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One of the hottest topics discussed in the U.S. today is “artificial intelligence”. Our guest this time, Shayne Halls, has founded a company that helps corporations and companies learn to embrace AI. Shayne teaches his clients that they need not fear AI and rather he shows them how to use it to improve processes and procedures throughout their organizations.
After college Shayne ended up going into “talent acquisition” where he carved out a successful career. Being a black man fully supporting difference in all forms, he has helped companies find people not only of different races, sexual orientations, and genders but also he understands and helps companies find qualified persons with disabilities.
For the past four years he has explored incorporating AI into his work and, earlier this year, he formed his own company, Manifested Dreams. We spent quite a bit of time during our conversation discussing many aspects of AI and how this revolutionary technology can benefit people throughout the workforce. Shayne is by any definition a visionary and I hope you will find what he has to say to be relevant, timely, and pertinent to you.
About the Guest:
As the President & CEO of Manifested Dreams, I am deeply committed to empowering corporate professionals and organizations to unlock the full potential of AI technology in their careers and business operations. With over 15 years of experience as a Sr. DEI Specialist, I have honed my expertise in the intersection of diversity, equity, inclusion, and now artificial intelligence, creating a unique vision that drives innovation and fosters an inclusive environment.
Throughout my career, I have worked closely with professionals and organizations, providing personalized guidance and strategic insights that enable them to successfully integrate AI into their work processes. My passion for helping others navigate the complex world of AI has led to the founding of Manifested Dreams, where we offer exclusive one-on-one consultations and group sessions, ensuring our clients are equipped with the knowledge and tools to stay ahead of the curve.
By joining hands with Manifested Dreams, clients embark on a transformative journey towards growth and success. Our mission is to create a future where AI not only enhances the professional landscape but also contributes to a more equitable and inclusive society. Together, we can shape a brighter tomorrow by leveraging AI responsibly and driving positive change across industries.
Ways to connect with Kevin: Twitter - @MnifstdDreams Website - www.manifesteddreams.org
About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.
Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards.
https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/
accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/
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Transcription Notes
Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, welcome once again to unstoppable mindset. Here we are doing another episode. And that is always a lot of fun. You know, I've been doing this now since August of 2021. And I get to enjoy meeting a lot of people and talking about a lot of different subjects. And today our guests, Shayne Halls and I are going to talk about manifested dreams, which is a company that he started dealing with corporations helping organizations grow and using AI which is of course not only a hot topic today, but a very relevant topic to talk about. I've been using AI ever since I actually got my first job working with the National Federation of blind and Ray Kurzweil, Dr. Kurzweil, who developed Omni font optical character recognition software, which included the ability for the machine that he put that on, to learn as it read and grow in confidence. And so this is not a new subject to me, and certainly one I support a lot and looking forward to chatting about it. So Shayne, definitely welcome to unstoppable mindset and glad you're here. And when we really do have you and not just an AI construct, right? Shayne Halls ** 02:33 Well, you know, you wouldn't know if it was was because AI is that advanced now where you really don't know. No, it is me. For the most part, Michael Hingson ** 02:44 I remember back in I think it was the 80s Maybe it goes back to the 70s. Even with cassettes. There were commercials that said, Is it live? Or is it Memorex because the audio they said was so good. Shayne Halls ** 02:58 You listen back on here like yeah, I can hear the recording done. Yeah, that's funny. Michael Hingson ** 03:03 Yeah. So anyway, well, I'm really glad that you're here and we really appreciate your time. Tell us a little bit about the early Shane growing up in some of that stuff to start the process. Shayne Halls ** 03:15 Man early Shayne so early. Shayne grew up in the US Virgin Islands in St. Croix. My mother's crucian person born in St. Clair, my dad is Trini personally born in Trinidad. So I'm half crucian, half Trinidad in grew up, Sinclair moved to Charleston, South Carolina, when my mother remarried. And that was quite an experience coming in. So well, it was my first real experience with race in the sense of the constructs of what it is here in state. Because of course growing up in islands, the island is 80% 90% Black. And so everyone from your judges, politicians, police chiefs, store owners, homeless, homeless people, right? Like it doesn't matter, like everyone you see, looks like you and then being moved into Charleston. I was like, oh, it's not like this everywhere. Michael Hingson ** 04:10 Right. So how old were you when you moved? Shayne Halls ** 04:14 15 just, yeah, so entering high school or back into my sophomore year in high school. So it was, um, interesting, right, coming into my first bout with racism and, you know, being followed in stores being looked at, looked down upon being spoken to in a condescending manner, a manner in which you can feel what's being said without something being said, right. These are things I'd never experienced before. And I was just I was jarred, I think George's good word jarred by was just like, oh, okay, so this is life outside the island, whatnot. No. So that was that I I left Charleston when I went to college can with North Carolina go to college at St. Augustine University. It's an HBCU here in North Carolina wanted to first find the 1867 was once regarded as the Harvard of South is was a great four years. It's like just loved my experience, they're going to HBCU being able to partake in that life and that culture, you know, see, HBCU is a historically black college and university. Michael Hingson ** 05:31 Oh, okay. HBCU. Okay, great. Shayne Halls ** 05:33 And, you know, that was a good transition point for coming out to the real world, you got the chance to I got a chance to be surrounded by intellectuals and leaders of my same demographic background, and then have them prepare me to come into the world, the corporate world and be the best version of myself out here in the world. Michael Hingson ** 05:53 How did they help you prepare, given the fact that so you're in a historically black college, but at the same time, you needed to prepare to be in a world that wasn't necessarily totally historically black? By any standard? How did they help? Well, they do. Shayne Halls ** 06:11 The good and bad thing about HBCUs is that we don't get a lot of funding, because a lot of schools are private. But that means that everyone there, the professor's the leaders in school, are usually persons who are successful in their life, and have decided to come back and devote time to the next generation. So a lot of leaders and professionals on HBCU campuses