What’s this all about?

In a world in which people provide their data and engagement to corporations in exchange for some kind of fractional entertainment or app that is entirely beyond their control and management, Artificial Frost gives us the ability to take back control and ownership of our data and its use.

In the world of Artificial Frost, you get all the new modern tools powered by your data, and those tools truly belong to you.

But why this?

I believe that in any part of society in which AI becomes prominent we will see a crisis in confidence, caused by the erosion in skill and wisdom that comes when 'everything is done for you', or we simply spend hours of every day scrolling through an infinity of slight entertainments.

Where things are done for us without our input or control, the relevant wisdom and skill atrophies and we become dependent.

In a world where the only skill required is clicking a button labeled "Next", the only skill we'll be left with is clicking a button labeled "Next", and the only tool we'll be able to operate is one with a button labeled "Next".

I believe that wisdom is what enables us to be appropriately confident because it gives us capabilities that we truly own.

Now, the Emps of Artificial Frost will do whatever tasks you set for them. You're in control, not me. But the Emps that I'm interested in will help you become more wise and skilled, just as a good coach or mentor would do.

The best Emps will help you improve yourself or your conditions in some way and then make themselves redundant, because the wisdom they impart will live inside of you. They'll live on long after your phone battery has died.

A StAF of Emps can enable you to be more productive, healthy and balanced and in control of your destiny.

Technology that we can't control, no matter how cool it seems initially, is ultimately a negative influence. Every employee serves its boss. If you're not the boss, you're the Emp.

I believe that where we see excessive dependence on technology and apps, we see time wasted without reward, a lack of balance and control, and inevitably anxiety and an ebbing of confidence. Life becomes as small and limited as the screen of a phone.

I am not immune to the temptations of our modern information landscape, where the news is always "breaking", and a notification ("Something New and Improved") is just a refresh away. But I can tell you that it's easy to resist these temptations when the universe of Artificial Frost is available to you.

In the world of Artificial Frost, the thing that's new and improved, is you.

I'm not doing this because I'm interested in how smart and capable AI can be, I'm interested in how smart and capable we, the real people, can be. That's why it's worth all this time and effort to me.

Why me?

(and BTW, who “me”?)

I’m James Thorburn, and Artificial Frost is my mission in life.

For 20 years I worked in a corporation, designing, implementing and running a set of enterprise data management solutions. Most of my days were spent in the trenches with my team, devising new methods of getting and providing data. In a corporation, who doesn’t love data? Everybody loves data.

But as an individual, I realized that I (and most people) don’t love data - not in its native form. Furthermore, the key insight that led to Artificial Frost is that with all the statistical and AI components that have become so easily accessible, I could design a solution in which data would drive action. If those actions served me, as an individual - well, that would be pretty cool.

In the world of Artificial Frost, you start with an action that you want taken, and then you ask which data could drive that action, given a suitable algorithm. We wrap those three things into an Emp. (you can see examples here)

This is the Employee Model of AI - you hire an Emp with a single purpose. You keep it, change it or discard it based on its ability to fulfill that single purpose.