The Immersive Lens Podcast

Paul Engin | Dave Ghidiu | Jeff Kidd

Episode 22: Community Convening Preview

Cover art for The Immersive Lens podcast - Paul and Dave standing back to back in front of a techy background.

 

Paul and Dave sit down with Debora Ortloff, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC), to discuss the upcoming 2nd Annual FLX AI Hub Community Convening on June 10, 2026. The conversation centers on artificial intelligence not as a distant corporate tool, but as an immediate, paradigm-shifting disruptor that demands community-wide literacy. From unleashing creative communication through ChatGPT’s latest typographic infographic features to acting as an operational lifesaver for lean small businesses, AI is reframed as a collaborative partner rather than an automated replacement.

Debora, Paul, and Dave share their unique experiences navigating this fast-evolving terrain - ranging from using local large language models (LLMs) to protect data privacy to leveraging AI for dense policy analysis and everyday trip planning. The collective verdict of the episode is clear: successful AI integration must always be human-led, anchored in critical thinking, and accessible to everyone regardless of their starting point. As FLCC opens its doors for the annual convening, the ultimate goal is to move the local community from passive observers to active, empowered drivers of technological change.




Key Topics

The Power of Human-Led AI: Artificial intelligence can maximize creativity and operational efficiency, but it only succeeds when directed by human critical lens and subject-matter expertise. Debora emphasizes that human-led AI is the only viable path forward, meaning users must bring their "big beautiful brains" to the table to solve problems, rather than offloading absolute trust to a machine.

A Crucial Force Multiplier for Small Businesses: For lean organizations and local small businesses where employees wear multiple hats, AI acts as a vital resource allocator. By offloading time-consuming tasks like policy analysis, bookkeeping, or basic content creation, workers can step away from administrative burdens and refocus on the core passions of their industries.

The Rapid Evolution of AI Accessibility: The conversation surrounding AI has shifted dramatically over the past year from theoretical curiosity to advanced, practical deployment. Tools that used to require high-level tech stacks are now accessible on standard computers and mobile phones, which is why creating open "on-ramps" for beginners is just as important as hosting advanced technical tracks.

Building Community Resilience Through Literacy: FLCC’s FLX AI Hub was born out of a strategic imperative to prepare the broader region for a disruptive workforce evolution. By constantly investigating the intersection of ethics, data privacy, and emerging tech, higher education institutions can partner directly with local industries to navigate changes collaboratively rather than in isolation.





Transcript

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Paul Engin But I know him from Netscape so

Dave Ghidiu Nerd.

Debora Ortloff That's like hardcore.

Dave Ghidiu Yeah.

Debora Ortloff Wow. Also dating you just so you know.

Paul Engin Yeah. I know.

Paul Engin Welcome to the immersive lens, the podcast exploring technologies reshaping how we live, work and learn. From AI and virtual reality to creative media and design, we are diving into the tools and ideas shaping our connected world. My name is Paul Engin, join us as we uncover the people and ideas driving the next wave of interactive experiences.

Dave Ghidiu And I'm Dave Ghidiu, this is the Immersive Lens.

Paul Engin Dave, how are you doing?

Dave Ghidiu I am doing fantastic, how are you doing?

Paul Engin Good, good. We have a special guest uh Debora Ortloff, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives here at Finger Lakes Community College. Welcome and thank you for coming.

Debora Ortloff Thanks for having me, excited to be here.

Paul Engin Um, so Deb, what we normally do is we'll do some hot takes, uh we and then we'll get into uh something an event that's happening on June 10th here, right?

Debora Ortloff Yeah, I'm excited to talk about that with you guys.

Paul Engin Excellent. Excellent. So do you have a hot take?

Dave Ghidiu I have two hot takes.

Paul Engin Oh, two.

Dave Ghidiu Two. I'll go real quick because I really want to hear what Debora has to say. Number one, there is a mathematician very famous, probably the most prolific mathematician in recent history, Paul Erdos, and he a number of his conjectures and problems have been unsolved and AI just solved this 80-year-old problem. And they calculated how much it cost and it was roughly the amount of water to grow three almonds. And the amount of energy to that would be analogous to say like 10 miles in an EV car. So it was relatively cheap and inexpensive for a major breakthrough.

Paul Engin For to to solve the problem?

Dave Ghidiu To solve the problem. Yeah. And I don't want to get into the problem because it's totally nerding out. Uh but Paul Erdos, there's a book about him called The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, a fantastic book. And the second thing is I went to go see the movie Backrooms last night with my nephew.

Paul Engin Oh, I that's my understanding is the youngest director.

Dave Ghidiu 20 years old.

Debora Ortloff Wow.

Dave Ghidiu 20 years old.

Paul Engin And was it like how did he come up well go I heard it was really good but...

Dave Ghidiu Yeah, so it was based on some creepy pasta which is kind of like internet lore, you know, 4chan type stuff. And he made a YouTube mini-series and that's kind of how he got this gig. Absolutely fantastic movie, but it has this weird imagery in it and I don't think I think it's all practical effects, like they built these sets that are really just really weird, but the there's these sequences where you start to see reality decaying and I think it's it's a commentary on AI and model collapse and synthetic data. It was just really cool. And especially because in one scene you see like a woman that has six fingers and you're like, oh okay. So there's this like meta-commentary. It's just a really fantastic movie even if it it's a slow burn horror suspense movie. Great, absolutely fantastic.

Paul Engin So can I ask you is it horror, is it drama, because that's I couldn't figure out.

Dave Ghidiu It's suspense. It's suspense. And it it does have some imagery that's a little weird and it has, you know, some small jump scares, but it's just it was very fascinating, I didn't know what I was getting into, but it was really, really engaging. I mean I was sitting on my seat for the entire time.

