Paul Hopkins with Ethical AI by AppSite · Reflections · Part 2 of 3 · 3 min read
Series: Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3 · The series
Noticing the stain is one thing. Deciding what to do about it is another. Part two: locus of control, and keeping control of your work where it belongs.
In Part 1, I wrote about the reticular activating system, and the grape juice stain we stopped seeing. But noticing is only half of it. Lou Tice taught us something else at Trailer Town that I have carried ever since: locus of control.
Locus of control is whether we believe what happens to us is driven from the outside, or from within. With an outside locus, we wait for circumstances to change. With an inside locus, we ask what we can do about it. Forgetting the stain wasn't my fault. Cleaning it up was up to me.
That idea sits at the heart of how I build AppSite: keeping control where it belongs, with you.
A smart machine, not a brain
When I look back, I see a line running through experiences like those. AppSite has become the place where I bring those lessons together: what I learned in the past, and how it can help businesses build a better future.
One of the core beliefs built into the Ethical AI architecture, and into the AppSite ecosystem, is how information is shared with the user. Now I am able to focus on the front end: the way we see and view information.
So what will you actually find when you walk into AppSite? An intuitive, smart machine. Notice I didn't call it a brain. I'm skeptical of that part. If you're in the business of brains, that's fine. But when you're in the business of service, you need to offer what you say you're going to offer.
AppSite is built for entrepreneurs and small teams, sometimes a team of one, trying to get everything done. There simply isn't enough time in the day to manage every connection. I want to trust AI to do the lifting, like making posts, but only if it's in alignment with my beliefs. You can tell when a post is AI-generated. It isn't authentic. I'm not here to review and reshare what AI is thinking. If everybody does the same thing, the machines take over.
We need to bring our own thoughts and memories forward, and understand how important they are, because AI is already exploiting them. What you'll find in AppSite is a grounded, centred system that helps you focus on your dream. If it isn't that, then I haven't built what I set out to build.
The back end is what you would find in any business. On top of it sits the Ethical AI layer, which is just a set of functions and agents that work together inside a constrained box. It has no direction to do anything on its own, and without your direction, it has no purpose. It has no mind of its own. Its only focus is to carry out the tasks you ask of it, exactly as you intended. Period.
Everyone sees what they need to
When Trailer Town opened its books to its managers, I learned the value of seeing the right information. AppSite's architecture is built on the same idea. Everyone sees what they need to, and not what they don't. Their focus stays on their own targets and their own visions.
That is the helpful side of a scotoma. We don't need a pile of information crowding the foreground. But we should be careful about what we leave in the background, too. We think it's easy to forget things, but we don't really forget them. They sit back there and shape us without our noticing.
Not married to any one AI
At AppSite, I didn't want to be tied to any one AI. Today one model is the favourite. Not long ago it was another. Moving between them means exporting your history from one, importing it into the next, and hoping nothing gets lost along the way. Before long, your data is scattered everywhere.
AppSite is the collector: one place that holds it all, whichever AI you work with. For me, that's AppSite. For you, it will be your own dream. AppSite is where it can take shape, the way AppSite took shape for me.
That is locus of control, applied to AI. Your work, your history and your direction stay with you, not with whichever company is in fashion this year.
Take control
The stain doesn't clean itself, and neither does a scattered history. Decide where your work lives, who it serves, and who holds the keys. Keep control on the inside.
← Part 1: The Reticular Activating System · Next: Part 3: Pick Carefully →
A note on where we are: AppSite is currently in beta. We have active users, and we are inviting more people onto the platform as we develop. You can view the status of any of our modules, and our compliance work is in progress.
