I hate asking what people do for work. It's what makes your heart happy. AI is such a good tool from a disability and even just like an advocacy standpoint, because if there's stuff that's missing that you can't have, that can fill in some of the gaps for you.
Welcome to the Seize the Ya Podcast. Busy and happy are not the same thing. We too rarely question what makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than one way. So this is a platform to hear and explore the stories of those who found lives they adore, the good, bad and ugly. The best and worst day
will bear all the facets of Seizing your Yea. I'm Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned fu entrepreneur whos wapped the suits and heels to co found matcha Maiden and matcha Milk Bar. Sez the Ya is a series of conversations on finding a life you love and exploring the self doubt, challenge, joy and fulfillment
along the way yighborhood. One of my favorite things about this show is the incidental opportunity it gives me to learn about things I don't really understand from the people who find their yay in making it their area of expertise. I often refer to my selfish motivations in approaching particular guests to pick their brains about things that fascinate me. And an episode on AI has been brewing for some time.
I think many of you will resonate with AI seeping more and more into your life, and in my case, at least a little quicker than my understanding of it has been able to develop. I'm surrounded by content on how it can change your life and productivity for the better, but also how it'll replace us all by tomorrow. So I wanted a guest who not only understands it well, but is known for being able to make that information
digestible to the everyday person. Enter Lauren Dennett, who I was lucky to meet through my partnership with HP, who has helped me better grasp and therefore harness the power of HP's AI technologies in such a big way. Lauren is the product expert for HP among many other titles, and I think you'll be able to hear within minutes
even of our chat just how passionate. They are about the power of AI and empowering all of us to reap its benefits in our day to day lives, from busting common misconceptions to naming KEYAI powered tools that can
change your work or change your personal life. Even we are so lucky to have Lauren here demystifying it all weaved, of course, around Lauren's own path yay, including as you can hear from their pronouns, their non binary identity, their experience of inclusion, and their passionate advocacy in the workplace. I hope you all enjoy and learn as much from this episode as I did. Lauren, Hello, Welcome to CEZA.
You so so much. It's so good to be here.
It's so weird. I feel like we know each other really well because we've spoken a lot online, but this is our first IRL interaction. It's like we're besties.
I think we are besties. So now I'm questioning our relationship at this point.
I am not. I am comfortable with the beautiful relationship that we have, and I'm really excited to have you here. We have already gone very rogue before we started recording, so yeah, well, we'll distill all the wisdom that exists in your brain. Your brain is one, as I mentioned in the intro, that I'm very excited to pick for so many reasons, but a very big part of CZA
is the idea that the best pathways are neverlinear. And even though now it is so clear within million seconds of speaking to you that you are so passionate about what you do and that you're in exactly the place that you're meant to be in this world, it's never a straight line to get there, and there's often so many chapters to get there before that. So I want to go back to young you sort of the first
jobs that you had. I think we all think about those jobs that we want to have when we grow up, and you know, I think one of the things we often say is the job you'll have eventually might not even exist at the time that you know you're having these hopes and dreams, which in your case is definitely the case, because AI is very very news. So what did you think you'd be when you were younger?
I was talking to my partner about this last night because I was like, how do I summarize this in a funny way? So basically, young me had this grand idea. I wanted to be a creative. I wanted the chance to sort of like put things on paper, and I wanted to be an architect. However, I have afantasia or afantasia where I can't picture things.
What.
Yeah, so I recently found out people, you're in a room, right, So right now, I'm going to challenge you. Think about a room. I want you to picture a ball in that room. Okay, what does that ball look like? It is a black squishy stress ball.
Okay, that has this logo on it that's on your microphone. Because this is what we've just been speaking about before, that we need a stress squishy ball to have something to do with our hands. And that's what the ball is in the room. Amazing, straight to my head the picture. What does the table look like? It is a black like matt aluminium leg table and it matches the black ball that sitting in the middle of it.
Yeah.
Cool.
Do you want to know what I see? Nothing? Abyss nothing stop it. So as as you can tell, as a young person wanting to be an architect, I have a complete disadvantage and I think it's rude. So anyway, wait, hold on, so you can't. I can't see anything, and I didn't know that wasn't normal. So now when I talk to people, it's like, you know, when you meet someone, you're like, what do you do for work? And obviously it's a really weird one because immediately you start judging
people and what they do. So I hate asking what people do for work. It's what makes your heart happy. But sometimes it's.
What do you see?
Do you see this ball?
Let this ball look like the table look like? E Matually? What are we in?
Is their noise canceling everywhere? Like? Is it bright?
Is its improved? Bring me to your room?
I don't have a room, see Lauren, that is so interesting.
So long story short, baby Lauren could not, unfortunately, be an architect because it was.
Never going to work fair enough.
I mean, if you can't visualize things, unless you were designing like a brutalist escape room that was just black, in which case you'd be a made I.
Think I thrive in that, honestly, I think it really was so just the aspect of watching people struggle.
Ye.
So I've got the creativity and I've got the passion, but the problem is I don't have the visualization. It just doesn't exist in my head. So I can recall things from memory, but I can't make it up on the spot. It just doesn't exist. So yeah, past me
couldn't do that. But as my career kind of grew, like I was one of those kids where I grew up in the Mornington Peninsula, there wasn't a lot of opportunity there, so I didn't really know what options there were, and so classic me, I went to TAVE tried to figure that out, studied web design and thought, you know, maybe this is what I want to do. Terrible at that because naturally you can't picture things, so you.
Can't recall things.
So even studying going to school, it just wasn't helpful for me. So I took a gap year, went to JB High Fi, went to you know, started doing retail work, selling my soul because I love talking to people, and I realized I really wish there was a job where
I could just talk for a living. And so through JB High Fi and through that there was like all these opportunities to learn from brands and so so I'm not going to name names, but there was a gentleman that was this absolute catalyst for how I got to my job. The way that he performed, the way that he presented, and the way that he talked about product and his passion. I was like, I want to be that person. I absolutely willed it. So when I was twenty one, I'm now thirty three, thirty.
