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(REAL) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
by Tony Lamair Burks II EdD

I’ve been reflecting on how many people treat AI like it just showed up yesterday with ChatGPT, when the truth is—it’s been around us for decades. We’ve just gotten used to it working quietly in the background.

Think about it:

When Amazon started recommending products you hadn’t searched for but somehow needed—that was AI.
When Gmail suggested full sentences to finish your emails—that was AI.
When Netflix started knowing your taste in movies before you could explain it—that was AI, too.

Voice assistants, smart maps, fraud alerts, digital photo albums that recognize faces, even vacuums that learn your floor plan—it’s all been AI.

What’s different now is that these systems are starting to talk back, generate content, and feel more like collaborators. That’s what feels new. But the intelligence itself? It’s been here—learning, adapting, working invisibly.

We’ve been interacting with AI for years. The current moment just makes it harder to ignore. The real work now is figuring out how we show up with intention, clarity, and ethical awareness in how we engage these tools—and how we prepare others around us to do the same.

For context, here’s a timeline that helps put it all in perspective:

A Timeline of AI and Computing: From Foundational Work to Today

1940s–1970s: Programming Pioneers and Automating Logic
• 1943–1958 – The West Area Computers, a team of African‑American women including Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson, and Mary Jackson, perform critical human-computation at NACA Langley.
• 1949–1960s – Dorothy Vaughan, a West Area Computers supervisor, teaches herself Fortran and supports the transition to electronic computing.
• 1955–1989 – Annie Easley serves as a human computer, then programmer at NASA, contributing to battery research, hybrid vehicle modeling, and the Centaur rocket.

1950s–1960s: Foundations and Human Computing
• 1950 – Alan Turing introduces the concept of machine intelligence in “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.”
• 1956 – “Artificial Intelligence” is officially named at the Dartmouth Conference.
• 1959–1969 – Katherine Johnson, mathematician at NASA, performs hand-calculated orbital trajectory computations for Mercury and Apollo missions—foundational to aerospace and early computation.
• 1966 – ELIZA, an early chatbot program, is developed at MIT.

1970s–1980s: Rules-Based AI and Early CS Advances
• 1972–1980s – Expert systems (MYCIN, DENDRAL) emerge, applying logic to medical and scientific domains.
• 1969–1972 – Clarence “Skip” Ellis, the first African-American to earn a CS PhD, contributes to collaborative software.
• 1981 – Deborah Washington Brown becomes the first Black woman with a U.S. CS PhD.
• 1982 – Marsha Rhea Williams earns a CS doctorate and advances database technologies.

1990s: AI Goes Mainstream in Infrastructure
• 1994 – Credit card fraud detection systems begin using AI.
• 1997 – IBM’s Deep Blue defeats chess champion Garry Kasparov.
• Late 1990s – Spam filters, office autocorrect, and grammar checkers integrate AI logic.

2000s: AI as Everyday Technology
• 2001 – Roomba introduces AI-based vacuum navigation.
• 2002 – Amazon launches AI-driven product recommendations.
• 2006 – Netflix launches personalized recommendation engines.
• 2007–2009 – Smartphones incorporate predictive text and facial recognition.

2010s: The Era of Large Scale AI Applications
• 2011 – Siri debuts as a consumer-facing voice assistant.
• 2012 onward – Deep learning transforms image recognition, influencing healthcare and automotive industries.
• 2014–2016 – AI powers news feeds, targeted ads, customer-service bots, and robo-advisors.

2020s: Generative AI and Ethical Leadership
• 2020 – OpenAI releases GPT‑3, enabling advanced text generation.
• 2021 – Multimodal AI models combine text, vision, and speech.
• 2021 – Timnit Gebru is dismissed from Google after publishing critical work on AI bias; she then co-founds the Distributed AI Research Institute.
• 2022 – ChatGPT reaches 100 million users within two months.
• 2023–2025 – Stephanie Dinkins explores AI equity through art; Adji Bousso Dieng advances probabilistic deep models; both are influential voices in ethical AI.

ABOUT TODAY (I GO TO WORK)

I received a message Sunday evening from my friends at the Associated Builders and Contractors of Georgia. Their Future Leaders Program had hit a snag—one of the trainers couldn’t make it for Tuesday’s session, and they asked me to step in a month ahead of my scheduled time. I agreed to help out Then things changed later and the trainer decided to show up and present her topic. Then yesterday afternoon, when things changed again, I said yes.

Yes to supporting rising leaders in the construction industry (My maternal grandfather, ML Potter, is definitely smiling knowing I’m coaching and training builders and contractors).

Yes to offering the Feedback Factor framework to equip others with tools for communication that inspires, clarifies, and connects (I hit them with a “perspectives” exercise I did in a few of my Early Civilizations classes over the years—my USN students thought I’d borrowed it from Dead Poets Society—I hadn’t seen the movie, so I had no idea)!

I am grateful for the trust, and honored to be part of building what’s next.

WE’RE #1 😏

Okay, not yet—but we’re one-ish and climbing!

📚 We Listen and We Don’t Judge: School Edition just hit
#16 in Educator Biographies
#80 in Educational Certification & Development!

If you’ve already purchased your copy—THANK YOU!

If you haven’t yet—your click could take us to #1 (And trust me, we belong there, so lift us up!).

Show up. Show out.
Let’s make some (bestseller) noise!

🛒 Grab yours at http://www.wlawdj.net or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/We-Listen-Dont-Judge-School/dp/1954556373/

WORD UP!

🔥 Educators, leaders, and truth-tellers are calling We Listen and We Don’t Judge everything from “honest and heartfelt” to “essential reading.” One even said I write like a mentor and a novelist…I mean… 📚✨

The streets (and the staff lounges) are talking: this book tells it like it “T.I.S ‘tis.”…NO CAP!

If you’re ready for stories that make you feel, think, and shift—go ahead and click that link. 👇🏾

www.wlawdj.net

RIGHT ON TIME

While a few days late, this book is definitely not a dollar short.

Heartfelt, unfiltered, and long overdue—my latest book, We Listen and We Don’t Judge: School Edition shows up and shows out.

Get your popcorn AND your pencil or pen. Listen. Don’t judge. And learn.

It feels good!

Available now (paperback and hardcover) at www.wlawdj.net and Amazon.

COMING OUT

I’m so excited.

It’s only a few hours until my latest book is out in the world! 📚🌍

It’s for leaders who’ve sat in their cars after a hard day and asked,
“Is it just me?” 🤔

No, it’s not just you, and this is your book! 📖





⏳🚗🖤📚

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PORTABLE MENTOR

“Mentor in a book.” That’s what an early reader called my forthcoming book.

This project was shaped by 30+ years of listening, learning, and leading.

If you work with assistant principals, coaches, principals, superintendents, or aspiring leaders, this book’s for you!

SCHOOL DAYZ

Are you hooked on Abbott Elementary? Have you ever wondered what REALLY happens behind the scenes at a school?

This book isn’t about TV drama.
It’s about real leadership.
Real risk.
Real people.

It belongs on every educator’s shelf.
Order your copy this weekend—and get one for a friend!









⏳🚗🖤📚

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