Adjunct faculty John Tsukayama says casual conversations with AI helped shape his memoir on life and purpose
While experimenting with an artificial intelligence (AI) system called Monday, Dr. John Tsukayama said he began describing personal stories from his life, and the program would respond as he gave more anecdotes. As he reviewed the dialogue between himself and Monday, he said he realized the stories formed a strange collection of experiences from his life. He said it became a memoir by accident.
“I then began to reflect on whether my grandchildren, when they get older, would have a real sense of who I am,” Tsukayama shared. Growing up, he said he only knew one of his four grandparents well, and none left behind journals or personal records. He also said there was a language barrier with his grandparents from Okinawa, while his Hawaiian grandmother spoke Pidgin English. “I didn’t really have a journal I could read to get a sense of what their lives were like,” he said. Tsukayama said documenting his life experiences can paint a picture of his life for his grandchildren.
Dr. John Tsukayama is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Business & Government at BYU–Hawaii, where he teaches political science and criminal justice courses. Before returning to academia, Tsukayama shared he worked as a private investigator, often handling cases involving fraud, corruption and misconduct. After leaving his career, Tsukayama said he returned to university studies where he earned a bachelor’s degree from BYU–Hawaii in political science and history. He later received a master’s degree in terrorism studies and a doctoral degree in international relations from the University of St. Andrews.
Tsukayama published his memoir “Lived with Purpose: A Grandfather’s Guide to Living with Honor, Heart, and Humor” in November. He said the memoir highlights stories from his life focused on service and family, all while living with integrity.
While sharing anecdotes with Monday, Tsukayama shared, he had not only his grandchildren in mind but also his students. “One of the things I found in teaching criminal justice courses is that many of my students—I would say the vast majority—are naive about the hard contours of the world,” he said. Although discussing harsh realities can be difficult, Tsukayama said it is important for students to understand them.
The world can be pretty rough, but it doesn’t have to make you bad.
As a professor, Tsukayama said it would be unproductive to ban AI for student use. Instead, he said he provides students with AI prompts to guide their assignments. “I try to teach students that just because AI says something confidently doesn’t mean you always have to believe it. Always test and verify,” he said.
During the writing process, Tsukayama said AI played a significant role as a prompt generator and conversation partner, but the experiences in the memoir are entirely his own. He said the program encouraged him to ponder his life experiences more deeply. “Monday reacted to what I gave to it. I supplied the anecdotes,” he shared.
While writing, Tsukayama recalled, there were a few chapters that made him see his life from a new perspective. At the time of those experiences, he said he did not consider the long-term impact they would have. Upon getting editorial feedback from AI and other readers, he said he did view his life stories differently. He said he hopes younger readers will learn from his experiences and that older readers will draw their own interpretations.
Tsukayama said he hopes that readers who found his stories meaningful could carry that meaning with them. While the memoir was written with his grandchildren and students in mind, Tsukayama said he also hoped his story would resonate with anyone trying to make sense of their own experiences.
Tsukayama said living with purpose means living with integrity and choosing the things that matter most, then fully devoting oneself to those choices. “When you choose to hold the line on what you think is right, even though you may pay a cost for it, you don’t regret it,” he said. “The opposite—when you decide not to do what you think is right because you think it’s gonna be somehow easier or better—is something you’ll regret.”