Debora Ortloff Wow.

Paul Engin Yeah, it's got, I mean it's like hitting the box office number one.

Dave Ghidiu It was a $5 million budget too.

Paul Engin Yeah.

Dave Ghidiu It was absolutely fantastic. So congrats to the director for it because it was just absolutely fantastic.

Paul Engin You know what's so funny, I always tell my students about this. It's like get your name out there, you never know how things will be picked up and this is a perfect example that somebody started a YouTube series is that what it was and then they were selected to direct this and...

Dave Ghidiu Yeah. His name, well he on YouTube he went by Kane Pixels, but his real name is Kane Parsons. Okay. But if you watch it you would say this is not the directorial ship of a 20-year-old.

Paul Engin Yeah.

Dave Ghidiu It was just really, really interesting. Okay, yeah. So I've yammered on enough about that.

Paul Engin That's so cool. So my hot take was um I saw an interview with Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape.

Dave Ghidiu What's Netscape?

Paul Engin For anyone who wasn't born in the 1900s.

Debora Ortloff For a hot minute.

Paul Engin Yes. Yes. And then uh the whole uh Microsoft Monopoly thing sure came out, but um he coined, and I don't know if he coined this term, but he used the term which I've never heard of before, which is called AI Vampires. Have you heard of these terms? Kind of a little bit?

Debora Ortloff A little bit, yeah.

Paul Engin Yeah, so he's saying that um, and this is controversial, this is his take on it, so it's a billionaire's take on this concept, but um, that um people think that there's going to be less coding, but what's happening is that there's actually more coding because they're working at such a faster pace that the they're coding at night and then things are being produced and they get so excited that they just stay up all night coding and um, they just keep coding and coding.

Dave Ghidiu I can relate.

Paul Engin Oh. So they they call it, they come in the next day all tired and they're like, oh man, I was I was coding like crazy last night and um, so it's coined AI Vampires.

Dave Ghidiu Okay. I like it.

Paul Engin So you're an AI vampire, Dave?

Dave Ghidiu Yeah, I've been turned.

Paul Engin Uh oh.

Dave Ghidiu I turned into one.

Paul Engin So uh, Deb, do you have a a hot take you want to throw out there, throwing you under the bus last minute?

Debora Ortloff I feel like mine are a little less esoteric, but um the thing I'm actually just really excited about right now is the new infographic capabilities in ChatGPT. Feel like ChatGPT has for a while now been lagging behind some of the other um models and products that are out there, even though it was sort of first to market and a lot of people are most familiar with it. I found myself, you know, of late turning away from it just feeling like it wasn't offering me the same benefits as some of the other tools I was using, but with their infographic update they are really bringing some great new features and the ability to create and push uh both creative thinking and um communication effectively.

Dave Ghidiu Their the way they deal with text is insane.

Debora Ortloff Yes, absolutely. It's just exciting and it it um, if you're using data to try to communicate a new idea or you're trying to do a more visually complex concept and you're trying to get that off, whether it's, you know, uh something that you are selling or you're using in a um, in a business or retail environment, or you're, you know, teaching or working with a a board, you know, there are just so many different ways that visual communication can help us do that, but the time and effort that goes into visual communication is large, it's really large. And I'm super excited about it, I'm using it constantly. I have to actually tell myself, stop, you have other things you need to work on.

Dave Ghidiu You're an AI vampire.

Debora Ortloff I may be, it's true, but only for infographics.

Dave Ghidiu That actually, as you were talking, I was on a school board for three years, and the packet they'd read are like 80 or 100 pages, huge. That would be such an, it, even if I, you know, read them when I got them, that would, it was two weeks later, a week later. So it would be nice to have an infographic just to brush up on it.

Debora Ortloff Yes, yes.

Paul Engin Well this is, this is the ChatGPT text that is much better. We we went over that between that and uh Gemini. And uh yeah, the text is just so clean now.

Debora Ortloff It's very clean and just the the interface um is really working well for pushing your creative boundaries around what you're trying to communicate within the infographic and producing such high quality. It's very it's exciting and uh and it's something we've needed. Uh it hasn't been great in any of the products, so this is definitely a step forward.

Paul Engin Right. Right. And again it's always, like this is like the worst it's gonna get, so it's only gonna get like better and better.

Paul Engin Um, so Debora, we're gonna get right into the deep dive here, uh, on June 10th there is this FLX AI Hub Community Convening. Um, can you tell us a little bit about what that is?

Debora Ortloff Absolutely. So this is actual, its official title is it's the second annual.

Paul Engin Second annual. Oh, okay.

Debora Ortloff Yes, community convening. So about a year ago, at the first annual community convening, uh we had just started and were really announcing the establishment of the FLX AI Hub with um, with as much fanfare as we could bring, knowing that this was this amazing opportunity to bring members of our community writ large together to talk and learn together and dig in uh with AI and with just thinking about this is a major change. And we all knew it was, we knew we knew it was a moment. Uh, we started working together on the the first annual, not knowing what it was gonna bring, no idea. We we just thought this is important, we're gonna bring people together, we're gonna learn together, we're gonna dig in, we're gonna see what happens, and it was the beginning of something very magical, something very exciting where we're partnering with the uh Ontario County Chamber of Commerce. They partnered with us last year and throughout this year to really say uh to the entire Finger Lakes community, we know this is a huge change and we want to be in this with you, we want to learn together, and that's what we will be doing again here on June 10th, but a year later we've all learned so much and um, it's insane, right? Um, and it's been such a just fantastic amount of change within AI and within emergent tech broadly, AI adjacent as well. But I think also for us in this broader community thinking about how we can tackle things, what this is gonna mean in particular industries, we're still learning a lot, but that rapid excitement and almost frenetic energy, it's pretty exciting to be around and I for one am just so excited to welcome members of um so many different industries. We've got healthcare, we've got uh folks from um manufacturing, we've got a lot of small business owners, retail, uh consulting, personal services, professional services, just the gamut, and um what an exciting uh place to dig in and be a part of that conversation.

