AI Pumpkin Bread

If you know me well, you know that I essentially hold an MFA (Masters in the Fine Art) of Takeout. In my home we have traditionally cooked for survival, not pleasure. But during the pandemic when I was at home for long stretches with an infant, I cracked open my Mark Bittman How To Cook Everything (a gag gift from my wedding shower ten years prior) and endeavored to bake bread.

In the postpandemic* age of AI , I have come to find great joy in cooking. Now whether or not my children or loved ones adore my meals is up for debate. I am, however, enjoying the ease that GPT affords me to experiment with recipes. As a curious novice, GPT gives me the confidence to attempt to bake because I can share precisely what's in my cabinet, the specific dimensions of my pans, and GPT will spit out an accessible recipe that IMHO is pretty good. I can also modify the recipe it produces based on the dietary restrictions of my family, revising back and forth, until it's tailored to our specific needs.

Now, am I ever going to be a Michelin starred chef? No. But that's not the point.

Seemingly no one hates the rise of AI more than English professors and teachers, so in the spirit of the holidays it seemed fitting to bake delicious Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread with the help of GPT as my contribution to the faculty holiday party. I am not an anti-AI purist, nor am I an AI enthusiast. My opinions on the matter are a bit more neutral see: https://refusinggenai.wordpress.com/ and https://style.mla.org/student-guide-to-ai-literacy/, I'm a synthesis of the two).

AI is an ambivalent tool that can be weaponized just like any other object. The thousands of people whose contributions to the internet have helped to build the LLMs (large language models) that provide the content for AI have not been compensated for their efforts that enrich the lives of billionaires. This is no small thing.

And yet, it has eased the day to day of my domestic life and brought me some joy in a space I never thought I could confidently enter. If it can do that for some of our students who struggle the most, isn't it worth it to explore the limits and possibilities?

Most of my colleagues enjoyed the bread. Although after complimenting me, a few had the reaction of Tamora in Titus Andronicus when they realized how it was baked, but ultimately, they forgave me.

Tis' the season for trying new things.

*I use this word facetiously as long COVID rages on for many of our loved ones and another pandemic is always around the corner.

From Fail to Sail

When I taught Middle School my colleagues on our Digital Humanities Team, would consistently invoke the acronym FAIL ( First Attempts in Learning) with our students. Over time, I moved toward FAIL to SAIL (Second Attempts in Leaning). As I work through the many first rounds of drafts for my next book proposal, I'm holding fast to the notion that failing fast and often is the only way to sail. Believe me, reader, when I tell you that my proposal is a hot mess. And yet, I keep coming back to the work. I hope whatever project you are working on this year, that you, too, fail fast and often.

Taylor Swift, Lurking & Poetry

Speaking of Taylor Swift, my colleague the poet Amy King, invited me (alongside our Creative Writing Faculty) to a global reading held over Zoom by the Hudson Valley Writers Center to celebrate the launch of Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift (Edited by Kristie Frederick Daugherty). Every great living poet is in this anthology (Diane Seuss, Cornelius Eady, Ilya Kaminisky, Maggie Smith, etc). In true Swiftie fashion, each poem contains Easter eggs to one of her songs and readers are tasked with determining which songs the poem is about.

Starred Review

Choice Magazine the Journal of the American Library Association reviewed Just Here For the Comments and gave it a Three Star -Highly Recommend - distinction. A nice way to end the year!

Wishing you peace on earth and sparks of joy, wherever you can find them, in the New Year!

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