FEATURE
This is the AI we didn’t see coming: artificial imagination
There are three responses to the author's question, “What does it mean to be creative in the midst of ubiquitous tech?” One is a dystopian view to “Run for the hills the robots are taking over!” The second is a utopian view: “All’s well in the world. Didn’t life just get so much easier with all of the automation and bots that abound?”
The third response is what Galit Ariel, an augmented reality expert, refers to as a heterotopia: there’s good news and there’s bad news.
The A.I. Dilemma (Video)
In this fascinating and terrifying hour-long Youtube video, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin discuss how existing A.I. capabilities already pose catastrophic risks to a functional society, how A.I. companies are caught in a race to deploy as quickly as possible without adequate safety measures, and what it would mean to upgrade our institutions to a post-A.I. world.
This presentation is from a private gathering in San Francisco on March 9th, 2023 with leading technologists and decision-makers with the ability to influence the future of large-language model A.I.s.
CREATIVITY
Neil Gaiman’s Creativity Hack Is Simple, Free and Grossly Underrated
The 62-year-old novelist has lots of ideas on the nature of ideas — where they come from, how you find them, and what makes a good one.
“A lot of [ideation], right in the beginning, can just be boredom. It can be looking out a window. I love going to junior school and middle school kids’ drama. You cannot escape. You are stuck there. You can’t take out your phone. You can’t read. You have to watch. And yet the need to be elsewhere is such that you can absolutely go off and come up with some fantastic ideas for things.”
Boredom. Device-free boredom!
31 Secrets to Unlocking Your Creativity
Thirty-three artists, writers, musicians, designers, and big thinkers share the mysterious rituals and dirty tricks behind their greatest work.
Give each a shot a day in May!
CURIOSITY
8 Common Team Reactions to Innovation Ideas
Read about these 8 personas and if you're interested, read Chapter 10 of a new book that covers this and more... Decision Sprint: The New Way to Innovate into the Unknown and Move from Strategy to Action by Atif Rafiq. I noticed a few of these personas reflected in an ideation challenge I recently ran.
I filed this under curiosity, because this article sparked curiosity that led me to the book, which connected the dots to the ideation challenge. Also discovered that a new colleague contributed to this book!
VISUAL
U.S. Debt: Visualizing the $31.4 Trillion Owed in 2023
Can you picture what $31.4 trillion looks like? Probably not... The enormity of U.S. government debt is hard for the average person to wrap their head around.
In this graphic, Julie Peasley shows how many one-dollar bills it would take to stack up to the total U.S. debt of $31.4 trillion. A lot!
I've been to the Willis Tower, and that's really a lot...
UX
Designing a World-Class User Experience Starts with Trust
For UX/UI Designers Katie Naiser and Andrew Han, trust is absolutely necessary – trust in their teams, trust in their missions and trust in their intuition. In turn, the two designers are among the many people at Toyota Connected North America (TCNA) who help to instill that very same confidence within millions of customers they serve.
GeekWire Awards UX Design of the Year finalists help users in health care, worker training and more
The finalists in the UX Design of the Year category at the 2023 GeekWire Awards are working to help end users across a variety of disciplines, including health care, worker training, workspace collaboration, and employee performance evaluation.
The award is intended to recognize a product that has a user experience that is meaningful, usable and delightful for those end-users. The five finalists are CalmWave, Knapsack, Soovu Labs, Taqtile, and Textio. Read about them...
INCLUSIVE
How AI Can Improve Accessibility in Gaming
How can AI can fit into the overall design of games? Accessibility is possible because of a deep understanding of disabled players and their needs. AI will likely never truly understand the individualistic nature of being disabled. Many disabilities like blindness are on a spectrum. How can AI accurately determine the level of vision a player has? Will it be possible to tune AI like a standard accessibility option?
Global Accessibility Awareness Day - May 18, 2023
Thursday, May 18, 2023 is the 12th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments.
Find an event near you or online and participate!