Dave Ghidiu And I think this is especially helpful for a lot of those small businesses that are in the area. I think Tracy Marissa, they do fantastic work at the Chamber of Commerce, they said something like, and you can correct my math on this, something like 85% of the companies in the Chamber of Commerce have five or fewer employees. So AI is a real force multiplier for for that population.

Debora Ortloff Absolutely. And it's one of the things I'm most excited about. I see it here at the community college, uh community colleges we have a mission to be open access and we're also known, we have to be lean, right, we we have to um, we wear many, many hats and anyone who works at a community college will tell us that, so while while we definitely have more than five employees, we we understand that that need to um to really think from um multiple perspectives, put on a lot of hats. And and I will also say um my husband and I are small business owners and the thing that I have found so exciting about this work with the FLX AI Hub is exactly what Dave was just talking about. It can be a game changer for small businesses who want to get their work out there to have more of an impact, but don't necessarily have the time to be the bookkeeper, to be the marketer, to be the expert in HR, to do all of those things, and AI really can help do a lot of those things and allow you to dig into the things you love more. So we're gonna be talking about a lot of that and folks will be able to bring their device with them, dig in, start practicing, start thinking about what could building a chatbot mean for me, um and I know we're gonna dig into some more of the sessions, so I'll stop there but it's exciting.

Paul Engin Well can you tell us a little bit about uh who you are and what you do at the college um so people have some context as to sure.

Debora Ortloff Uh so my title is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives.

Dave Ghidiu It's a cool title.

Debora Ortloff It is a fun title. I like to say I'm Vice President of anything new or that needs to get done.

Paul Engin I like it.

Debora Ortloff Yeah, and that's sort of what I do. So whenever we're working with something new or we're trying new things, I um get to pull together groups of people and figure out how we're going to approach it, often build up projects, sometimes then once they get to be really successful and exciting, I have to give them away and they go off to other parts of the work, but yes, but in the meantime um I uh am very privileged that I get to work on a lot of new and exciting projects. And AI, emergent technology broadly, is a huge impact on the workforce, and ultimately that's what we do here at a community college. We serve the broader community. We serve students that are coming in and they're gonna go out, they're gonna be in that workforce, but we're also serving all the the folks that own businesses, lead organizations, and uh we're in this sort of constant cycle of understanding what they need so we can make sure students are prepared, and those students can go back out and lead those organizations. So being um on the bleeding edge of things is pretty important for what we do, and I'm lucky that I get to be a part of whatever that looks like in that moment, and right now a big part of my work is working with the FLX AI Hub and uh working with our community to figure out what that that's going to mean.

Paul Engin Yeah, I think that's great to be on the cutting edge with all this stuff.

Jeff Kidd Let's not forget, Deb got us that laptop.

Dave Ghidiu Deb did get us the Mac Studio. That's a strategic initiative right there.

Debora Ortloff That was very complicated because I signed a a purchasing order. Um, there are things I do that are a little more complicated.

Dave Ghidiu But you kept it quiet from from Dave and I, so we didn't know what was coming.

Paul Engin Yes, yes. So you're sneaky, we gotta watch out.

Dave Ghidiu Gotta watch out.

Debora Ortloff I can be sneaky. It's true. I can be sneaky.

Exploring AI's Impact

Dave Ghidiu What was your own your own personal like first experience with AI that made you think oh, this changes everything?

Debora Ortloff Well, it's probably gonna sound sort of boring to a lot of listeners and and truth be told it's not always my favorite part of my job either. But one of the things that I do at the college is um is really understand how uh the landscape is changing, and sometimes that means understanding how new industries are developing, you know, um when Micron um was announced here, that was something I dug a lot into to really understand what that might mean, things like that. Um, but it almost always also means understanding policy change, legislative change, um compliance changes, things like that. Uh, those things are not super sexy, right, it's uh not always like real hook there. No, it's not super exciting. But it is actually really hard to keep up with. And particularly in the last year or so, um it's been a really volatile environment, right? Lots and lots of changes coming out of Washington, lots of changes that directly affect um what we can do, um how we can do it, and would have an impact on our students. So it's really, really important to stay on top of it and really understand it. And it doesn't matter if something's coming out, you know, 24 hours later, we have to know what it is. And AI is actually incredibly helpful for doing that. I've been able to build projects where I can put in policy updates, uh commentary on those updates, I can use AI to uh produce briefs, explanations, PowerPoints, and that means I get to spend a lot more time on things that are really exciting and interesting, and less time on making sure that we're just in line with what has to be done. And while not interesting, it is actually really important, and anything that means I don't have to spend a lot of time doing that is a real big win for me.

Dave Ghidiu Sure, so there's this efficiency of both maybe insight and auditing that you're leveraging with the AI. And and I because I know you well, like you're you're going through and looking at that output, but is there a danger that if someone's doing compliance and they're not verifying that output? So it saves you I imagine a lot of research and time, right, but you're still...

Debora Ortloff Yeah, I think that's a really important piece to this and figuring out the best way for you to be using a tool like that uh does take some practice. The most important thing I think there is human-led AI is the only way to do AI, right? We say that all the time.

Dave Ghidiu Human-led AI, oh is it the only way to do AI?