Four, My god, just skin's amazing, My god, thank you so much. I'm in the tangents.
Oh we already off track, but this is great, just.
Let it go. But yeah, So twenty one year old me got presented to by this person, and so I had this thing where I was like, I want to be this person. And now I look at it, and that person was the key presenter, the product expert for HP.
Yeah, chill act.
So I don't know how I willed it, but basically my trajectory went from working in retail. I decided I wanted to then go and do the natural progression from retailers. Either you go do this really weird sales job, you go be a car salesperson or a real estate agent, or you go into rapping. So I went into wrapping. I then started going into my retailers and then getting the chance to sort of again build up my confidence in talking to people, and I guess, recalling information and
more importantly just bringing my passion. And so I got to do that, and then as that started to grow, randomly, this job popped up. This guy he decided to leave his job, and I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna give it a go. It's my time to shine, literally, and so I had my interview. I had no qualifications. I was just really good at shit talking. Excuse my language. I was really good at talking, and so naturally I
got really lucky. I had a four round interview and next thing, you know, the guy that hired me took a chance, and I'm here four years later.
Oh my god, talking as part of your job. Yeah, product expert for HP eally chills.
So that's how I got to where I am now, and it's what I planned. Never really existed, but it did. I didn't know that this was a thing, and then once I saw that person, I was like, I want to be you in a non creepy way. Of course,
there I am. I'm doing that job, and even what I saw versus what I'm doing now is so different, Like I never would have thought that in my role I'd be sitting here talking to someone amazing, like yourself that also interviews incredible souls like again talking back to your True Crime interview badly, like I was like, I have imposter syndrome? What am I doing here? How in the world am I sitting in the same table as all these famous people, like even the bloody Purple Wiggle, Like,
I'm sorry, word, how am I in this room right now? So, yeah, it's such an incredible opportunity. So again, thank you for having me and liked being able to speak to who I am and my current passions in HP Oh.
It is such an incredible privilege, not only because you can tell, as I said immediately, how excited you are about what you do. And my passion is talking to people about what they're passionate about, because nothing lights a person up like them finding their yay and actually doing it, but also reminding people that, yeah, it's never straightforward to
get there. And I think your story is so powerful for so many reasons because it's already touched on the fact that you can't become something if you haven't seen it. And I think visibility my show aims to tell stories so that someone listening goes I didn't know that job was possible. I want to be that you can't aim for something you don't know. Is there exactly sliding doors moments meeting the right person? And also the role of luck. You said you got lucky. I don't think you got lucky.
I think there's luck and timing plays a role, but I also think you do manifest things for yourself, and by putting yourself forward that wasn't lucky. You actually stepped through the discomfort to put your name forward and then you got it. But you couldn't have got the job
unless you went for it. But the most important thing that stood out for me in that is how we silo ourselves based on the things we can and can't do from a very young age, and you not being able to visualize things could have easily made you believe you weren't clever.
Absolutely, I genuinely thought I was stupid.
Yeah, because you couldn't do just one aspect of the brain's capacity. But I almost want to cry thinking about without those sliding doors moments, how you might never have discovered that you're incredibly clever. It's just a different form offer.
Yeah, absolutely, And honestly I don't think like thinking back to my high school days thinking back to other students similar to myself, like I would have benefited wholeheartedly doing more of like a tape style hands on because I learned by doing. I don't learn by listening, And so high school is very much like a how well can you recite what you've learned? It's not how smart you are,
And so unfortunately I was at a disadvantage. So most of my high school life I just turned up, put my name on a test, and then walked away and barely passed. But where I am now in my career, I never would have thought that I'd be a successful person. I never would have seen myself in a role like this where I'm able to empower others. So it's so fulfilling.
Like I'm so proud and so proud to work for HP and have people within HP trust me enough to come and have a talk to you as well and represent the brand is amazing.
Oh I love that. And I do think for anyone listening who has tried to fit themselves in the wrong shaped hole and it's made them reflect on their intelligence or capabilities in a way that they think, well, I can't do that, so I can't do anything you just need to keep trying. You'll find something like someone out there is looking for exactly what you have. That's the quote I always come back to, and I'm so excited that you have found that and obviously thriving doing it.
But it is true that another part of this show is the idea that I don't also want to ask people what they do as the first question. I want to ask what's your yea? What lights you up? I don't want it to be our whole identity, but it is important to understand what you do so that others could aim for this role in the future. How do you describe it? Because it is so multifaceted, like.
What do you do? Look, if I want to tell you my formal role is HP's lead trainer and content manager, and then that asterisk field team manager Asterisk you know, pr person, I guess or hype guy for HP. But honestly, I love.
Dog shirt wearer extraordinare I.
Honestly the coul shirt guy? That's so fine too.
Honestly, whatever the official one I found on LinkedIn.
I thought, I thank you, I'm s It's fine. Please, I'll make sure to put that as a skill. Yeah, pull shirt where I know, I was tossing up to I go dog shirt or caterpillars today, but I thought, doc sh.
I mean it says a lot. I think dog immediately ingratiating yourself with me, I'm like, this is good, thank you.
Thank you so much. Also, I realized I've also done a few bit of other works with the same shirts, so that's fine.
I just pretend that to sustainable sustainable fashion.
Absolutely. Anyway back to your main question though, what is my role? So formally, I'm going to call it HP hype guy, but also product expert for consumer products. So whenever you go into a retail store, you go online, you see HP products, whether it be our HP laptops and premium, our own gaming laptops, polyhead sets, Hyperrex for gaming, all of the above pattern pending no, I'm just.
Like, where are they? This is like literally an accident that we both turned out with ours.
