From AI to Physics

 Today I volunteered to give a talk on AI for a conference on the ASU campus in two weeks. It will be in front of people who know more about AI than I do, and probably more than I ever care to. 

My boss, the project lead of the AI Acceleration team, was in the lab as he is on Tuesdays. I had gotten the email about reserving all day on Thursday the 22nd for the aforementioned conference.  I had no idea what it was about and asked my boss. He asked everyone in the lab if anyone wanted to give a talk for it. "It doesn't have to be about our projects," he said. "It can be anything about AI." 

There were no takers. 

He looked at me. "Matt, you want to give a talk about AI."

It was one of those moments where my impulse to say "yes" to a random idea kicked in. "Sure," I told him. "I love public speaking." 

So just like that I was now giving a talk about AI in two weeks. What on earth can I talk about?

On the drive home, I mulled it over. I barely know many details of the project we are working on at the lab. Anything about AI in general seemed ridiculous, given the background of the audience.

Finally when I got home, I realized that, well heck, I am a physicist, after all. I bet no one else there can say that. A moment's reflection made me remember my ongoing project to use ChatGPT to help write my talk and paper for next year's IARD conference.  I have barely begun that, but who cares. In the meantime I designed my own self-study course to relearn quantum field theory from scratch and finally master it after thirty years of frustration. I hadn't begun it in earnest yet, as I waiting for the textbooks to arrive, that ChatGPT suggested for me. The last one arrived today from Thriftbooks. This is perfect, I thought. It's exactly what the entire project at the lab is about---using AI for traditional classroom learning. 

Of course, now it means I actually need to initiate that program of study I mentioned. This means in a weird way that I will now be doing physics as part of my day job at a university. Somehow I managed to make that happen. Well, maybe. Let's not get ahead ourselves, Matt. 

I am excited about the idea, even though it would mean a lot of work. My switch from dread to excitement brings up the pessimistic suspicion that maybe my boss wasn't serious or that he'll forget he asked me. I am always on the lookout for that kind of thing, as if my very excitement over something will generate a cosmic force against it. That's a core part of mentality---never get too excited about anything happening. Be detached. Things seem to work out better when I suppress my excitement and remain indifferent, as if I need to fool even myself that I don't care. I was just explaining this to a friend of mine recently, in regard to some past behavior of mine.

But I am excited about it, dadgummit. I can't help myself.  I want to give an AI conference talk about using AI to write a physics conference talk. Tomorrow I will send a message to my boss confirming it. For tonight at least, I'm going to be excited over it.