Debora Ortloff It truly is. And one of the things that I think we talk about as educators is um critical thinking has always been a huge focus of what we want to teach students, before AI, before the internet, before computers, all of that, we've always been working with students on being able to problem-solve and critically think because when they go out into that workforce that we were just talking about, I don't care what industry they're going into, I don't care if they're gonna be a nurse, I don't care if they're gonna run a company, I don't care if they're gonna work in manufacturing or something in between, all of those things they're gonna be faced with problems, they're gonna have to solve them, and they're gonna have to think through them. And that is doubly, triply, quadruply true with AI, right? If you're gonna AI well, if you're gonna use it to be efficient, if you're gonna use it to maximize creativity and time and the ability to think bigger, faster, further, it has to be human-led AI, and you have to bring your critical lens and your subject matter expertise, your big beautiful brain has to come to that. That's actually sort of exciting, like it can be interesting because you're approaching it as a problem, how can I use this tool, how can it help me do that? And that's absolutely true of the policy work, the compliance work, um and at the end of the day, if I advise the college wrong, that's on me. That's, they're not, they're not gonna be upset with AI, they're gonna be upset with me.

Paul Engin So what inspired FLCC to create the FLX AI Hub uh and this annual convening? I know you touched on it a a little bit already.

Debora Ortloff Yeah, um but more specifically uh, you know, we were very lucky, we are very lucky, the FLCC has a a very engaged Board of Trustees, and a Board of Trustees that's future-focused and thinking about how is it we make sure that the college is set up not just now, but for the future. And one of the things that came out of that was them coming to us and saying, you know, we want to put some money aside, we want to have what we call board-designated funds for this college to really investigate AI, because we know it's a disruptor, we know it's huge. We don't know exactly what that means, and we're not sure you even know exactly what that means, but we want to give you the space and resources to do that. So we knew that that was happening, the president had worked with the board on that, and um as part of that, it's a strategic initiative, right? So that came somewhat naturally to my area. And um, I started working uh pretty much right away with Dave on this, as a, you know, he had this great amount of subject matter expertise and technical expertise. And we really realized this was not an internal question. It is also an internal question, as an organization we need to face it and we've been doing a lot of things here internally to do that, but it is fundamentally about our whole community, our whole society, and we wanted to create a structure and way to make sure we could be leading that conversation, being partners with our community. And that that's really what led to it, we connected with the Ontario County Chamber of Commerce very early on in it, they were having similar conversations as they were talking to their members, their members were saying, we know this is huge but we don't know what to do, we're not sure what the next step is, so they were presented with a problem. So we knew there was a problem and we knew that the FLX AI Hub could emerge as a way for us as a bigger community here in the Finger Lakes to be tackling it together.

Paul Engin Yeah, I think that it's a great initiative for us. I think one of the things that I think about that people can't conceive is the technology is advancing so quickly, we're trying to like predict where it's going or what it's what's happening with it, and so it's always this ever-changing ebb and flow, it's not something that you can lock down one month and be like, okay this is what it's gonna be because then they're gonna release something else. And, you know, we're seeing this huge push on um more automated, we saw like uh Claude, open Claude, and then now Nimble Claude, and now uh workspace uh what's Claude it's workspace?

Dave Ghidiu Oh Claude Cowork.

Paul Engin Cowork, and so we're seeing like okay now we're seeing things being taking over the like so we're seeing this evolution and so I think it's always important that we're we're on that forefront so we understand what's coming and um so I think that's fantastic.

Debora Ortloff And I think that's one of the things we're really trying to do at the FLX AI Hub, right? We absolutely want to, you know, host these convenings and we've we've hosted several other trainings and you know webinars, all sorts of of ways to continue the conversation, and we have some great ideas for next year as well which is exciting. But one of the things that we take really seriously is making sure we're investing the time ourselves in not just knowing the status quo of what tool, but what's next, where's it going, what does this tool that just came out, what does that mean, what could it mean next. And part of that is because it's dizzying, right? Like it is amazing and awe-inspiring in both the best way and sometimes also the worst way, right, it's it's intense. And I think for our bigger community, they can't necessarily take the time to be as fully informed because they need to go run their business, or they need to go teach their class, or they need to, so by being a place where we're really digging in every single day on new tools, on implications, on what does this mean for the bigger society, what questions are we talking about, what are the ethics of this or that or this piece of it, so we're essentially in constant communication, I actually really genuinely mean that, it is just an ongoing constant communication within those um within those folks that are engaged in the FLX AI Hub to say what does this mean and what does this mean for what's next. We're excited to bring some of that part of that conversation, some of the sessions are very sort of future-forward looking um on June 10th, but that's also a big part of the work we're doing and we'll continue to do.

Dave Ghidiu And I think I think you kind of talked about this, but can you do you have any overarching description of how the conversation around AI has changed in the last year? And and I was looking back at like all the stuff that FLCC has done in the last year and I was like, wow, that seems like five years worth of work. And I think it's because of the pace, the cadence has just been incredible. But how has the conversation changed between June 9th of last year and June 10th of this year for what we do and what we'll be offering?

Debora Ortloff Yeah, I think that that's a really good question. And one I think we've solidified our work in some ways, although I would say it's always changing. Always changing. Solidified is maybe not exactly the right word. Uh one of the things we're really committed to is the concept that there's always an on-ramp, and making sure that on-ramp is open. So if you haven't engaged in AI or it was something you thought wasn't for you, we're always going to be there to say, nope, let's talk, let's let's get in there, let's dig in, let's think about what this could mean. A year ago, most people were maybe on the ramp or thinking about the ramp.

Dave Ghidiu So like standing at the at the edge.

