AISW Interview Guest FAQ
“OK, I’m curious (or interested, or onboard, …) to be featured as an “AI, Software, & Wetware” interview guest. Can you talk me through the interview process?”
Sure!! I’m excited to hear about your experiences and stories with using AI 😊 Let’s try this FAQ format and see if it answers your questions - if not, DM or email me!
Interested in collaborating on ethics and AI, but not necessarily in an interview? Please see my profile here!
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What’s the purpose of these interviews?
In a nutshell: we’ve all been bombarded in recent years by high-volume hype about AI (“artificial” intelligence) and ML (machine “learning”). Much of the hype comes from big corporations, “influencers”, and the tech bros who are making their fortunes from AI. Here’s why that matters:
There are big gaps between expectations and reality in what AI and ML are truly useful for, and where AI-based tools are a waste of time or actually harmful.
Most AI companies are not transparent about how they acquire the data they use, or how ethical their practices are (or aren’t), or the harms that are being caused.
The main goal of the interviews is to be a reality check and provide a balanced view of how AI affects all of us. I want to elevate the voices of humans worldwide about:
How AI and ML are, and aren’t, impacting people’s lives, for good or for bad;
How people feel about using AI, and about how AI is using them; and
What people think should be changed about how AI companies use our data.
My initial concept for these interviews was “Humans of New York” for AI - real stories of people using AI, and AI using people:
“People worldwide span the spectrum for how we are using AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning). … Whether we use AI or not, AI companies are using us. … AI technologies have great potential for good, as well as for great harm. We need to understand both. All of these real stories deserve to be heard.”
For more details, see this July 27, 2024 announcement of the interview series and these guidelines.
2. Are these written, audio, or video interviews?
Interviews can be published as 📜 written-only or 🗣️ audio with written transcript (human-edited). Zoom will record video, but I discard it; I do not publish video.
Some interview guests prefer a third option, a ‘hybrid interview’. That means a live Zoom discussion with me (usually on video), to create a more engaging and interactive conversation. But I publish just the transcript, not the audio.
3. Where will my interview be published?
AISW interviews are published online in the newsletter on Substack. Newsletter subscribers will get the interview via email and/or via the Substack app.
I will also post a link to the Substack article on Bluesky and in a LinkedIn newsletter edition (“AI, Software, and Wetware” on LinkedIn). Subscribers to that newsletter will be notified by LinkedIn about the new edition with your interview.
4. If I want my interview published as audio, will my voice recording be shared on external podcasts, or only on Substack?
Whatever you prefer. It’s easy to only have the audio voiceover only on Substack, and not share it externally, if you like. Just let me know before we publish.
All audio interviews will be available via the internal Substack podcast. So far, all of them are also available on my external AI6P podcasts - Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Overcast.fm, YouTube Podcast, YouTube Music, RSS feed. (More info here.) As of March 24, 2025, the AI6P podcast has drawn listeners in 89 countries.
5. How many interviews have you done so far?
These AISW interviews started on August 1, 2024. I initially published 2 interviews per week. Now I publish one every Thursday. As of March 24, 2025, 51 interviews are published, 1 is finished and queued to be published, 4 are recorded & in production, and more are set to be recorded in April and May. You can find the full list, with links, here:
A summary of the 36 completed 2024 interviews, with a bit of data analysis, is here:
6. What’s the time window for me to do an interview?
Flexible. There’s no set end date for this series. I adapt to people’s schedules around travel, school, family commitments, work and writing commitments, conferences, etc. Let me know what works for you.
If you have an upcoming event you’d like to publicize as part of your interview (conference presentation, online publication, book launch, etc.), let me know and I’ll do my best to align the publication date of your interview with your marketing plan. If you’re actively job-searching, I’ll try to expedite publishing yours sooner.
For audio or hybrid interviews, I can share a Calendly link to let you lock in a preferred recording date in the next 3 months. It typically takes several weeks for production, editing, and reviews before audio can be published.
7. Can I be anonymous?
Absolutely! I’ve already published 8 completely anonymous interviews. You can be totally anonymous, partially anonymous, use an alias, share only a small amount of demographic information … whatever works for you.
