanted to ask you, Tiffany, what would be your recommendations for those that are in the sidelines, still not using AI, any tool, or ChatGPT or Gemini, anything regarding to AI, because they think it's too technical, because they think it's only for tech.

Tiffany Whitener (23:11.586)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (23:24.877)
Yeah

Tiffany Whitener (23:31.576)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (23:36.476)
related people. How would someone would get started with AI? What would be your recommendation?

Tiffany Whitener (23:37.635)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (23:45.792)
Yeah, I would say the first thing is just sign up for, you know, a free account. Like I started with ChatGPT, just sign up for, I started with a free account and really just start playing around with it and find out what it is that you would like for it to help you with. Like for some people it's photos. It could be you wanted to help you like with recipes. Maybe you want, you know, a list of recipes for meal planning or maybe you're going to purchase a car and you wanted to compare some cars.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (24:06.196)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (24:14.382)
So I think everyone has their own sort of niche of something that maybe they need information on. I think the other thing would be, think about something that you would normally ask Google, or maybe you would normally do research on, and then use ChatGPT or Claude or whichever your LLM of choice is. me, I started with ChatGPT. That's usually what I use. But they can use any kind of LLM. But I would say start there. Just start.

And I would also say there's no really right or wrong way to do it. Like you can write in and put your prompt in there however you want. And then over time, you're going to find as you practice your net for how you dive into it. But I always tell people when you're prompting, you want to tell it what you want and you want to tell it how you want it. So if I'm looking for, you know, restaurants in the area for two people for dinner, I'm going to tell it that I'm going to tell it.

The type of cuisine I want, the location, how far want it to be away from my house. You could even tell it like, you know, what budget you want to stay in. And you can even tell it, do you want it in a table format or, you know, so just being specific, but really if people just start, doesn't even have to be that specific. You know, it just be something very simple. So I would say just start is the main thing. And practice, start and practice.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (25:22.804)
Hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (25:36.402)
Yeah, yeah, I can agree more. It just get started, right? Think about it's like almost having a personal assistant dedicated to you 24-7. Of course, there should be limits. It's not for everything that you should count on it, right? It's not your doctor. It's for that type of thing. You continue to rely on the professionals for that. But think about a tool.

Tiffany Whitener (25:40.163)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (25:45.803)
Yeah

Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (25:53.262)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (26:02.866)
that will find the best answers for the questions that you have, right? Instead of, mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (26:07.694)
Yeah, but I say that I didn't want to touch on something you mentioned about because you're right, it's not like a doctor or a lawyer, but you could use that to help you with information that you could ask your doctor or lawyer. For example, you know, we definitely want to be getting information from the professionals, but there may be some information you may need to research and you can get, you know, ask the GPT some questions that levels the playing field for you. Like if you're

concerned about something you think is going on and you go and ask a question, you could go to your doctor and say, hey, you know, I have did this research and what about this? That at least levels the playing field as far as information you may not have had prior. So I've done that before, right? As far as at least having options. It also, it just helps you, it gives you plans. Like you can use it for travel planning. You know, you're very good at that.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (26:51.304)
Right. Right.

Yes.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (27:03.056)
It's very good for travel planning. I loved it!

Tiffany Whitener (27:06.102)
Yeah, being able to say two people or four people are going to this city and we're going to be there five days. Can you give recommendations on where to stay, where to eat, what to do, you know, for a week? I mean, it will do that in a matter of seconds, which is amazing, you know.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (27:15.89)
Yes.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (27:20.774)
It's amazing to help you with your budget. If you're not good at math, this AI will help you. We'll put everything together. We'll put a template. It's just amazing what it does. So in a way, as you can see, you can find very valuable activities and tasks that this thing can help you with.

Tiffany Whitener (27:23.83)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (27:29.227)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (27:45.901)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (27:46.068)
It's just a matter of you getting started. You heard about Tiffany and how she got started with the recipe, looking and searching for a recipe, right? So it's just make that first step, jump into it, and start learning. Because definitely it will be needed.

