I help small businesses accomplish more with less. I build custom applications and automations designed to attack your exact problem at a fair cost.
Pittsburgh
Joined September 2026
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I am working on a mock client consultation for a custom application and/or automation. This is a great example regarding human oversight in AI. I don't just take the recommended approach. I ask questions. It has to make sense to me or I do not proceed.
Always avoid subscribing through app stores. Direct is the way to go. You could pay more and it sometimes causes confusion when you try to unsubscribe.
Empowering David retweeted
Elon has done it. Grok Bot is officially the best AI agent on the planet.
Half of these Bots would have taken a full engineering team months ago.
🧵: 10 insane Grok Bot use cases (tag your @bot to install these).👇
Because AI Told Me To
The Importance of the “How” and the “Why”
empoweringdavid.substack.com…
This article frames the County Council as heroes and business owners as irresponsible if they are unable to make accommodations.
This is the "Goliath" small business owners are up against.
EDITORIAL: Allegheny County’s landmark paid parental leave law promises support for families. But how will businesses handle the cost? Council has made history. Now employers must make the policy work — or find a way around it.
triblive.com/opinion/editori…
My thoughts are with small businesses in Allegheny County today. Don't let people who don't understand business convince you that you're heartless or intolerant for speaking out against bad policy.
Stay strong!
Better alternatives can be found without government involvement.
Teachers should ENCOURAGE children to use AI. Ask the students to use AI to learn literally any topic. Then, have them write a paper in class describing what they learned where they have no access to the AI model. It will prove that they used AI to learn rather than cheat.
Empowering David retweeted
Pennsylvania Chamber President & CEO Luke Bernstein joined the show.
His group thinks the Allegheny County Parental Leave Policy is totally disastrous.
Empowering David retweeted
An advertiser with your email address or phone number can target you with ads inside ChatGPT, and ads can also be matched to what you type.
Your personal chats with OpenAI could be used to target you.
404 Media ran its own ads to test it. Let's dig into what they found...
1/6
This happened in 2013. It is a clear example of overreach and a disdain for independent business owners.
If you're a small business owner, a simple AI prompt can help you proactively avoid scenarios like this.
Not that the business owner was at fault.
The IRS sent armed agents into a family bakery and drained $68,382 from its bank account.
Their “crime”? Depositing their OWN CASH in amounts under $10,000.
Then the government demanded ANOTHER $160,000 and a guilty plea to a FELONY.
The IRS called it “structuring”: deliberately keeping deposits small to dodge bank reporting rules.
DAVID VOCATURA: “I said to them, ‘Maybe I should get a lawyer.’ And they said, ‘You don’t need one, step in the back.’”
“Until the day they came in, I had no idea what structuring was.”
“I’m a law-abiding citizen. I can’t remember the last time I got a speeding ticket.”
Nearly three years after seizing the money, a prosecutor came back with a deal that carried up to FOUR YEARS IN PRISON:
DAVID VOCATURA: “They wanted us to pay another additional $160,000 in fines and plead to a felony charge of structuring.”
They refused.
You bake bread for three generations.
You pay your taxes.
You put your own money in the bank.
And the IRS treats you like a criminal, demanding nearly a quarter million dollars.
CONTEXT: Fortunately, the IRS didn’t get away with this one. Hours after the Institute for Justice sued, the IRS agreed to return all $68,382.22. Two weeks later, it withdrew a grand jury subpoena demanding eight years of the bakery’s business records. Crazy that they tried to ruin a business over depositing money into their own bank account.
A serviceman who uses a power drill likely doesn't understand how the inner-mechanics work. That's okay! His job doesn't require him to and he doesn't have to know the inner-mechanics to be able to use the tool effectively.
AI is very similar in this regard.
Many large tech companies are telling their employees to "use AI." That's backwards. When you hire a plumber you don't tell them to "use a wrench." You give them the problem and then they determine how to use the tool.
Standard business users do not need to know the ins and outs of AI to be able to use it effectively. Using AI is more about being able to explain a problem or ask a question in detail and knowing how to paint a big picture with follow up questions and elaboration.
Curiosity is what separates the responsible from the irresponsible in context of AI usage. We shouldn't react to the "what" until we understand the "why" and sometimes even the "how."
Goliath's fancy armor and crafted weaponry were a clear advantage, but also a disadvantage. David needed only faith, a sling, and a stone.
Many small businesses don't need a bronze helmet. They need a sling. Empowering David focuses on EXACT business needs.
I got the idea to start Empowering David after I started a fully functional fake business designed to help me practice my previous role. I had a fully functional application with a team and customer base played by AI agents.
I figured, "Why not just start a real company?"
Empowering David retweeted
Introducing Grokipedia v0.3
grokipedia.com
