1.4 | The 'jagged frontier'

The fourth issue of the Monthly Spectrum

I first heard AI referred to as the “jagged frontier,” a term invented by Penn Wharton professor Ethan Mollick and his coauthors back in what he calls the “ancient AI days of 2023,” in a Lunch With Leaders workshop led by Penn Medicine’s Chief Data & Analytics Officer Srinivas Sridhara, PhD, MHS, and cardiologist-informaticist, Srinath Adusumalli, MD, MSHP.

Fittingly “jagged” because AI’s capabilities are unevenly distributed, with some areas of superhuman performance alongside others of basic function failure—a lot like what you see with neurodivergence, or at least with my AuDHD profile and in the life and career I’m building around it.

So far, so personal

The Monthly Spectrum has touched on some pretty personal topics:

• 1.1, about the identity crisis of “becoming” autistic in your 30s.

• 1.2., about checking into inpatient to get sober (over 60 days now).

• 1.3, about how I protect the “human” in the brand of my AI publication.

Writing each issue and other Substack pieces are staple in my practice of dropping the mask, and now almost 200 kindred and curious spirits (and apparently my former boss’s boss’s boss) follow along online.

This issue, 1.4, is about what can happen when you do that.

Autistic SEO: Soul engine optimization

I’ve historically left special interests like AI adoption and neurodivergent accessibility off of my LinkedIn profile. I tried to be as palatable a professional on paper as possible: “writer,” “editor,” “comms lead.”

But once people showed in-public interest for ai.tism, and once a podcast pilot I proposed in extension of it was approved by the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, my SEO changed (literally and spiritually).

“Mending the division between who I’ve made myself legible as and who I actually am”: the very purpose of rediscovery post-diagnosis (which I’ll tell you is a pilgrimage, if you haven’t experienced it yourself). Part of that rediscovery was simply putting those parts of myself—like this publication and the podcast—on my professional profile.

Less than a week later, a recruiter in search of a bizarrely specific set of skills happened upon that freshly updated profile, along with the job description for a new open position: AI adoption coordinator.

We first spoke on April Fool’s. The imposter in me is still waiting for the cameras that capture the prank. In the meantime, I’ve accepted this career-changing opportunity and said some of the hardest goodbyes to my incredible colleagues at Penn Medicine.

While I focus on building and supporting communities of practice at a new organization right on AI’s jagged frontier, I'll also continue researching, writing, and podcasting for ai.tism. (I wouldn't have been discovered without it).

I have taken a beat to get my affairs in order for the transition, though, so I'm putting paid sub charges on hold for the next two months (i.e., existing paid subscribers get two months free), and I hope subscribers old and new, paid and free, are as stoked as I am for what's to come! Thank you for following along.

Find some first-week reflections on “What women have to do with it” beyond the paywall, below the engagement buttons.

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What women have to do with it

As I drove into my new workspace, I repeated the names of the people I'd met so far in my head: Derek, Kenny, Adam, Kevin, Rob, Zack, and David, my boss—to realize, I'd never had a male boss before.