Tiffany Whitener (27:54.158)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (28:00.558)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (28:04.12)
Yeah. And also for business, like I didn't want to leave that out. Like once you kind of learn it for personal, you're going to start thinking about the ways you can use it for business. I know everyone's field is different, but same situation. You know, you can use it for, you know, different, you can use it for different things that you're trying to work on for, for your business as well at work, corporate and personal. And, but I will say just something to keep in mind for that is that, you know, most corporate companies are going to have some

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (28:16.465)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (28:33.004)
regulated tools that you can use because you want to make sure you're not uploading proprietary data. So most companies are going to have some enterprise software that you can use that's dedicated for your company. So it's going to be pulling from data at your company. I would encourage people to check with your corporate company and what tools are approved as well when you're using AI at work.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (28:53.0)
Yeah. And I'm glad that you jump into that topic or that was going to be my next question, which is data privacy, right? And ethics around AI, especially in businesses. And I think it's also very important that we talk about the limitations, right? When you're working with AI and how careful you also need to be when handling sensitive information.

Tiffany Whitener (29:01.976)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (29:06.936)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (29:20.952)
Yeah?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (29:21.364)
especially in companies and organizations that are very, very keen into making sure that data privacy is extremely well kept, right, and it doesn't go to the internet. So how do you see this challenge of data privacy, right, in the future with AI?

Tiffany Whitener (29:42.338)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (29:45.774)
Yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, I think that at work it's a little easy. I think in personal, it's a little bit, you have to be even more careful because it's kind of, you're on your personal computer and it's really easy to, you have to be careful and think about, okay, what do you want to put in the LLM? I think at work, it's a little bit easier to be even more careful because usually at work there are special tools that you're told you need to use. And then a lot of the companies have, you know, rag systems. It's basically like,

and LLM that's for the company. So when you ask it a question, it's usually searching the company data. it's in a system that's protected usually for the company, right? And so employees know that. And a lot of times we have, like I know it, the company I work for, have approved tools that we use at work for the company. So we know that we're not supposed to be, like if we're using a tool.

you know, for in our personal life to learn, nothing wrong with that. But we know that not supposed to be using those tools for work and, you know, you know, not uploading any proprietary data, you know, have systems for that. So I think that what's interesting is I think a lot of the LLMs are also creating products to make sure they're able to support the enterprise companies because they know it's a thing. They want that business and they want to be able to help support the companies.

So I think that helps with that data privacy. I think that we do need to think about, because we think about prompt engineering, and then there's also something called context engineering, where you can upload something written or done, and you want the AI to help elevate that. So I think we have to be very careful about that, that you don't want to put any of your work stuff in a non-work.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (31:27.24)
Mm-hmm, right.

Tiffany Whitener (31:40.179)
know, LLN, you know, so.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (31:41.588)
Yes, yes, yes, yes, totally on board on that. And I think we're gonna see more and more companies like OpenAI and others investing more and kind of revamping, right, how their approach to privacy because they understand this is a challenge. And of course they would like to continue to offer this for the businesses, right? Even for the governments. I was reading the other day, I believe the government

Tiffany Whitener (32:06.721)
you

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (32:11.486)
getting contract with OpenAI to use ChatGPT as part of the government. It tells me that the part and the challenge and the concerns around data privacy, especially on the government side, are something that probably OpenAI had been working a lot on it. Because if the government approves to use it, I'm sure confidentiality and data information, it's a concern. And that means that they are working.

Tiffany Whitener (32:29.358)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (32:34.499)
you

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (32:40.54)
in the backend to put some guide rails, right? And safeguards around that.

Tiffany Whitener (32:44.75)
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's the thing that I really would love to get involved with is responsible and responsible AI. How do we make it more ethical, more inclusive? Like that's a huge area I would really love to get in because and I feel like it touches on that's why we need more diverse people learning it like everyone needs to learn it. But if you don't have diverse voices in terms of age and gender and race and just all types of diversity.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (32:50.664)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (33:04.744)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (33:13.602)
then that impacts how the LLMs are built. It impacts other things, right? Because the LLMs are only as powerful as the data that's put in it. So if the data is biased, then the output we're getting is biased. And so also if we want it to be more responsible, then we need to have everyone working on it that's gonna ask the right questions and program it to ask the right questions to be a little bit more, to help it to be a little bit more.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (33:16.763)
Absolutely.

