In a world of social-media influencers with brand deals and high-powered consultants with hidden agendas, it is difficult to identify independent thinkers to help make sense of AI and other digital technologies. Many so-called experts are vague about who pays them and how that shapes their ideas and services.

Writing AI Log is separate from my paid work. AI Log does not accept advertising (not that anyone is offering), and I do not receive payment from anyone for what or how I write. To the extent possible, what I write is free from commercial interests, including my own. This is important to me.

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I earn my living as a teacher, speaker, and consultant. 

I accept payment for consulting with edtech companies about product development, marketing, and strategy and for writing and speaking about the educational products I use. When I write something for a company, or when I appear on a webinar or podcast, or give a talk at an edtech conference, I will disclose if I am being paid and by whom.  

Everyone imagines that Upton SInclair’s line about not understanding something because your salary depends on it applies only to other people. If it ever applies to me, I want my readers to notice and tell me about it.  

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Disclosures 

I am paid a stipend for each class I teach at the University of Pennsylvania. What I receive is generous compared to what many adjuncts earn, but is not a living wage and wouldn't be even if I taught three times as much.

I give talks and workshops at various educational institutions and conferences for money. I have a strong bias in favor of the social value of the work educators do and the institutions where they do it. That comes through in my writing, so the money I receive is not so much about influencing me as it is about paying me to influence educators. 

Here are the educational technology companies that have paid me or given me gifts or travel in excess of $500 since I departed full-time employment as an educational bureaucrat: 

I am working for Leepfrog Technologies as a consultant on their plans to add AI features to their products and their strategy for approaching AI. I will appear at Leepfrog’s User Conference in New Orleans in February and in a webinar in April. I am writing about AI strategy as we collaborate on figuring out what value, if any, generative AI might add to Courseleaf products and managing academic information. Some of that writing will likely appear on their website. 

I am appearing at ExploranceWorld 2025, Explorance’s user conference in Montreal, Canada. I have appeared in webinars and presented at Explorance conferences for many years. 

In November of 2024, Grammarly flew me and about a dozen colleagues in higher education to San Francisco and put us up in a hotel across from their headquarters. They showed us new functionality they plan to add next year and took us to a nice dinner. It was fun, and I learned a lot. 

I have friends who work at all three of these companies.

If you have questions about the work I do for pay and how it influences my writing, please contact me. I’m genuinely curious about how people think about earning a living while trying to change the world for the better. If you would like to read more, here is an essay on AI Log that discusses these issues. Seriously, if you have ideas or questions about this stuff, get in touch.