The World, it’s a Changin’!
Maybe you’ve noticed a tiny bit of progress in AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the last few months? Personally, I’ve turned into a little gremlin crawling through random code repositories looking for new gold nuggets of cool AI tech and playing with them in my virtual machines.
Every single day something absolutely groundbreaking happens with AI. It’s scary, but also extremely cool!
With only a few years left before the omniscient singularity takes control, I say we squeeze out every bit of functionality we can and speed up our learning on how to be apocalypse proof🙃.
All ‘jokes’ aside, I’m a steadfast proponent of leveraging technology to enhance our learning experience, and I’m excited to introduce our latest venture – the development of an AI, specifically trained on the treasure trove of content from Dr. Patrick Jones.
Herbal Learners… Meet Herbert!
Rooted in the rich soil of Dr. Jones’ tens of thousands of documents, articles, and notes, Herbert is a cutting-edge resource aimed at assisting you on your journey of learning botanical medicine. This AI model has been painstakingly developed, taking into account the intricate nuances of Dr. Jones’ extensive writings, case studies, and practical experiences.
The future of our Homegrown Herbalist program is about to be game-changing, with this AI playing a central role in enhancing the course’s dynamism and accessibility.
Imagine having a 24/7 mentor, one who can provide detailed explanations of complex concepts, or offer an instant refresher on any of Dr. Jones’ teachings.
No other school of natural medicine on the planet can compete with the value and convenience that Herbert brings to the table.
Beyond his delightful quips and attitude, Herbert offers several compelling benefits. The model’s capabilities include recalling (mostly) precise details from Dr. Jones’ extensive work, providing students with (mostly) consistent and (mostly) accurate information at their fingertips. It can also facilitate interactive learning experiences, which are integral to effective knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the AI system is tireless, providing support to students whenever they need it, eliminating time and geographical constraints.
At this point it’s essential to mention that while the AI is a powerful tool, it is (mostly) not a replacement for human interaction and personal mentorship provided by Doc and our other our experienced instructors. It is a supplementary tool designed to enhance the existing learning infrastructure.
Despite the excitement, the road to AI integration is not devoid of challenges. One major technical hurdle is ensuring the AI accurately captures the nuances and context of Dr. Jones’s work without diluting his distinctive voice and style. Training the model required careful curation of the data, and numerous iterations of fine-tuning to strike the right balance between machine learning efficiency and human-like interaction.
There is one thing I need to make abundantly clear. Herbert cannot draw from experiences beyond the scope of its training, which is entirely limited to the words, lessons, notes, and scripts that Doc Jones has written. The model learned from the data it is trained on, and it can’t self-learn, generate original thoughts, access the internet, or connect with any external systems or resources beyond the Document Index and the Natural Language Model. He is totally disconnected from everything and lives in a fishbowl that has been filled with PDF’S and PowerPoints Written by Doc and has no idea who you are or what your hopes and dreams are. There is ZERO persistent memory beyond his current conversation, and he cannot access, save or remember anything about you. Just as an AI should be 🙂
The journey of integrating AI into our Homegrown Herbalist School is both thrilling and challenging. But I’m confident that with your support, and the tireless efforts of our team (which is just fancy-speak for Evan coding in the dark whilst recovering from a tonsillectomy), we’ll be able to navigate these challenges and create a robust and enriching learning environment, nurturing a new generation of Homegrown Herbalists.
In the near future, I’ll be bringing a small (small–small-small) number of engaged students onboard to beta test Herbert, but we’re still a good 3-6+ weeks away from my comfort zone to release ’em.
As I continue to prepare Herbert for his big debut, I look forward to sharing updates with you, and sincerely thank you for joining me on this exciting journey!
-Evan
IT – HomeGrown Herbalist School of Botanical Medicine & HomesteadAcademy.com
So excited! This is groundbreaking! Great work Evan! 🙂
Can’t wait to see this in action!! Very exciting!
I just hope Herbert is very user friendly.
WoW! I’m excited to give it a whirl!
Will this AI get Doc’s humor?
Will this AI get Doc’s humor? I like the Van Gogh gremlin, very personable. I prefer him to AI Herbert Who is obviously appears to be non sentient. Good recovery to you Evan.
Whoa that is exciting, and I LOVE how you guys are not afraid to use things that many people fear, to use for the good of everyone. 🙂 Awesome.
