Artificial intelligence is already reshaping how we work, how we learn, and how decisions are made.

While much of the action is centered in places like the Silicon Valley, its impact is being felt everywhere, including Sacramento.

With AI being driven by a handful of large companies, how will communities and citizens have a voice?

Joining us today is Jesse Delgado of the AI Collective.

Jesse, welcome to Studio Sacramento.

- It's great to be here, Scott.

- So, Jesse, what exactly is the AI Collective?

- Yeah.

So the AI Collective is the largest grassroots AI community meetup.

And, right now, currently there's over, 200,000 members in over 50 different countries, and they've already put on over a thousand of events.

- And, uh, and its purpose.

You say it's grassroots.

- Yeah.

- Its purpose is what?

What's the problem it's trying to solve?

- Yeah.

So, uh, the the purpose of the AI Collective is the human layer.

Adding, uh, perspectives and voices of humanity inside the conversations around artificial intelligence.

- And when-when you talk about this human layer, um, is this I mean, artificial intelligence is such a big subject now, and it seems like it's everywhere.

What exactly is this human layer's role in the whole discussion related to artificial intelligence?

- Yeah, that's a great question, Scott.

And I think that's actually what really attracted me to the AI Collective.

You know, there's other groups doing similar types of things, meetups in different locations.

But what really attracted me to the AI Collective was their philosophy on making sure that these conversations are happening at a local level.

In other words, there's different conversations in different regions, um, around the things that matter to those regions.

And they really wanted to empower each region to have and create those conversations, uh, based upon what they know about their region.

So each location is actually um, different.

And Sacramento being different as well.

- So it kind of almost sounds like Jesse, like it's, a combination, of a, you know, sort of gathering with almost like a TED Talks or some something like that.

Like tell me the type of stuff that that the AI Collective - when you guys gather together, what are you talking about?

- Yeah.

You know, so just to kind of touch on the the TED Talks aspect.

You know, the idea is, is that AI is already impacting everyone.

And so people should be at the table to have discussions around things like ethics or things like policy or whatever are the interests of your particular region.

And so I think for Sacramento, you know, um, there's not a collective that is happening at this moment in Sacramento.

And so my hopes was to really start having these conversations and inviting more people to help shape what that conversation actually is going to be in Sacramento.

- And as you have these conversations, regardless of what direction it goes, how does that filter up, along with all of the other collectives that you talk about happening globally?

How does that filter back up to, you know, anthropic and open AI and Perplexity and all Grok and all these others so that that way those voices in those conversations actually get heard.

- That's a great question.

And I think, just from my perspective, my vantage point, I think that the way that it filters up is solely dependent upon what each chapter does with their chapter.

- Okay.

- And so I think that there are some chapters that are just fine having a niche based meetup right around one particular topic or so.

And in those chapters, you know, that's kind of what they focus on.

But I think being Sacramento, who we are, I think that we have, a lot to contribute to, um, some of these, even some of these larger companies and so I think that at least my focus is to actually create a pipeline to filter up and even create other, um, opportunities or events where some of these other companies can come to Sacramento and we can start doing those things out of this region.

- Well, it's kind of interesting, and I know that you just launched recently on this, but this is the capital of the fifth largest economy in the world, and the state that houses the vast majority of the AI industry.

And so, you know, we've got, you know, a couple about a mile and a half from here, you know, 120 legislators and the governor.

How... how would you envision the collective that is housed right here in the capital being able to maybe go a different direction, in addition to like, talking to the companies, talking to policymakers about what they're going to do and starting to to harness and direct in a socially beneficial way, artificial intelligence?

- Yeah, that's a really good question, I think, um, you know, as a person that doesn't have a tech background myself, you know, I can see how I myself got into some of this space and started learning.

And I think the very first way to answer that question is through creating proximity, right, is just creating rooms and environments where policymakers and other people can get in the room and just hear the conversations that are happening, right?

And I think that that right there will start, you know, creating ideas and collaborations and all different sorts of things that will lead to a much bigger conversation.

But I think there's so much that is happening so fast in this area, in this space, that we just need a room where these conversations are continually happening.

- So you recently had your first conversation?

- Yeah.

- For those of us who weren't there, give us kind of an insight of what happened.

What does what you discovered, what surprised you?

- Yeah.

Well, you know, so-so for me, each chapter is responsible to, uh, present a thesis, basically, of what their chapter is going to be built around.

And, uh, in my thesis, it was built around community.

It was built around diversity.

It was built around having multiple different people from multiple different backgrounds in the same room, having these conversations.