I mean, I personally am I have a wee bit of the tismism, so being able to walk around in public and stuff is really hard for me. Sometimes loud noises can be really hard, so I actually use these to block out the world. I find it really easy to walk around with a podcast. That way, I'm dictating what is going through my ears rather than loud jarring noises, and I find myself creping a lot more with my day to day when I have noise canceling headphones on.
So that was unintentional, but here we are talking about it.
I didn't think about that use case. For me. It was more like block out my child screaming. But you know, multifaceted either.
Way, same end goal.
But you know what, I love that. But yeah, so long story, short product type guy, HP person. When it comes down to all things consumer product.
That's amazing me and you have already. I mean that is how we met, is through you explaining and unlocking so many benefits for me. I mean everyone knows I try to jam too much into my life. I am constantly I call it optimism really about time, but I mean often to my detriment. But you have really unlocked I had all these devices, but wasn't sort of optimizing the way that I use them. And you've unlocked so much. I'm so excited to have you to explain to so
many people how they can enhance their workflows. And I mean time is our biggest commodity and the thing that we struggle the most with. But before we get to that, another thing that I find really important on this show is to humanize the person behind the role as well, because that's a really big thing. And something that's beautiful about HP is that you weren't just introduced to me in your role in terms of what you actually do
skills wise. It was also part of your identity in the organization and your advocacy for inclusion in the workplace, and also your personal journey that you've been through being a non binary and even I mean, as everyone's heard in the intro, your pronouns are they them? And that's relatively unfamiliar in a lot of workplaces and for a lot of you know, the generations who are coming through now. So can you talk to us a little bit about that part of your experience and yeah, how you've navigated
when you came out and how it's been embraced. Yeah.
Absolutely, So I was really lucky, Like I still feel like I came out quite young in comparison to a lot of other people still finding their identity. So I came out when I was twenty one. I'm honestly so thankful that I had I was the right time, right place. Obviously, working at jbhi Fi definitely helped because there's a lot of fellow queers in the environment, which made me realize, oh, I think I'm like them. But I started up thinking I was a lesbian, thinking you know, I just I'm queer,
but still kind of questioning myself. And then I got to about twenty five and I met somebody that was non binary, and they explained, you know, I don't feel like I'm a male. I don't feel female. I maybe a fab or assigned female at birth, but I just don't feel like I fit into that. And so for me, I was like, that makes so much sense.
That's for me.
I was like, oh, my gosh. That Like again, it all comes down to there's no linear experience. It is just you know, as you experience it, realize oh that's an option, my gosh. And so obviously I then started researching it to make sure, because again it all comes back to imposter syndrome. It's one thing to say, yeah, great, I'm that, but really you really want to solidify that
before you started announcing it to people. But for me, as a non binary person, I am so genuinely proud to live my truth, to live who I am, and feel so safe and respected within my own like my workplace people, although I do get misgendered accidentally, but people
actively try. And it is still really new, like to understand what non binary means, and it is new to consider they them as a pronoun and a lot of people still as an English language, get really confused that that's not multiple people.
Yeah, exactly.
But then my question that people is like, okay, great, so let's just say a post person just dropped off a package to your front door. Did they deliver the package or did he she? And they're like, well they did because we don't know. I'm like, job done, ye, thank you so much.
No, I never put it that way.
Yeah, And it's just so easy to overcome that plural discussion, but people need to be open to it, and I think that's the hard part. They need to be open to that discussion. And so for me within HP, like, it's one thing to be the product type guy, but I'm kind of lucky because I also get to alongside a couple of other people within the business. I get to be the trendsetter in a way to helping these parents understand what non binary is, what being queer means
to me because my goal within HP. I'm a part of a business resource group called the Pride Network, and I'm also part of the Women's Impact Network, and so my goal within HP is also to help educate because everyone within our business is starting to have kids and their kids are starting to grow up, and I want them to be able to feel comfortable in having the tough conversations so that their children feel safe to come out, that they can have those safe conversations so that they
don't have the scenario that I kind of went through where I didn't feel safe. I didn't know how my parents were going to handle it. But if your parents come up to you and say, hey, how we feel in today? What's your pronouns? Can I just get engauge, like what are you feeling like? Could you imagine an environment where kids feel safe enough to do that, that they can just live their truth and not have to question or even come out like I think that that
would just be such a beautiful environment. And HP is a really great start because they are so what's the word, They're so passionate about people living their truth and feeling confident and comfortable. So yeah, I'm really really thankful that I have the ability to do that.
I think it really does come back to that similar parallel message of you can't step into something or a part of your identity or a role professionally or a label personally unless you've seen someone else do it, and someone has to be the brave person to do it first and navigate all the hard bits. There's so many hard bits to be the example to show, you know, younger generations, it's okay, this is what you might face, but these are the good parts, and these are you know,
these are the way you can have these conversations. And you're doing just such an incredible job kind of incorporating both your personal life and your professional life into this one beautiful role modeling. I mean, it's really powerful. Can make me cry over, yesad of it. Oh, I think you appreciate I really appreciate that.
I'm so proud. I'm genuinely so proud, especially when my mum I called my mom and like, hey, I did this today, You're proud of you. I'm like, thank you for putting that in my pot later, so that it's honestly it's it's genuinely so fulfilling in so many different avenues.
Yeah, and it's interesting that I think there is such a fear around people saying the wrong thing often. I mean there is like the small minority in society who are not you know, on the page and will not necessarily have the kindest things to say. But I think for the most part people are if they misstep, it's more because they're so scared about offending or being politically correct.
And I think it's really lovely that you have such a patience to be like if you're trying, it doesn't matter if you miss gender me because if you're open to me helping you to, you know, do it the right way. Then it's like, I think it's this fear that's creating a lot of difficulty.
And if I could leave one message for that, like don't hesitate, like try just just give it a red hot go It's okay if you mess up.
Yeah.
The important thing is if, for instance, as I mentioned, they them is my pronouns, if you call me she, that's okay, just don't harbor on it, because if you apologize and you harbor on it, it makes it awkward for all of us.
