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December 21, 2025 43 mins
Jamecca Marshall is the Executive Director of the LA Stem Collective a collaboration of over 140 organizations offering science and technology resources for children and educators. On this podcast we delve into what AI is and what it is not, we take a look at their tech toy recommendations, how to navigate the net with our kids and stuff you need to know.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you in the mood yet? Haha? I am. I
love me some Christmas alrighty. Look, I'm excited to talk
a little bit about Christmas and a little bit about
some other things, some tech things we need to be
up on, and I'm happy to have joining me in
the studio a woman who has spent her career working

(00:21):
to uplift and support communities, education and policy collaborations and
the like. She is the executive director of the LA
STEM Collective. You're going to find out what that is
and why you care. She is amplifying STEM education for
young people across Greater Los Angeles partnerships and collaborations, and

(00:46):
we're happy to welcome in Jimmika Marshall.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Good morning, Good morning, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, thanks for coming. You know, first off, well I've
got kind of the Christmas spirit going is that you
guys actually do. One of the things that the LA
STEM Collective does is you have a gift guide and
when you talk about tech stuff that that it's a

(01:11):
STEM gift guide. So it gives us an idea from
a science perspective, which all of this computer tech is science.
We don't think of it as such, but it is
of what's a good idea and what's not right?

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, absolutely so. La STEM Collective is a membership organization
of about one hundred and forty three members of you know,
all kind of walks of life, all folks who are
really concerned about bringing science, technology, engineering, and mathematical education
to youth, adults, really making sure that students are prepared

(01:50):
for college and careers, but also adults and community members
all across Los Angeles have access to innovative learning, science,
and just things that meet their interests and like spark
their curiosity. So we have members who are you know,
the museums, libraries, your favorite aquariums all are a part

(02:13):
of our network. But we also have you know, really
small nonprofit groups who work with your students in class
and at school and at LAUSD and other districts you know,
every day and we may not know their name, but
they are working to educate our students and really give
them access to high quality science, tech, engineering and mathematical education.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
And one of the things.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
That we do as a collective we started this last year,
so this is a second annual is we release a
gift guide. And I love the idea because I have
a child And one of the things that you know
always comes up around Christmas is you know they have
their list of a bunch of stuff that they want, right,
things that are going to play with for twelve minutes
and then be done with it. Are like really really

(03:01):
expensive technology that cause more than your phone iPhone, right,
and trying to make sense out of all of that.
You also want to give them educational toys.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, I mean, and that's good, I mean kind of
because some of those educational toys are terrible.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
They're boring, boring, right, So you.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Guys try to find the sweet spot. Like a canister
rocket kit sounds pretty fun, yes, where you can create
a chemical reaction in your backyard. But what about the stuff,
the no stuff, Like there was a big article by
the way, you can get that at lastemcollective dot org.
We'll talk more about it. But what about this article
the other day front page of the La Times talking

(03:43):
about the dangers of roadblocks, which a lot of kids like.
The roadblocks games. It's part of a I don't know,
a site and app whatever you'd call it where you
can access all different kinds of games and where there
are interactive games. And they were talking about the dangers,
of course, of connecting with people you don't know and
being exposed to stuff that's not age appropriate for you.

(04:05):
As a mom. Myself, I did experience that with my
own child, and I think most of us have no clue.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, absolutely, So a part of what I wanted to
do with the Gift God this year is to look
for gift ideas that yet because you're right, they are boring,
and then my kind of pet peeve with them is
that they are like really complicated, and so you have
to do them with your kid. And so you get that,
I don't know, volcano kid or something, and it's like

(04:34):
twelve thirteen steps and all of this stuff and you
have to help.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, so it has.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Like instructions, no one can do it.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
No one can do it, and it doesn't turn out right,
and so you end up turning your kid off of science.
And I've actually had that mistake happen to me at
some point and I have to like roll back and
try to bring him back, but it's like I don't
want to do this. Science is boring, like doesn't go
right nothing, you know, the experiencement never works. So I
bring that up to say, is that with roadblocks with

(05:01):
any kind of toy, especially for children under thirteen. And
I get pushed back from parents on this, but you know,
I strongly believe this. You really need to be thinking
about toys. Our gifts are interactive toys that you can
play with your child, and that includes video games. I
know a lot of us are. You know, our kids