Anonymous interviews are written only (no audio), for obvious reasons. No pictures are required; we can use the standard interview series photo (shown at the end of this article).
8. Can I be credited?
Absolutely! Most of our interviews to date are credited. Also:
If you’re a Substacker:
I’ll add you as an additional Writer on the post (you just have to accept). This will make the interview article show up automatically in your Substack profile, and Substack will include your bio at the bottom of the article.
I’ll “at” you in the Note that I’ll post with a link to your interview. Restacking the Note is welcome and will help your interview reach more readers & listeners.
You’re absolutely encouraged to “cross-post” the interview to your own newsletter. After all, everyone who has subscribed to you wants to know your thoughts! (For tips on how to cross-post, see this Substack support article.)
If you’re on LinkedIn, I’ll “at” you in the newsletter edition of “AI, Software, and Wetware” on LinkedIn) and when I share the newsletter link on LinkedIn, before and after your interview is published.
If you’re on Bluesky or Mastodon, I’ll “at” you when I post the ‘skeet’ or post with your interview link.
If you have your own newsletter (e.g. Substack or LinkedIn), website, blog, upcoming book, speaking event, etc., we can include those links in the article.
You’re welcome to reshare the Substack interview link on your own site, blog, etc.
Profile pictures are optional; you can also share artwork or some other photo, or we can use the standard interview series photo (at the end of this article).
9. Can I see the interview questions before I commit?
Absolutely! Here they are. You can also see the questions in the already-published interviews 😉
As you’ll see, I have 10 standard questions that I ask, and an 11th “anything else” question where we can explore any other AI- or data-related topic you like. Guests generally talk about their work and interests in the course of the 10 questions. And I ask follow-up questions specific to each guest, based on what they say.
Once you commit to the interview, I’ll make you your own editable copy of the file in my Google Drive, and we can collaborate there. (Just DM me with a Google email address that works for this purpose.) You can “at” me in the document if you have questions, or I’ll post follow-up questions or clarifications and “at” you.
10. How detailed do my draft answers to the interview questions need to be?
That depends on whether your interview is written only, or written + audio/hybrid.
Obviously, if you opt for a written interview, your answers have to be fully detailed - that’s what we’ll publish. :)
If we agree on an audio or hybrid interview, the draft answers don’t have to be fully written out to the word. They can be, if you like. Some guests like to write everything out. Others prefer writing bullets. Some folks like to mostly read their draft answers during the audio recording. A few audio interview guests have preferred to talk “off the cuff” without writing much in advance.
My experience has been that, if we’re going to record audio, the interview will go much more smoothly, and overall will use less of your and my time, if we’ve taken the opportunity to collaborate and iterate on the answers in advance in the document. It
(1) gives me a chance to clarify questions and share follow-ups, and
(2) gives you a chance to think about specific examples and how you want to respond to my follow-up questions.
Most folks riff at least a little bit during our audio call on what they wrote 😊 which is totally fine!
11. What happens if my words don’t come out right while I’m talking, or there’s a background noise? Or I say something that I later realize I don’t want to go into the published interview?
No worries. During our call, just pause and say ‘strike that’ or ‘let me try that again’ and do a retake. Or just pause and repeat the part you want to replace. (You’ll probably hear me do this, too. 😊)
If we’re going to publish the audio, I’ll take care of retakes in audio editing before creating the transcript. If we’re doing a ‘hybrid’ interview (using the audio call to generate a written transcript), I’ll handle retakes when editing the text.
When you review after the call, you’ll have a chance to flag sections to cut.
12. What happens to the audio recording after our call?
I use an ethical shoestring tool to generate a transcript from the Zoom MP3 and load it into our Google Drive doc.
I edit the transcript a bit to fix obvious errors (such as mis-spelled names of people, companies, or tools like ‘ChatGPT’).
Transcript [and audio] cleanup:
If it’s an audio interview, I clean up the audio file to handle ‘retakes’ and remove ‘ums’ and such. I want both of us to sound good and be proud of the interview :) As I do this, I update the transcript in our Google Drive doc to match the audio file.