Tiffany Whitener (33:41.991)
So I would love to get into how to help with responsible AI.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (33:46.984)
Yeah, I also think that's such an important topic. And I believe not only companies, but some of the challenges that they're running through is because countries have different laws, right? And different expectations. And I also was reading the other day that there are some movement around building global standards for data privacy and responsible AI, which I think it should be kind of, you know,

Tiffany Whitener (33:59.746)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (34:12.536)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (34:16.092)
a step in the right direction, because the more we try to kind of standardize what data privacy means within AI, I think the more that we all gonna benefit, there are a lot of countries that they put more efforts and emphasis on keeping our data privacy, like for example, Europe, they have a very strict loss around data privacy, even more than the US.

Tiffany Whitener (34:28.12)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (34:40.334)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (34:42.13)
So I'm sure there is a lot that we're going to learn as we move forward on what type of safeguards we'll be putting in place on this topic.

Tiffany Whitener (34:49.112)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (34:52.622)
Yeah, it's interesting and it's, I will tell you one of the things when it comes to making sure that AI is responsible and ethical, one of the things that I looked into when I first started learning chat GPT, I asked it to give me a photo of what it thought a creative look like. What do you think a design manager look like? What do you think a doctor looks like? Like any type of profession, like what do you think?

what photo would you give of somebody in X profession, whatever the profession is? And what I got back, really, it was alarming. Like it was alarming, but it wasn't alarming, right? And you can imagine it wasn't giving diverse, you know, outputs, you know, for these questions. And so I very quickly learned that, okay, this data is based off of what society, whatever data it's getting from the internet.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (35:22.216)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (35:46.946)
you know, and whatever biases that may be there, then it's pulling that in. And so what I started doing is if I was asking for a photo of a design team or a, you know, or a UX manager or anything, I would be specific. Give me a photo of a diverse group of people for a design team, right? Give me, I want a photo and I want a diverse group. Like I would be very specific as far as what I was looking for. But one of the things that alarmed me is,

Once I really started using AI every day and I felt that it knew me and this, that, the other, and I had uploaded photos before it even should know what I look like. I asked it to give me a photo of what it thought I looked like. And you would not believe the photo that it gave me back. It gave me a photo of a white guy with a guitar.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (36:25.288)
Hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (36:33.678)
And I was so alarmed. I'm like, what? And so I really challenged it. I was like, wait a minute. pushed back. said, tell me, where did you get this data from? I said, we talk every day. You have all this information about me. And they said, yeah, Tiffany, you're a leader in AI and UX, and you're an African-American woman, and you're doing this and doing that. I said, OK, but where did this photo come from? Because you just gave me a photo.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (36:39.688)
Ha ha!

Tiffany Whitener (37:00.878)
That has nothing to do with all the data you have on me and I want to know Where this came from and it was honest it said yeah, it wasn't based off of you It's based off of trends from the internet So it took whatever it knew about me and assumed that what it knew about me Couldn't be some look like me like it had to be you know a different race and a different gender and so I asked it Well, how do I help you with that? Because you as a I need to be responsible and ethical in your output

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (37:11.22)
Hmm.

Right, right.

Tiffany Whitener (37:29.486)
So how do I help you with that? And then it gave me like, you know, a plan of some groups and different, you know, organizations to reach out to. But that to me alarmed me is that, you know, I felt like I got to thinking, well, maybe if we had more people with diverse backgrounds who were helping to program the AI, would one of them thought about how do we program this to ask questions if someone asked for a photo or, you know, like there should be some sort of.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (37:53.106)
Ryan.

Tiffany Whitener (37:56.002)
The AI should have asked me if it wasn't sure, right? It should have been assumed, you know. Yeah, yeah, so it's just very interesting, you know.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (37:58.482)
Yeah, not just drop it like it was a don't do, right? Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (38:06.246)
It's, and it makes me think, is also part of what makes these LLMs so powerful. It depends on where the data is coming from. And that's also, that's something that you don't hear a lot people talking about it, but that's a business. There are companies that they sell the data to these other AI companies, right? And the better the data is, the better the LLM can become. Cause at the end of the day, it's all about the data.

Tiffany Whitener (38:14.967)
Yes. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (38:22.348)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (38:29.71)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (38:35.724)
Yeah? Yeah?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (38:35.752)
that they get from us that we are entering, right? And from what the LLM learns about the data that they have access to. So it's really the source where the data is coming from that it's going to play a huge factor on how good the answers will be for what we're prompting them. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (38:39.875)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (38:45.581)
Yeah?