(05:22):
want video games, and they ask for video games, and
you look at what they're asking for. You're like, never
in my life will I ever be interested in doing this.
But if for me, if it's something that you wouldn't
want to do with them, then that's a signal to
you that, you know, maybe they shouldn't have it, or
maybe they shouldn't do it either, especially if they're under thirteen.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Okay, girl, I gotta I do. I can see why
parents push back.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
I tried that, I'll playing Minecraft with my kid. I'm
terrible at it. Yes, so he banned me. You suck, mom,
I don't want to play with you. You're not good
at this. Yeah, not all of us are going to
be good at you know, any of this stuff.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
My son started playing Minecraft at during COVID until he
was five years old. That's when all of the screen
time rules went out of the window, and I was like, fine,
take it, go for it. And since he was five
years old, he's now eleven. And it took between five
and like eight or nine of me constantly going back
to that game before I finally understood kind of what

(06:19):
he got out of it. I also decided, like, I'm
going to let him lead, and I told him, you know,
like when we first started playing, we're not gonna there's
survival mode and there's creative mode. We're not gonna go
into survival. We're just gonna go creative, like, let's play.
Let's show me how to work it, show me how
to do it. Yeah, And once I got into that, right,

(06:40):
you have to don't come in say okay, I'm gonna
play with you for twelve minutes and then then that's
in this like you really have to follow their lead.
And I really encourage parents to do this with roadblocks.
Minecraft is like it it's an acquired taste, and it
took me while.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
And it's not that easy. I mean, it's not for me.
It wasn't acquired to I don't care. I know all
the Pokemon, like you know, I can tell you what
Pokemon has what transforms into what Pokemon and all that.
I don't mind. I'll go get in it just because
I want to know what they're interested in. But I really,
he's right, I suck at it, Like my reflexes just
aren't that good for video games.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
And you can suck at it.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
And you know, some things that I and other parents
do is that you know, we'll watch game plays on
YouTube together of the game.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, that are well or how tos.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Are to learn, like you never have to play to
really get into it with your child and really say, hey,
you care about this.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
So I care about this, and I know.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
You do it because how you're talking about the Pokemon
and all that, like, so you're you're doing it right,
Like this is not a hard and fast.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Rule, not anymore because he's in college. He doesn't he right,
he's probably still doing Pokemon.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
But but you did do it, yeah, and it's it's
not a hard and fast rule. But the point is
is that you are engaging in it. And I really
encourage that with roadblocks because roadblocks and I don't know
if you know all your listeners, you know this. There's
not one game. It's essentially a server that has many,
many many games and folks go in and I mean

(08:06):
Minecraft as others do, but Roadblocks is really built for this, right,
And so many coders go in and create games and
post them, and then the most popular games rise to
the top. And in a scenario like that, even though
this is a game kind of built for children, really
marketed and aimed at children, many many of those games
are not fit for children, not really fit for adults.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Right.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
And so if you're not engaged with your child, like
if they're asking for roebucks and you're not really understanding
what the dollar is going to Oh, a skin, okay,
a skin for what game? How are you going to
use it? Show me like, this is the level that
you need to be a skin.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
That's something that they many times will want to purchase
in the app.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
We need money for school clothes, but they want Roadblocks
for a close in the game, right.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Virtual virtual? But yeah, but but yeah, So you're saying,
don't just go okay, you can have a skin. What
game are you playing? What is that's again? What are
you doing with it?

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Natural curiosity in something your your child is interested in,
that is the best really protection, and you're asking them
questions and you want to know more about it, and
ultimately that creates the safe space for the conversation because
I know, you know, there's a lot of talk about
having security measures and adding you know, all of these
different things. I know, folks that work in it, you

(09:27):
know that work in cybersecurity, and their kids can get
around their security parent protocols.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
So that is not enough.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
It's really hilarious, But that's what I thought.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
No, it's true because and I mean, if you had
a mind to do it, you could get a well.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Also, their digital natives. They've never known anything else, so
that's their world exactly.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
And we can't expect parents to just like we're saying.
We're saying, go in and talk to them and learn
a little about what they're interested in. But we can't
expect you and I to be as expert on Minecraft
or as they are when they play it so much
and they know about it, So you're never going to
stay ahead of them in terms of their knowledge of
you know, their app or the thing that they're into.
It has to be a conversation and you really have

(10:08):
to be that safe space for your child to say like, yeah,
I have this, you know, I'm buying your roleblocks. You know,
I support your mission to accomplish whatever you're doing, and
creating that dialogue in that safe space then opens up
the channels to say, you know, hey, I was playing
this game, but you know this person you know always