are persons who've already had success in the corporate world had success in the career field, and they come back and they impute those lessons learned on to us. And they put us in situations to be, you know, to hone in on our leadership skills, I can't just count leadership camps I went to, I was a member of the Model UN. My modern school Model UN is a program that's designed for selective college students to participate in United Nations type delegations, and deliberations. And any sort of acts or constructs or contracts or anything that we actually proposed and passed and ratify in the Model UN actually get sent off to the real United Nations. And so participate in Monterey un, which is great, great experience, again, so many leadership, trainings and activities, you just, you get a chance to go out into different conferences across the world and learn and then come back home to your safe place and apply those lessons learned and hone in on what you should have learned, then you can come on to the corporate world and be successful, Michael Hingson ** 07:48 what kinds of things did you learn doing the Model UN program and so on? I mean, I appreciate what you're saying. And I absolutely believe it. I did not ever participate in that. And maybe it was too early. I don't know. But I appreciate what you're saying. But what what kind of lessons did you learn whether you recognize them right then or after you went back home? Right, Shayne Halls ** 08:09 exactly right, or when later on in the corporate world, right? When you get something adult, you look back, you're like, oh, okay, so that's what that taught me. I think you learn how to get your idea across without being forceful about it, right? Because in situations where you have to be able to, you got to believe in what you're saying, especially United Nation, right? So you represent a country, no matter you want to work where you are a country, no one knows you, no one knows your real name. No one knows what school you're from, we're soon as you enter the Model UN, you're given a country, that is country, you are for the entire week that you're there. So any thoughts, any ally ships, any sort of, you know, anything we bring to the table must be different perspective of what's best for that country. And so when doing that, you learn how to think about how your idea can benefit you, but then also can be beneficial to others, and then how to convey that to persons in a manner in which they feel like they're actually going to be the ones who are going to be benefiting most from the idea that you come up with, or whatnot. So it's really great in learning how to work in groups and group activities and learning what your strengths are. Because sometimes that people aren't who've that's not for them, like, you know, being group leaders or participating in group activities like that may not be something that is applicable to their future. And that's something they want to do that because it takes a lot of patience. It takes a lot of pacifying, anyone who's done any sort of project in any sort of aspect of corporate life, understands that there's going to be so many different attitudes and demeanors and agendas, that you really have to pacify some folks, you have to kind of pull some folks along. We have to, you know, hold some people's hand. It's just you learned a lot of lessons on just how to be a people person, how to enhance those interpersonal skills that people talk about so much. Michael Hingson ** 10:05 So is it one person per country? Shayne Halls ** 10:07 Yeah. Unless you are literally dependent on your delegates in the UN. So whatever your delegate number is that you haven't un, they'll get numbers that are available for that country in the Mario. Michael Hingson ** 10:19 So like the United States might have more than one delegate, or China or whatever. Exactly. So what year did this take place? Shayne Halls ** 10:27 Man when my model you when I was in school? So I think I didn't borrow you in? Oh, 203. Michael Hingson ** 10:38 Okay. So a lot of events had happened. And so on what country were you Shayne Halls ** 10:45 Venezuela, and one, one year number MacArthur Michael Hingson ** 10:52 strike any good oil deals. Shayne Halls ** 10:55 As actually came up with a great, this was one of the lessons I learned Matt came up with a great treaty. And I was working with the US, of course, as one of the allies, we work together came up with it, basically spearheaded by, you know, and kind of brought everybody along. And it was one of the best ones that that week. And as you're going through your delegations and your debates and such judges are moving about the room listening to conversations. And the judges were they're listening to us, and they can really like, Hey, was that you? Did you come up with that? And me stealing this? Like, you know, Dougie, man, I was like, No, it was a group effort between me and the United States or whatever. And then the United States got the award in the week more sustained audit. And that was one of the reasons why that bothered me to stay. Yeah, should have been my lessons learned. Michael Hingson ** 11:52 Well, so. Yeah, things things happen. What did you learn from that? When that occurred, Shayne Halls ** 11:58 it's okay to speak up for yourself, okay, it's okay to speak up for yourself. You know, you can't expect someone else to toot your horn, you can't expect someone else to praise you that you have to be comfortable with praising yourself and praising the work when you deserve it. When you do good work, when you have done something that's worthy of recognition and get an opportunity to talk about yourself, and not in a braggadocious manner, but in a matter of fact, man, this is what happens, whatever do so don't wait for somebody else to do. Michael Hingson ** 12:25 There is there's a lot to be said for teamwork and giving team credit and so on. But at the same time, you're right, it's important that what you do gets acknowledged to especially in the context of a team effort. Shayne Halls ** 12:41 Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's great, you know, when you can talk about the team and give all credit to the team. But if you're gonna be hit the game winning shot, you're not gonna be like, well, you know, I didn't think it was Wilson Wilson designed a great basketball and basketball had a great bounce to it, you know, just fit so well, in my hand, no, you shot the ball, you start winning. So take your credit when you've earned it. Michael Hingson ** 13:04 Right? Which makes perfect sense. So you graduated What was your degree in Shayne Halls ** 13:10 political science with a double minor in English and religion? Yes, and so I love to write and my mother was a pastor. And so church in religion was always a part of my life. And I wanted to kind of be more intellectual about religion. So my religion, English happened English, I tell people this, these are my double minors when English turned out to be an accidental minor, where I just took so many English courses and APA in like advanced English classes that by the time I graduated, I had acquired enough credits for it to be a minor, or whatnot. So it wasn't it wasn't an unintentional minor. Michael Hingson ** 13:52 Well, but it works. Yeah, it Shayne Halls ** 13:54 worked, right? I really enjoyed everything, writing in workplace, something that is very, you know, soothing to me, and so, never got my studies done everything that I was like working. It was always fun for him. So I did that with the full intention of becoming an attorney. And then my wife and I decided to get married my senior year of college and got married and about a year later, we had our first