Tiffany Whitener (38:59.276)
Yeah, and that's why it's important for people to use, like if you're not using it, we're not even training it to make sure it's not biased, right? It's like we all play a part in, like I challenge it. When he gives me wrong information, I correct it. I'm like, well, that's not right. You know, being able to make sure it knows that there are different, you know, people of different races and different genders and different ages and all the roles, you know, on all the jobs. And so, you know, it can't just assume what

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (39:12.872)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (39:26.998)
someone looks like in any profession, right?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (39:29.864)
Yeah, don't, don't mess up with Tiffany because she's going to give you a feedback right away. Okay. You're not, you're gonna, you have to get it right.

Tiffany Whitener (39:37.038)
I'm gonna get the AI straight, you know? That's right. Yeah, and you can just imagine for me as a minority leader, like that kind of stung, right? It's like, you know, society doesn't always see minorities in certain roles. So for me, for the AI to be doing that, it's like, wow, like another place where...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (39:44.21)
You have to get it right because that's what we're here for,

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (39:55.858)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (40:00.404)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (40:03.435)
there's inequity in diversity and inclusion. And so I think that's a huge part of AI and ethics.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (40:09.384)
Yeah, I agree, Tiffany, I agree. When you look at where we are today, what are those skills, right? And when you look at everything that we do today with AI based on your experience, right? Of course, of using different AI for different purposes. What are those skills that you recommend people to look at it if they want to get the best out of working with AI?

like prompting and different other skills. What would you tell people that they should start focusing on and learning because of the benefits associated with it?

Tiffany Whitener (40:39.791)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (40:50.316)
Yeah, I would say prompting is really the number one skill set. Because if you know how to prompt, then that means you know how to talk to the AI. It's for generative, right? Because there's different, I think that's another call it is that there's different types of AI. But right now, generative AI is really kind of what we're all talking about. So yeah, I would say the prompting is so important because once you learn how to prompt, you're going to be able to use all the different AI capabilities.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (41:01.044)
Right.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (41:08.232)
Ryan.

Tiffany Whitener (41:17.634)
that cause for prompting. So for example, you can go into the different ALMs and you write a prompt to tell the AI what you need. But there's also, let's say you're using, for example, in user experience, we use a software product called Figma. It's like working design, our user experiences. Where if Figma has capabilities in it, the AI capabilities, but that will help, that will create a design, well, you got to write a prompt, right? So that sort of

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (41:32.532)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (41:45.346)
Having that skill set of knowing how to write a prompt, knowing how to be specific, how to iterate on that prompt, it's for any tool you're using at your job. Like I remember one company I worked at, we were using JIRA, and JIRA has a lot of good AI capabilities, but again, you gotta write a prompt, right? Like you gotta be able to.

write a prompt or and sometimes it's a matter of hitting a button and it will do something for you with the capability. But it goes back to me. I feel like that prompting and knowing how to iterate on that prompt and knowing how to knowing when to change it. And then also knowing what are the different LLMs I may use because there may be a different LLM that you may get a different answer. So another trick is to you could put the same prompt in different LLMs and see what answer you get.

or put a different prompt in or ask the AI what prompt should I be using and put that in the LLM. So just using the AI to teach you about the AI is also a good way to do it. But yeah, the prompting I would say is the number one skill. Now, if you're a person who wants to build ALMs and all of that, then you would probably need to know Python and some of those languages. That's not my thing. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (42:59.708)
Right. Get into more and dive in more into the technical side, right?

Tiffany Whitener (43:04.62)
Yeah, like more computer science, you need to dive into that. But yeah, for just, for what we're talking about for using it for work and personal, know, if you're like, co-pilot is really good at using it, AI capabilities for emails, you know, you know, they have capabilities. Yeah, they can do summaries. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I think the prompting is a good skill to have.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (43:17.948)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Somers, I love it for Somers as well. They do a good job.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (43:29.64)
Yeah, I agree. It's what we call prompting or prompt engineering. I usually put it in a way for some people that are not familiar with it to better understand. Think about the better you prompt, the better you tell the AI or LLM what you want, the better result or more closer to what you expect you will get. Think about a time when you meet,

Tiffany Whitener (43:34.648)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (43:59.75)
met a friend, and then you are talking to another friend about that time that you met that friend, but you don't recall the name. And then you're trying to describe how it looks, how it sounds, and everything, right? Think about all these details that are going to be extremely important for you to build that prompt, and so AI can better understand what you like, what you don't like, right? The way you like things being

Tiffany Whitener (44:22.572)
Yeah? Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (44:28.254)
produced to you, what type of information. So the prompting is really crucial to learn it and to get better on it. Don't think like you're going to put a word and you're going to get the best out of it. You also need to put effort. And some people, just want AI to know what they want without even putting any effort. We still need effort because AI learns with every prompt.