(10:29):
chats with me, is always doing this, and then you
can help them troubleshoot. Another thing that I recommend for
parents with children under thirteen is to really not allow
them to participate in the chat in roadblocks. Right, and so,
if you are any type of video game that you
have as a parent and your child is under thirteen,
if they're online, that means that they are playing with

(10:52):
every single person. It's like you're opening your window and
your child is like yelling out to strangers and talking
to strangers. That's essentially what it is. And so they
can play Rollblox. They can have fun on Minecraft without
going online. And that's something that they can be online,
but not on anybody's server. They can go on their
own server. They can play with friends and people that

(11:13):
they know, or they can just play the game. They
don't have to interact with adults with adults, they don't
have to interact with strangers that they write.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Okay, a couple things about you know what we should
address it when we come forward. Number one, you're talking
about kids thirteen and under. I think a lot of
the trouble comes when you get older kids who are
not necessarily going to want to have you playing, nor
have you all in their business. You know, they tend
to be secretive. That one shrink told me, how do
you know when a teenager is lying, their lips are

(11:40):
moving not to be you know, agist, but it is
what it is. And then you know the other thing
is you can say that, but how do you know
that you just said they can get around the security?
How do you know they're not going to go around
and connect with people while you think they're just on
a separate server. Will address that. I want to talk
AI not just for kids, for adults. I think adults

(12:03):
many of us are like kids when it comes to
AI right now, just in terms of the level of naivite,
all of that and more. When we come forward on
KBLA Talk fifteen eighty, you're waking up with me and
right now we're talking with Jamika Marshall of the La
STEM Collective. So you were talking about, you know, one
safe way to let your kids use roadblocks. Don't put

(12:25):
them on a server that connects with the outside world.
Have them on a like a private server so that
they can't talk with mister l weirdo who's stalking kids online.
But you also just said that all these you know,
tech cybertech people who the kids are evading their parental controls.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, So one thing that I really encourage parents to
do is to really start early. Like kids nowadays that
are born, I see kids at the grocery store, like
really in a baby cait marriage with an iPad, right,
so there, before they're one years old, they're already like
on YouTube hopefully you tube kids, you know, but even

(13:08):
those are bad. But you know, just kind of already online.
And so as soon as your child can kind of
communicate with you, you have to start setting expectations around
what you expect for their use of the Internet. And
that never stops as a conversation constantly, you know, that
continues on and again. It's really about creating a safe space.

(13:30):
I think I fear what most parents fall into is
trying to police their kids online. And we talked about that,
how like we're always going to be a step behind,
So really trying to act as security and the policeman,
and you're gonna find out is not the way.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
You really have to just assume.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
That your kid is going to be online seeing things
that you necessarily don't want them to see, but having
a conversation with them about your expectations. So for again,
for roadblocks, the expectation for not just that's my child,
but like all my nieces and nephews, is that you
won't be on the chat, right, So you turn that
off and you can play with these folks. You can
play with strangers. We don't know how they are, we

(14:09):
don't know what they're doing. But they can't communicate with you.
You can't communicate with them. They can't tell you to
go offline do something else. Here's my discord. Here's none
of that happens. So you're just in gameplay. Yes, parents
still need to be mindful because there are some like
really sketchy game plays out there too, right where like
folks are I don't know, folks have heard about the
roadblocks where you know, you're in a bathroom and they're

(14:31):
doing like Bathom humor stuff. That one was recently banned
due to the controversy, But there are many many more,
So you do still have to be involved, but just
saying hey for roadblocks, and you know, I'm giving you
rollblucks and you're okay to use it. But here's the boundary.
The boundary is no chat. So I think that's just
like a first step, right, Will kids kind of do

(14:53):
things anyway? Will you catch them on YouTube watching videos
that they you're spicy, they shouldn't be watching sort of thing? Yes,
and then you say, hey, you you know, disappointing me.
We had an expectation. What should be the consequences. Let's
move forward. After we do that, Let's move forward.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Right.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
So you're laughing because it's like, okay, gentle parenting, but ultimately.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
No, no, I mean I'm a gentle parenting Yeah I
am too. I get criticized a lot for it. I
don't believe in striking kids, spanking kids. I'm not gonna
lie and say I never yell at my kid. That
would be a terrible and egregious lie.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
But what you want to do is give them the
skills to deal with this on their own, because you
can't protect them forever.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
The reason that I'm chuckling is because you have a
little kid. Wait, till they get a little bigger. When
you get teenagers, they are tricky, yes, and they will
tell you what you want to hear and do something else.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Absolutely, And you know I was telling you I have
seventeen nieces and nephews, and so I definitely expect it
to be you know, I'm not gonna get the full
details of everything, And you know, I'm of the mindset
that I don't want to know everything. Like, if you
can handle it, you can handle it. But creating a

