Presentable #8: Thinking About AI
What our future looks like as the adoption of ChatGPT and AI continues to increase
In last week’s issue, I shared out my travel guide to Tokyo and Kyoto, as well as some tips and recommendations for anyone visiting Japan for the first time.
This week, I’m sharing my thoughts on AI, specifically how I think we’ll interact with this technology in the future, how we can incorporate it into our daily routines, and ways designers can use it to their advantage.
Everyone is talking about ChatGPT and AI.
We’ve reached a peak, similar to crypto a few years ago, where something new has come along and captured the world’s attention.
The difference today is the range of emotions caused by the adoption of this new technology.
There are people who are afraid of what’s to come.
Unsure of what this means for their jobs. They're livelihoods.
There’s uncertainty around whether or not we’re setting ourselves up for failure by allowing this technology to keep progressing.
Many movies have predicted the “end of the world” where artificial intelligence takes over because it went beyond our control.
A few of my favorites include: The Terminator, The Matrix, and Ex Machina.
While I enjoy watching these movies, I’m more optimistic for where we’re heading.
The Future We’re Heading Towards
I’m excited about technological advancement. Even if it slightly scares me.
It means we’re getting closer to a future where we won’t need to be glued to our screens anymore.
Imagine if we didn’t have to do any of our daily, monotonous tasks.
Emails could be read, written, or replied to without needing to type a key.
Voice commands or conversations could replace finger taps.
Calendar invites could be scheduled automatically, without the back and forth coordination needed to check someone’s availability.
It’s just the beginning.
We spend an insane amount of time and energy figuring out things like: “what workout routine helps lower body fat percentage,” “how many calories does this meal have,” or “how much sleep did I actually get last night.”
Sure, you can just “google” these, but imagine getting clear answers without having to open an app. Without needing to look at a graph from your Apple Watch, Oura Ring, or Whoop Bracelet.
We could use this technology to get answers to things that actually matter.
We could get even more detailed information about our physical and mental health.
We could free up time to spend with our loved ones and focus on things that matter.
We’re barely scratching the surface of how we might use this new “tool” to our advantage.
While we’re not at a point where all the answers are 100% accurate, I believe we’ll get there very soon.
I re-watched “Her” last weekend while digging into all of the news around ChatGPT, and after viewing for the tenth time, I think we’re closer than we’ve ever been to that world.
I believe we’re 1 to 2 years away from our operating systems being capable of doing everything explored in that movie.
We’re reaching a point where we can take everything ChatGPT has learned and use those same models to apply to voice assistants.
Imagine if Apple, Google, and Amazon rolled out a new version of Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa, that were all driven by OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
Imagine if those voice assistants didn’t suck.
I’m not an expert on artificial intelligence or digital voice assistants.
Based on my own interactions with them, I know they can be better.
Opportunities for AI
What if it could provide personal therapy?
Would we be more comfortable talking to a non-human for some of our most traumatic experiences? Will people actually be more open and “trustworthy” of a technology that provides non-biased feedback?What if it could become a friend?
Humans need interaction. With other humans, animals, and yes, even computers. We’re comfortable interacting with people online who we may never meet in real life. Imagine if we treated AI the same.What if it could help us advance even further?
We’ve stalled in terms of innovation over the past 20 years. We’ve put a ton of effort into social media, smart phones, and now, AR/VR devices. In the grand scheme of things, how important are those things? Why have we stopped dreaming bigger? What if this is the baby step towards something greater?
Adoption Rate Of Technology
In MKBHD’s recent video, he covered the rate of adoption for things like: the telephone, mobile phone, Netflix, Twitter, Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and finally, ChatGPT.
It’s only taken 2 months for ChatGPT to reach it’s first 100 million users.
Marques also states:
“It seems almost obvious that we’re on the precipice of something really, really big that’s going to change everything.” — MKBHD
I agree 1,000%.
I think that change though, is going to be in how we interact with voice assistants.
We’ll soon interact with AI via voice, rather than just text.
Typing things into a search box is going to become a thing of the past.
How Designers Can Use AI
The biggest question I’ve come up with as I’ve researched more about AI is…
What does the adoption of AI mean for my job as a product designer?
Others outside of the design industry are also trying to figure this out.
My answer right now is “I don’t know.”
I have two thoughts about what it could mean for designers everywhere:
We can learn how to add AI to of our suite of tools (Figma, Notion, Framer, etc.)
We can teach AI how to do the most time-consuming parts of our jobs (Gathering data insights, scheduling user interviews, creating production-ready copy, and more)
We’re already seeing tools explore different ways of implementing AI in their products.
Notion AI
Just this week, Notion announced that Notion AI is now available to everyone—with a subtle jab at Microsoft.
Magician by Diagram
Jordan Singer and his team at Diagram are going all-in on AI and continue to build out new products for Figma utilizing this technology.
I’m on the waitlist for their new product called “Genius,” which appears to be a way to teach AI how to follow along as you design.
Concluding Thoughts on AI
There’s still a ton of questions left to be answered.
Will AI get to a point where it will replace people, similar to the industrial revolution?
Will design continue to be a need for companies as AI learns how to design screens that look “good enough”?
Will this free up designers to venture outside of pixels and start tackling harder problems that will push us forward as a society, or even as a human race?
I’m excited to see where we go from here.
I think we’re heading towards a technological revolution that’s bound to bring about opportunities we never could’ve imagined.
Let’s just try to not become the people from WALL-E along the way.