Tiffany Whitener (44:38.765)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (44:43.244)
Right. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (44:52.76)
Yeah

Yeah. And then we also, to your point, we learned from the AI what information to put in to get the best result, right? It's just like with anything with practice. So there are times that I'll write a real quick prompt that's not even, I really didn't think much about it. But then there are times I'm like, hey, you know what? I'm going to be very specific because I know the format I know that I need to

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (44:56.446)
with every conversation.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (45:20.71)
It goes both ways, right? It goes both ways.

Tiffany Whitener (45:23.278)
Yeah, it's kind of like having a conversation, right? You get as much as you put in as you get back, you know? So, you know, it's like if you want something good back, you got to put something good in. that's kind of the... Exactly, yeah. And it's okay to challenge it. It's okay to push back and, you know, challenge it, you know, like... Some people name their AI, you know, right? They give it a little name and, you know, they, you know, so just...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (45:30.408)
There you go.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (45:34.908)
You want a good relationship with AI, you're going to have to put in as well.

Probably it.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Don't ask.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (45:50.58)
And don't take things for granted. Don't take everything like it's a don't deal. Like, no, please check. Especially if you're working with, you know, maybe contracts, maybe with things that are more important, make sure that you review their response. Because sometimes their response is not accurate. This is subject to error. And a lot of people don't think about it. It's just copy and paste. No, copy and paste don't work.

Tiffany Whitener (45:53.933)
Right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Tiffany Whitener (46:04.225)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (46:08.256)
right?

Right? Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (46:17.736)
doesn't work like this. Make sure that you spend time reviewing, right Tiffany? It's extremely important.

Tiffany Whitener (46:18.062)
Right?

Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I think that's where the responsible piece comes in for us as humans and that we need to remember that we're the human in the center of all this and it's still a robot. So we need to remember, I'm glad you brought that up, we need to remember to use it as a tool. Like it's not a replacement for us, but it's a tool. We need to check it. You use it to elevate you, but yeah, you need to check it and make sure and then

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (46:32.71)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (46:48.346)
not just taking something and lifting it and putting it somewhere else, right? Like you need to, you're gonna need to edit some of this. There's gonna be times where there's parts that you're gonna need and parts that you're not. And I think that's the key. Cause when I hear people say, it's gonna keep me from critically thinking and all of that, not if you're using it as a tool, right? Now, if you're just going in and asking it to give you whatever, you're putting it in email, then yeah, you're not, know, but that's right. Yeah, that's.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (46:51.931)
Absolutely.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (47:06.674)
Mm-hmm.

then you're not thinking, right? You're not doing yourself a favor. Start with us, right?

Tiffany Whitener (47:16.82)
Right, yeah. So it's like you got to be able to, number one, know what you're going to use the tool for. Remember, it's a tool. Learn what you're going to use it for. And it doesn't have to be used for everything. And then, yes, you need to be verifying this information and making sure. But that's a part of being responsible humans as well, right? And I think it goes back to what I mentioned earlier about context engineering instead of just prompt engineering. Like, it's not about just

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (47:24.678)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (47:46.062)
putting something in to get an answer, but what are you adding that you need elevated, right? Like you may have something that you're crafting and you may be asking for, you know, how do I elevate this? But again, like make sure you're not putting your work stuff in the, you know, non-work tools, but there's a way to make sure you're using it as a tool to elevate instead of just using it to get information. So that there's that piece of

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (48:11.048)
Yeah, you made me think right now and something that I always tell my teams and even my friends, don't sacrifice quality for a speed. It's not worthy. It's never gonna be worthy. And this conversation made me remember that, that I'm always telling everyone quality should come first, right? And if the speeds improve to a place where quality is still there,

Tiffany Whitener (48:20.44)
Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (48:32.823)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (48:40.23)
It's a win-win. If not, focus on the quality first. And always tell that to my team. For me, it's crucial that we keep quality at the center of it, even when it takes a little bit more time. And for this conversation we're having, is what we want to tell people is be responsible. It's not only about copy and paste. This is a tool.

