Tag / ai

by Nathan Coumbe

Make Your Voice Heard in Congress (and Get AI to Help)

Most people care about issues that affect their lives, but too few actually take the next step—contacting their elected representatives. Why? The biggest hurdles tend to be:

  1. Not knowing how to reach them
  2. Not believing it makes a difference
  3. Not knowing what to say

The good news? These are all solvable problems, and AI can help with every single one.

1. Finding Your Representatives

Many people don’t even know where to start. Luckily, it’s easier than ever to look up your representatives:

2. Does It Actually Matter?

Yes. Congressional offices track calls, emails, and letters. When an issue gets a high volume of outreach, it gets attention. Many policies have been shaped—or stopped—because enough people spoke up.

But the real power comes from multiplying your impact. Getting your friends and family involved can turn one letter into dozens. A single person might not change the world, but a network of voices can.

3. Not Sure What to Say? AI Can Help

One of the biggest obstacles people face is writing the message itself. That’s where AI comes in. If you care about an issue but don’t know how to word it, try this:

👉 “Write a letter to my senator about [issue] and why it matters.”

AI can structure your thoughts, keep things professional, and help you make a strong case. A well-written letter increases the chances of being taken seriously.

Start a Letter-Writing Campaign

Want to take it further? Organize a small group—friends, family, coworkers—and encourage them to write letters together. Offer to help them draft messages using AI. Even if only a few people participate, it makes a difference.

Take Action Today

Pick an issue you care about. Find your representatives. Write a letter (or get AI to help you). Then, ask two or three people you know to do the same.

Small actions lead to big changes. The key is getting started.

Stay in the loop. Subscribe today!

by Nathan Coumbe

Bringing about our own extinction

David Meerman Scott published a fascinating article a few days ago. It compares modern AI companies to Enron and that company’s financial scandal that broke in 2001. 

But one paragraph in particular stood out to me that warrants quoting in full:

Altman says there’s a chance that so-called Artificial General Intelligence (which is still years or decades away) has the possibility of turning against humans. “I think that whether the chance of existential calamity is 0.5 percent or 50 percent, we should still take it seriously,” Altman says. “I don’t have an exact number, but I’m closer to the 0.5 than the 50.” (Source)

Terrifying, right?

I would argue that if you are creating something that has anything other than a 0% chance of wiping out humanity, you probably shouldn’t do it. 

For example: marketing Pepsi to be consumed in massive amounts, while definitely bad for humans, doesn’t run the risk of causing mass extinction.

On the other hand, bringing Tyrannosaurus rex back to life definitely has a greater than 0% chance of doing just that.

Now, I’m not a doomsday prepper by any stretch of the imagination… But when someone tells me there’s even a small chance that what they’re making could turn out like The Matrix, I start to worry. 

It’s as if they never watched I, Robot or read Jurassic Park (which is actually about runaway technology, not dinosaurs). 

These companies have a responsibility to guarantee that this doesn’t happen. We already made this mistake with nuclear weapons. And that threat still looms large over our heads, especially right now during the Russo-Ukraine War. 

We have enough threats to deal with. Let’s not create more of our own volition.

I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from Jurassic Park:

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

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