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AI + People Ways of Learning Workshop ● 2019
Comissioned by NID
In collaboration with Yatharth
The Why
In the exponential growth of technology over the last few decades, we thought it important for creative problem solvers to be acquainted with AI. Our first inquiry in this was “How might we get people to understand tech as a tool, and not as a monster which will one day rule the world?
The Aim
The aim was to dispel preconceived notions of AIML and normalize it by addressing the anxieties, fears, and fantasies that people fostered about the topic. That meant giving a reality check and replacing the mental image of The Terminator (frequently visualized as AI) with a realistic and experiential lesson in Human Learning and Machine Learning.
The Process
This was conducted by performing experiments where the participants were asked to design a chair and provided elementary AIML tools to assist them through the task. The participants were to experience for themselves the realistic capacity and potential of the tool. Through hands on experience, it was easy for the participants to identify the strengths and weaknesses of AIML, and the same as that of the designer (in this case the participants themselves), and the potential the tool holds to augment the designers skills.
Our Motivation
A personal driver for us in designing this workshop was to inquire for ourselves the role of a creative individual in the present time of AIML advancement and sophistication. Our own curiosities have been nudging us to inquire in this direction, and we wanted to understand the public response to questions like:
In the exponential growth of technology over the last few decades, we thought it important for creative problem solvers to be acquainted with AI. Our first inquiry in this was “How might we get people to understand tech as a tool, and not as a monster which will one day rule the world?
The Aim
The aim was to dispel preconceived notions of AIML and normalize it by addressing the anxieties, fears, and fantasies that people fostered about the topic. That meant giving a reality check and replacing the mental image of The Terminator (frequently visualized as AI) with a realistic and experiential lesson in Human Learning and Machine Learning.
The Process
This was conducted by performing experiments where the participants were asked to design a chair and provided elementary AIML tools to assist them through the task. The participants were to experience for themselves the realistic capacity and potential of the tool. Through hands on experience, it was easy for the participants to identify the strengths and weaknesses of AIML, and the same as that of the designer (in this case the participants themselves), and the potential the tool holds to augment the designers skills.
Our Motivation
A personal driver for us in designing this workshop was to inquire for ourselves the role of a creative individual in the present time of AIML advancement and sophistication. Our own curiosities have been nudging us to inquire in this direction, and we wanted to understand the public response to questions like:
How would the advent of AIML affect the role of a designer over time?
What are the unique sensibilities that a creative and their machine counterparts brings to the design process?
Which abilities might creatives have to identify and hone in order to work in tandem with the machine?
What exactly is creativity and how much of it has to do with humanness and originality?
Process followed by group where group leader was the AI
Team members included AI, Mayank, Manglesh, and Snehanshu
Their final chair was called The Reliever
Through all the objects they clicked on campus, the AI identified the urinal to eb 93.85% chair and therefore the best design direction to work with.Team members ideate on how a chair inspired by a urinal might look like.
Accidental metaphors: Duchamp explained that the purpose of his sculputure is to “raise an everyday object to the dignity of work of art by the artist’s act of choice”.
Team members prototyped thier ideas using clay
Posters for the newly designed chair concept
Takeaways from the workshop
The core learning from the workshop for us as inquirers of AI in Design, was profound yet extremely simple. We found that once given a chance to collaborate with ML, people begin to reflect and inquire about the ethics of AI themselves. They begin asking questions of truth, authenticity, and empathy- all of which would not have been possible had the mind not been informed by hands-on experience.
The reflective discussions with all the participants at the end of the workshop paved way for a constructive critical conversation on AIML. We discussed how prehistoric humans developed tools to assist them, but with the passage of time, tools have caused humans to evolve, and in the process, have evolved themselves. It was well established that there was an urgent need for everyone, creatives and beyond, to learn more about AIML.
The session ended on an introspective note:
Paper written on the workshop can be found here.
The core learning from the workshop for us as inquirers of AI in Design, was profound yet extremely simple. We found that once given a chance to collaborate with ML, people begin to reflect and inquire about the ethics of AI themselves. They begin asking questions of truth, authenticity, and empathy- all of which would not have been possible had the mind not been informed by hands-on experience.
The reflective discussions with all the participants at the end of the workshop paved way for a constructive critical conversation on AIML. We discussed how prehistoric humans developed tools to assist them, but with the passage of time, tools have caused humans to evolve, and in the process, have evolved themselves. It was well established that there was an urgent need for everyone, creatives and beyond, to learn more about AIML.
The session ended on an introspective note:
What is our relationship with our own creations, the present day super advanced tools?
Paper written on the workshop can be found here.
Bangalore/ Mumbai, India • harshali.para@gmail.com • made by Harshali Paralikar ©2021
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