Leslie has 40 years in software engineering. He wrote safety-critical aviation code for the Airbus A321 with no internet, no code libraries, and no AI. And he still cannot stop exploring what comes next.

That context matters. Because when Leslie talks about AI, he is not speculating. He has watched this story unfold in real time across four decades. That is a perspective you cannot fake.

One thing that landed early was the parrot analogy. When you ask AI a question, it tokenises your input into numbers and predicts what tokens to send back. It has no concept of what the words mean. It is doing what the parrot in the pet shop does when the door opens. It says hello because it heard other people say hello. It does not know what hello means.

That sounds simple. But sit with it for a moment. Because it changes how you think about the frustration you feel when AI gives you something that seems completely wrong. It is not being careless. It genuinely does not know what it is saying to you.

The conversation about AI and art stayed with me too. If you use AI to create work in the style of Rembrandt and sell it as something of value, Leslie made the point plainly. If you were doing that with a paintbrush and an easel, we would call it forgery. So what is it when you do it with AI?

But there is another side. Leslie cannot draw. If he wanted to create a children's book, previously he would have had to find and instruct an illustrator, which would have taken time and effort he did not have. AI changes that. It is not aping anyone's style. It is enabling something that simply would not have existed otherwise. The question is not just can we. It is what are we creating, and for whom.

And then there is the bigger picture. Before mechanisation, most people in most countries worked on the land. That changed. Offices may be next. Leslie's view is that ultimately this comes down to consumer choice, not businesses. Businesses optimise for shareholder value. If it is cheaper to use AI, they will. What we choose to buy, and who from, is where the real lever sits.

The raging river analogy was the one I keep thinking about. It is moving so fast and changing direction constantly. But as Leslie said, if you are in the boat, you have got a chance of travelling along the river.

Get in the boat.

This was made with humans.

Your host - Shaun Phillips

Editor: Glen Boswell
https://astralforgefilm.com
https://www.instagram.com/thebozzyman

Original music composed and produced by Brokli - https://youtube.com/@iambrokli

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