Welcome to AI Log

I write about how the technologies we call artificial intelligence shape our work as educators and how we might, in turn, shape those technologies to make our institutions better.

Here, you will find writing about my experience with large language models in the classroom, how books are still the best educational technology for understanding complex ideas, why treating AI models as human-like makes it harder to understand their potential as educational tools, and other explorations of how technology is changing education.

What is AI Log? is the best thing I have written about what and why I write.

People find AI Log through reader recommendations. Please share if you find what I write interesting or valuable.

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Why subscribe?

All the content here is free, so subscribing simply means each post goes directly to your email inbox. I will never share your email address, but if I depart Substack, I will use it to let you know where to find my writing.

Follow me on Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Substack Notes if you are into that sort of thing. In addition to links to each essay, I post commentary on writing and writers that I find interesting.

AI Log speaks

Some of the best essays on AI Log started as invited talks. You can find out more about my speaking engagements on my website and on LinkedIn.

Book me for your next AI in education conference or campus AI summit!

AI Log consults

Speaking gigs and teaching don’t pay much, and I don’t put AI Log behind a paywall, so my work as a consultant pays most of the bills. I worry that this will lead my readers to think I am a shill or, worse, a social media influencer.

Getting paid influences me. How could it not? Plus, I write about educational technology in hopes of influencing how people use it. That includes influencing the people who build the technology. So, maybe I am a social media influencer?

There is not much in the way of transparency in the world of consulting and social media. I figure the best way to change that is by example, so I keep a page on my website where I disclose which educational technology companies pay me. I wrote about my approach to these issues here.

Why do you call this thing AI Log?

I chose the name because I wanted to log my impressions of AI over time, think captain’s log on Star Trek without the captain or the stardates.

The name is an homage to the best blog joke ever. Bob Loblaw, a lawyer on the television show Arrested Development, played by Scott Baio, writes the "Bob Loblaw Law Blog."

Rob’s AI Log Blog is not a good joke. But it is inspired by one, and I need you to know that.

The AI Log is a metaphor or a trope or something. Read this post where I explain the name AI Log by telling two stories, one from 1871 and one from 1967.

Also…

AI Log is better than bad. It’s GOOD!

Where did you get that cool logo and the other graphical elements of your blog?

I don’t use AI generators to create images for this blog. You can read why here.

Phil Scroggs, a designer and illustrator based in Seattle, created the logo, banner, and wordmark (I had to ask him what that meant) for this Substack. He also took some of the photographs you see on the blog. He also designed my snazzy website.

We collaborate on illustrations and visual elements for my talks and this blog. By collaborate, I mean I say words to him and he turns them into fun images. My writing aims at uncovering new and better analogies for the technologies we call artificial intelligence. Visualizing metaphors is important to that process, so I am grateful to have a collaborator who thinks in images.

If you are starting out on Substack or want to improve your graphics for an existing site, I highly recommend working with Phil. Check out his work out at Phillustrations.com.

Who are you?

My name is Rob Nelson. For a while now, I have been teaching courses in cultural and educational history that explore how gender roles, slavery, technology, and social justice movements have shaped institutions and individuals in North America. Lately, I have been writing and giving talks exploring the educational value of generative AI, how it is changing education, and what we should do about it.

For nearly two decades, my day job was with a fully accredited university located in southeastern Pennsylvania and offering degrees at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels.1 There, I led university-wide projects to implement academic information systems for course evaluation, curriculum management, graduate admissions, learning management, and student records. Being a bureaucrat shaped how I think about technology in ways that are important to my writing and teaching.

Before Penn, I worked at Rutgers University as an academic advisor, taught first-year writing courses, served a year as a visiting assistant professor of American Studies, directed a program for Japanese students studying in the US, and pursued—and received, although it was a close call—a PhD in American History.

Before that, I lived in Athens, Ga, where I thought about writing novels or maybe for the movies. While there, I attended classes at UGA long enough that I earned a BA in comparative literature. On several occasions, I drank coffee sitting near Michael Stipe but never talked to him. I did talk to Bill Berry and Mike Mills once, though, hanging out in the back alley of the Georgia Bar.

I grew up in Augusta, GA, known as the birthplace of James Brown and the home of the Masters Golf Tournament. There is also this Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song.

Why Substack?

As it gets tougher to make a living as a writer, some of my favorite journalists, novelists, and cultural critics have started publishing on Substack. Even though I don’t charge to read AI Log, I publish here to support writers being paid for their work and in hopes that my writing finds an audience.

That said, Substack is funded by venture capitalists, and they will eventually want a return. That means it is likely that this platform will become unpleasant, either gradually or all at once. If this happens (plan for the worst), I will depart for another platform. If an open digital platform for writers and readers emerges (hope for the best), I will depart for that greener pasture. For now, I am happy to take advantage of the largess of Andreessen Horowitz.