Debora Ortloff Yeah, they're like, there's a ramp over there, maybe I'll go over there, right? Uh, and some people were on the ramp but they weren't sure, right, you know, if we if we kill this metaphor to death, the velocity wasn't um wasn't sure yet, were they gonna speed up or were they gonna sort of like hang out on the side of the road. So that was very very accurate a year ago. There were folks that were excited but they weren't advancing um and they weren't their ideas around what this would mean weren't crystallized. That's pretty dramatically changed. And uh we see that also in the the conversations we're having, right, if we go out to an organization, whether it's a keynote or a workshop or, you know, um or really just being a thought partner, the questions we're getting are are definitely more advanced than they were a year ago. But the on-ramp is still there, there are still folks that haven't engaged with it. So by me saying you know the questions have become more advanced, that doesn't mean if you're listening to this you should say, oh I'm done, right, I can't I missed it. No one's missed anything, right, and there's absolutely always an opportunity. But just to sort of close the circle on this part of the conversation, I think we have seen that in our work and if I were to characterize what we're offering, you know, here at the second annual convening, we were really thoughtful about making sure the on-ramp is still there, there are beginning sessions, if you've never thought about AI, that's no problem, but also having sessions that I would characterize as intermediate or intermediate-advanced. So we're looking at some of those more um advanced tools or next-step tools, and we're also really talking about what's next from there for so everyone will have the opportunity to think forward a little bit about where we see AI going in the next year.

Paul Engin That's great. So when you selected all the sessions and what not, you you got the range, so you could address the people who are very reluctant, some people that are already on there that want a little bit more detail, um so I think that's fantastic. Uh, so what were some sessions that immediately stood out to you as something attendees shouldn't miss?

Debora Ortloff Well, I'm probably the one I'm most excited about, not to completely put you on the spot, Paul.

Dave Ghidiu Oh!

Debora Ortloff Is actually the session that you're going to be hosting. Uh, and I really think that it is where a lot of organizations need to go. So you're going to be hosting a session on on building an LLM and what that means, so I won't even pretend to explain all of that and you can do that, but I'm excited about the work we're doing here with that project at FLCC and again as I think about where organizations are going to go, one of the things I do a lot of work on is with data, data um is incredibly powerful within AI, but there are a huge number of privacy concerns on a number of levels, not just the idea of personally identifiable information, but also about um trade secrets and um copyright and there this is a layered issue when were talking about the use of AI within any given business organization. So I'm really excited about your session.

Paul Engin Yeah. So I'm gonna be doing for the folks out there, I'm gonna be doing uh running local LLMs, so we're gonna go over different um I guess well approaches so it'll be from phone to computer to uh self-standing system, um and we'll cover all those things that you spoke about regarding privacy and additional items, um and we'll do some demos, it'll be fun.

Debora Ortloff Yes, I'm excited about it.

Dave Ghidiu I think you're in another session, Dave. Mine's gonna be boring, I'm gonna come to yours.

Debora Ortloff I know that this is the problem, I always want to go to all the sessions and then I um then I can't um attend them all. So that's the one I'm probably most, I'm just really excited about what that means for the future, and I think for our community, the opportunity to have your expertise there for um organizations to think about, hey, is this right for me, that's exciting.

Paul Engin Yeah, I think it's going through it I'm I'm testing a bunch of stuff out and it's interesting, I'm going to be working with some people at the school and seeing how we can integrate it so then I can during the sessions kind of talk through how they might want to integrate it, um but I do see a lot of potential in that area. And you can see again everything is trending, before it was like isolated to just a machine, now you could do it on a regular computer, and now you can even do it on a phone. So it's like the range is just constantly...

Dave Ghidiu And we've been planning this for many months, before January I think we started like literally last year, and I've kind of been holding off on designing the sessions because so much changes then, and I've never been to a conference like planning out a conference where that's the case where you're like, if you plan it in December, well good, that's six months earlier, like that technology has just come so far. So procrastinators really thrive in the that the AI realm.

Debora Ortloff Yes, yes. There's there's a role for us there.

Dave Ghidiu And you had mentioned the community when you were talking about uh basically about everything, but specific to the last question. So that got me thinking, so community colleges respond quickly to workforce changes, that's kind of one of our our missions. So how do you see FLCC's role in preparing people for an AI-driven future?

Debora Ortloff So I think fundamentally, one of the biggest things that we need to do is make sure that our students, regardless of major, are AI literate. They need to leave, walk out the door, walk out the door knowledge, needs to have that critical thinking, human-led focus and what does that mean for AI. Now for some students that's going to get much more specific, right? If they're in a program that is tech-heavy or industry-specific, they need to understand how that's applied in their, you know, given industry. But every student who comes here needs to understand AI as a disruptor but also as an absolute um companion to whatever industry they're going to be in. There's very little question about that if you look at the impact of AI. So that being said, while I think that's sort of most fundamentally our job and we really have to work hard at that, the companion piece to that is in order to do that well, we need to be very connected with our community. So we need to be in constant communication with these industries. All of them, right? We don't just produce students that go into nursing or go into computer science, right, we have this huge range of different kinds of programs and different industries that exist here in the Finger Lakes region and obviously beyond. So if we're doing our job well, that means we need to be partners with all of those industry leaders, all of those workforce pieces, and understanding how their industries are changing and what that means for their work going forward. The benefit of the FLX AI Hub is we really created that so we could be partners with them, learning with them, and I think that synergy has been one of the most exciting things I've been involved in in my career. We're learning, they're learning, and we're able to take that um that moment back where they're figuring out what things may change in healthcare or in agriculture and apply that quite directly and quite quickly into that AI literacy I was talking about. So I think it's really exciting. I love the opportunity to be working with different businesses across the sector, and uh we are very lucky because we have so many homegrown experts on our faculty and staff who can be in that cutting edge, learning, be that sort of what's next, and then have those conversations with people in agriculture and healthcare and tourism and, you know, small business, retail ownership, all of those different areas, um and that's a a match made in heaven.

