Acknowledgments

These essays grew through conversations with people who were willing to ask questions, share ideas, and see where they might lead. I am grateful to everyone who gave this work their time and attention.

At Saginaw Valley State University, thank you to Erik Trump, Phillip Hanson, and Blake Johnson for being champions of my work and wonderful collaborators in spreading AI literacy and fluency across our university. It means a great deal to work with people who are curious about what comes next and willing to help others explore it. May the Ghost Army, our AI chat room, continue for many years.

Thank you to Matt Buckley and Anita Dey for supporting my continued pursuit of publication and the AI literacy and fluency efforts I have tried to get off the ground on campus. To the students and colleagues who have joined these experiments, thank you for the questions and ideas you brought with you.

A special thank-you to Daniel Pfeiffer at LibTech Insights for taking me on as a writer, helping me craft and strengthen these essays, and publishing my work. Your encouragement and thoughtful editing have meant so much to me. I am deeply grateful for the chance to develop these ideas with you and share them with the library community.

Thank you to Bruce Houghton and the editors at Hypebot for helping my work find readers and giving me a place to explore what AI might mean for music.

To my friends Cortney Harding, Jamie Berk, Joel Liesenberg, Xiaokun Qian, David Maffo, Scott LeGere, Alex May, Cory Zechmann, Dustin Mitchell, Alicia Yaffe, and Nicole Lehmann-Haupt: thank you for your friendship, encouragement, and belief in me. To everyone who read an early version of an essay, offered a thoughtful response, or stayed in a conversation while I worked out what I was trying to say, thank you. That attention matters more than you might realize.

To my mom, thank you for your love, encouragement, and belief in me. To my dad, thank you for showing me how far curiosity can take you. A question about the land around us can become a way of seeing the world. To my whole family, thank you for always supporting me as I keep finding my way.