Design in an AI World

Talk given by tracy at WordCamp MSP 2024

Resources mentioned:

• https://visily.ai
• https://relume.io
• https://grammarly.com
• https://descript.com

Articles & Research papers:

• “What is AI” - by Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology Review
• “What are LLMs good at—and where do they struggle?” - by Keanan Koppenhaver, Retool
• “Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.” - by Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology Review
• “Generative AI Misuse: A Taxonomy of Tactics and Insights from Real-World Data” - Google
• “The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence”
- by Timmit Gebru & Émile P. Torres, First Monday

Videos:

• Making Friends with Machine Learning: The Entire Course - Cassie Kozyrkov: https://youtu.be/1vkb7BCMQd0?si=bRWaTsTAe8JQHTtr
• "Good for you" (song) by Mouths of Babes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bokAzFfNSdQ

Transcript

1. DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD AI IS EVERYWHERE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR DESIGNERS?
2. TAPPS TRACY APPS DESIGNER SINCE THE 1900’S HI, I’M Milwaukee, WI Sr. UX & Product Designer Drummer Whovian WP Dev Podcast co-host Cat mom SHE/HER & spare human
3. WHAT IS AI? Part 1 ar·ti·fi·cial in·tel·li·gence /ˈärdəˌfiSH(ə)l ənˈteləj(ə)ns/ noun: artificial intelligence; noun: AI the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.
4. what people THINK AI looks like: DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 1: WHAT IS AI? ALGORITHMS, DATA, AND COMPUTATIONAL POWER, OH MY!
5. what people THINK AI looks like: what AI REALLY looks like: DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 1: WHAT IS AI? ALGORITHMS, DATA, AND COMPUTATIONAL POWER, OH MY! There is no cloud it’s just someone else’s computer
6. DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 1: WHAT IS AI? “Thing” labeler Mathy math Mathy math + LOTS of things
7. DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 1: WHAT IS AI? AGI Artificial General Intelligence Strong AI Narrow AI “weak AI” GenAI Generative AI LLM Large Language Models AI to perform a wide range of tasks. Unlike specialized AI, AGI would have general cognitive abilities and could perform any intellectual task that a human can not yet AI designed to perform a specific task. It excels at its particular function but doesn’t have general intelligence or the ability to handle tasks beyond its specialized area. AI that creates new content, such as text, images, or music, based on patterns and examples it has learned. It can generate original outputs that are similar to what it was trained on. AI that can understand and generate human-like text. It’s trained on vast amounts of text data to help with tasks like answering questions, writing content, and having conversations.
8. WHAT IS AI GOOD AT? Part 2
9. An Island of drunk people they have time and laptops send them tasks by sharing examples you don’t know how drunk they are DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 2: WHAT IS AI GOOD AT? COMPUTERS EXCEL AT COMPUTER-Y THINGS Full 6.5 hour course by Cassie Kozyrkov can be found here: https://youtu.be/1vkb7BCMQd0?si=QLui3vB7IgZAZnIa
10. “Summarize this 45 page contract for me” “What is this document?” Any tedious, repetitive task DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 2: WHAT IS AI GOOD AT? SPECIFIC TASKS (NARROW AI, LLM)
11. Speed up design with templates and patterns DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 2: WHAT IS AI GOOD AT? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US DESIGNERS? visily.ai
12. Speed up design with templates and patterns Gather inspiration DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 2: WHAT IS AI GOOD AT? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US DESIGNERS? visily.ai relume.io
13. Speed up design with templates and patterns Gather inspiration Improve/shorten text content DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 2: WHAT IS AI GOOD AT? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US DESIGNERS? visily.ai relume.io grammarly.com
14. WHAT IS AI NOT GOOD AT? Part 3
15. Creating new & original ideas DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 3: WHAT IS AI NOT GOOD AT? CREATIVITY!
16. Creating new & original ideas Understanding hands DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 3: WHAT IS AI NOT GOOD AT? CREATIVITY!
17. Creating new & original ideas Understanding hands Safety advice DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 3: WHAT IS AI NOT GOOD AT? CREATIVITY!
18. Creating new & original ideas Understanding hands Safety advice Camping DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 3: WHAT IS AI NOT GOOD AT? CREATIVITY!
19. Nuance and ethics DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 3: WHAT IS AI NOT GOOD AT? EMPATHY, EMOTION, DANCING… YOU KNOW, HUMAN THINGS.
20. Nuance and ethics DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 3: WHAT IS AI NOT GOOD AT? EMPATHY, EMOTION, DANCING… YOU KNOW, HUMAN THINGS. In the south they say “bless your heart” in New York they flip you the bird but in the midwest, passive agressive will get you the last word. Down in the bay they say “Namaste” but gettin’ back to my roots yeah, instead of sayin’ “go f*** yourself” I say… “good for you”