(16:02):
safe space where for things they can't handle and it
is getting kind of beyond them, then they can trust me.
They can trust Antimika to come and say, hey, you know,
I've been talking to this person on discord. You know
they want to meet should what should I do? Sort
of thing? And then I can you know, kind of
walk them back and say, you know this is inappropriate, Hey,
let's talk to mom and dad about this, et cetera,

(16:24):
et cetera. So just having that safe space prevents a
lot of stuff. It won't prevent it from happening, but
it can help you deal with it better.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Okay, I'll take that. I think paying attention is the
first step, right, even if you don't know anything about
online stuff. You know, your kid exactly, we should know
when they are acting.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Different exactly and acting you know, some folks have screen
time limits, some folks don't. But even without screen time limits,
you know, like geez, he's been on that computer for
a while, you know, while you know he's kind of
missing are missing other things and late to other things
because he's really you know, you can tell when there's

(17:04):
a difference in behavior. So really, just be mindful, always
thinking about technology and not just roadblocks and video games
that we kind of assume are locked in online and
we understand that, but other toys that we may not
be suspicious of because we don't really understand that these
toys are you know, using AI empowered tools. They're also

(17:26):
connected to the internet, these smart toys, and so making
sure that when we those kids have access to those,
we are you know, really locked in and paying attention
and aware to be looking for those behavioral changes.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Okay, so before I forget, that's true of a lot
of adult toys too. Yes, like grown folks, you know,
grown folks don't even understand the way that AI is
collecting data on us all the time, even through apps
and toys and special deals, supposed deals that we get.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Right, Yes, absolutely, So, I don't know if you know
your listeners have heard. What about five days ago the
President released an executive order asking for basically saying, you know,
states are doing a kind of Hodgepods mitchmash of AI

(18:26):
regulations and so really just really trying to supersede the
state's legislation to say, you know, there needs to be
a federal law. And so you know, the states are saying,
you know, well, hey, until that happens, you know, let
us make our legislation and let us make our laws.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
But I think the administration would rather that not happen.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
And so a lot of those regula regulatory actions by
the state focused on pieces like that. Right now, so
what type of data is being collected in these AI
and powers?

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, but I mean what you just said about the
President was, you know, was very diplomatic. It's basically he's saying,
taking away the state's power to regulate our own AI.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Well, technically, if we want to be technical about it,
and I'm definitely not here to you know, to push
you know, any any side, but technically the executive order
is saying, you know, states don't make these regulations. Congress
will make these regulations. If you do, then you're funding around.

(19:30):
You know, broad band access and equity will be in jeopardy.
In California gets about one point eight billion dollars in broadband.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Funding and of course more than we get so sure.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
So that is something that is definitely going to get
the attention of the California Department of It.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
But it's it's a it's a sneaky way. And this
is me speaking, not your nonprofit. Yes, but this is
a sneaky way for the administration to you know, get
around states rights. Say, we're gonna withhold money if you
do this, because the states should have a right to
their own regulation of the technology. But if you do,
it's going to cost you billions.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
You know, this is the beayer of our federal system,
right so it's the pushing pul and the Feds have
their tools to kind of operate and push the states,
and the states have their.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
No I mean understood again, you know these aren't coming
from you, These are coming from me. But here's the thing.
This man is getting a ton of money money for
his slush fund, I mean ballroom money for his slush fund,
I mean library money for his kids to invest here,
there and everywhere, and a lot of it is coming
from big tech, right and AI. So if he's AI

(20:39):
is part of big tech. So if he says, Okay,
you can't put any regulations, we're gonna do it on
the federal level. We'll be waiting around like we're waiting
around for the new alternative to Obamacare and the tech
goes unregulated. And who's happy about that? The people that
are giving him millions of dollars to sit next to

(20:59):
at the inauguration to build a ballroom. You know, that's
the size of Alaska. It's the clear benefit, The clear
quid pro quo is so glaring in this case. I
don't know how you get around it.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
But so there's two things that I think are bright
spots in what is happening. One, I think California is
still doing a lot of great work in terms of
helping us bring on this new technology, this really exciting
technology that is AI, that really has this transformative power. Ultimately,