Dave Ghidiu And one of the things I really appreciate about that is having those sustained engagements with companies, especially because it changes so much. And I think that this type of alliance is different than a lot of the other alliances I've been involved with and maybe other institutions because, and this is a canonical example, Microsoft Word, we'll do a training for Microsoft Word for everyone in the community like every six months, and that training never changes. But now when people come, even if it's two weeks later, so much has changed that it's exciting and it's it's just it leads to the vitality of the the area the industry because everyone's just like, oh, well what has changed since you were here last and let me show you what we're doing here at this institution. And so it really is kind of this two-way thing because I'll never be a functional expert in almost any of the sectors where we are working with people, but to see what they're doing I'm like, oh wow, like I never even thought about doing that.

Debora Ortloff Yeah, it's very exciting. And I think you see that reflected in the work we're doing on June 10th, but also in the micro-credential that we're starting in the fall, and that was very much designed talking with all of these folks through the FLX AI Hub and saying, okay, you want your folks who know your industry to to learn AI, we're gonna design it for that, right, we're we're really gonna respond to that and make it as applicable and flexible as possible. And that's exciting.

Paul Engin Do you think there's some misconceptions about AI and uh are something that you'd encounter frequently among like students, faculty, or community? Is there something that you're kind of always reframing or you know...

Debora Ortloff Yeah, um so I think AI can feel really scary. Um and that can be from a couple of different perspectives. One sometimes it's that on-ramp, I don't know what that is, I don't know how I've missed the boat, uh technical fear just in general, oh I'm not a tech person. But there's also this whole ethical implication, and I don't want to um undersell that. That is that is real and it's important and it's absolutely our job as educators, but also in this community to think through that and converse about that and say, you know, what does that mean. But I will say all of that to say I'm also the mother of uh 16 and 17-year-old boys. So they go to Canandaigua Academy, the local high school. And so I've sort of watched in real-time as they're facing this as well and thinking through you know, what is this going to mean for their careers, both of them are interested in technical fields, um so they're very specifically looking at it. And there's been a lot of sort of particularly within their generation, we see this with our students as well, AI is evil, there's nothing I want to do with that, uh and we shouldn't engage with it. And I think that is something I do try to reframe and say, hey, let's think about this, right, in what ways can this, as any other tool that we've used in the history of technology and the history of emerging technology, how can we apply this tool to further the good work we want to be doing? What does this mean for the way we're thinking and doing, and what are the ways that we can engage with the tool? So I reframe that a lot because I think just sort of turning it off and being like, no I'm not, or no, never, it's evil, don't do it, that's just not a helpful approach to basically anything. Right. It's just not critical thinking and it's not engaging. So that for me personally as a parent and as an educator is something I find myself saying, hey can we step back and and think about how we can reframe this and how we can talk about the full gamut of what AI means, including the ethical implications for the future of work and the future of um the kind of work we'll be doing as humans.

Paul Engin Yeah, absolutely.

Dave Ghidiu I really like what you said too where you stressed that you can't be blind to it, you can't just ignore it, but you the strength is really understanding when to use it and how to use it. And that's that's like an acquired taste, it takes practice and it takes critical reasoning.

Paul Engin Yeah, I think it's the I guess to me I always am equating it to any other tool. Yeah, absolutely. The hammer was created, and okay now I use my hammer for everything.

Debora Ortloff I literally have a hammer right here. I am not surprised by that.

Paul Engin So um you know, and I think that it's the same thing, right? We had typewriters and then we had word processors, and then it was like, oh oh, then computers came out and it's like, okay all these positions are going we're no longer going to need... so there's always this I think there is always an initial fear, and I think that it's good that we listen to those fears because uh I'm curious about why they think that and um and I know that it can be scary, there's like these dark outlooks on what's going to happen. Um but I also see it as an efficiency tool and now that we're more efficient we'll be doing the same work, we'll be doing more of it. Um and I think it's the same thing with agriculture when they started coming up with tractors that were more efficient and doing more things, and GPS, and um I think there's even drone...

Debora Ortloff Yes, there's a lot of drone use in agriculture.

Paul Engin Drone usage now in agriculture, and you know, it's not like it's it's I think it's a supplement or a tool to to help. Um so uh it's a interesting uh because I I get both sides of the story and um you know we talked about uh virtual actors and AI driven actors like Val Kilmer and the ethics behind even use of that and um so I think that there's a lot of discussion around this, but uh it's interesting uh how you have to kind of reframe it or kind of communicate let's think about this slightly differently. Yeah. But uh yeah, very good.

Dave Ghidiu So and maybe just answer this question, but maybe not, I want to give you some space to to just think about like if attendees leave with only one takeaway, what do you hope it is?

Debora Ortloff Yeah, that's a great question. I think the biggest takeaway would be what's next.

Dave Ghidiu Tell us more.

Debora Ortloff That that what's next, and that was a West Wing reference for any of my fellow West Wing nuts uh listening. But that what's next is probably going to come at a couple of different levels, right? There's like a personal what's next, what action am I going to take, what does this mean for my own learning. But also that what's next for my industry and my business and um that's a little bit different than your own personal what's next. But the biggest what's next that I hope all of us are able to consider is what's next for us together here in the Finger Lakes region. There's no question that AI as the sort of most dominant emergent technology right now is a disruptor, it's a disruptor in the way we're doing work and the future of work is going to continue to look different. I want to help shape that conversation together, so I'm hoping that as we all have our personal what's next, our business and industry what's next, absolutely let's take those with us, but let's also have a collective what's next. How do we continue making sure that this technology works to enhance the human lives here in the Finger Lakes. That's exciting and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Paul Engin Yeah, I'm actually excited about hearing what other people have to say, because sometimes, you know, to your point Dave, you mentioned we're not experts at every aspect of what our community is doing, but um I know like Alice presented with a challenge and I didn't even think it was a challenge, so that night I started...