Yeah, you just say she.
I mean, they move on. I'm not even gonna say anything, if anything when it come up to you afterwards and say thank you so much for trying. Yeah, like it's okay. Yeah, genuinely, it makes my heart happier to see people trying then not even give it a go.
Yeah.
And if you're really anxious and you know somebody that their pronouns have changed from what you're used to, just use their name. Yeah, it's really not hard. Yeah, so's There's so many different different ways that you can approach these things, but to give somebody the time of day, honestly, I promise you that person will go home feeling elated and.
That you've tried.
Literally, Yeah, it makes my I will go home to my partner like I have beautiful souls like Chloe or like someone named Kat within my business who will literally go out of their way and will correct themselves, and I'll go home like this happened today when I talk to my partner and she just has like the biggest smile because again, we're just so appreciative that there are people in our lives that care enough to try.
Oh that's beautiful, and I think, yeah, fear is an emotion that does withhold us from a lot of things, so in a complete pivot, but also similar similar vein of that kind of fear. Another area that I've learned a lot from your is AI, and that is a topic of our conversation today because there's so much I mean, I feel like I've gone from hearing about it constantly but knowing nothing about how it works, just suddenly using it every day, but my understanding of it. I use
it without fully understanding how it's working. And I think all of us have been through that process of it's now in our lies everywhere, but our brain's ability to catch up with what it's doing has lagged. And you have explained a lot of things to me. You've got this incredible ability to distill the hectic science and techy explanations into like a lay person explanation. But I think there's a lot of fear and misinformation still about how
it's going to take over our lives. So can you start by debunking a few of the biggest misconceptions that we have, because I think fear is the first place that people go before they sort of they have to get over that to then go But look at all the amazing things that can do, Look at how it can change our lives. So yeah, maybe start with some of the things we might have heard in the media, like robots are going to take out of our lives by tomorrow.
I like, yeah, was it. They're going to control our lives, They're going to take our jobs, They're going to do all of these things. But the problem is, have you seen the AI renders of images with people with seven fingersally just evoke to you about that, referring back to your to your husband in that amazing video you did. Again, it's never going to be perfect because AI is only as smart as the people creating or prompting. So ultimately, it's not going to take our jobs. It's not smart enough.
Even if you were to get it to d like, for instance, we give you achine, say hey, here's the brief for today. You can ask it to read the brief, but it's still not going to be accurate without the right prompting of asking give me a brief. I need to know you know, A, B and C specifics on what is the actual key takeaways? What do I need from this? What do I need from this? If you're not specific in your requests of the AI to analyze.
It's going to be extremely confused. It's not going to know, and it's still yeah, it's using the clouds, so in other words, it's up and the never never using everyone else's brains to kind of give you a result. But it's still using millions and millions of points of data to try and assume what you want. So it's only
so smart. So really it's Yeah, it's some of the greatest minds put into one piece, but ultimately it's still just as important for you to make sure that you're asking the right things.
Yeah.
So no, it's not going to take our jobs. Yeah, it's going to make our lives a hell of a lot easier. And I find it funny because people are so scared of AI. But do you use Google Home, do you use Siri? Do you use Amazon? Like in the morning, I'm like, hey, can you set a timer for this please and thank you just in case there is an uprise. I want to back myself, but you know that's just me seeing a lot of horror movies. But ultimately I really don't see it being a problem.
We use it in our day to day lives without even realizing. So I think it's really just use it to your advantage. If you don't I want to use it, and you don't want to adopt AI, that's fine, but I promise you it'll actually make you more efficient. It will make your life so much easier if you give it a chance. But you've got to be willing again
to try. You've got a willing be willing to actually research what it is that you want out of this AI and how it is going to make your life easier, which is a fantastic tool, especially within our HP products because obviously I'm here to talk about HP I'm passionate about HP. We have our own HPAI companion where you can actually draw all these questions and make your life
easier and make yourself more efficient. Because you mentioned earlier like you are somebody that is very precious of your time. However you probably say yes to a thousand things like I've seen your podcast, I've seen your social media. Where you get the time is beyond me.
We as people.
There's this misconception back in the day when you're working that if you put in extra hours you're valued, you're going to be irreplaceable. But ultimately that's not the case. You need to value your time. You spend more time with your work colleagues than you do with the people you choose to love, your partners, your kids, whatever it may be. So if you can get time back using AI so you can spend it with the people you love, why wouldn't you.
One hundred percent? And I think, yeah, I if I had not so much fear, but if I had like confusion or any hesitation, as soon as I saw that time is my most precious commodity of any other value in my life. If it helps me get more of that and do everything I do the same button more efficiently, Like why wouldn't you?
Ually money comes and goes, times gone.
You can never make that back. Yeah, but you can optimize it. And I think that's really important. The kind of connected fear with it taking over our lives is whether or not it can I think there's a two concepts that they're kind of similar. Can it make the same decisions as a human brain? And can it be autonomous? And I think the big fear around saying please and thank you, that's been really big. I want to ask you that that's been a big thing in the news recently,
should you say please and thank you? Because can AI make decisions without you prompting it? And I think the answer is no, we still need human prompts. But I think the fear is that they're bubbling away. Your AI is bubbling away like judging you and getting ready to take over your life. Explained to us why that's not a concern, but why you might still say please and thank you.
I mean, let's be real. AI is still in its own state, kind of like a machine. It's not something that has a brain that thinks. So even saying please and thank you, that's just a word to AI. It doesn't actually have the emotion behind it. So that's just something I do just in case.
But realistically, I don't.
