About
Laura Florey
Curiosity, stubbornness, and a love of figuring out how things work, including AI.
The Story
At a paint party a few years ago, I picked up a brush and put the first stroke on my canvas before the instructor finished explaining the project. The horror on people's faces was something. I told them to drink more wine.
That's kind of how I approach most things, including AI.
I'm a lifelong learner. Music degree. Cruise ships, circuses, rock and roll bands. Horses. Computers since the mid-90s, when I got my first one and immediately started breaking things. I've been breaking things and learning ever since. I just try to do it a little less often now.
The path
Technology & AI
I didn't come to technology through a classroom or a corporate career path. I came to it the same way I came to everything else: curiosity, stubbornness, and a genuine love of figuring out how things work.
That's also how I came to AI. Not through a certification or a conference. Through digging in every single day, asking hard questions, building things that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, and paying attention to what was actually real versus what was making headlines.
How I explain AI
Here's how I explain AI to people who ask:
Think of AI like a librarian. They have access to an enormous amount of information and they're genuinely helpful, but they work inside the library. Now imagine you also have an assistant who can leave the building to pick up your dry cleaning, grab a coffee, buy the book the librarian just recommended. That's an autonomous AI agent. Same idea, longer leash.