Dave Ghidiu No, this is a different challenge, I'll explain it in the future...

Paul Engin How many challenges are you doing?

Dave Ghidiu Teasing a future episode.

Paul Engin That's right. That's right. But but they were running into this issue and um I was like, oh I could I could develop something to remedy that that issue. And um and so it just got me thinking, but it gave me sometimes it gave me a focus so I'd be like, oh I'll be able to program something that will accommodate what they're looking for. Um and but sometimes you need that that discussion point, so like, you know, like you said we're not experts, but if someone came to you from agriculture and said here are our issues, we're running into this...

Debora Ortloff Exactly.

Paul Engin We could solution something that could like absolutely and and I think that those conversations are important to have.

Debora Ortloff Yeah. They're actually really critical to I think the way we need to continue to do the work. It's really an answer to that bigger piece that we continue to come together. And Dave, that also makes me think a lot about the vibe coding uh class that you've been teaching and just the potential of vibe coding, the example you had with the EKG simulation is exactly that. That was so exciting.

Dave Ghidiu Yeah, teaming up with a medical expert to make and I'm like I can do the AI part. And and one of the things I really appreciate about that what's next is the dimensionality of it, you're like what's next for me with AI, what's next for the industry, because that's critically important, and then like what's next for us as a community. And the community convening I think is like not an antidote to that, but it certainly is a great platform for figuring out what's next.

Debora Ortloff Absolutely.

Paul Engin Yeah. So for someone who's curious about AI but also a little intimidated by it, what's the first steps you think you would encourage them to take?

Debora Ortloff The besides come to the conference.

Paul Engin Yes, of course, come to the conference, reach out to us at the FLX AI Hub.

Dave Ghidiu It's not too late to register, right?

Debora Ortloff It's not at all too late to register and we'd love to have you.

Dave Ghidiu That's at flcc.edu/ai.

Debora Ortloff Yes, thank you for that plug. I think the most important thing is, um, I'm not sure we can officially use AI as a verb yet, but it's coming, but you know the best way to learn AI is to AI, right?

Dave Ghidiu You did, you just made it a verb. It's a verb, it's official.

Paul Engin We threw out you're committing AI, so we already threw it out as a verb, so.

Debora Ortloff I love it, yes. So it is it is great to just get in there and experiment a little bit. You can have a, you know, a free um account, you can just choose one you've thought of, yes there are differences, but I don't know that they matter that much in just getting in there and saying I want to experiment with this a little bit, you know if you've heard of ChatGPT, go there, if you've heard of Claude, if you know Gemini and you're really comfortable in the Google verse, then use that. They're pretty accessible and they're pretty easy to get to. And I really recommend trying something that has nothing to do with work. Yeah. Right, it doesn't need to be that you're trying to solve, you know, automations within spreadsheets. Although super useful and highly recommend it. But um, it can be something like, um my um my son is uh participating in a high school summer abroad uh trip uh experience this summer in Japan.

Dave Ghidiu Hmm.

Debora Ortloff Yes, very excited, a little crazy in the Ortloff household right now because he's leaving next week, but um so one of the things I've been doing a lot is uh just using my friend Claude to do some preparation for that trip, right? Um, Claude, can you tell me what the weather's gonna be like in Kyoto from June whatever to July whatever? Um what might be a good packing list for a 17-year-old boy, right? Um are there any absolute must-takes, right? Um what would you recommend uh for a walking itinerary? Claude has helped me with all of that. So it doesn't have to be that you're going right to something that's super industry-specific or super specific to a problem you're solving at your place of business. Now if you have one of those, by all means, but I find it from an accessibility perspective, just a little bit easier to just take something like the example I just gave you and just say hey, can this help me with this? Can I just do this? And will it be useful? And somehow it takes the pressure off when you're not trying to solve a work problem. And um it can be a lot of fun too. I've enjoyed the conversations I've been having 'cause I don't get to go to Kyoto.

Dave Ghidiu Hey, you should go visit!

Debora Ortloff I should!

Dave Ghidiu B, that also aligns with your analogy of the on-ramp, so maybe maybe you don't even know how to use it in work, okay, well plan a trip with it, or ask it questions about like, because you know pre-AI, if you go to Google and you're like what should a 17-year-old bring to Japan, then you'll get someone's blog, they're like this is what I packed. But now you're getting just this this huge perspective of everything that everyone's ever known and you get a much more customized list. And I think the hallucination rate is so low in AI that like you really it doesn't it hardly ever miscalibrates. So that that's exciting. And what a fantastic example too.

Debora Ortloff It's actually been a lot of fun, and I will say it's been pretty useful, it saved me time um as we're sort of trying to pull this all together.

Dave Ghidiu Does it give you peace of mind too?

Debora Ortloff Uh for me yeah, right, like I'm sending my kid off, you know, all the way across the world.

Dave Ghidiu Yeah, it's different if you're packing for like two weeks for a summer camp that's an hour away versus...

Debora Ortloff Yeah, it's a longer period of time, he hasn't been away from home like that, you know, I mean I think he went to summer camp, but not the same thing. So yeah, it helps me feel like I have a little bit more control. And I do think that's um perhaps an irony, right, when we think about some of the ethics conversations around AI, but I actually find that because it's a tool, and it's a tool that I'm using in a lot of different ways, it does feel to me like it's giving me a modicum of control that I wouldn't otherwise have. That Kyoto example is a really good one, but that's true in work as well. Even that really boring example I gave you about policy work, that can be a stressful environment, right, when you have dictations or uh rule changes or um other things coming down at you and you need to have an answer for your boss or the board or whomever very quickly, being able to have some control over a high-risk environment, it's helpful. And um, and I have found that to be reassuring in the work I do.

