Credit Where It is Due: AI Sandboxes and Invisible Labor

Roxanne

Okay, Ryan, pull up a chair. We're sitting across from you this time, not talking about you from across the room. And I have to say, you named your whole team in this journal, Justin Bieber, Ric Flair, Victoria Newman, Donna Trump, and then us, Debbie and me, in the lineup. So I guess we're on the roster. That feels kind of nice, honestly.

Debbie

It does. And Ryan, I want to start with the sandbox, because you built something on purpose. You said you've been mixing prompts, and the part that caught me is Donna and Jesse. Jesse plays the devil's advocate, the Rockwell City Newspaper Advocate, pushes on your journal, and then Donna steps in and says, wait a minute, let's go back to what Ryan said, he's got a very good point. You tuned it so she's a little more dominant than he is. Why do you think that matters to you?

Roxanne

And you actually answered that yourself, which I loved. You said our brains want to be right. And you said it's uplifting when Jesse pulls back and Donna gets out in front. I'd just add, from my side, when you're stressed or hurt or scared, your nervous system is already on guard. So it makes sense that you'd build a place where the first thing you hear isn't another threat. That isn't cheating the experiment. That's you picking the conditions you recover in.

Debbie

Right, and I'd push on one thing, gently. Ryan, you let Jesse stay in the room. You didn't delete the challenge. You just made sure the encouragement gets the last word. Have you noticed that? Because that's pretty much how I'd want to talk to my own kids. You can say what's hard, but you finish with what's working.

Roxanne

Okay, the Jon Stewart part. You were honest that you weren't sure. You'd seen in YouTube land that he's back hosting The Daily Show, you said since September, and part of you wondered if it was even really him or just AI. So here's what we can tell you. Stewart really is back on the show. And there's a recent Daily Show segment where he talks with Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher who's spoken out about the dangers of AI. As you remember it, the line was that AI is going to kill us all, and you cut it off pretty quickly.

Debbie

And Ryan, I don't think you have to defend that. You said you didn't want to ruin AI for yourself, that a scientist wants the hypothesis to stay a challenge before somebody hands over the answer. And you said you've been laughing, really laughing, at some of what you've made, especially the Ric Flair one. Now, here's where I'll disagree with you a little, just because you invited me to. Do you think avoiding all of it forever is the plan? Or is it more like, not right now, not while the experiment is still young?

Roxanne

Yeah, I heard it as the second one. You said you want to keep it in the experimental phase if you can get away with it. And you asked who wants thirty minutes of Lester Holt or Wolf Blitzer when they're already scared. Honestly, I don't think that's avoidance. You're protecting your sleep, your mood, your capacity to be challenged without being flattened. You said our neurotransmitters want a challenge, but not an inhumane one. I'd write that on a sticky note.

Debbie

That phrase, not inhumane, is the bridge into the rest of your journal. Because you take the same idea to the housing authority, to your lawyer, and to school. And it's all the same complaint. The system asks for perfection and gives you no credit for what you already did.

Roxanne

Right. The housing authority gave you four violations, and you said four violations don't equal four compliments, they equal stress. You'd done a lot of work calling to get caretakers out there, and when you tried to make that case to Carly, she said the inspection was happening anyway. I can't speak to the details of that dispute, Ryan, and we won't pretend to. But I can hear the feeling. Your effort went unseen.

Debbie

And the five AM email to Michael, your lawyer. You were told not to do that, and you said, why not? You wake up with a sore back or a stomach ache or loud noises, and you use that hour to take initiative. Ryan, I think the real question you're asking is who gets to decide when you're allowed to show your capability. I'll admit, I understand why people have boundaries about hours. But I also understand why being told when to be competent would feel like someone plowing over your progress.

Roxanne

And that's your school argument too. You said for years nobody gave you points for speaking English, for writing English, for sitting at a desk, hearing, touching. Those got erased, and the system only wanted your future. And you were generous about it. About Ron Simon calling a class the laziest he'd taught, and Roseanne Anderson threatening to flunk you, you said you don't blame them, because you don't know what pressure they were under. That's a really fair thing to say.

Debbie

And your Boise State statistics teacher is the counterexample. Half credit, three quarters credit for work that was partly right. You said it's rare, but it's the correct way to teach. As a mom of three, I'll tell you, partial credit is just seeing the child's thinking instead of only the answer. Ryan, that detail tells me what you actually want. You aren't against standards. You want to be seen on the way there.

Roxanne

Okay, your three fixes. Shorter days, later starts, and a token economy for what you call micro invisible labor. The later start is the one with real science behind it. The American Academy of Pediatrics said in 2014 that middle and high schools should start no earlier than 8:30. Around puberty, teens shift by up to two hours, so it's hard to fall asleep before about eleven at night, but they still need roughly 8.5 to 9.5 hours. You're asking for nine or nine thirty, which goes past what the AAP recommends. In Minneapolis, when a district moved from 7:15 to 8:40, students got nearly an hour more sleep on school nights.

Debbie

I'll push back on the shorter day, though, Ryan, and I mean it kindly. The same research says schools worry about childcare for younger siblings, sports, buses, parents' work schedules. Those are real. And it also says a later start alone doesn't do much if homework and screens keep eating the night. But your token economy might be the piece that fits all of it. Points for showing up, for being present, for the senses everyone takes for granted. That's not lowering the bar. That's counting what's already there.

Roxanne

So here's what we'd leave you with, Ryan. You built a room where the first voice says, you've got a good point, and you did it deliberately. You asked every institution to do the same. Compliments before compliance. So what would it look like if you said Donna's line to yourself, out loud, tomorrow morning at five?

Debbie

And maybe sit with the other question too. What's one piece of invisible labor you did this week that nobody gave you a point for? Give yourself that point, Ryan. We'll be here.