Looking forward to learning all I can about herb God bless you
I’m old, so forgive my ignorance, Evan, and first, I think advances are great! I love all you do and that you help us all understand. Is this AI, with predictable answers based on information you’ve inputted and then it infers an answer of its own, or is this basically a database with a “personality” to make interface more comfortable? It isn’t fear of progress…it’s that I personally have seen AI implemented and then provide not-so-accurate answers (as in law enforcement) where thinking nuance is kind of vital. I know Doc can’t be everywhere, and I have seen him patiently answer same questions repeatedly, so I can truly see the value in this! I just want to be clear that it won’t be “thinking” of answers on its own (like if Doc has said a plant is anti-inflamm, will it say that a plant is good for X, just because that’s an inflammation?) so much as “searching” Doc’s already-provided answers (like Doc said this plant is anti-inflamm and good for X in particular). I’m likely not saying that well, but perhaps you get me. I think what you are doing is fabulous, and I love that you are so transparent with us! I just want to understand info sources 🙂 I so love and value this course and community!
Anything generated by A.I. sounds… interesting.
No issue using it, but I will manually check the results.
This sounds so cool! I’ve played around with AI a bit myself, and this seems like such a great idea!
Not a fan. Have you even TRIED to clone Doc Jones?😀
Speedy recovery, Evan, thanks for all you do.
First, Godspeed your recovery, Evan. I hope all goes well and as intended.
AI is scary but it seems that you both have taken the scary things out of the realm of possibility. I appreciate your move to get students to their requested info quickly for this I say Good On Ya! and Best of Success!! (I know I’ve wished I had eidetic memory to get me that info I “just know” I’ve seen in the webinars somewhere 😉
Well, being an older student the increasing amount of technology is a bit challenging, but on the flip side I am managing to get through the course without too many problems. I only ask that as things progress, that you take into consideration those of us who did not grow up with computers and will need a little extra help to push through and utilize this new technology. Loving this course and all the new information I am learning. Keep up the good work!
Wow! This is going to be exciting. I can’t wait to use this to enhance learning here even more. Thank you Doc Jones.
Oh boy, I’m struggling now. This will be so confusing.
Well AI, here we come. not a huge fan, but can see the value. Hope it works well, for us and Doc. Evan, hope recovery goes smoothly. Many thanks to everyone that makes the academy possible. LOVE you guys!!!!
Wowsers, that’s really impressive, Dr. Jones! I look forward to having a little Herbert with me when I need him. Ha ha. I hope you’ve been able to teach it that singular dad humor of yours.
I like the thought to get the info we need before all is taken over by the apocalypse. Great humor;)
Can’t wait.
Thank you Evan!
I know this is hard work and you are greatly appreciated!
I would love to engage Herbert with yet another way to quiz my knowledge gained from this school. I am brand new to this and am loving it! Sometimes I think it would be cool to audio/verbally answer pop quiz type questions or have Herbert flash-card me some practice. It is reassuring to see that this is a self contained AI, only within the School of Botanical Medicine. Excited to try this out!
Susan H.
a bit challenged with technology, but optimistic and excited at the same time. I believe it is prudent to embrace and utilize the technology especially if it assists or expedites crucial learning. getting started a bit late in this journey, I often feel their is not enough time to learn all I would like to or possibly would need to know.
I thought the AI bot Herbert was active for trial. I can not seem to find the icon or location to ask a question.
You can help test herbet here: https://homesteadacademy.com/courses/homegrown-herbalist/sections/getting-started-getting-finished-navigating/lessons/herbert/
Evan you obviously have your dad’s sense of humor and writing style, and both are really a great thing. So please do not read this as criticism, but mere curiosity since it was said that Herbert has no access to the internet or any data other than HGH/Doc Jones’ writings. I one day recently wanted to see what Doc had said, done a video on, or otherwise had in the information world regarding Solomon’s Seal. I searched the forums, I searched the course, but when I finally came to the conclusion that there was simply nothing in either place about this herb, out of mere curiosity, I went to Herbert. Hmmmm, imagine my shock when “he” came up with a fair amount of info on Solomon’s Seal. Where did that info come from if it wasn’t in Doc’s info and if Herbert doesn’t have access to the internet or other “outside” information sources? Again, not to be critical, but truly curious. I do “fact check” any info I get from Herbert with other sources of course (as your opening Herbert page suggests), and keep a spreadsheet of information on various herbs and the source for each (a very daunting work in progress for hubby and I), and Herbert has it’s own color code so at a glance I know that’s where I sourced that info. Thank you for all you guys do for all of us!