kid. And so then it was like, okay, at four years law school, but I need to take care of my family. So started working and got into talent acquisition, I was recruited into recruiting and had no idea what recruitment was, what recruiting is what time acquisition was, and jumped into it and it was a world women it was a whirlwind experience. And I started focusing in on di and wanting to be an advocate for persons who are looking to come into companies and persons looking to grow in companies in just made D Ei, the kind of the heartbeat of my town acquisition work, no matter what I was doing want to make sure that there was always equity. And there was equal representation for everyone across the board. And when we talk about diversity, not just talking about skin color, we're talking about cultural backgrounds, educational backgrounds, we're talking about persons with disabilities, non disabilities, talking about gender background, just about everything, and just diversity as a whole, the more diverse the organization is, the more successful successful they can be. So you know that that was an interesting journey, because you meet leaders who are like, Oh, well, everyone looked at my team, my team is so different, they have different races and women and men. I'm like, what you only recruit from the same college, like there's everyone on your team went to the same exact school has the same major, like, that's not diversity, need to have different people on it, right. And so even some of the most well intentioned persons accidentally show their bias, right. And so as my work grew in di, I started taking on more consultation work on helping organizations understand microaggressions biases, how to build cultural teams, how to find out what your your unintentional or your unconscious biases are. And so that's kind of all led me to opening up my own consultation firm manifested dreams in which we speak with organizations regarding their cultural issues and how to address them and how to have di trainings. And then we also do one on one consultation training for persons who are looking to grow their careers and need a little help in trying to integrate AI into it right. And I think that AI is such a part of our lives now that trying to ignore it is gonna turn you into the blockbuster in a world of Netflix, and you want to make sure that you are staying abreast as to how AI is impacting your particular field, your particular career, your particular journey, so that you don't get left behind, you're able to capitalize it and use it to be successful. Michael Hingson ** 17:10 Yeah. And there's a lot to be said for for those concepts. And it's interesting that you developed a deep interest in that, why do you think that you were so attracted to developing that kind of an interest in really wanting to focus on this whole concept around diversity. And even more important, I think inclusion because one of the things that I tell people all the time is the difficulty with diversity is that it is left disabilities behind when you ask people what this what diversity means. They'll talk about race, gender, and sexual orientation and so on, but they don't mention disabilities. And so that led us to inclusion. And that's why I'm this podcast, we talk about inclusion, diversity in the unexpected where it meets. And the idea is that inclusion can't leave out disabilities, either you are inclusive, or you're not. Shayne Halls ** 18:04 That's what got me here, I think just marry out events just being in ta having conversations, having leaders talk being in the room and understanding that people aren't aware, right, people in the rooms tend to look around to see themselves in the room, so they feel comfortable. And it's never an awareness, this, it's never something that they are aware of that there's not others in the room, right, because they just feel comfortable with everyone that's there. And to me always being one tunnel position is a field that is probably 7060 70% female one. And so being a male and then a male color. In this field, I am very rare. In this field, I think in my lifetime, my 14 year career, I've maybe come across 10 other black men who are in talent acquisition. And so being here, I'm always aware of the who's not in the room. And then I'm making my point as to not just talking about it, to always try to bounce it and fix it somehow. Try to be a voice for those who aren't represented and use my voice to try to help others get in the room as well. Michael Hingson ** 19:27 For me personally, it's it's a strange world because having never seen color. It it's always strange to me that people intellectually I understand this, but that people tend to be prejudice and bias based on the color of someone's skin. A lot of that skin feels the same no matter what color you are. So I don't quite see the problem, but I do understand it intellectually. But for me, having never experienced it. I think I've been very fortunate and in reality is I don't care. But unfortunately also too many people do. And that's something that we really need to figure out how we're going to address. And the problem is we've got too many people who refuse to some of whom are supposedly very high up and on, I use the term in quotes, leadership positions. Yeah, and they still continue to be very privatizing. Shayne Halls ** 20:28 That's one of the biggest things I tell people all the time is that when I'm starting a training, I was like, Look, if you look around the room, there's a couple people in here who don't want to be here, there's gonna be one who don't want change their idea that everyone wants everything to be happy go lucky. Google, it is a false theory that you need to do away with, you have to understand that in every organization, there are leaders who like it exactly the way it is, right? They don't want to have to make accommodations person with disabilities, they don't want to have to put Braille on the walls, they don't want to have to put ramps on and want to put ramps all over the build, they think it's it's not aesthetically pleasing to their eyes or whatever. They don't want wider doorways. They don't want other diverse persons around the leadership table like these people actually exist. And, you know, if you want to be an ally, for persons who aren't included, then you have to speak up when you have an opportunity for it. Michael Hingson ** 21:21 We visited in San Francisco, a building that Frank Lloyd Wright, designed and built, it was fascinating because a lot of the building was a spiral ramp that took you from the bottom to the to the top or up to some level. I've spent a long time since I've been there now but but the point is that, that he he deliberately made it a ramp as opposed to stairs. And it was a very steep ramp and would not be something that would be condoned by the Americans with Disabilities Act. But I was able to push my wife up the stairs up the ramp, and get her back down. She was in a chair her whole life. So it still was a building we were able to go into and actually be a part of, and that was really pretty cool. Yeah. And this idea of ramps not being pleasing to the eye. As I understand it again, I understand that people again, are locked into well, it's got to be stairs, well, no, it doesn't. Shayne Halls ** 22:26 It does not I don't know who came up with that answer, I would love for slides to be a thing go there has a slide somewhere, like I'd like to just be able to come down the slide. That'd be great. Michael Hingson ** 22:36 Yeah, works for me, you know, to keep in mind, though, you gotta get back up. So what you do is you tip the slide, and you go back the other way, that's all there is to it. But