Look, this is my own personal opinion, but I really don't think it's gonna uprise and come for me. But I'm still backing myself. Yeah, but from like a standpoint of uprising and all of the fear mongering that we have, Look, people are the ones that are creating these AI bots, they're the ones that are teaching it, they're the ones
that are giving it reference points. So if there are any issues regarding that, these people can switch them off in a heartbeat, Like there are still some rigorous testing because there are people that are so curious, Like as people, we are naturally curious to see the what if. So there's probably people out there trying to build something, but they're also still in control. They're still controlling that they
can switch it off because AI needs power. If you don't give it, if you just flick the switch off and well, ultimately gone, I keep going. Yeah, again, that's that's my own personal opinion. Like maybe if they're I don't know, hooking it up to sustainable energy like Thula power, who knows what's going to happen. But ultimately I don't personally see that issue coming along, at least not in my generation. Who knows what the future holds because people
are curious. We've all seen horror movies. You just you don't know. But I think people need to really move on from that fear mongering and that scare tactic and just take advantage of trying to get their time back. Yeah, that is what we need to value more because once it's gone, it's gone. So like you yourself, you have such a young family, why would you not want to go spend time with your kids and watch them grow up and not miss those milestones.
Yeah. Absolutely, and that's I mean, that is my next question for you is what are some of the biggest ways, particularly for people who haven't yet kind of had that like aha moment where it's clicked over of this literally is the way like tangible examples of things you use that help you work smarter, So our listeners can adopt without needing to understand AI. You can use hp AI companion without needing to know how it works. You literally open the window and type in a question and it'll
answer it for you. Literally, like what are some tangible examples of things people can introduce into their lives.
So obviously, as I mentioned, I have a fantasia. I can't visualize anything, but I can type things, and I can ask questions, and I can ask it to generate something for me. So now I have my own version of what you visualize. AI is such a good tool from a disability and even just like an advocacy standpoint, because there's if there's stuff that's missing that you can't have that can fill in some of the gaps for you.
I didn't even think of it. Yeah, you can't picture it, so you type in the description and a picture come out and I'm.
Like, yeah, can you please create this? So at the moment, I for my role, I do a lot of conferences and I like to create boots and I'm really creative in what I want to do, but I can never picture it, and then trying to explain it to my colleagues to say this is what I want, like my poor colleagues to Chear has to deal with a lot of my crap and a lot of the times she's like,
I don't know what you're saying. Was So I use AI to kind of create a visualization so that I can actually present that back because my descriptions aren't great and I know that even in my house at the moment, my partner is sick of my stuff. My idea is because I can't picture it. But I'm like, you know what, that TV cabinet looks really good, and she's like that will clash with the colors of the house, but I can't picture it. I think it looks great, but I
see it as a single item, not multiple. But we actually used AI where we were able to incorporate the photo image in a three D created a three D rendering of our home, use the three D rendering of that particular product put in the laund room, only for me to realize, yeah, I was wrong, and I'm very very aware that I am not going to be correct all of the time.
But for instance, like what is that like? I don't know what that's like because I'm not right all the time.
I can't relate. Unless it's work related, then I am a genius if anyone else. No one questioned me, But yeah, I think when it comes down to it, like drawing it back to product and stuff. So for me in my personal life, that's one way. But obviously from a work perspective, asking my AI bot on my laptop so AI companion to actually create those renderings for me, I can also utilize the AI companion within the PC to
actually optimize my computer. So then the role of having to worry about technicians kind of goes out the door because the PC can actually adopt how you use your PC for yourself, so you don't have to worry constantly about going into the bios or breaking the laptop. The software does it all for you. Oh my god, that's so so cool, right, And then you've got the efficiency piece. Like everybody wants a laptop that's going to last days.
What if I told you that actually exists. Like the laptops that we're currently using, you look at like twenty something hours of battery life. Because AI companion is able to actually switch off specific things, It's able to look at what the RAM is being utilized for, shrink it down, lower the demand so that it can actually tailor to what you're actually using it for. To give you that all day battery life. You close the lid, it automatically adopts again because you have HP smarts since So you
close the lid and you put in your backpack. Four days later, you realize you forgot to turn it off and it's only dropped by ten percent. Like, there's so many different things that you can utilize without even needing to do anything. And I think that that, within itself, is one tickbox. You click the button, done and dusted. You don't have to think about it anymore. And a lot of the times people are just scared that they're going to break it.
Okay, Well, that actually highlights another thing that confuses a lot of people about AI, and that confused me before you explained it recently, So I think most people when they think of AI are thinking of the AI bot or the best friend in a search engine that you can pretty much ask anything. You type a question in a search box and it answers your questions or creates whatever you want it to create. A lot of listeners
will have used chat GPT for that. We both have our hp omnibox in front of us, and they have an inbuilt version called HPAI Companion that we've been talking about. I use this daily for things like asking it to write the podcast intros for me. So I'll literally type in write a brief introduction and bio for Lauren Dennett, and it will search the entire Internet and spit out within seconds the text for me to then tweak and put into my own words. But that saves so much time.
Or I'll say, list the main misconceptions people might have about AI, and that's how I build the questions for this episode instead of, you know, spending time thinking it up in my own brain first. But then you've been talking about optimizing battery life and AI working like an inbuilt technician and switching things on and off without you even asking it to. So when you talk about that kind of function like AI optimizing our devices or our
apps without us prompting it. What does that mean? Like, what is the difference between those functions?