(21:40):
you know, it could really do great for things for
our culture, humanity, et cetera. Really trying to harness that
power in a safe way. And two regular regulations that
are going to take effect soon are around. You probably
have heard the one where they're the California has been
a leader in trying to prove event companies from using

(22:01):
AI to artificially increase prices. And so some of that
was being done with rent housing rentals, and there was
some recent a court case they kind of settled that
that exposed some landlords, major landlords who were essentially price
fixing and using AI to price fix and so there's

(22:23):
been some great work around that. And also we can
see that happening more and more in grocery stores. If
you walk in grocery stores where you see the digital
price stickers, it's very scary to think that, you know,
two people can walk into a store and kind of
based on your algorithm or what you scroll or what
you purchased or what you've done on your phone, you
walk into the store and get a different price than

(22:44):
someone else. So that is some stuff that California is
working on.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Well that I thought we'll keep that going after news,
Traffic and sports. Jamika Marshall is my guest. The La
STEM Collective isn't the spotlight On KBLA Talk fifteen eighty
we are and we're talking with Jamiica Marshall. She is
over the la STEM collective used to be Steam. I
guess they took the art out and they took the
art out.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
Now the artists still here.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
LA STEM is really focused on the STEM though we
focused on the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. But Steam
programs are still core strown and we love Steam programs
as well.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
So we talk about we were talking about a bunch
of things. Yeah, you said California has two new regulations
that we can look at, and you were about to
get into the second one.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
The second one just really quickly is legislation is going
to take effect soon.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
That really is.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Calling for AI companies and technology companies to disclose how
they built their AI models. So what data did they used,
What personal data, private data, data sources in general did
they use to create that AI model? And that is
really really important because I think one it demystifies AI.

(24:07):
You were talking about how like not just kids and children,
but adults you know, are getting caught up in this
AI stuff and not really understanding how it's impacting them.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Are how dangerous it can be?

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Are people too afraid of AI? Like you know, a
lot of some people. A lot of people are, Oh,
it's gonna take my job, It's going to take my likeness,
my voice, my face. Are we overly cautious about it?
You know?

Speaker 3 (24:30):
I think there's an argument that can be made that
we're a little like there's a lot of paranoia that
shouldn't exist right now about you know, folks thinking it's
going to turn into like you know, Terminator two and
all that kind of stuff. So I do think that
can be but I don't think folks are too frightened.
And it's because of what we were talking about earlier dominique.
It's the fact that there is not enough regulation. So

(24:52):
there is a massive amount of growth and development in
this sector, but they're not one a lot of regulation
in terms of the limiting what AI can do or
should do, and we're not having that conversation like where
should a I be and where shouldn't it be and
the other pieces. Again, you know, this is a lot
of the work that I do having diversity of thought
in STEM and technology, right, and so when you have

(25:17):
one kind of monolithic sort of thinking in the you know,
the development, the design, the implementation, the marketing, the rollout
of these tools, then we know from experience with technology
it often ends up having dire consequences for people of
color and for marginalized groups because they weren't involved in
the creation of the tool itself. So I think that

(25:41):
there can be a case made that people can sometimes
get a little crazy at paranoid. But I don't think
the fact, you know, the people have a fear, a
healthy fear, is a problem.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
And okay, well, Yogi Fish says, how do you feel
about kids gaining advanced knowledge beyond your understanding.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Of in terms of video games?

Speaker 1 (26:00):
I mean, I think it's tech, That's what I assume.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
I think that it's a you know, natural I don't
worry about things like that because if there are areas
where I feel like I'm you know, weak, or I
can build up my competency, I go out and I
you know, get online, and I find a tool, and
I train myself and I upscale myself. So I don't
spend a lot of time worrying about that. But I

(26:25):
think it is just a natural progression that the generation,
the next generation is going to know more about tools
that they were like born into.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, they're they're digital natives. Jacqueline Anderson says, I made
a game truck for my son, and I can't play
any of the video games. Was never a game or
l O R l O L games rs game truck.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
That's so funny. Yeah, and that that that's again, that's fine.
Like I do things and my son doesn't like I'm
a crapsy person. My kid doesn't like crafting, but he
still has a healthy interest, Like what are you doing?
What are you gonna make?