Tiffany Whitener (48:41.527)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (48:51.758)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (49:00.312)
Right. Right. Exactly.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (49:05.492)
it will have errors on the responses that provides to you. That's where we come, and that's why we're still the humans in this conversation.

Tiffany Whitener (49:14.774)
Yeah. And I think if people look at it in the same way that we use the internet, we know not to believe everything we see on the internet, right? Like, like, know, to trust but verify, right? And you know, to, you're using that as a tool. It's not something that is replacing you. So AI is no different. How do you use it as a tool instead of, you know, replacement?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (49:34.728)
Where I see the challenge, Tiffany, is with the internet, you used to write the questions that you have and then search for the answers, right? And articles, and then you have to pick whatever you wanted to pick. With AI, it's giving you an answer right away, right?

Tiffany Whitener (49:48.172)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (49:54.423)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (49:58.966)
Yeah? Yeah?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (49:59.846)
And then a lot of people are taking that answer for granted for what it is. And there's instead of, okay, is this accurate? Is this, is there any other possibility? And try to get to the bottom of things. And that's where, where I think people need to be careful that it's, even though you're getting an answer, like it is almost an assistant for you, make sure that you

Tiffany Whitener (50:09.527)
right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (50:26.952)
check until you're comfortable with the quality of what you're getting.

Tiffany Whitener (50:30.924)
Yeah, yeah, we still have to be responsible humans and just responsible. And a lot of times, depending on what you're searching, it's giving you the sources back. So double check those sources the way you normally would and see if you agree with, and even if what you have is even something you're using. There are times, I know it worked, there are times I've used AI and I'm like, you know, I'm spending more time trying to get this to fix what I really need when this isn't speeding it up. So I think you need also,

Sometimes know how far you can take the idea that is a help and if it's not a help then maybe you don't use that for whatever task you're working on and sometimes there are things that You can use it for a portion of what you're working on and then you take it the rest of the way like for example in user experience You know, we're able to use software programs that will give us a UI, you know wireframe and it's not something we're gonna take straight to code yet

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (51:13.054)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (51:28.386)
But it's something that will help us brainstorm. It will help give us more ideas. We're able to use it for rapid prototyping. Still need the human in the loop, you know, to create, but we're able to use that as a help to help with some of that. know, using it as a tool to help elevate. So think we just need to keep remembering.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (51:45.352)
Yeah, keep remembering that people. It is our responsibility. We own that responsibility to ourselves, right? And that will continue to play a huge factor as we move forward. Great stuff, Tiffany. We are approaching the last segment of our episode today. And basically, it's a question. It's one question, but four different groups, okay?

Tiffany Whitener (51:53.706)
Yeah, absolutely.

Tiffany Whitener (51:59.682)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (52:15.147)
Okay.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (52:15.348)
And I would like to start with the first one, which is, what would be your advice for those people still not using AI in any shape or form today?

Tiffany Whitener (52:30.95)
wow. Advice for how to use it or advice for why they should use it? In general. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (52:35.192)
It's in general the why you think it's important for them to use it based on how you see where we are today and where we're heading in the future.

Tiffany Whitener (52:43.853)
Yeah.

feel like it's gonna be a game changer and needed for our personal and our professional lives. Work-wise, of course, we're gonna need it because you're gonna need skills to be, just to continue working in whatever industry, most industries, because if you think about it, back in the day, if you didn't have a website, you couldn't have a business. Technically, right? It's hard to, I know me personally.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (52:51.572)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (53:08.979)
Right?

Tiffany Whitener (53:13.71)
I don't really trust working with someone if you don't have a website and I don't know you. The first thing I'm gonna do is look up your website, right? You need a digital presence. So I think that's part of it, the first thing for work, just to be able to, and to just be, to find a job and to be searchable, you're gonna need those skills. I would say if you think about it, even for personal, just like the iPhone and all kinds of things, mobile technology changed our world.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (53:18.311)
Okay.