A lot of the time you say AI and people automatically go straight to chat. GPT and Microsoft have obviously started bringing in copilot and they're starting to be that next demand. But for us at HP, we have HPAI Companion, which is only on our units. But to draw back to your question around like what is the difference. So for an overarching thing, you've got to look at how PCs are built, right, So ordinarily we're all familiar with CPUs, GPUs. Now with AI, we have a thing called the NPU,
which is a neural processing unit. So it's extra jargon that no one ever wants to know about. So if I would have bring it to you in a really like simplistic way that most people will understand, You've got your CPU, which is the brain of the PC. You've got your GPU which is your muscles. Now my own iteration. So again I'm not holding HP accountable by the way for any of this, but this is my own way of explaining it. To make it make english or makes sense,
is by referring to the NPU as a therapist. Personally, I love therapy. I love going to talk to my psychologist after I've had a ripping week, or if I'm exhausted and I just need to just absolutely brain dump everything that's happening, then go to them. Basically, get rid of everything, go home and feel refreshed, feel more efficient, sleep better, not feel exhausted constantly. That is basically what the MPU is doing for the PC when it comes
to AI driven tasks. So there are localized AI tasks like basically using some parts of AI companion, using particular camera tools so you know, when you open your calls and you've got background blur on, or you might want it to track your face because you've got ADHD and you want the camera to just keep an eye on you. Or you've got the creepy tool where you can basically keep the camera on and if you blink or if you look away, it still tracks your eyes. Freaks me out,
by the way, don't turn it on. But that is using the NPU because it's an AI driven task. So again it makes the PC more efficient instead of requiring lots of power that is then reserved for the CPU and GPU to do what it needs to do. So brain muscles therapist. Whow that is my breakdown. But in terms of like categorizing AI and how it can be utilized, Look, you've got your cloud based one, which is where most people are kind of concerned because obviously they're thinking, where's
my information going, where are my questions going? Where's all this going? And yeah, it's sitting up here. I can't tell you where it's going because it depends on what you're using where it's going. Look, ultimately, no one's going to really care where you're twenty twenty one photos from BALI are going to be honest, But I.
Think about that all the time. One's so weird, and I'm like, it's all your search is about seventy five different Zuchini slice recipes, Like no one cares.
Her mind's just like, am I allergic to this?
Google adopted? Please help me?
Man? What does this mean?
Yea? So look, people post on like all of our social media photos constantly. What makes you think that's any different to what AI is doing with that data? So I think we really it took us a while to adopt social media, and I have no doubt that AI is in a similar standpoint, so I think we'll adopt it. Inevitably, people will start to feel more and more comfortable once they realize the benefits of the efficiencies that are offered. But like I said, drawing back to you've got cloud,
you've got localized version. So at the moment with AI Companion, it's currently all cloud based, but it can use localized information on the PC. So when you ask it questions, it draws up, goes up here, it comes back down, gives you the response. But there are parts of it. So you've got three key points to AI Companion. You've got analyzing, you've got ask it questions, and then you've got performance. So for you specifically, you've done a lot of like the asking, but you've also done a bit
of performance without realizing. And more importantly, you've got the analyzed section where it allows you to have a briefing doc. You can upload it directly to AI Companion and ask questions of that reference point. So it's your information. It's specifically for you. No one else is going to have that particular file. That's your file, so you can actually
have a conversation with the AI on that file. So again, I think it's really great from an inclusion standpoint because AI is going to make life easier for those that may not have the same communication abilities. They may have ADHD and may not be able to read specific parts. But if you can copy that and get the AI to actually read it out loud and treat it like a conversation or a podcast, I retain information so much
better by listening to podcasts like what you create. But if you give me the same thing as a transcript on a page, you better believe I'm not going to get through that. I couldn't think of anything worse. So if, yeah, you use tools like AI to create conversations that ordinarily are on.
A piece of paper, why wouldn't you want to do that? So yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. That's one of the things that I didn't know it could do. Like I was always just using it more like a search engine function, and that was both AI companion on my device about the device, but about anything. I mean, when I created a video, I was like, make a video of my
husband and I as bears, Like it can literally do anything. Yeah, and the same with more Yeah, cloud based like CHATDPD, I would do the same thing, I'd ask it to write my intros, Like, that's so time saving because I spent so long on the wording. And even though, of course you tailor it to your so you make edit so it's in your own voice, starting with a block
of text is so much more useful. But what I had never used it for until you explained analyze to me is yeah, uploading a document and then getting AI to analyze it for you. So for anyone who runs a business and you need to like time consuming tasks like uploading bank statements or statements where you're like, please tell me how much I spent on uber eats or like high light, don't do that, I share. But you can literally something that you would otherwise go through line
by line yourself and add it all up. You can upload a document and say what is the key thesis of this article or what is the main expense that you see coming up over and over again? Like you can ask it to read it quickly for you and then spit out answers. It is revolutionary. Like the time consuming tasks and in editing, it also does things like the way AI has really helped with podcast and video editing is there are lots of pauses, like I have so many yes.
Just classic silences where you're like, my brain's thinking, what do I need to say here? I need to see your brain ticking over want.
Arms and ahs and instead of I used to manually go through and edit.
How many hours is that going to take you?
Like hours hours? Because you really listen to the episode at like half speed to cut, you know, basically half to give.
Your own voice are you oh my god? And the guest flows for the time.
It's like killed my buzz by the end of the episode because all I've heard is the arms and not the actual content. But now like AI can do, there are settings in your apps where it's like cut out all the arms and it will just process the entire file in like a minute and all the arms are gone. And I'm like, why have we not all been using these tools same changing?
And do you know what? It's kind of like the slightly bitter part of me is mad because students get to benefit from this.
Yes, the gen zs, the gen whatever.
Oh god, now I'm really showing how think. Yeah, young snappers honestly.
Using the Facebook and the Google I am hip with the yes I am trend I.
Just reminds me of the guy from Grown Ups where he turns up with the skateboard.
Oh yeah, exactly that that's us, but the whipper snappers and so.
But yeah, drawing back to that, like I think of all the people that are going back to study UNI high schools. Union is actually starting to pay for subscriptions so that people they can kind of get ahead and know what is being used because obviously if the unions pay for the subscription, they get to see what people are actually utilizing the AI for, which I think is
really smart because they're going to do it anyway. But honestly, the hardest part of starting a lot of assignments and things is literally that first question you mentioned, like how do you start the brief, how do you start the podcast? How are you doing the welcoming? If you can get it to do that, like, imagine how much time that block no longer exists, and I think that that is really cool. So again, yeah, the bitter person in me
is like, that's rubbish. Maybe I would have actually succeeded faster if I had have had this benefit, but ultimately it's a really cool thing to have and to see someone creative like yourself actually utilizing it for the benefits of like your podcast. Your creativity is great, but the mundane stuff of you know, tax times coming up, I can think of anything bloody worse, and I will mention I do not want to see how many times I've used uber eats because I do not need that shame. Right now.
