Chiron: The AI Literacy Series for ABA Professionals
A weekly newsletter exploring how ABA professionals can develop essential AI literacy skills to ensure ethical and effective practice in a rapidly changing field.
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Cleaning, Structuring, and Feeding Data to Machines (and Why It Matters)
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In Idiocracy, the world doesn’t collapse because people become malicious. It collapses because the system becomes sloppy and then starts rewarding the sloppiness.
Nobody is...
Hidden Algorithms, Visible Consequences: Applied AI Use Cases
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At the annual ABA conference, the exhibit hall was louder than usual. Booths no longer promised only cleaner graphs or better data collection. They...
Behavior Analysts as AI Critics: A Professional Responsibility
On a Friday morning that felt indistinguishable from most others, Maya noticed something odd.
Maya is an RBT, sharp, conscientious, and six months into a...
A Tale of Two Systems: Comparing Natural and Artificial Intelligence
In Minority Report, the precogs don’t solve crimes. They don’t investigate context. They don’t weigh motives. They don’t consider what changed between the vision and...
Using AI in Practice: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why
When the System Fails
January has a particular feel in clinics. The calendar flips, authorization clocks reset, and suddenly the operational friction that was barely...
The Cost of Carelessness: Real Risks from Misused AI Tools
When the System Fails
In Minority Report, the most dangerous failures were procedural.Â
A name entered incorrectly. A vision misinterpreted. A safeguard was bypassed because...
AI and Equity: Impacts on Access, Justice, and Inclusion
In ABA, the biggest “clinical” problems are not always clinical. They are operational. Who gets deemed eligible. Who gets scheduled first. Who receives the full...
Whose Values? Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in AI-Supported Decisions
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If you’ve worked in applied behavior analysis (ABA) long enough, you’ve seen this movie before. A tool is introduced to “increase efficiency.” A metric...
Data Bias Is Real: What That Means for Outcomes and Equity
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The Glass Spheres Problem
In Minority Report, the precogs don’t make arrests.
They don’t issue warrants.
They don’t decide who is guilty.
They generate...
AI in Today’s ABA: What’s Safe to Automate and What Stays 100% Human
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If you’re a BCBA, BCaBA, or RBT, you’re already working with artificial intelligence (AI) in applied behavior analysis (ABA), whether your org has an...
When AI Breaks Trust: Lessons from the LAUSD Hiring Scandal
“You don’t just build AI. You build trust.”
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Meet, Ed
In March 2024, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced a bold, high-profile...
Critiquing the Machine: Teaching Your Team to Evaluate AI Like Scientists
The green code of The Matrix fades. In its place: a sterile chamber, glass spheres pulsing with future possibilities. Each one is a prediction that...