Tiffany Whitener (53:39.458)
the AI is as well. So there's going to be things that change. There's been articles out there talking about, there no longer be UIs out there, right? Like that's, you know, don't know what that would look like, but just think about our things are going to change for us. So for us to be able to function in this world, we're going to need to be able to use the technology personally and professionally. So getting on board is just going to help you to be aware and to be able to figure out how you use it as a tool.

in your everyday life.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (54:10.44)
Awesome, great advice. Thank you, Tiffany. Then another piece of advice for tech leaders really working on developing AIs of the future. What would Tiffany tell them?

Tiffany Whitener (54:25.17)
yeah, first of all, I would say that AI adoption comes from the top. all of the companies, for all the leaders, I would say that...

It has to come from the top. I feel very fortunate. The company I work for now, like our leadership is really leading in heavily with AI. And so I think it really helps the company because everyone who is working there, they know that this is the direction. They know the leadership at the highest levels are plugged in. And so we know that, we got to make sure that we are plugged in. So that's the first thing. I think that the strong message from the top and that a strong

importance for AI adoption and AI literacy because it's hard to adopt something if you don't understand it. So being able to give the teams the tools that they need and to be able to lead by example, like leaders being able to get out front and show how they're using it, encourage their team to use it, but it's kind of hard to encourage your team to use it if you're not using it, right? So yes, so you gotta kind of, with anything else with leadership, we gotta, you know, walk the talk.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (55:21.846)
If you're not using Yes.

Tiffany Whitener (55:28.306)
And I would say also in leadership, making sure that we have lean on our human principles for these applications that we're building with AI. We still need to have the human in the loop. all the, like for user experience, for example, all the principles we have for UX, we still need them for these AI capabilities that we're building, even more so now, right? We need to be empathetic. We need to be transparent. So I would say companies need to also...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (55:37.758)
Mmm. Mmm.

Tiffany Whitener (55:57.002)
In addition to leading and using it, they also need to have the principles that they're using for the capabilities that they're building as well for their customers and their internal associates.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (56:14.43)
Yeah, I agree. And values, right? Company values and leadership values are important more than ever. Yeah, I agree. What would be your advice to governments trying to figure it out on privacy and, you know, ethical concerns? What would you tell governments to focus on?

Tiffany Whitener (56:17.078)
Yes, that is, yeah. Yes.

Tiffany Whitener (56:34.135)
Yeah.

Yeah, we need legislation. I don't know the specific answer and the specific legislation, but we need some type of legislation and regulations for AI. Like right now, it's just the Wild West. So it's like we do need some sort of regulation out there. And I feel like we need some standards for ethics for.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (56:41.17)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Whitener (57:04.909)
We need to make sure that AI is going to be responsible. so, right, level the playing field. Yeah, it can't just be for a certain group of people. You know, I would love for, and I'm sure government would have some sort of influence on this, but how do we talk about how it impacts the environment, right? Like we're all using it, but just today I was in an AI session with my team. And so we were talking about

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (57:08.552)
to level the playing field, right?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (57:28.212)
Mmm.

Tiffany Whitener (57:35.448)
how do we look at sustainability and all the water that's being used, all the tokens that's being used? How do we balance that, right? Where everyone's all in on AI, but what's the other part of it? All the money that's being spent, all the water that's being used? And I don't know what the answer is. And I'm probably the biggest offender of using up all the tokens in the water, because I'm using AI all the time. But it's an interesting balance.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (57:59.654)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (58:04.684)
you know, because, and I don't know what the answer is, but that again, we need some sort of government regulation oversight, you know, something that helps with that. And I don't know, you know, I don't know how to help with the cost or the environment, but it's an important topic. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (58:19.604)
Yeah, you put it, you use the right words. It's a wild, west right now, because I feel like that too myself. Every time I talk to my friends, tell them, yes, everybody's doing their own thing. It's like no one is telling them what's right or what's wrong. And that's where the problems may come in the future if it doesn't exist regulations around the limit on this thing, right?

Tiffany Whitener (58:24.59)
you

Tiffany Whitener (58:32.494)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (58:36.78)
Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?

Tiffany Whitener (58:45.538)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (58:48.882)
But let's see where this happens.

