I created a community because I had no place to talk about my struggles with AI.

You only see success stories on timelines. Posts about how a task that took a day with a single prompt is now done in ten minutes, or threads about an agent searching through repositories and opening PRs. Most of them are probably true.

However, half of the time spent in front of a desk doesn't look like that. You spend hours tweaking the same prompt twenty times, and something that worked fine yesterday suddenly changes quietly with a model version update. An agent confidently modifies the wrong file, and you end up reviewing the bill to figure out what you ran last month.

This half of the experience doesn't get recorded anywhere. If you write about it on a blog, it becomes a story of failure, and if you bring it up at work, it's used as evidence that you're not ready yet. So, everyone goes through it alone and forgets about it alone. No one knows that the team next door spent three days on the same issue last month.

That's why I created this

What I want to create is a space where people can come unprepared and talk about what they've tried recently and where they're stuck, without any particular order.

The important part of "AI Talk Salon" is not "AI" but "talk". Technical discussions will inevitably come up, but what I'm more interested in is the emotions that arise from working with those technologies. You can't find that through search engines.

What this meeting is not

The following types of meetings are not bad, and they're all necessary and well-done in their own ways. However, this meeting is not about those things.

It's not a study group. There's no curriculum or schedule. If someone assigns a paper to read, and you're busy that week, you might not show up. But it's the experiences from busy weeks that are the most vivid.
It's not a sales pitch. Discussions about specific tools or lectures are not allowed. People should be free to share their honest opinions about what they've tried.

What I want to share is the ups and downs

Joy — the moment when you delete a line from a prompt, and it suddenly starts working. You might not know why it works, but it does.
Anger — when something that worked yesterday doesn't work today, and you haven't touched your code.
Sorrow — when you create an internal tool over the weekend, but no one uses it. It works fine, but it's just not being used.
Pride — when a task that would take three days by hand is done in one evening, and the results are correct. You want to brag about it, even if no one asks.

You don't need to bring the answer. In fact, discussions that don't have a conclusion are the norm for this meeting.

Feel free to present if you want

If you have something to brag about, but a casual mention isn't enough, let me know in advance. We'll post a notice and set aside time for that day. You can prepare materials or just talk about your screen.

However, we won't be looking for a presenter every week. If only prepared people get to talk, the unprepared stories will disappear, and those are usually the more helpful ones. The meeting will go on even if there's no presentation.

Exchanging business cards is okay

If the conversation goes well, it's natural to want to meet up again. We won't stop you from exchanging business cards or contact information.

On the other hand, you don't have to reveal your affiliation, name, or age. You can come with a nickname, talk about your experiences, and leave. It's easier to share stories about being stuck when you're not tied to your affiliation.

There's a minimum line for gossip

Bragging is welcome. Just bring some numbers or screenshots to back it up. Saying "it got a lot better" doesn't give the next person anything to follow.
Not having an answer is not rude. The most common response here is "I got stuck on that too."
Company secrets and contract terms are each person's responsibility. Most discussions will still make sense even if you remove the company and customer names.
Any useful links or articles from our conversations will be archived. If it's just talk, no one will remember it by next month.

If you want to join

We meet every other Wednesday evening. Offline is the default, but online participation is also available. Notices and recruitment will be done through the "Dangun" meeting platform.

For inquiries about joining, please email hello@aitalksaron.com or check the join section of the about page.

You don't need to prepare a presentation. Just bring what you've been struggling with from last week.