I mean, there have to be ways to do that. But it's just the whole concept that we don't like things different than what we want, we have learned not to go out of our comfort zone very well. And we really need to get over that. And that's what it really comes down to is getting out of our comfort zone. And it's something that that we really should do a whole lot more than than we do. Well, I'm curious, you've been in this business now 14 years talent acquisition, you've been dealing a lot with dei and such, what would you say to your younger self just starting out that maybe they didn't know or that you'd want them to know to maybe make their world and as a result the world of other people better? Shayne Halls ** 23:34 Um, I would think I would tell myself to stand stand be you know, just stand 10 toes down and who you are, right? I think that early in my career, I felt a need to quiet my voice in time who I should have spoken up. And it's living with nothing but regret later on in life like yeah, what if I spoken up on those situations during those opportunities and whatnot. And so my younger self, I would help him get to the idea sooner of just being unapologetically you and not quieting your voice to keep the status quo afloat. Michael Hingson ** 24:23 I think it's interesting being unapologetically you but not arrogantly unapologetically, you? Right, exactly. Which is really the issue. And there's a lot to be said for that. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Shayne Halls ** 24:34 No, you're totally right. Yeah, just be yourself. But don't be you know, arrogant. But I think arrogance stems from this belief of you being able to do things that you have not done or tempted to do confidence comes from the knowledge of having done things similar in the past in Concord those things right. And so it is a way to be confident without being arrogant and so you should always be on Patil. Unapologetically confident in who You are the person, but humble enough to know that there are things that you don't know. And your lessons you still got to learn in life. Michael Hingson ** 25:06 And there's nothing wrong with exploring and learning and growing because of that Shayne Halls ** 25:12 knowledge. I think that is one most great things that we have the ability doing, like especially now more than ever, we have these phones. And I think we take them for granted because they're just been a phone to us. But they're literally a gateway to the world. And that is not any sort of exaggeration of the truth. There is nothing you cannot learn that you don't have access to in your hand every day. And that language and the culture and background, you can learn anything you want. And the idea of being ignorant in today's society is a willful choice. If you don't know about a culture or background, you don't know how somebody's functioning with a disability. You don't know what type of activities to plan for your company to include the persons with disabilities. And you don't take a few minutes just to look it up on your phone. That's that's just willful ignorance at that point time. Michael Hingson ** 26:01 Yeah. And it is a choice. It's willful. It's a choice. And it is the kinds of things that lead to what we talked about before, which are the people who just decide that they don't want to have any change. They don't care about anyone else other than what is in their specific comfort zone rather than recognizing the world's a whole lot broader place than that. Shayne Halls ** 26:23 Exactly. Now, let me ask you a question. Do you feel that the school system teaching other languages as electives helps to contribute to that, because you've seen other countries where like learning another language like English or Spanish webinar is a requirement. Right. And so a lot of people in other countries graduate high school, already fluent in other languages. While here in America, Spanish is always just an elective or French is an elective. Once you get into high school, you're gonna take a couple of courses of it, whatnot. I think that if we taught our kids more about other cultures and demanded they learned other languages along the way, it would help people in general, understand that the world is bigger than your little part. I haven't studied Spanish for three years, four years now. And the more I learn, you can't learn a language without learning the culture of the country at which it's run. And the more you learn about that language, the more you learn about those cultures, it broadens your interest nationally broadens your horizon. Michael Hingson ** 27:33 But to answer your question, I absolutely believe that we could do more to give everyone in our society, more of a cultural understanding of other people. And we really should do that. When I was in high school, I studied German for three years. And one of the things that we learned along the way was that in Germany, students in high school did take English as a as a course. And it was a requirement and they had to study it and demonstrate their proficiency in it. I think that English was the choice, but there were other languages that they could take, but they absolutely had to learn a second language. And also, of course, there, they were encouraged to study more about the people than just the language, which a lot of people did, because they had to practice it. When I was in college, I took a Euro Japanese, which was a totally different concept. Yeah, I don't remember a lot of it. But if I hear somebody talking, I know they're speaking Japanese or not. And I've also been to Japan twice and had an opportunity, even before going to learn a lot about the culture. And then of course, learned a lot more about the culture being over there. And I think that we should do that. It gets back to the whole issue of banned books and everything else that we deal with today, people are so insistent on, we want to done just our way, and they don't even know what they're really asking for, which is so unfortunate. I continue to be amazed at some of the books that people want to ban in libraries. And then when you get to the point of saying, Have you read it? Well, no, but somebody said that we should do that because it's racist well, but you don't know do you? And I am a firm believer in knowing not just listening to somebody and taking their opinion and just locking yourself into something because of it. We have to be the the people who rule our own fate and we should understand not just listen to other people and then don't do anything about it other than what they said that should be banned. So that's what we should do. Shayne Halls ** 29:53 I think that you hit the nail on the head. I think one cool things about Japan that was love is that as they make their school kids clean up, at the end of the school days, like they spent, like the last 15 or 20 minutes in school day, cleaning school, that is such like that is like a lesson that just sits in your soul like you, no one's going to come clean up behind the message you make, like you got to clean up your own thing. You got to be responsible for yourself. I think that in itself, I love that about Japanese culture. And then when talking about person banning books, I've seen so many videos of people where they ask them, What is CRT? What does it stand for? Like, what is the lettering stand for? That you're so passionately against? And no one even though I think can even tell you? Like how are you so angry about something that you don't even know what the acronym stands for us. We Michael Hingson ** 30:39 all know the CRT stands for cathode ray tube. But that's another story. That's exactly what it is. But you know, the whole concept