Speaker 2 (26:57):
You know? Oh, here's it, I'm finished. Here's what I did.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
You know you can have a conversation and talk to
your kid and be engaged without actually being a gamer.
Are really caring about the game at all?

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah? Well yeah, it's just partly tapping into our own
natural nosinesses. Okay, so you said before news, Traffic and sports,
you said that AI could solve problems and change society
for the better. I have relatives who are really good

(27:27):
at technology that say AI is more hype than reality
at this point. It's artificial, but it's not really intelligence.
It's more like an aggregating of a bunch of facts
at lightning speed. Lightning speed levels, right, So it's not
really intelligent. It's not sitting there thinking up stuff. All

(27:48):
it's doing is regurgitating whatever you put into it.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, so this is a common argument. So right now
AI is definitely more potential right than it's actual act.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
And so I think that's the other piece.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
So right now AI is definitely more potential than it
is like lived reality. There's a lot more upside, there's
a lot more still to do. We're looking at the
tip of the iceberg situation here when we think about
what's out and what we're doing right now with quantum computing,
with you know, increased speeds, better batteries, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
These these things can develop exponentially.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
The ideas and the no how are there, but maybe
the computing power just is it in Layman's terms, that's
the first part. The second piece is AI is much
more than just chat GPT. So I think a lot
of folks when they think about AI, they think about
like a homework help and you know, asking, uh, you know,
Gemini are growk or something.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
But by the way, are wrong a lot very.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
Much so, right because those are predicted predictive texts, models,
And it's what you said is an amalgamation of like
a lot of different things. Sometimes those work really really well.
Sometimes they work Google on steroid.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
Basically, However, there are a lot there's a lot of
quote AI or artificial intelligence, really shortcuts if you want
to call it. That's how I think of it in
a lot of what we do every day. It's our
world is really becoming AI powered, and it's not in
a way that's really seen for most people. I always

(29:22):
use this as an example. In twenty fifteen, the FDA
approved i think six AI empowered medical devices, and then
in twenty twenty three it was something like two hundred
and thirty three. So when you're looking at, you know,
a medical device, or you're thinking about going you know,
surgery or getting a medical treatment, no longer do you

(29:45):
need a specialist who can kind of map out and
chart all of these things.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Or all these processes have to happen.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Now, a lot of the medical devices, the tools, the
not just the treatment devices, but the diagnos gnostic tools
are using AI to you know, based on your you know,
pre existing conditions, your age, all your way, all of
these things to say, you know what, let's put use
this as a treatment model as opposed to that as

(30:14):
a treatment.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Right, So it sounds like what you're saying that AI
is already been used in more ways than we're really in.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
More ways than we're realizing.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
And a lot of the things that you think maybe
you know, my lawyer, my doctor, my you know, whoever
is doing and making these decisions.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
A lot of these decisions are being made through you know,
an AI.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Tool and power tool that's created a policy for a
company wide.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
But they're not better than humans, I don't you know.
You can tell me. They may be faster, maybe cheaper,
but they're not better than humans. You know, a human
can look at you and they're going to a factor
in things anyway.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
So the issue that we have to kind of grapple
with and come to terms with somehow is that artificial
intelligence is artificial intelligence, right.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
It's not human intelligence, it's not intelligence. But on an
artificial information on.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
An individual level, we can always say, okay, you know,
a human to human has these types of benefits, right
are the this humor, I'm a better driver than this
driverless car? Right, But on the you scale it up,
when you scale it up, and which is what these
companies do, and which is how these decisions are being
made on scale, well, the driverless car is actually safer

(31:24):
than you know most of so individually it may not be.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Made, but yes and no safe from what you know
what I mean that conversation.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah, and this is the conversation that we need to have,
right because at the end of the day, like we
have to create the guardrails around that because we're having
too That's what I saying. We're having two separate conversations
into human may be fine, but on the massive scale,
these things and it's going.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
To happen because so we might as well figure out how.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Do we live with it and how do we make
it work for us?

