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AI: From Protest to Proposal
AI can help shape smarter arguments, whether for social media or a town hall hearing.
Connie Connors
July 27, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
AI as a Diffuser (and time saver)
Recently, I found myself in the middle of a heated debate—though not one I started. A childhood friend posted something on social media that irked me so much that I couldn’t sleep. My usual remedy is to bolt out of bed and start writing; a potentially lengthy process without a satisfying response. So instead, I asked ChatGPT to draft a response. It worked. Why? The counterargument was now clear in my mind, so much so that it diffused my ajita, and I no longer needed to post it. |  |
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EVERYDAY AI TO TRY
Local Rallies: Daily civil wars
My small town is protesting a proposed energy project, and like many such battles, the arguments are emotionally charged, scattered across Facebook comment threads, yard signs, and tense public meetings. Basic definitions are unclear. When you say safety is a concern (regarding buried electrical wires), do you really mean health and wellness?
What if we could sharpen the signal and soften the noise? What if we had a way to gather all the real concerns, identify what’s fact and what’s fiction, and propose something smarter than just “yes” or “no”? Basics of conflict resolution, right?
Struggling to get a clear understanding from my neighbors, I asked ChatGPT to map the concerns, organize the common values, and dive into the policy background. In minutes, it gave me a clear outline of the risks, alternatives (counter arguments are critical), stakeholder priorities, and language to bridge the emotional divide.
AI can help transform protests into proposals and complaints into campaigns, by organizing what we already know, fear, and hope—faster and without ego.
PROMPTS
Asking AI a question that produces a worthwhile result is a learning process. Professor Mind (that’s me, so “PM” going forward) believes that the basic foundation of AI literacy is how to query. In the future, I’ll give you experiments (like crafting a counterargument) as well as review the various AI tools to use for desired outcomes. Many of you are familiar with ChatGPT. But there are so many other tools, with new ones launching daily. I’ll curate the most useful ones in terms of the most time-efficient and effective real-world applications.
ALMOST PROFOUND
What’s not profound? The naming of AI apps. And the verbs and attributes. One AI app, Grok, from the company X (yes…) is known by some to hallucinate (Google’s definition here; the Almost Intelligent Urban Dictionary is forthcoming.) AI can simulate companions — I know people who call ChatGPT, “my girlfriend” — but hallucinate just feels like the wrong word. I’ll profile examples of hallucinating soon, but it’s not like AI ate a big adult gummy.
Until Next Time
Stay curious, try AI to keep calm, and remember, almost intelligent is more than enough.
Connie