You know, being, uh, someone who was, you know, raised in Sacramento, I think that one of our great strengths is our community and our collaboration.

I think that when a bunch of us get in the same room together, we have a natural propensity to want to help uplift the voices in this region.

And so, you know, the first event, that's exactly what it was.

I was really surprised to see so many people from so many different backgrounds.

You know, there were people that were, software engineers.

There were people that had been playing with automations, and there were people that were just interested in understanding and learning more about this conversation.

And so I think what was in some ways surprising, but also kind of wasn't, was the demand - is that there are a lot of people that want to have these conversations.

They want to be in the room, they want to learn more, and they want to connect with other people in this space.

And so, um, at the first event, it was kind of just a launch, you know, just kind of sharing the vision.

AI Collective is a nonprofit.

It's A501 C3.

So everything is-is volunteer based.

And being that this was my first one, that meant I had to do it all.

So I was, you know, doing the food and the beverage and, you know, thankfully, I had All City Homes, which, uh, which is a real estate, um, facility in Oak Park, Sacramento, that, that let me use their facility.

So that was great.

And, um, you know, we just put it together and we just we just ran with it.

Um, and there was about 30 plus people that came out, and I didn't have a lot of marketing behind it.

I kind of just did some stuff on LinkedIn and shared some things, and it was a really great event.

It was really cool to see and even afterwards just hearing, um, the feedback.

Thank you so much for having this event.

“Thank you so much for bringing us together.

This is what we've been looking for.” I mean, countless people were saying that.

So I just... I know that it's a- it's a need in this region.

- Now, you obviously have been involved with AI and used AI, uh, for a period of time, both personally and professionally.

I'm curious, when you look at your own journey in working with AI and integrating it into the things that you do?

What is it that- who is it that you're hoping will get involved in these conversations that today, by and large, either are left out or don't even know that there's an opportunity?

- Yeah, I think, you know, I really have a heart for the small business owner being one myself.

Having a small boutique video marketing agency here in Sacramento.

- Storyline Media, right?

- Storyline Media Group.

Yep.

And so, uh, you know, I think that there- there's a lot of utility that can, that can, you can get from these tools immediately.

And you don't have to wait very long.

There's things like automations and even the LLMs and the chat bots and the things like that, you know?

So I just think that there's a real immediate utility that some of these small business owners can get to help alleviate some of the pressure of managing and running and marketing your-your own business, you know, so that's initially why I got into it, and I started using it to help me with taxes and ad-administration, tasks and things like that.

And it it helped out a lot.

And so I think that there's a real advantage and utility for small businesses and those that that have ideas, you know, the innovators, the dreamers, the the people that want to create something new like this AI and, and this technology is, is giving us an opportunity to build and to do something that, you know, just five, ten years ago, we didn't have access to do.

- Well, so for-for the people who are watching this conversation right now and still have not touched AI, what's your message to them?

What's your advice?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

And you know, I've actually recently, just had a conversation about that with someone and what I the, the answer that I gave them was, listen, I realize that a lot of people have some hesitancy towards some of these new tools in this technology.

You know, some of us don't know what it does or how much information we should feed it and all of this kind of stuff.

And I think, I think for the most part, that smart you know, you should always approach things with that kind of lens.

But I also think it's very important to understand at least how it operates, how it functions, what's happening.

You know, and the advice that I gave to this person that I was talking to was, okay, you don't have to go in there and just give it all your information and build with it, but you should at least understand how it works, how to talk to it, how to give it the information, and how it how it responds to you, you know.

And I think that and I related it to Google when Google first came out, you know, and it was almost kind of like, you know, you could just Google something and it'll give you the answer.

That was, that was very strange for a lot of us, you know, and it took a while to actually even learn how to Google properly.

You know, it was like a whole new thing we had to learn.

And so I think it's the same way with AI.

Learn how it functions.

Just kind of get familiar with the thought processes behind it.

And I think that that will help get you in the right place.

- And for people who are just starting out with this stuff, give us a sense of like, you know, people... We'll say someone says, “Okay, well, I don't I- don't own a small business.

So you know what's in it for me?

What could I- what could I do with it?” Give us kind of a sense of what regular people, you know, people that showed up for for your first event they're doing that kind of runs the range of the possibilities out there.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And I do spend a lot of time on the business side of it, you know, and so I do see the, the, the utility in that aspect.

But the reality of it is, is that we all have ideas, you know, regardless of whatever industry you're in.

We all have ideas.

We all have things that we have to manage in our lives, whether that's, you know, your own fitness, your own health, or, you know, your kid's schedule or, you know, you can literally use these tools in- in almost every aspect of managing and tracking and developing anything in your personal life.