of of critical race and so on. I don't know that I totally understand the theory, although I believe I do. And certainly not opposed to it. But I'm amazed when I hear people talking about banning a book like To Kill a Mockingbird, which was recognized as such a powerful depiction of how black people were treated, even back in the in the 50s, and into the 60s and so on. And it wasn't racist at all, at all. But I've heard people talk about how that has to be taken on libraries because it's racist. And I actually heard a reporter ask someone who said that, have you ever read it? Well, no. Well, then how do you know, you know, Shayne Halls ** 31:32 I think that, you know, I know who I blame Michael, I blame the participation, trophy generation, right? Because there was a generation where we decided that everyone needed to feel good. Everyone needed to be like, Okay, so we gave everyone participation trophies. And I think that is, if you've ever listened to people talk about their opposing CRT, it is always well, I don't want my kids to feel bad about what happened in the past. Michael Hingson ** 31:59 And teach them what happened. Shayne Halls ** 32:02 Like what like, where you want to get rid of books, because you don't want your kid to know that persons with similar cultural backgrounds are themselves performing the most heinous acts ever in history. But what not, but what was interesting is that when it was just about teaching slavery, and having little persons little kids of color, learn that their history was stemmed in being enslaved, that was fine for everyone. But when the history books started to talk more about the person's doing, the enslaving, and the heinousness of those acts, then it was like, well, we can't talk about this part. This person I, like we talked about anymore, let's Michael Hingson ** 32:57 check the answer is Sure you can. You can teach kids what happened. And then you have the discussions about how do we make sure it never happens? Again, Shayne Halls ** 33:08 come on, it seems it seems simple. I think we just saw it. But therefore, there's PTA meetings all across this country that obviously show that they that we're not thinking the way they do because they are staunchly against banning it left and right. I mean, states governors, they're just on a rolling, banning this stuff. Michael Hingson ** 33:28 Yeah, that and all the other things that they're doing the the governors who decide to ship people who come in across the border, who legally are allowed in, and then they ship them somewhere. When is that going to stop? When are we going to recognize that intolerable treatment? And how can we ever elect someone who does that, and of course, there gonna be some people who will disagree with me. But the bottom line is, you don't treat human beings that way. Shayne Halls ** 33:57 My mind is blown at the idea that we have persons in power positions, who are so arrogant to feel like someone doesn't belong in this country, because they came across an imaginary line that doesn't exist anywhere, except on your piece of paper, and that they don't have the right beer. And then once they get here, we're going to treat them like pawns, and move them about the country. As if they're like games that you're playing on this big political chessboard, whatnot, it is the way we treat immigrants, as if this country was not founded on immigrants is the most hypocritical thing I've seen. In many years of my life. It is it is staunchly mind blowing, how we stand 1010 toes down on the fact that we can't have anyone tonight. Well, how do you think this country was founded? None of us were born here. Like people came here. Like you landed on Plymouth Rock I like that is the story we tell the children like. So immigration is how this country started, let's not do let's not take away the opportunities that were given to our ancestors to somebody else's ancestors. Right. Right. Michael Hingson ** 35:13 One of the things I think that you are doing in terms of now having found when did you found manifested dream, by the way, Shayne Halls ** 35:22 this year, January of this year is when I made it special. I've been doing my own thing. I've been doing it doing the work for probably four years now. But I made it official. And we're kind of just operating under a 1099 guideline for last few years. And I was like, model incorporate? Actually, no, do it in to make it real. Yeah. Michael Hingson ** 35:43 Make it real. Yeah. Well, and I know that you when we talked about it earlier deal with using artificial intelligence is as a significant part of that. So tell me a little bit about what is AI in terms of what you do? Shayne Halls ** 35:57 And so AI in terms of just what AI is, in general, is a great question. Because a lot of people don't even understand the idea of, I guess what artificial intelligence really is, you know. So artificial intelligence is basically the idea that it was a field of computer science that kind of focused on just creating systems that are capable of performing repetitive task, right? systems or tasks that don't require extreme amounts of human intelligence. And so we're talking about things from know But same thing on the administrative umbrella. But anyway, so AI has now been able, using machine learning in which these systems recognize speech patterns, they recognize, you know, patterns in the data that has been inputted into the systems, and they were able to perform, you know, human like tasks, these human like, repetitive tasks with large bit of autonomy, right can kind of like, let it go, and let it do its thing. And it's basically the driving force behind many of the digital tools and services that we use today, and we don't even know like, Siri, is a very basic AI, you know, you ask it to do something, and it does like it, that he asked me to make a notation yes can send to me like that AI. That is what artificial intelligence is on its most basic sense. Google itself is AI, right, being able to go into Google asked a question, and spits back a measure. That is a we've all been using a version of machine learning or version of artificial intelligence. But now it's basically like going through puberty, right. And it's become a lot more conscious and a lot more interactive. And it has a deeper understanding of sentiment and emotions and feelings and sarcasm. And so now machine learning and AI has led to another level. And with the growth of AI, it's now become so effective that you can have one person who is proficient within AI, that can do the job of three or four people, right, because if you know the right prompts, or questions or direction to give AI, you can have aI generate code for you. You can have AI, you know, generate reports, you can have aI put to PowerPoint, and AI can do so much if you know what you're doing. So companies are at this point where they are hiring what's called prompt engineers. And these prompt engineers, one company needs replacing three or four people. And so what's happening with that is that diversity numbers are going to be impacted in every aspect, because many administrative jobs are held by women. And so now we're gonna eliminate many admin jobs. We're talking about your most basic entry level jobs on line two manufacturing lines are going to be completely automated at some point in time, so companies are going to be less diverse. And so I want to make sure that as companies start to integrate AI, they do so in a very meaningful manner, that they understand that they still need to care about what diversity looks like in their organizations, even though they may be now upgrading or changing what that organization looks like. Michael Hingson ** 39:40 Given