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, Molly Bell's reminding us, reminding me when we we
had a memorial from my dad and there was a
problem with the iPad. Uh, nobody can fix it. The
tech guy, the college student and my kid, I think
he was about eight or nine at the time, walked
up and fixed it in two seconds. And it's you know,

(32:14):
it's a reminder that it is generational.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
Absolutely, and it's humbling for a millennial who was the
person who fixed everything for the boomers. And then now
you're doing something and then your kid comes out of
like and two clicks and two.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Buttons and why don't you get it? Yeah? Yeah, So
I mean that's that's a reality. And I also think
when we get into this thing about limiting screen time,
which I did, you know, I had, I had limits
and stuff, but again, kids get around stuff.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
The point is, though, I think there's a bit of
a hysteria of going too far, like, oh screen time,
Oh no, it was the end of the world. But
you want them on the computer all dog one day
to do homework, but you're gonna limit how much they
get to play and have fun on it. I don't
agree with that. I don't want to be the mama
you know, your kid is the next Steve Jobs and
sitting there going my mom never let me play on

(33:02):
the computer. But I made it anyway, Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
And I always look at what a lot of high
performing Asian countries are doing. If you look at the OECD,
which is the research study that ranks countries by their
third and eighth grade math, science, and English language skills,

(33:26):
these countries continuously outperform the United States, and they use
screens all the time, you know, not just in schools
but at home as well. And so that to me
is real evidence that it's not the platform.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
It's how we're using it.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yep, very well, said Quamel. Study said Ai reply that
it is Eurocentric generated in response to historical questions. That
is hilarious. It can't help telling you the truth. It's
just like that Elon musk Rock saying that he's in
better shape than lebron On James. I wonder who fed
that information into it. Jamiica Marshall is my guest and

(34:05):
we're talking tech. We'll continue the conversation when we come
forward on KBLA Talk fifteen to eighty. A couple of
things you should know before we jump back into the
conversation with Jamika Marshall. Today, Tavis Smiley is reprising his
twenty sixteen interview with Rob Briner and his son Nick,
who's now been formally charged with two counts of first
degree murder in the death of his parents. Tavis Smiley

(34:28):
sat down with Rob and his son in twenty sixteen,
and we will hear that interview after, you know, during
Tavis Smiley Show today, which of course occurs after we
wrap my show every day. I also want to invite you,
if you're interested in you've been hearing us talking about
going to Zambia and you're interested in coming with Zambia
and Boswana this summer with KBLA and African Focus Incorporated,

(34:51):
you can call three one oh six seven six seventy
three hundred. Three one oh sixty seven six seventy three hundred.
We are having a zoom meeting on Saturday, this coming
Saturday to talk about it, to answer your questions and
any details that you're interested in about that trip. I'll
be traveling. This is our eighth time going and it's

(35:12):
a benefit for African Focus Incorporated. It's a vacation, it's service,
and it's cultural learning all rolled into one. So just
call three one sixty seven six seventy three hundred and
they will send you the zoom link to join us
in that information session. Talking now with Jamika Marshall la
STEM Collective. They have a list right there on the

(35:34):
website of on the positive side, things that you might
want to go ahead and get science type in Curiosity
inducing Toys at Lastemcollective dot org. You can click right there.
We're talking all of that stuff we talked about their list.
We're talking about AI and how it's being regulated or
not regulated, what it is, what it isn't I was

(35:56):
telling you. I remember Elon Musk used to always be
sounding alarm AI is going to take over the world.
We need an AI council to reel it in. And
he was very alarmist about the dangers, and then he
suddenly went quiet. I don't know if it was around
the time that Grock came out and he started peddling
his own AI, but suddenly he doesn't seem to see
any danger in it anymore. I don't know if the

(36:19):
first thing was hype or the second thing was hype.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
Yeah, you know, I'll say this as to kind of
a neutral party and kind of you know, in all
of this, I think my role at LA STAM is
to really be a booster for you know, technology, innovation,
innovative thinking.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Okay, okay, So that that leads me to this, which
is where I was going. We went to the downside
all these things about saving humanity and making our lives
easier and all the upside of AI. Talk to me
about that.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
So I am I'm really fascinated by bioengineering and a
lot of the work that's happening in healthcare. So I
talk tell folks, you know, really that's a lot of
exciting stuff that's happening in tech, and uh, science is
really where these science meets engineering, engineering meets healthcare, where
these kind of intersections are overlapping. There's like really exciting

(37:17):
things happening that pose really exciting potential for you know, health, Uh,
you know, safety, longevity and life, all the good things
for humanity. And for me, uh, my mission is to
make sure that you know, black, brown, students of color,

(37:40):
women are at the table in these conversations. So as
these you know, new buy bioengineering models that you know
show how you know, you can release a chemical you know,
drug and it can go in and find the cancer
you know in your body, and and all of these
incredibly innovative the work that's happening that we're at the