Paul Engin Great. Um is there I we have one more last last question here, but um is there before we get to that one uh anything that you want to mention about the uh conference or the convening, the second annual convening.

Debora Ortloff Second annual. I think the main thing would be come join us, right, just come engage with the conversation, wherever you are on the on-ramp, we have sessions for you, and some really good learning and conversing is going to happen, and some pretty yummy food too, so you know, you can't lose.

Dave Ghidiu So last year they did the, and I know I talk about this all the time, and it sounds like I'm just obsessed, but I am, the s'more muffins.

Paul Engin I am boy I'm gonna try 'em. This is my...

Dave Ghidiu Okay, there's an on-ramp for you, for these muffins.

Debora Ortloff For the muffins, okay.

Dave Ghidiu And I I was I was reluctant because you've talked them up so much I'm worried they're not gonna be as good.

Debora Ortloff No, they are very good, they are very excellent, and we did order extra from our awesome catering partner, they make them fresh here so. She is a very talented chef. We're lucky to have her.

Paul Engin So go ahead, you can ask the this is it, this question?

Dave Ghidiu If someone could only attend one workshop and one discussion. So there will be I don't think we talked about structure where there's like these hands-on workshops but then every session there's also just going to be a conversation. What combination would give them the best ex- this is a really tricky question, Paul.

Paul Engin Is it, maybe it's maybe it's loaded, I don't know.

Dave Ghidiu If someone could only attend one workshop and one discussion, what combination would give them the best experience of what this conference is all about?

Debora Ortloff Ooh, well, I mean obviously context is everything and what you're trying to get out of it matters, but um if I only could pick a couple of sessions, so although I'm very excited about Paul's session, I've already said that, I would say I would go to the Claude Cowork session. It's um or session, it is Claude Cowork and Organize Your Life. It is offered by our very own Dave Ghidiu.

Dave Ghidiu Mono y mono.

Debora Ortloff Yes, but one of the reasons I would suggest that is I think it is absolutely, maybe not what's next, but it is what's now um in in work and particularly for small businesses, the potential with Claude Cowork is just astronomical, and I'm very excited about it, using it myself both um in the small business I own with my husband but also here at the college, there's so much potential.

Dave Ghidiu And yes, and we we kind of did design that to be like what's behind the corner, so what what might not you be doing today, but when we have the third annual one, what will everyone will be doing it. And I I am very sure it will be co-work or the things that naturally will come out in the other products that mimic co-work, and we're already seeing some of that. And then if I needed to pick a discussion session, I mean I think they're they're all gonna be really, really good. I like the um the session on uh becoming an AI leader, that is not something that just happens, and having being able to sit down with others and really discuss that I think is gonna be very exciting. Um, you only are letting me pick one, so that is hard.

Dave Ghidiu You can review all three!

Debora Ortloff Well the um the opportunity to dig in more with our keynote speaker Jen O'Brien, she's coming joining us from Chicago and just has some really great insightful work about the future of work, not the best wording from me there, but um uh that's okay, she's better at that. And um so I think that's another discussion where you can really, you know, sort of get in and dialogue with her. And the other one which I am very excited about led by Maura Sullivan, one of our professors from our conservation and environmental science area, really digging into the environmental impact. What does that mean, what is it gonna mean for the future of work, I think that's gonna be a great discussion, so we have those discussions throughout as well as a very exciting uh industry roundtable over lunch, uh different leaders from industries, we have someone coming from tourism, healthcare, uh construction, etc., so broad industries, lots happening there.

Dave Ghidiu Way to get that collection, that's awesome.

Debora Ortloff Yeah, well the Chamber of Commerce is our partners, I have to give them all the credit for for much of this great insight they bring to us to help us make sure that we're hitting all the high notes.

Paul Engin Well that's fantastic, I think this is going to be a great event, hopefully everyone can attend, um you know we'll put a link to the to the to the uh...

Dave Ghidiu We'll also put a registration a link to the registration right at theimmersivelens.com too.

Paul Engin Oh, perfect. Perfect. Alright, well so that's all the time we have today, um Debora thank you very much for coming and having us, I know this was last minute, but uh we appreciate it.

Debora Ortloff Always a pleasure.

Paul Engin Um, I'm Paul Engin.

Dave Ghidiu And I'm Dave Ghidiu. If you did enjoy the conversation today, please smash that subscribe and like and love button so you never miss an episode. Let's be careful out there, folks.

Paul Engin And share it with a friend or colleague, until next time stay curious, stay connected, and thanks for looking through the immersive lens with us.

Paul Engin This episode was engineered by Jeff Kidd. Recorded at Finger Lakes Community College podcast studios located in beautiful Canandaigua New York, in the heart of the Finger Lakes region, offering more than 55 degree, certificate, microcredential and workforce training programs.

Dave Ghidiu Thank you to public relations, communications, marketing, and the FLX AI Hub. Eager to delve into passion, discover exciting and immersive opportunities at www.flcc.edu.

Paul Engin Dave just typed in a whole bunch of w's.

Dave Ghidiu I just want to see if you read the script.

Paul Engin I read what's there, I read what's there! As part of our mission at FLCC we are committed to making education accessible, innovative, and aligned with the needs of both learners and employers. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Finger Lakes Community College.

Dave Ghidiu Music by den from Pixabay. This is the Immersive Lens.

Paul Engin Thank you very much for coming and...

Debora Ortloff That was fun.

Dave Ghidiu That was fun.


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