21. Nuance and ethics AI can learn. But not always learn well DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 3: WHAT IS AI NOT GOOD AT? EMPATHY, EMOTION, DANCING… YOU KNOW, HUMAN THINGS. And running. It’s not great at running. In the south they say “bless your heart” in New York they flip you the bird but in the midwest, passive agressive will get you the last word. Down in the bay they say “Namaste” but gettin’ back to my roots yeah, instead of sayin’ “go f*** yourself” I say… “good for you”
22. Don’t rely solely on AI for design “garbage in, garbage out”* Use AI as your assistant, not your replacement DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 3: WHAT IS AI NOT GOOD AT? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US DESIGNERS? *more on this later
23. WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? Part 4 The future is bright ?
24. What is the dataset? Who does it include? Who does it leave out? Who does it help? Who does it hurt? Completely removing the human element of decisions can literally mean life or ☠ DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? WITH GREAT POWER… back to the “don’t rely on AI” comment
25. GenAI creates a new reality Both good and bad ways " enhancing photo quality # fabricated reality Google DeepMind research paper: tapp.ps/AI-design-misuse Media literacy is becoming exponentially more important DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? WITH GREAT POWER…
26. TESCREALists vs. the world Descendant of Eugenics AGI Promises of “Utopia” Full Research paper here: tapp.ps/AI-design-TESCREAL DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? … AND EVEN GREATER POWER… Transhumanism Extropianism Singularitarianism Cosmism Rationalism Effective Altruism Longtermism Tech-utopian
27. Ask why. Ask why again. Ask why another 7689807493 times. Remember your design thinking superpower DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? …COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY My job is be the dumbest guy in the room. I’ll ask them to explain it to me like I’m a toddler.
28. Write react component code from sketches DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? MAKE AI WORK FOR YOU
29. Write react component code from sketches Make 7 million designs DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? MAKE AI WORK FOR YOU
30. Write react component code from sketches Make 7 million designs Auto caption your videos DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? MAKE AI WORK FOR YOU
31. Remember AI is an umbrella term for many things: DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? TO RECAP… Impact Meter
32. Remember AI is an umbrella term for many things: ML = Machine Learning, the “thing labeler” DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? TO RECAP… Impact Meter
33. Remember AI is an umbrella term for many things: ML = Machine Learning, the “thing labeler” LLM = Large Language Model, focused on text from massive text data source DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? TO RECAP… Impact Meter
34. Remember AI is an umbrella term for many things: ML = Machine Learning, the “thing labeler” LLM = Large Language Model, focused on text from massive text data source Narrow AI, a specialized, narrow focus AI DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? TO RECAP… Impact Meter
35. Remember AI is an umbrella term for many things: ML = Machine Learning, the “thing labeler” LLM = Large Language Model, focused on text from massive text data source Narrow AI, a specialized, narrow focus AI GenAI = Generative AI, mashing together “new” things from other images/sounds/etc. DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? TO RECAP… Impact Meter
36. Remember AI is an umbrella term for many things: ML = Machine Learning, the “thing labeler” LLM = Large Language Model, focused on text from massive text data source Narrow AI, a specialized, narrow focus AI GenAI = Generative AI, mashing together “new” things from other images/sounds/etc. AGI = Artificial General Intelligence, the “superintelligence” end goal DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? TO RECAP… Impact Meter
37. Remember AI is an umbrella term for many things: ML = Machine Learning, the “thing labeler” LLM = Large Language Model, focused on text from massive text data source Narrow AI, a specialized, narrow focus AI GenAI = Generative AI, mashing together “new” things from other images/sounds/etc. AGI = Artificial General Intelligence, the “superintelligence” end goal DESIGN IN AN AI WORLD • TRACY APPS PART 4: WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS DESIGNERS? TO RECAP… Impact Meter Our role as designers has changed (a bit) But it’s also become more important
38. These slides can be found at speakerdeck.com/tapps ANY QUESTIONS? Tracy Apps @tapps @therealtapps • “Generative AI Misuse: A Taxonomy of Tactics and Insights from Real-World Data” - Google ➡ tapp.ps/AI-design-misuse • “What is AI” - Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology Review ➡ tapp.ps/AI-design-what-is-AI Resources mentioned: • “The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence” - Timmit Gebru & Émile P. Torres, First Monday ➡ tapp.ps/AI-design-TESCREAL • “What are LLMs good at—and where do they struggle?” - Keanan Koppenhaver, Retool ➡ tapp.ps/AI-design-LLMs-good-at • “Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.” - Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology Review ➡ tapp.ps/AI-design-LLMs-not-understood Articles & Research papers: visily.ai relume.io grammarly.com descript.com