what you just described, how do you deal with the people who say well AI is going to take away all of our jobs? Shayne Halls ** 39:47 Well, I mean, is gonna take away a lot of jobs seeing this not would be crazy. I mean, that that I tell everyone, that's like when blockbuster said no Netflix is gonna go But it's just a personal thing. It's not, it's here. Now what you can do is learn AI and how to use AI in your job that you're doing. Right, you don't want to be the person who put your head in the sand, and you never took the time to understand what AI is, and how you can use AI to make your job more proficient, you have access to a system that you can use, that can basically eliminate any sort of repetitive tasks that you do in your day to day. And then you can spend the rest of your time doing and work on the more intellectual side of your job, the more creative side of your job, you can connect, you can use your, you can use your free time, quote, unquote, to better yourself in the company to grow in the company to be more impactful in your company, right. So yes, AI may replace jobs as we see it today. But that does not mean that you cannot use AI, to elevate yourself to another job or to another place within an organization. Michael Hingson ** 40:56 And the more AI and all of that entails comes into our lives. While it may replace or take away jobs in some senses, the other aspect of it is that there will always be more jobs that are being created. So isn't like jobs are going to go away, it's gonna be different, they will be different. And that gets back to what we talked about before, which is there are a lot of people who don't like difference. But the reality is, that's what it is. And so there will be differences. And we're going to have to recognize that and ought to recognize that and then use that to grow in everything that we do, which makes perfect sense to do. Shayne Halls ** 41:42 Most definitely, like 30 years ago, there was no IoT jobs, right. So Internet of Things is a job title in corporate America, that Job didn't exist, because the profession as it is now. But that is a very high paying job to just like it is very high thing. And so you just have to understand what's going on, you had a great place in this wave of AI, there was no college degree of AI, prompt engineering right now. Right, this is just like the beginning of the internet, like everything is just the wide open. So you can literally get a system and learn it. And perfect those skills and hone those skills. And yes, no one's going to be able to, you don't have to pay to learn right now it is free, get it use it in master, right? Eventually, schools are gonna start to regulate how you learn these things, and how you master AI. And corporate America is gonna get their hands on AI. And we're not going to have as easy access to it as we do. Now, in some fashion, it's going to be limited, how things tend to go into in, you know, capitalistic societies. So while it's wide open, while anyone has access to while everyone has access to it, embrace it, learn it, learn how to integrate it into your daily life, so you don't get passed over. So you don't, you know, lose your job. But you can transition to a different job with AI. Michael Hingson ** 43:05 Well, and as AI exists today, it's not yet grossly intelligent at truly being able to learn on its own. And that's one of the things that people have to be able to do is to take the role of teaching. And that's why things improve as well as people enhance AI and so on. And the time will come when even learning oops, be somewhat simulated or stimulated by the actual software. But even so, it still doesn't mean that that's the end of the road in terms of us. What it means is that we need to recognize that there are different things in different applications that that we need to do. I think it's going to be a long time before the intelligence and the ability to have an intellect through a machine is going to grow to the point where it can do what the human brain does. Shayne Halls ** 44:00 Right? Yeah. Ai learned from us, our input into systems. And it learns very quickly from what we put, it doesn't learn by itself, but it doesn't take long to learn. And once you start typing into your system and asking questions, talking to it, it's learning every second every input you put into it, it's learning. But again, it's only learning because you're putting information into it. And I think that's one of the things that as corporations are instituting AI into their workforces in their environments that they have to make sure they have a set team there whose job is to monitor the inputs going into their AI systems, right the algorithms that are being used, the searches that are being done, because the AI while can be a great unbiased tool to use and performance evaluations, promotions, hiring, recruiting, it can also be taught by it can be taught to, to exclude person because of someone else's Have no preconceived notions or whatnot. So you got to have teams monitoring the AI between you so that it's not being used for nefarious activities. Michael Hingson ** 45:09 Right, then the other side of it is, is that because it has such rapid and full access to a lot of information, it by definition is going to teach us things as well. And, and that's as it should be. As you know, and as people here know, I work for excessive B, which is a company that makes products to help make the internet more inclusive for persons with disabilities and a accessories. main product that most people know about is an AI widget that sits up in the cloud, and it can look at anyone's website, and it can do a lot to remediate those websites. And people can learn about it by going to access a B ACCE ssip.com. But as enhancements are made to the widget, because somebody says, you know, I tried to use it on this website, but this didn't happen. And what's the problem? If the people had access to be discovered that you right, it's, it's an issue, it should work, they fix it. And then it rolls out to anyone who is using excessive be so that the new thing that the AI, which it has been taught, goes to everyone, and it will continue to grow. And it learns based on looking at all the websites that it deals with. And now they're well over 190,000 websites that use excessively, which is cool, but AI is going to continue to grow. And it will get better. There are things that on my website, excessive B still can't totally do by itself. And there are reasons why like it doesn't necessarily interpret pictures and describe them the way I want them describe. But But I am amazed at how well they can look at a picture like there's a picture of me holding or hugging a yellow Labrador Retriever on my website. And the way I want that branded is it's my kingsun hugging, Roselle excessively doesn't know my Kingston excessively doesn't know Roselle because they're the the restrictions under which you could go off and identify a picture are still in existence. So it can't, for example, just go to Facebook and realize that's my Kingston and then that's Roselle. So it can't do that. But what excessive B does do when it sees that picture is it says man and white dress shirt hugging yellow Labrador Retriever. I'm amazed that it can do that. But it can and and then I can deal with that and and put an alt tag or my web guy can put an alt tag in. And so that's fine. But by the same token, it's amazing how far it has already come and how far it will continue to go. And that's the way it ought to be if it makes our lives more efficient. And we take advantage of it. Why shouldn't we? Shayne Halls ** 48:03 Why shouldn't die? I think it's fair that people don't like