I'm really actually upset that I did that exercise. I'm not gonna lie. I thought you actually did it informative like to shock me into behavior change and just a spiral to.
You then order uber eats to feel better.
I was like, I need to emotional eat my way out of.
This hole feeling terrible about myself.
I might just get that that you know, that burger that, but I think the other thing that's it's really cool, even just from like a mundane task perspective, is like house contracts, not having to pay somebody tons of money to analyze something that you could probably get AI to highlight some of the key things, key words like even that's really cool, And I actually use that recently myself when I was selling a car, like just trying to go through that and try and understand it, like the time,
even just to know, okay, cool. Do I actually trust that other person in what they're saying. I can actually analyze it myself. It just kind of reduces like the remorse or the regret of making that decision if you can sort of back yourself as it's really cool.
Okay, that's actually a great question. In the mundane, day to day realm of people's lives. What are a couple of major ways if you were like a total AI KNEWB if you met them and were like, h, I want you to like integrate these three things into these mundane like tax or like editing or like whatever. What would be the three or four use cases that you're like, AI is amazing for these things.
Groceries? What, Yeah, you can like so you can actually use AI. You can create like regular lists of groceries if you're willing to do tracking, especially for someone like myself. I'm neurodiverse. I've got ADHD pretty bad. I can't focus on things, so I make lists for everything. Then I lose the lists. Nice, So if I can, obviously, then I do it again. I'm like, I've got this genius idea. My partner's like, we did that last month. Remember how
well that went? So using AI for a mundane task like groceries or even bill management where money anxiety is there, to be able to reduce that stress of being able to track where you're at utilizing AI, even AI companion, because the way that it works on our PCs is because it's yours, it actually can recall, you can create
libraries so you can actually save it. But from an AI perspective, outside of even just the AI companion, having the ability to track your usage on an app for your groceries, being able to tick a box because again ADHD, it feels really nice to tick something and say yeah, good because then it feels like you've accomplished something. So to be able to do that is really really cool.
So groceries huge list. To be able to track what's in your fridge and know what you need to order, because unless it's upfront for me, I don't know it exists. So unfortunately within my fridge, you better believe there's probably like a whole bloody cob of corn that's just.
Really badly dynastic a long time ago.
So to be able to track that is so so handy. But from a calendar perspective as well, I use AI with my partner to actually understand what is happening in her schedule. She's a midwife and so she's doing really really crazy hours. And then I travel a lot for work,
so I never know when we're home. So we utilize it to be able to understand our schedules more importantly, create date nights because again I really value my personal time, but my favorite person in the world, Unfortunately, our schedules clash a lot. She's also doing UNI and that also makes like.
Two and a half minutes for date night.
Literally, but it's okay, We're okay, We're working really well, and we utilize AI to be able to figure out where we're going for dinner because the fatigue of making decisions is so bloody hard as well.
Right, Oh my god, So what would you put a prompt in? Would you be like, where should we go for date night? Out of Japanese, Mexican and whatever, Like you literally just give it so ditation I.
Go location, give me like four to five star rating restaurants and this is our budget and it will send recommendations.
Oh my god, I've never used it. I've never That is like the biggest pain point in our relationship. What are we going to have for dinner.
Oh my god, so obviously my life is over.
AI is so handy. But if you really want to like manipulate your partner a little bit, the best suggestion always ever give you is go up to your partner and be like, oh my gosh, you'll never guess where we're going out for dinner because usually the first place is where they want to go. One hundred bank might drop, yeah, but sometimes that fatigue is still there. So I definitely still do recommend, like if you want help picking particular places, because my partner and I tend to have a habit
of just picking the same place every time. It's either that's thigh food or potentially Chuckold chicken because.
I love chucoal chicken same I is Japanese or chocol chicken.
Yeah, literally, but sometimes it's nice to just get out of your comfort zone. Like I live in Gippsland. I live in Regional Victoria on Gippsland. Yeah, we're in Giffee. I wear a new warrigal.
Oh my god, so I'm a warrigal girl. Stop it.
I mean, like proud of you for getting out by the way right, like.
I know, I mean I was eighteen months old. I can't say that I engendered that decision, but like my first postcode yeah horrible. Yeah. I went back to speak for women in gips Land recently and they were like, oh, you're a warrigor girl like kind of was like you know it, but like.
I definitely left my mark on that plan.
Absolutely, like that'll take it.
That's yeah.
But yeah, so I remember from from Gippsland. But as you know that there's probably thirty bakeries, sixteen pizza shops.
Yeah, yeah, a lot of fish and the rest is just hairdressers. So that's true.
You've got to be willing to drive like an hour for something good, so you want it to be good exactly. So using AI to answer the questions and the biggest draw card is again back to prompting, making sure you're asking the right question. So a lot of the times is we want to do this, here's the purpose of what it is, here's what we're looking for, here's your reference points, and then ask me five questions back to ensure that you know or understand what it is that
I'm requesting. So that way it'll say, okay, great, I understand that you're vibing, you know, Mexican, Are there any allergies that we need to be concerned about? Or what's the budget or whatever it is. So having that proper conversation with the AI to really give you the response and the answer as a final result is so much more important than just being like give me food please, recommendations.
Like that's not going to help at all.
That's not going to give you your answer. So drawing back to AI, it's only as smart as the person willing to give the answers in the prompt Yeah, and I'm not saying people as stupid. I'm just saying that you taking the half asked approach to prompting is not going to give you what you need. It's not going to give you the results, and it's actually going to give you a bad experience, and therefore you will not
continue to use it. Give it the chance to succeed so that you can actually utilize it to its fullest.