And the reason why I said ideas is because now more than ever, you can have an idea and actually create something that reflects that idea quicker than ever before.

More cost effective than ever before, and have something actually tangible that you can use to solve that problem.

- Yeah.

You know, you started out touching on things like ethics and policies and things like that.

And I've read before that this technology is neither good nor bad.

It can be used for any purpose whatsoever.

As you reflect on your own interactions, with AI and also the people that you're encountering through your work with the collective, what are... are there any like, really big issues that keep coming up as themes that people want to talk about, in order to make sure that appropriate protections are in place or that it it's being used as a force for good.

- Yeah.

You know, that-that is a- that is a great question because there... because it's moving so fast.

There are a lot of, security things that are kind of being skipped or glanced over.

- As an example?

What would you say?

- Well, there are people that, you know, maybe are giving more access maybe, than they should access to their machines, access- access to their information.

There are, you know, just kind of like anything with technology and there's going to be people that do have some bad motives and, or, or maybe that have some philosophies or ideas or ideologies that are basically what most people would agree with.

They want to- they have some thing that they wanted, some other agenda of some sort.

And there are those people for sure.

Um, and I think that that's even why it's more important to have these kind of conversations with the AI Collective in the beginning, so that we can help shape the future of where this technology is going.

So I do think that that's another reason why we should be having these so that we could collectively create, what we as humanity want to see, with these tools and how we want to use them.

But yeah, there are some- there are some, you know, people that are kind of throwing caution to the wind because of the excitement and just they're excited about all that it can do that I think it, you know, it brings up some security issues and even some ethics issues on, on what actually is, is ethical with this technology.

And mind you, some of this has advanced so quickly that we haven't even had a chance to really think on the ethics of it in some of these cases, we've just started using it.

- Well... one... one thing that a cynic might say, though, is that AI Collective receives at least some of its funding from the very companies that run this place.

Some would call the companies, uh, in the leadership of AI, like the five families of the Godfather movies, because you got Perplexity, Grok, Gemini, um... Anthropic and, Open AI.

Right?

And I know that there are a bunch of pretenders, okay?

They're minor families.

Okay.

And so the question arises, Jesse, in... are they really going to listen?

If they're the funders, in part for this thing, can the conversations be as broad and frankly, as questioning as they need to be to deal with questions of ethics and morals and how things are being used?

- Yeah.

You know, I think that, I don't know, I don't know to that degree, but I do know the more people that are informed and the more people that are part of the conversation, the better chance well have at actually creating a future world that we all agree ethically and responsibly.

Because that's another thing, too, is that there's a- there's a responsible side to this as well.

There's an ethical side, but then there's also to a responsible side.

- What do you mean?

- Well, you know, there's- there's ethics on just, you know, how we should ethically be using things.

But even beyond that, there's a- there's a responsibility to use these tools not just in an ethical way, but in a way that aligns with the mission, vision, values of your organization or the organizations you partnered with.

Or there's a responsibility, um, to- to use these tools in a way that aligns with those values.

So I think that-- and those values, I think in some cases are different in different, um, sectors or organizations and things like that.

So I think that it is part of kind of a broader conversation, and I don't know if it'll necessarily affect the five families, as you call it, right?

Like, but I do know that it's better to have people more informed than less informed.

- So... so you've had your first meeting so far, which was a success.

You've already got a second one on the board.

So tell us a little bit about that.

- Yeah.

So the-the next event is going to be on the 15th of April.

And this is actually going to be a partnership, which is really cool because the AI Collective I can do events on my own, but I can also partner with other organizations in a similar space and do things with them as well.

And so this next event is a partnership with AI for Good, which is, um, which is basically geared towards nonprofits.

It's AI for nonprofits and social good.

So and this is a huge part of just the work that I do, even in my own, in Storyline Media Group, we do a lot of mission driven organization.

So we believe in social impact.

We believe in making the world a better place through good storytelling and impacting people.

And really helping people to feel and experience the stories that we create.

So this is a perfect alignment for just me personally and what I want to do.

Um, and then also to, for the nonprofits.

So it's open to nonprofits.

It's going to-- everything is going through an app called Luma, which is kind of where all the AI and if you go to San Francisco or anywhere, those are kind of where all the AI events are hosted on a Luma app, you can look it up.

And, um, yeah, so it's going to be- it's going to be an event that is geared towards nonprofits and social good.

- Does it surprise you that the nonprofit sector would like leap out first in terms, of wanting to have an event like that?