this. We fear what we don't know. You know, and I think a lot of people hear stories of AI. They see movies, you know, they see Terminator they see iRobot you know, they see all these movies and oh my gosh, AI this evil thing. Yeah, it's not. It's not it's here. We're in such infancy stages of AI, that, well, I'm not taking granted this doing yourself a disservice in some capacity. And yeah, Michael Hingson ** 48:37 exactly right. Of course, you mentioned iRobot and being a little bit prejudiced. I don't think the movie does the original book and stories by Isaac Asimov justice talking about AI. But there, there's a lot that we can learn. And we really need to broaden our horizons and recognize that this is a world where there are so many adventures and you talked about the Internet of Things. You talked about the internet and so on. What a treasure trove. And you talked about the iPhone being a way that we can get to so many things. The internet in general is such a treasure trove of information. And yes, there's a dark side to it, which we don't need to deal with. And we ought to help not happen. But by the same token, there is so much more that the internet has available to us it is just fascinating to go look at sites on the Internet and learn things which I get to do every day and aim a lot of fun doing it. Shayne Halls ** 49:36 What's crazy is that I remember being a kid and having the Encyclopedia Britannica and just having all these encyclopedias there to use my mom thought I was gonna go look it up. I was gonna go look at it. Got a second please go look it up. My children have encyclopedias in their phones on their tablets. Like there was no more Encyclopedia Britannica like it doesn't They will have like, I don't know, anyone who still has, like those kits that they used to sell on TV on the infomercials or whatnot, right? Yeah, it changes, it changes things, you have all this information that went to a stockpile. And so hundreds of books, it is at the tip of your fingers to find out anything you want to know, you literally can pop up any question in your mind? And you can find the answer for there and on some page somewhere. Michael Hingson ** 50:27 And the the comment, go look it up, however, is still valid, very valid. And it absolutely makes sense to go look it up. Shayne Halls ** 50:37 So which is submit really quickly, what used to take me, you know, 20 minutes to look up the answer, like it's fine to me. So I got that don't worry, I know. Michael Hingson ** 50:46 I, when I'm visiting relatives and all that, and we're talking about anything from sports to whatever. And there's a question, within just seconds people have the answer. They haven't a lot faster than I do, because they're able to manipulate the phone a lot faster than than I can. And so they get the information. But the fact is, it's there, which is so cool. Shayne Halls ** 51:09 Yeah, there's no more telling those stories off. There was that game two years ago, where NC State scored 90 points against like, no, let's look it up. And states never scored nine points in any game anytime. You can't find stories in what you can't you can't exaggerate things. Yeah, it's there to fact check everyone. Michael Hingson ** 51:29 Yeah, which is, which is okay. Again, that's dealing with arrogance. And not you don't want to beat people over the head with it when they're wrong. By the same token, you can still say now, let's really go back and look at that. And you know, what really happened, which is so fun. Shayne Halls ** 51:47 So finally, just sit back and let people tell their stories, you know, you know what, go ahead, but you're not hurt nobody tell your story. Tell your story. Michael Hingson ** 51:55 Tell your story, your story. So I know that for me, using iPhones, and so on and doing so much. It's still slower than other people. But I believe the AI is going to enhance my experience at doing a lot of the things that I want to do on an iPhone or whatever. Well, what do you what do you see as ways that AI is going to help persons with disabilities Shayne Halls ** 52:21 think that the AI levels the playing field, right AI, is now able to take away many of the advantages that persons may have had in the past and much easier now. AIS can be your ears, if you are deaf, they ask can be your eyes, if you are blind eye takes away the need to be in the office for those who may be you know, movement disabled, where they can't get to a location every day, you know, you now have remote jobs where you can log in remotely. So using AI in various aspects is allowing more inclusion into the workforce, right. So even when a person may not be able to go to an outing, because of a disability, movement disability, they can use AI, they can use, you know software like zoom or software in which they can log in and interact and still be a part of the team still can feel that level of belonging as if they're there. With AI, being as accessible as it is, it is now in a place to where no one has to feel like they are at a severe disadvantage in trying to participate or be a part of everyone else because of their disability. Michael Hingson ** 54:00 I would like to see AI and technology in general progress, to allow me to be able to interact and look up information as fast as you can on your iPhone. And that doesn't exist yet. And that's a whole interface issue. The the ideal way to do it is if my brain could talk directly to the phone. Because you can type a whole lot faster by virtue of the fact that even with the gestures that Apple and the Android folks have put into the phone to allow me to interact with it, it's still going to be slower. And it's a little bit more. I don't want to say obtrusive, but it is a little bit more visible to the world. Because when I'm talking with people, they're looking stuff up on their phone while we're talking and that's a little bit harder for me to do it would be fun to be able to have that level of interface access. And I am sure it's coming. Shayne Halls ** 54:57 I think that that level of interface that Since is not as big and as far as way as we think it, I think we're just like right around the corner. It's weird when you hear stories about people testing our brain implants. Yeah. And so while that sounds scary, until you know that in the past people had brain implants that helped them here now, right like, like, you know, these things are vastly open and very close, we're on the precipice of really having full AI interactions to where even when you've seen stuff, you've seen companies advertise or preview, persons with movement disabilities, getting AI limbs, and the limbs are reading the nerves from the brain and are able to reflect the movement that the brain is triggering, right? Like these things are happening like these, like this. We're like, we're like right there. And it's very cool. And so I think that it's not going to be very much longer, weird disabilities are more of a momentary discomfort rather than a lifetime. sentence, right? Because we've seen so many ocular transplants are happening now, where people who are blind into our lives are being given the ability to see, again, question somebody offered that to you, Mike, would you take it? Michael Hingson ** 56:46 To actually gain eyesight? It'd be an adventure, I have to think about it, it isn't. It isn't the most crucial thing in my world. And people who can see, well, how could you not? Well, you know, how, and why should I? That's not the issue. The issue is, will it really enhance my life, if I could truly get that back? It's an adventure. And I would probably do it as an adventure, but not as a desperate need, that overwhelms everything. And I think that's the real issue. You know, with with the whole issue of AI, we will continue to see growth. Ray Kurzweil says it's going to be what 920 45, when computers and brains, basically are connected. And so we'll have direct access to all this computer stuff. And we'll see whether that happens in 22 years or not. He believes it will. That's the singularity, and I think time will tell. But we still have a ways to go to get to the point where we've developed that interface. One of the things about sighted people is, you all have spent a lot of time developing technology to help you. Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb, which really covers up your disability if not being able to see in the dark. And since 1879, people have spent a lot of time developing lighting technologies, and stable lighting technologies that make it possible for you to pretty much cover up the disability, of not being able to see in the dark until there's some major power failure, and then you nowadays can run off and try to find your phone and activate a flashlight or whatever. But it still doesn't mean that the disability isn't there. And we haven't progressed to the point of making that level of technological enhancement and advancement available to persons with disabilities, the priority is going to have to be to change that to truly create inclusion. And I think it will at some point, but it's it's still a ways off because it's still not really the priority. But the other side of it is a lot of the technology that would help us and enhance our lives, could also be something that would help other people as well. You know, I'm still amazed that while Apple built voice over the screen reader into the iPhone, that Apple isn't doing more to promote it in things like driving cars. If you get a Tesla, you still have to look at the screen to do so much stuff. Now. Of course, Elon Musk would say yeah, but with the with the ability of the Tesla to cruise down the road and yes, you have to be behind the wheel and so on but you can afford that time to look away. Why should you have to? Why not be able to just consistently stay off of her stay on looking at the road and looking what's going on around you and let a voice and vocal technologies help you more enhance your world. We haven't gotten to the point where we totally deal with that yet. Shayne Halls ** 59:57 Yeah, I think that is a With a non disabled problem of being able to understand how to use technology, we have to enhance the lives of those who are disabled. Think Like, people tend to pay attention to words relevant to their life, and it takes special people to think about how other people's lives are being impacted. That has nothing to do with them at all. That's the more special people there are in the world, the better we all will be. I think that's definitely a thing where persons with disabilities are going to have to be the ones to make sure that they are not overlooked. And those of persons without disabilities have to be allies to go through our and use our voices to make sure that everyone's getting the equal amount of attention for the things that they need to enhance their lives. Michael Hingson ** 1:01:07 Yeah. So what exactly does manifested dreams do? Shayne Halls ** 1:01:13 What I was necessary to help you manifest your dreams, right. So if a company wants to be more inclusive, we can come in there and we perform cultural evaluations, we can help you put together various sort of cultural groups, employee resource groups, we can also sit down with persons who are on a on a one on one basis and help them understand their career and what they're doing and how to use AI to help their career growth. Michael Hingson ** 1:01:41 How does AI factor into that? Shayne Halls ** 1:01:45 AI can be used to make an admin assistant be super proficient her job. And then she can also then use the other time to volunteer for other program projects is going on at work, and be proficient at that too, by using integrating AI into the tasks that she's given. So he or she can grow and excel, and be better the organization, I can help a leader understand where the gaps are within the company who's not really promoting people properly, who has bias in their hiring. AI can be used for someone who is looking to grow as a writer, you can use AI to, to literally, you know, proofread your stuff. If you're a writing user, certainly I program live and proofread. Let it give you suggestions on how to change the tone. AIS AI can be used in many different capacities for whatever your aspect of work life is. Michael Hingson ** 1:02:38 And so what I am assuming manifests and dreams does is it comes in and you teach people how to use these tools, and you get them hopefully comfortable using the tools but you teach them how to use the tools and incorporate them into their processes to make the whole company much more effective and efficient. I'm presuming that that's essentially what you do. Right? Shayne Halls ** 1:03:02 On. Yeah, but that's exactly what I did. Well, Michael Hingson ** 1:03:05 I'm with you. And I think it's it's cool that that you're doing that it's a great service. If people want to reach out to you and learn more about it and learn more about you and so on. How do they do that? Shayne Halls ** 1:03:16 You can reach me on med so email address would be my name Shayne. So Shayne D H S H A Y N E D H. At manifesting dreams that org. I'm on Twitter at MNIFSTD dream to manifest your dreams on Twitter. I G manifested dream manifested underscore dreams and see we're everywhere. So please reach out. Let us come in let us help you unless you know show you how to really take things to the next level. Michael Hingson ** 1:03:52 Well, that is cool. And I think you can help a lot of people realize that this whole concept of artificial intelligence and all the things that we're seeing being developed today can really be an enhancement if we allow that to happen, which is what it's really should be about. Right? Shayne Halls ** 1:04:13 Exactly. Don't be scared of it. Embrace it. Michael Hingson ** 1:04:16 Yeah. Well, thanks again for being here. And I want to thank you for listening to us today. This has been a fun discussion. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please give us a five star rating wherever you're listening to our podcast, unstoppable mindset. Love it if you would do that. If you'd like to reach out and comment, I would appreciate that you can reach me at Michaelhi m i c h a e l h i at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. And as I said, go off to www.accessibe.com and learn about the products and learn how to maybe make your internet website more usable and inclusive. If you want to We'll explore more podcast episodes. Do that wherever you're listening to us or go to www dot Michaelhingson m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com/podcast. And check out all the podcasts. Of course, again, as you're listening, we certainly would appreciate a five star rating wherever you're listening to us. And Shane, both for you and for all of you listening out there if you have any thoughts of anyone else who ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset. Love to hear that. Please reach out to me, please make introductions. We're always looking for more people to come on and have some more stimulating conversations. So again, Shayne, for you. Thanks very much. We really appreciate you being here. This has been great, hasn't it? Shayne Halls ** 1:05:44 It has. It's been wonderful. I appreciate the experience and I look forward to talking to you again my friend. Michael Hingson ** 1:05:53 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.