The best tip that you gave me was ask AI to ask you questions back, and I was like, what do you even mean? Like what are you even saying? And you was when I was making the video, you said, give it your story because it was a Valentine's Day video. Yep, tell it your story and then get it to ask you back some questions that you think it would need to know, like do you want it to be more emotional? You know how long we've been together, like whatever, just
ask her to ask you questions back. And I was like, that is so so clever because I didn't know the questions I needed to ask, and it asked me questions back. I was like, oh my god, this is so smart, exactly.
So smart exactly, so thank you for giving it a chance to succeed and give you what you need because we've got that final result. And I loved every minute.
I was obviously the best thing I've ever read. I'm where is my Oscar nomination? I don't want to, I don't want to, like jumping done, but let me call the oscars really quickly.
Yeah.
Well, I've obviously, yeah, fully embraced not just AI generally and lots of cloud based platforms, but the omnibook specifically has so much built in and as you said, the
battery life. It optimizes it when I'm editing versus when I'm word processing versus when I'm making bare videos like this when I'm listening passively like there's so many or scrolling, like there's so many different things that it is always working out how to best suit my life as a very light to a very heavy processing task person, I'm
kind of doing the full spectrum. So it's I think, really anyone who's doing a lot of different tasks and who needs battery life and is on the goal all the time, it's such a good candidate for this laptop because it is AI optimized specifically. Who else do you think would really benefit?
I think the people that are less techy but willing to give it a go. You've got early adopters, You've got all these different people that love tech but don't really know. I think that's really handy because like from my retail days, we used to get customers coming in and they're like, I need this spec, this spec, this spec. And I'm like, oh, when did you get that information? Like my grandson they told me I need it. I'm like, what are you using it for? And they're like Google, great.
Microsoft word Yeah.
Literally.
So I think there's text.
The tech what's that text one that has like no formatting or note notes, I don't know, whatever the one is where it's just text.
But you know what, even like even from like a photo standpoint, they're like, I use paint.
Oh my god, stop it.
Yeah, I love paint, but you're going to crash like the circles and squiggles and then you color it in. Anyway, back to the actual like question at hand, who I think genuinely like the people that are willing to give tech a go but don't fully understand it. It's a really great tool because they may not understand where the settings are. They might want to deep dive and have a conversation with their PC and they can. And I think that that's something that we truly as users take
advantage of. Like for me, I turn my laptop on, I mindlessly do things and I just I'm on autopilot. I know what I need to do, I know the questions I need to ask. But there are so many people out there that still are so scared and nervous to buy expensive devices because they don't think that they're
going to take full advantage of it. But what if you could actually ask the PC to do specific settings or tailor it to them and it can do that job like great, Like there are so many amazing people out there that really deserve the chance to fully adopt all this new technology but just don't know where to start. It's a really great way to go.
One hundred percent. Well, oh my gosh, Lauren, I could pick your brain forever. But this has been so educational and even yeah, I just hadn't even thought about your challenges with visualizing things and how from a disability standpoint, if like I just hadn't thought of that use case at all, I think that is so powerful as well, because yeah, that is a huge block to your ability to do the things that you want to do. And like this is a like unrelated but related example, even
like renovating. I have used it so much to put in a picture of a room and say, put this couch in that room and show me what it would look like, move it to the other wall. Like that stuff is simple day to day stuff, but like from a visualization perspective, you couldn't do that before without getting a drafts person to like sketch it for you, or like trying to or you draw yourself in a magazine. Yeah, you print and cut it like it's a new world. And it's so exciting that there are so many ways
to enhance our lives. So thank you so much for sharing my pleasure.
Thank you, and I'm really glad that you actually can visualize because that made my heart happy because it proved my point that I clearly am missing out.
So you're taking not now because I'm not, because AI, I complain.
So if someone asked me that question, like give me one minute, let me just quickly like draw something up really quickly on my AI instead, because clearly.
Well speaking of I hear that we finish every episode and I've actually forgotten to do this the last few episodes, but we finish most episodes with a quote, and I hear that you didn't have one. But I also find it hilarious that in the context of this conversation, you didn't go ask AI companion for a quote that would
fit the CCA podcast. That specific guys, you can literally say, I am going on the CZA podcast, find me a quote that fits in with the vibe of this podcast, and it will do it for it is so crazy.
Literally, and you know what, I think that I'm going to steal that quote, So yeah, what Sarah said, but genuinely, like I'm kind of ashamed considering the whole purpose of why I'm here today.
And I didn't even think of that because.
I was like, maybe I should just like google some quotes and then just take something with me. But I don't remember quotes. I don't remember that, but I do remember when people have passion. But if I read a quote off a piece of paper, there's no emotion to that, so it doesn't mean much to me. So I think, just in general, like drawing back to everything that we say, just be an adopter. Give it a red hot go.
If you were willing to give social media a go, then you can try AI because ultimately, if you're scared with all your information where that's going, what makes you think that your photos are not sending to the abyss, give it a chance, give it a chance to succeed, get your time back, do something for you so that you can spend more time with the people that you love.
I love it. Thank you so much, Lauren, Sure, thank you for.
Having me here. Love it.
It's been great.
My brain is still exploding in all directions from this one, and every time I re listened when editing, new questions emerged. If you do have any follow up questions, feel free to drop us a DM as always that we can pass on to Lauren, or any feedback for that matter, as I'm sure you found Lauren's tips as invaluable as I did. If you enjoyed, as always, please do share
the episode with your thoughts and takeaways. It means the world to grow the neighborhood as far and wide as possible, and I will include links to the HP omnibook and other resources we mentioned in the show notes so that you can revolutionize your work set up the way I have thanks to HP. In the meantime, I hope you're having a wonderful week and are seizing your sim semi humanly re semler em