I mean, you know, a lot of people really focus on AI being a, a for-profit, private sector kind of activity, you know, but, um, to hear that nonprofits are expressing such a strong interest so early, it's surprising.

- Any theory behind that?

- You know, I think that, um, AI gives us a real unique advantage, uh, specifically those that have, you know, maybe traditionally been behind technology.

Right.

Whereas nonprofits, I think I'm not an expert in nonprofits, but I think for the most part, they've, you know, they're playing catch up in a lot of ways.

And so I think that this kind of democratizes access to technology and this type of advancement.

And so I think nonprofits are actually in a perfect position to leverage and utilize some of this technology because many of them operate on lean budgets, and there's not a lot of staff and people are wearing multiple hats and kind of things like that.

So I actually think that it's not surprising to me.

I think theyre a perfect candidate to, uh, to really dive into some of this technology and receive the benefits.

- I want to tell you what's interesting about what you just said.

So part of the conversation related to AI and the fear of AI is that AI is going to come in and essentially throw everybody out of their jobs.

And, uh, because you can accomplish more with less people.

And so on the for profit side and on-on the employment side, there's a lot of chatter, a lot of news coverage related to fears as to who's going to get to place when, when they're going to get displaced.

And, uh, what happens next after that displacement happens.

And you're though, in a way, in describing the interest of the nonprofits flipping that on its head, because nonprofits never have enough money, they never have enough staff.

And they... they usually because they don't have a lot of money, can't afford the latest and greatest in terms of, outside resources to help them meet their mission.

And so it sounds like you're saying that the very things that might be, uh, causing so much angst and upset related to the more global world with AI actually potentially are a force multiplier for good in the nonprofit sector.

- Yeah, I would agree with that.

And I would also say that I think that in some ways, uh, we've seen this before, right?

We've seen, uh, these kind of advancements come along and, you know, there's usually always kind of a particular group that is kind of not wanting to lean into it.

And the Puritans, I would say, you know, they want to do things their own way and that's how they want to do it.

But I think that in every iteration of these kind of advancements, it always creates an opportunity for those that want to be the first movers, right?

Those that want to get involved, learn the technology.

Because you also got to consider it this way, Scott, this is going to be the dumbest AI that we have.

You know, right now at this point in history-- - Oh, wow.

This is going to be the dumbest version of the AI.

It's only going to advance.

It's only going to get better.

Even me personally, some of the things that I was doing a year and a half ago, are completely useless because cloud code, you know, or another type of function does it for me now.

I don't even have to do some of those things.

So, you know, the reality of it is, is that it is beneficial.

And I think that those that are more, um, flexible and that are willing to say, okay, well, I could see the benefits in this and I have some flexibility because I can't hire somebody.

So let me just try to figure this out.

I think they're going to see some-some real big benefits from that.

For you-- - Yeah.

- Personally, what's the coolest thing that you've been able to either build, solve, accomplish using AI?

I'm just curious.

- Yeah.

And that's hard to uh... yeah, that's hard to say because it keeps on changing so fast.

Um, out of fun right now, what I'm building, and I just never would have-- Now, mind you, Scott, like, I don't come from a- a coder, developer, software engineer background.

I don't come from any of that.

So all of this was completely new to me just a couple of years ago when I really started getting into it.

And so right now, one of the projects that I'm building out is a booking app.

So like a Priceline, it's like basically you can go book, you can book, uh, hotels all around, you know, the world and it's just hotels right now because there's different functions for like flights and rental cars and things like that.

But just the idea that I can create my own version of Priceline, um... - That is amazing.

- Yeah.

And one last thing with that.

This is the one I haven't- I haven't integrated it yet.

I'm building out all the infrastructure for that.

And then the next version of it is going to be basically monitoring and scraping, uh, real time data for cheap flights out of, you know, your local city.

So you'll be able to put in your local city and it will constantly monitor these discounted flights.

They come up, hey, you want to go to Boston $100 bucks, you know, itll-- and it'll give you alerts if you just like flying around the country.

- All right, watch out United Airlines.

Very quickly.

How do people find AI Collective.

- Yeah.

So you can go to sac, sacAICollective.com.

You could also, connect with me on LinkedIn.

I'm very big on LinkedIn, Jesse Delgado, and all of the things are posted on there.

And I would love to hear from you if you're interested.

- All right.

Thank you.

And, uh, look for- look forward to your, uh, competitor to all the airlines.

That's next.

And that's our show.

Thanks to our guest and thanks to you for watching Studio Sacramento.

I'm Scott Syphax.

See you next time, right here on KVIE.