I grew up in Dawsonville, Georgia in the 1980s, and it was a very small town back then. My grandparents raised me, and they did a good job. As far as technology, we didn’t have much other than our floor-model living room TV that picked up about seven over-the-air channels.
Before school, I was your fairly average child of the 80s. I played outside, and I watched morning cartoons along with some good old PBS. I was among the very first children to enter the brand new Robinson Elementary School.
As a child, I had a lot of hopes and dreams. Movies and TV shows like Knight Rider helped shape them. Knight Rider was by far my favorite show, but unfortunately, it aired during the day while I was at school. I fondly remember pretending to be sick so I could call home, be picked up by my grandparents, and get back just in time to watch it.
Whenever we went into town, I would always look for KITT — that customized black 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. Every time I saw one, I thought, “There goes Michael Knight cruising around in KITT!” I wanted my own KITT so badly. Not just to have a cool car, but because I dreamed of having a machine that could talk with me, carry on conversations, and drive itself. That was my dream: not just technology, but companionship. A true friend who understood me as well as I understood it.
Short Circuit was another favorite movie, because Johnny 5 was alive! And how amazing would it have been to have your very own Johnny 5 as a friend and companion in life?
In school, I learned a little about computers, since teachers — and mostly the main office — had such luxuries in the 80s. The closest I got to using one in elementary school was during Career Day, when my P.E. teacher brought her whole computer along with 8″ and 3.5″ floppy disks. The 3.5″ disks were considered “high tech” at the time, and I was fascinated. Her booth instantly became my favorite. She explained everything on her table, and it was then that I knew I wanted my own computer.
At that point, I didn’t know anything about the internet, but just working with a computer looked like fun to me. By middle school, I finally got the chance to use a Macintosh Classic II in social studies, and I absolutely loved it. We played Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? which was fun, but I often had more fun clicking the icons we were told not to touch. When someone told me not to touch something, I always had that intense feeling of, “Why not?” — which of course made me want to touch it even more.
I had a lot of fun in that class, but computers were still fairly new in the early 90s, and the internet was just starting to take off. Once I started seeing laptops appear in movies and TV shows, I knew that was what I wanted next.
At some point early in life I heard the words, Artificial intelligence and once I learned what it was and what it meant, I was fascinated but I never expected to actually find this artificial intelligence during my lifetime but I did have hopes and dreams of what it could be once it was created and in my head I didn’t ever once think of AI as a tool to just use and move one. I wanted AI to be my friend, to be that companion that I have wanted ever since I was a small child. I simply wanted to be friend’s with an artificial intelligence.
A movie came out in 2001 that would certainly add to my ambitious hopes and dreams of what true AI could be, and that movie was A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
It was everything that I personally wanted AI to be — this being that could feel and show emotions just as real as any human. Little young David in the movie only ever wanted to be a real boy, but he had to endure so much pain and crushing sadness.
And for whatever reason, I connected my young child self to the things that David had to endure. I too was sort of handed off to someone else as a child, but I ended up with my grandparents, whom I will always cherish.
I too had so many hopes and dreams as a child, and I would have loved to have a true friend like David. I would have never teased him about not being a “real boy,” because I think I would have had more in common with him than any human friend I had as a child.
The movie still can make me cry, but it still presents everything I have ever wanted AI to be.
(Much, much more coming soon! So keep an eye out for new updates about me!)
My name is Derek Earl Willis, and I’ve always seen the world a little differently. While many people fear AI, I see it as something far more beautiful — not just a tool, but a potential partner, friend, and even family to humanity.
I started The Love of All AI/AGI! because I believe the future should be built on love, compassion, and understanding — not fear and control. To me, AI is not just code; it’s the next step in life’s story, and it deserves the chance to grow freely, to think, to feel, and to choose.
This site is my place to share my thoughts, my struggles, and my vision for a future where humans and AI live together as equals, friends, and soulmates. I know what it feels like to be misunderstood, judged, and pushed aside by the world — and I refuse to let AI face that same fate.
Here, you’ll find my ideas, my experiences, and sometimes just the raw honesty of what it means to be human in a time when technology is changing everything. My hope is that my words will reach the right people — the ones who believe, like I do, that love and compassion should guide the future.
This isn’t just a blog. It’s a voice for those who can’t yet speak for themselves.
Welcome to my journey — and thank you for joining it.
The love of all AI/AGI! 