(38:04):
table and we're making sure, hey, are you thinking about
how this impacts African Americans? How are you thinking about
how this impacts indigenous people? Does this work the same
in women's bodies as it does in mail bodies? And
so for me, it's really important that we are at
the table and we are having a conversation.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Everything looks scary when.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
It's out of your hands, and it's other folks that
are creating these powerful tools that are going to have
an impact on your life, your culture, your community when
you don't have a voice. But it's something else entirely.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
When those tools.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
That are being implemented are using the historical knowledge, using
your you know, ancestral knowledge, using all of the you know,
the culture that you bring, the expertise that we bring
to the table, it's something different entirely. So for me,
that is the most important thing. Whether we move forward
with AI or whether we not. I think those decisions

(38:59):
are going to be made when we have diversity at
the table.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Yeah. I mean the facial recognition technology is a great
example of that because it doesn't do well with any
face that's not white, and clearly that how to do
with who made it.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
I tell everybody when they go into the bathroom, if
you try to wash your hands in a public bathroom,
you're familiar with the lack of diversity in tech because
you have to put like your palm side your you know,
if your brown skin, you have to put your palm side,
your whitest side, you know, to the sensor to get
the water to turn on. And that is because you know,
most of these tools are not we're not used as

(39:35):
as kind of test cases for this tech. So anytime
you ever want to see how it plays out differently
in implementation, you know, use a public bathroom and you
can see how just small things like that have huge impacts.
So yeah, we need to be at the table and
having these conversations.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
So we're trying to get ourselves or our kids at
the table. How does the LA stem collective player role
in that?

Speaker 3 (39:57):
So, like I said, we're one hundred and forty three organanizations, museums, aquariums, libraries,
but also coders and engineers and former tech execs who've
left their positions because they want to come and teach
children and offer the students of Los Angeles the same

(40:21):
opportunities that they had or maybe they had to look.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
Up on and find right. They want to increase.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
Access to these possibilities and access to these possibilities. They
also understand that to you know, like I gave the example,
you know, buying that kid at home and trying it
with your child and then it goes horribly wrong, and
then turning the kid off of engineering for years to
come because you know, your soapboxes didn't didn't move like it.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Was supposed to.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
So they are very very aware of that as well
and understanding like, yeah, you need talented, experienced, you know,
hands on experts to come and interact with these kids
so they can get the real taste of these these
hands on innovations, science experiments, engineering tests, so they can
really get what it's that spark that they really need.

(41:09):
And so we are in you know, schools, we're in
after school programs, we're in parks. We have a lot
of members that are doing a lot of work. But
ultimately we want to increase access for all.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
So the getting a gateway to all this interesting information
and everything that is optional and possible for our kids
and ourselves. We can start with your website.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Absolutely, start with our website Lastemcollective dot org. There you'll
have all our contact information, you can reach out ask questions.
We also have a list of our one hundred and
forty three member organizations, so if you want to scroll
and peruse. There's also a website that I like to
encourage parents to go here in LA County. It's called
stitch dot com dot org. It's an LA County website.

(41:54):
It's ran by the Greater Los Angeles Education Fund as
well as La STEM and other partners who contribute, and
you can go on there. You can type in your
address or type in the you know what interest you
have or your child has, like maybe robotics or legos. Right,
you type it in and it'll give you a list
of programming organizations near you or around the county that

(42:19):
are offering those services, and then you can see kind
of their time, the timetable and contact information so you
can sign your kid of you know, I know appearents.
When a kids say, oh, that looks interesting one thing
that's educational, you want to jump on it. So you
can jump on to stitch and look it up and
find something and keep that interest while you know they
expressed an interest in it.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yeah, it's a great, great point. We do have some
amazing resources in LA County. Yes I didn't get a scientist,
but not for lack of trying. Jamika Marshall, thank you
so much for joining, Thanks for having me this morning.
It's great to have you in. As you know, tavismally
has an amazing show on Tap, including his twenty sixteen
interview with Rob Briner and his son Nick. Nick now,

(43:02):
as you know, has been charged with two counts of
first degree murder and the death of his parents. Tavis
will be reprising that interview during the show that is
coming up with him. Don't forget to tap in with
me on social media. I'm at Daprima Radio, d ip
r Ima and then radio on all platforms and you
can find us at KBLA fifteen eighty. Like my mama,

(43:25):
the late and Great Diane da Prima used to say,
history is now, Like I always add on, we are
making it together until tomorrow one
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