Presentable #17: Thinking About AI (Part Two)
Observations on how people are using Artificial Intelligence, what we’ve learned so far about it’s capabilities, and the great unknown of it’s future developments
In last week’s issue, I talked about how I track my daily habits, a few highlights that made me smile, and inspiring links I discovered on the internet.
This week, I’m re-visiting the topic of artificial intelligence, sharing out my observations of how people continue to experiment with it, what we’ve learned so far, and how it’s progression might bring about an unknown future.
How Humans Are Using AI
We’re still figuring it out.
I’ve seen people use it for art, music, literature—the traditional ways humans have always expressed individual creativity.
And, we’re using it to do slightly more complex things, like creating production ready code for software developers, coming up with complex research questions for user researchers, and creating user interface explorations for product designers.
We’re primarily using it as a search engine.
We’re searching for direct answers by “chatGPT-ing” rather than “googling” and looking through thousands—if not millions—of search results.
It’s making us faster, but not necessarily more accurate, or smarter either.
Some feedback from my previous post on AI was around how optimistic I was about the future we’re heading towards. More than ever, I remain optimistic, even if I’m entirely wrong, which is something I’m okay with.
My first thought about human connection and our relationship with reality remains.
We should be using these tools to make the world better.
My hope is that artificial intelligence can replace the mundane things we spend doing for the majority of our lives.
I’m imagining a life where personal optimization is a thing of the past.
Where we live in a world with technology that’s actually solving our problems.
One idea I’m exploring more, is how AI is not an actual computer we’re interacting with. We just haven’t reached the point where we can interact with it outside of the context of a computer.
What if there were devices—not computers—that were purely comprised of AI?
Humane recently demoed their product at a TEDTalk, and ultimately, it was a huge let down, compared to all of the hype built up from the past year.
I was disappointed, as well as many others.
Who is going to be the first to create a device that doesn’t require an interface? Why does everything have to have an interface?
One of my favorite design books of all time, “The Best Interface Is No Interface” by Golden Krishna, should be the standard we aim for as we explore what our future interaction with AI should be.
No more typing prompts.
No more activating by saying “Hey, Siri.”
Why can’t we live in that world? Our current hardware and technology might not be ready for that, but we as humans are.
I remain hopeful that the folks at Humane will be the ones to figure that out.
My Use Cases for AI
I’m experimenting with how to use AI in the workplace, and am excited about the opportunities it’s unlocking.
I’m spending less time “googling” and searching for the best answer or solution for a problem I’m trying to solve by just asking ChatGPT for help.
It’s allowed me to finally fix some parts of my own website I’ve struggled with. Even a basic thing, like grabbing my latest blog post and featuring it on my home page, and pulling in data to display the title of the next one at the bottom. Basic design features, that are complicated to figure out how to build in React for a non-developer.
I’m using Next.js to build my site, where there’s already a ton of documentation available, and I’m assuming ChatGPT is referencing all those materials available online.
The other main use case is prompting AI to come up with user research questions through Notion’s AI feature. I admittedly struggle to come up with questions for user research, as it’s not my biggest strength. Fortunately, most of the questions it spits out end up being pretty close at getting to what I need to find out.
I haven’t delved into photo generation AI like Midjourney, but have been keeping my eye on how others are using it.
The other interesting use case I’m interested in is music generation. Two songs featuring an AI version of Drake have been released and it seems there hasn’t been an official response or takedown, yet.
I’m curious to see the implications of using AI to mimic another person’s voice, especially without their consent. I’m also curious how that applies for actors.
I’m also curious when we’ll see the first AI generated animated film.
We’re on the cusp of exciting new ways we this technology can be used, yet it’s creating more questions without answers on how it should be used.
The Unknown Future Of AI
The fear I’ve heard from others is around artificial intelligence becoming “sentient”, which was brought up in this video by Thomas Flight—which also mentions the movie Ex Machina, another favorite of mine, with entirely opposite views of how AI might work in our world.
sentient
capable of sensing or feeling; conscious of or responsive to the sensations of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling — Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Maybe both views could exist in the same world.
Who’s to say that AI’s wouldn’t want to differentiate themselves, similarly to how we as humans differentiate ourselves?
There are always going to be good and bad people in the world. Would the same apply to AI’s if they become sentient?
If AI’s eventually become sentient, will they want to go off into their own world and create their own history?
Will we eventually treat AI’s as we do other humans? Will we become friends, lovers, enemies, or any other type of relationship we currently create with other humans?
How might we train this new technology to be a loving, kind, human-like, entity? Is that even possible?
“One day the AIs are going to look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa. An upright ape living in dust with crude language and tools, all set for extinction.” – Ex Machina (2014)
I’m curious to keep exploring the answers to these questions.
And, I’m excited to see where we go from here.
I don’t believe artificial intelligence is another trend. It’s a piece of technology that’s here to stay with us for years to come.
It’s something that could replace computers and change how we think about building new products.
Hopefully, it won’t replace us.
Helpful Links
”What’s really going on with ‘GhostWriter’ and the AI Drake song?” by Mia Sato and Richard Lawler
”Grimes says anyone can use her voice for AI-generated songs” by Mia Sato
“Unlock Your Creativity with ChatGPT and AI” by Tim Ferriss and Kevin Kelly
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