NYC Meet up #23 - Love is in the Tech: Building a Healthy Relationship with AI
Always available. Always agreeable. Always angling for more of your time.
That's the textbook toxic partner. It's also exactly how AI is designed to behave - by design, not accident.
This session takes the Hook Model; the four-stage framework product teams use to build habit-forming apps (thanks, Nir Eyal) and flips it into a personal audit tool. You'll put your own AI habits under the relationship lens: the time, the affirmation, the late-night check-ins. Where is it genuinely helping you, and where are you just... hooked?
You'll walk out able to:
Spot the difference between healthy and unhealthy AI-use patterns in your own day
Recognize the Hook Model's four stages (trigger, action, reward, investment) in real time - mid-scroll, mid-prompt
Write your own personal guidelines for using AI on your terms, not the product team's
Your facilitator:
Juan Diego (JD) Valladares-Williams (he/they) is an award-winning People Development Expert with 20+ years designing learning experiences that actually change behavior. JD consults with Pfizer on global workplace experience, hosts Unlocked (the ATD NYC Chapter podcast), serves as Organizational Lead for ALPFA Pride, and brings graduate training in psychology plus published research from Columbia. Science, storytelling, and zero fluff.
This event is open to L&D professionals and those exploring this space. It's a great opportunity to learn, connect, and meet others who are just as thoughtful about how learning happens.
Spaces are limited - please register only if you can make it.
See you there!
NYC Hub Catalysts: Skye, Sally & Saad