Ask AI About Yourself

A podcast I was listening to suggested that you ask what your commonly used AI tools can tell you about yourself. This suggestion was made in the context of a discussion of AI security, but to me it seemed something interesting to try. From time to time, I search for my name using a search engine just to see what I could find and this always seemed to turn up something unexpected, but it had not occurred to me to try the same thing with AI.

I use a ChatLLM from Abacus.AI, which is a bit less expensive than the $20 per month tools, but it offers the opportunity to apply multiple AI services, which seemed like an interesting way to experiment with this task (see the following image). I used Claude for this example. 

I used this prompt: What do you know about the Mark Grabe living in Minnesota?

I don’t have access to private or comprehensive background files on individuals, but I can share what’s publicly visible online for someone named “Mark Grabe” who appears to be associated with Minnesota and let you infer if that’s the person you mean.

From public sources, there is a:

1. Retired academic / educational technologist

Several profiles and sites point to a retired academic named Mark Grabe, described as an educational psychologist and educational technologist:

• A personal profile on Glasp lists him as a “Retired academic – educational psychologist, educational technologist” and shows that he is highly active in reading and highlighting articles about education, AI, note‑taking, and related topics, with thousands of highlights and pages saved over several years [Glaspprofile](https://glasp.co/j3h2xdri1p632t4w).
• He has a Substack newsletter called “Mark’s Substack” described simply as “My personal Substack” [Substack](https://markgrabe.substack.com/). Topics there (from titles and tags) typically relate to education, technology, and broader commentary.
• He has posted as a retired academic still writing about educational technology and mentions Minnesota (e.g., comments about snow, fall colors, and Twin Cities parks) on social media [Threadsprofile](https://www.threads.com/@markgrabe).

While these pages don’t all explicitly say “Minnesota” in the bio line, the content and posts clearly reference Minnesota weather and locations, strongly suggesting he lives in or around Minnesota.

2. Author of education / ed‑tech books

The same name appears as the author of multiple books on integrating technology into teaching and learning:

• “Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning”
• “Integrating the Internet for Meaningful Learning” (often co‑authored with Cindy Grabe)
• “Learning With Internet Tools: A Primer”, etc.

These are listed on his author page on Goodreads [Goodreads–MarkGrabe](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/312712.MarkG​rabe). The topics line up with:

• Educational psychology
• Classroom use of technology
• Internet tools and instructional design

That matches the description of a long‑time education/ed‑tech professor who later retired but stayed active writing online.

3. Likely background (inferred, not private data)

Based on the combination of sources above, the public picture of “the” Mark Grabe tied to Minnesota is:

• Retired academic, likely a former professor of educational psychology/educational technology.
• Has written multiple textbooks and practitioner books for teachers on integrating technology and the internet into instruction.
• Is still active blogging and writing online about:
  • Educational technology
  • AI and learning
  • Note‑taking, reading, and study tools
  • Broader social/technology themes

I don’t have access to protected records (e.g., address, employer HR info, phone numbers, or anything similar), and I can’t confirm that every online “Mark Grabe” is the same person, only that these public profiles look very likely to refer to the same academic/author who mentions Minnesota.

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If you’re trying to figure out whether this is a specific Mark Grabe you know (e.g., a relative, professor, or colleague), tell me:

• In what context you know him (university, school district, family, etc.), or
• Any known details (field, approximate age, institution),

and I can help you cross‑reference public information more precisely while staying within privacy boundaries.

Reaction

This information is accurate and does not contain anything I would call private information. The links are accurate and take you to some, but not all of my most active online accounts. For example, I have been a blogger since 2002 and while this is recognized, there is no link. The same is the case with my Mastodon accounts. Other AI tools I tried did identify these sources.

What about images?

It then occurred to me that it might be possible to generate an image to accompany something I might write about this content. I switched to Nano Banana.

Prompt: What can you show me about Mark Grabe.

The AI responded with “I can show you a portrait of Mark Grabe”.

After viewing the image, I asked Nano Banana to place a copy of the book “Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning” on the desk resulting in the following image.

I don’t think those who know me would recognize this individual as me, but many of the attributes – hair line, glasses, beard are perfect. The AI must have found examples of my appearance to come this close.