(not exactly what I was going for)
I ran into the most interesting (and slightly unhinged) challenge this week 😅
I’m building a weekly mini-series on practical neuroscience for work + life 🧠—the same stuff I teach on stage, just in 1–3 minute clips with humor woven in.
Simple, right? Well… not exactly when getting dressed and camera-ready isn’t a quick 10-minute situation. So I thought:
💡 “Perfect. I’ll use AI.”
Enter: HeyGen 🎬
🤖 THE “GENIUS” PLAN
Upload my photo 📸
Use my real voice 🎤
Let AI animate me 🤖
Boom 💥 Ali in 10 places at once. Efficiency level: CEO mode activated.
⏳ 10 HOURS LATER…
After:
🎧 Multiple rounds with tech support
💳 Burning through credits (surprise!)
🧪 Prompting like I’m in a neuroscience lab experiment
I can confidently report:
👉 EPIC. FAIL.
(Yes yes… First Attempt In Learning… we’re staying on brand 😂)
🧟♀️ THE PLOT TWIST NOBODY PREPARED ME FOR
The video looked like me 👀 Sounded like me 🎧 But my hands… …my hands had a full-blown digital comeback tour 🙌✨
✨ Fully functional
✨ Moving fingers
✨ Zero paralysis, zero chill
I was like: “WOW. Incredible. Revolutionary.” Also:
“WHOSE HANDS ARE THESE AND WHY ARE THEY THRIVING???” 🤨
🧠 REAL TALK (THIS PART MATTERS)
AI didn’t “mess up.” 🤖 It did exactly what it’s trained to do.
👉 It fills in gaps with probability 📊
👉 It defaults to what it sees most often 👁️
Which means…
💥 My lived reality = overridden
📈 By statistical likelihood
👉 My reality got replaced by what the model thinks is “normal.”
Let that sit for a second.
⚠️ THE BIGGER PROBLEM
When systems are trained on narrow definitions of “normal”… They don’t just miss people.
👉 They quietly rewrite them ✏️
👉 They smooth out difference
👉 They standardize identity
And suddenly…
💭 Representation isn’t just missing
🚫 It’s being reconstructed without you
😂 SO WHAT NOW?
I’m still doing the series. It will take me a bit more time to set up the now.
But instead of:
🎬 Fully AI-generated version
🎭 Perfect digital polish
You’re getting a mix of:
🎥 Real camera days
🛋️ Work-from-home reality
😄 Humor + humanity
Because that’s what actually aligns with how I show up.
💬 CURIOUS…
Would you rather watch:
🤖 Polished AI version
or
😂 Real human version (with slightly fewer miracle hands)?
Because right now… one version of me is out here thriving with full finger mobility… …and I’d love to know which one you trust more 😏