Tiffany Whitener (58:51.182)
And you know what the interesting thing is, I think other countries may be farther along or have some different ways they're handling some of this. And so it's interesting to see five years from now, what is going to be the difference as far as how we're handling it and the different, like are some of those other countries going to be farther along with using AI to help with, you know, cure cancer or other diseases or.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (58:59.624)
Yes. Yes.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (59:06.61)
between, yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (59:17.496)
help with dementia patients. Like I would love to see AI get to a point to where it's AI for good and it's helping with those things.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (59:22.388)
It's a race. I also see this as a race. I was reading the other day an article where it was saying that China, it's already mandating in schools that five, six years old, they start learning AI.

Tiffany Whitener (59:42.178)
Yeah, and look at the difference there, right? Like where you have over in the US, like we're complaining about it taking a job over there. It's the half life school, right? They're teaching at the earliest ages, know, because they know it's the future. They know that it's here, right? Not the future, but it's here, yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:00:01.692)
Like I always tell everyone, the outcome will be on what you focus your energy on. And that's always what it's everything about what you put your energy and you focus your energy on. And if you're focusing on having your people to start learning AI, which is the technology of the future, right?

Tiffany Whitener (01:00:08.342)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (01:00:14.902)
Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (01:00:19.458)
Yeah. Yeah. It goes back to that choice. It's the choice. Like, we, you know, yeah, do we, do we wanna, we can't leave the AI if we don't learn the AI. That's something I've been saying for a while. Yeah. I just so, I so believe that. So I just hope that everyone kind of gets on board, but it's a choice, right? I know there's a choice, right? I try not to be on my soapbox too much, but I can't help it sometimes.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:00:25.669)
is the choice.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:00:31.028)
There you go. That's why I love this phrase, Tiffany, right?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:00:46.824)
No, it's a choice, but listen to Tiffany, okay guys? Please, it's important. We mean well.

Tiffany Whitener (01:00:50.165)
you

Right. We're only trying to help, you know.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:00:56.852)
Thanks. And last but not least, Tiffany, what would be your advice to your younger self if you look back in the mirror and you find your younger self today and your younger self is actually also the future generations? What would you tell that future generation like if you were telling your younger self?

Tiffany Whitener (01:01:08.194)
My name is.

Tiffany Whitener (01:01:21.004)
Yeah, you know, I think I would tell my younger self not to sweat the small stuff. You know, I think that, I think like I've been proud of, you know, the path my life and career has taken. So I wouldn't change a thing because I believe everything we do kind of leads to something else. No matter, even if it wasn't the right decision, I feel like everything leads to, you know, continues to help us. So, but I would.

Yeah, definitely for my younger self. I would have told my younger self to not worry about certain things like don't smell the small stuff like you know, it's all gonna work out, you know, so yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:02:01.096)
Yeah, I remain positive, right?

Tiffany Whitener (01:02:04.128)
Yes, remain positive. think that is, for me, I think that's the key is that your attitude about things and how you feel about the situation you're in, for me, that's always been a game changer. Like we can choose to be a victim in a situation or we can choose to, hey, this is it and I'm gonna make some changes and I'm gonna own my own destiny. For me, I think that's worth for me. Like I'm a person of faith and so that to me has been.

what has driven me all this time.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:02:34.376)
Beautiful. We are going to see problems or opportunities. And back to what we have been discussing today, it will continue to be our choice, always. But when you see opportunities, you start knocking on doors and doors start opening. When you only focus on problems, that's all your energy will be focused on, on problems and problems and not solutions. So I hope.

Tiffany Whitener (01:02:38.016)
Yes, absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Tiffany Whitener (01:02:59.842)
that.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:03:02.546)
You guys enjoyed today's episode and conversation with the amazing Tiffany. Tiffany, it has been my pleasure to have you on the show. I really appreciate your time, your insights and your humanity. Really, thank you. Thank you, okay?

Tiffany Whitener (01:03:19.438)
Thank you. Thank you. I enjoyed talking with you today. I appreciate you having me.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:03:25.23)
Awesome, awesome. Thank you very much. And for those watching, if this sparked something in you, share the episodes with your friends, with your family, with your loved ones. Subscribe wherever you listen, right? And follow us along as we keep human at the center of the technology conversation.

Remember that the code may change and the code will change and will continue to change but our humanity is the constant. Technology shapes tomorrow but our humanity defines it. So thank you all for watching. Until next time, this is The Human Protocol. Bye everyone.