If it’s a hybrid interview, I don’t edit the audio - I just update the transcript. (SO much faster!)
I create a secret Substack draft post, attach the raw or updated MP3 file to it, merge in and format the updated transcript, and let you know it’s ready for your review.
You review the Google doc and the MP3 file, and mark the transcript to flag any parts you may want to cut or fix any incorrect words in the transcript.
What happens next depends on whether you want to publish the audio of your call.
Audio+Written: If you want some cuts, I do another editing pass on the MP3, update the transcript to match, and sync both updates with the Substack draft.
Written only: I detach the raw MP3 from the Substack draft.
These last two steps apply to both written and written+audio posts:
Once we’re agreed on the text / transcript in the Google doc, I sync the text with the Substack draft post. I also add links and photos you may provide, and may add some links myself.
You review the Substack draft post. When you give me the thumbs-up, I schedule it for publication.
13. I’m an artist. Can I include photos of my artwork?
Yes, that would be awesome! Also, if you have an online portfolio, or you’ve created music or videos, or have a podcast, … we can definitely include those links in your interview.
You might want to consider using Nightshade or Glaze on the photo image file(s) to ‘poison’ AI scrapers from using it. (This is worth considering for anywhere online that you would post an image or work you created, not just Substack or this interview). Interview guest Roberto Becchini did this with his drawing photo.
14. Will an AI tool be allowed to train on what I say in my interview?
I have Substack configured to block AI models from training on content I post to my newsletters. So in theory, no, AI tools cannot train on our interview content.
However, I’ve seen reports about unethical AI bots that don’t respect that setting. (Substack warns us writers about this, even though there’s not much they can do to prevent it.)
If you have any concerns about your interview words potentially being available on the internet, or accessible to (unethically scraped by) third party AI, let’s talk. If needed, I can find another way to tell your AI stories.
15. What if I can’t talk about work?
I totally understand the need for work confidentiality. And we absolutely do not want to discuss or share anything that would infringe on anyone’s personal or corporate rights or privacy.
If necessary, we’ll just focus on AI / ML experiences outside of work. We ALL have them nowadays if we're online at all, have a cell phone, ... See:
16. This interview is about sharing our opinions and experiences with AI and data. What are yours?
Fair question. As context, I’ve worked with using software to analyze data since I was in college; I took my first AI classes over 30 years ago; and I started running team projects for applied AI and ML over 15 years ago. So I know how powerful these tools can be - in both good ways and bad.
Two recent trends have motivated me to focus full-time on AI ethics and inclusion from 2024 onward. One is the insights we’re gaining into HOW the big AI companies are building and operating their platforms and tools, and how they are obtaining and using our data. Many of them do not operate ethically. The other trend is the emergence of generative AI tools, which has amplified the impact of potential AI benefits and harms on billions of people worldwide. (For more insights, see “Top 5 things to know about AI ethics”).
My personal position on generative AI tools and using other people’s data: As a writer, I’ve committed that all of my posts will be 100% human-created. My goal is to only use ethically-developed tools (AI or non-AI) and ethically-sourced content. My “ethical shoestrings” page lists the tools and image sources I use instead.
However, I recognize that I have privileges that many people do not. For instance, I’m a highly-educated native speaker and writer in English. AI-based grammar checkers don’t help me much. So I am not sacrificing much by choosing to give them up, whereas other people who do not share my privileges would be affected much more.
I’m not here to judge people who thoughtfully choose to use some AI-based tools that I don’t. I am here to:
Listen and learn how people do and don’t use AI-based tools, and why;
Help people learn about the ethical concerns surrounding AI, and about ways to use AI-based tools both ethically and wisely; and
Help us all figure out how we can inspire AI companies to be more transparent and more ethical about developing their tools, so we can all benefit from AI without harming others.
(This article is a work in progress - more Q&A to be added)
🤔What other questions do you have that I can answer?
Interview Series References
Know someone whose voice and experiences on AI should be heard? Awesome! Please share this guest FAQ with them and connect us!
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