Back on Campus
I love working at Seattle Central College!
Hello, it’s Wednesday September 27th and It feels great to be back on campus. It’s been a busy week for AI news, so I’m back with another midweek edition.
Quickies
Amazon to invest up to 4 million in Anthropic’s Claude. Better late, than never.
Google Bard fails right out of the gate. Not living up to the hype.
Chat GPT can now “see, hear, and speak”. Gets more powerful every week.
Dalle-3 is here and it’s mind-blowing. I can’t wait to start using it.
Getty Images launches it’s own AI image generator (seven months after suing Stability AI).
Are You Ready to Commit to the Long Haul of UX+AI?
If you’re already working in UX and you think this AI thing might be here to stay, you’re probably open to doing a deep dive of best practices for designing digital products with AI. The People + AI Guidebook from Google is extensive and useful so bookmark it and pace yourself for the long haul. In case you’re wondering, I’ll be using it as a foundation for all my new UX assignments at SCCA.
Why it Matters: I think the near future holds a lot of jobs in the UX of AI
Cassie Korzyrkov: It’s a UX revolution, not an AI Revolution
If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you know that I’m a big fan of Cassie K. This article from Venture Beat mentions her, but what they’re saying is that Big Tech is going to invest heavily in the UX of AI because we’re at a tipping point moment. AI has been around for over a decade, but we’re just beginning to make it usable, relatable, and visible to consumers.
Why it Matters: I still think the near future holds a lot of jobs in the UX of AI
UX Researchers Are Already Using AI Tools
Not too surprising, a bunch of UX researchers put out a survey and found out that most of the UX researchers they surveyed were already using AI tools. If you work in UX research, you might want to check out this report
Why it Matters: Yep, jobs in the UX of AI
Firecut: The Lightning fast AI Video Editor
I’ve been a big fan of YouTuber Ali Abdaal, so I wasn’t surprised to see his enthusiastic face on the home page of this Premiere Pro Plugin. If you’d like to speed up your video editing workflow, (and you’re committed to the premiere ecosystem) this one seems like a winner to me. Explore Firecut
Steal Like a Prompt Engineer
If you’ve made it this far in life, you’ve probably heard of the book “Steal Like an Artist” and realize that our profession is based on borrowing and remixing. This article discusses a habit that I’ve also cultivated recently. I’m saving the best prompts I’m reading every day into a Notion page and experimenting with them later. 15 years ago when I was learning Web Design I kept a Google doc of code snippets. So far, it’s been a really helpful practice. Start stealing
How To Maintain Your Integrity as a Designer in the Age of AI
Every week I read about a new AI tool that promises to make all your work go away. “Snap your fingers to make a presentation deck”. I’m sure some of you still enjoy your work and/or you’re still employed in a role where design feels like craft. If you’re resisting the pull to turn yourself into an automaton, you might like this article by Thomas Budiman, Three mindsets to Adapt in the Era of AI as a Designer
These Seattle Area Startups Just Graduated from Yahoo Combinator
They all use AI/ML technologies. Maybe they’re looking for a designer. You, with all your AI knowledge from this newsletter, will look like a rockstar when you apply. Read more on Geekwire
My Latest Experiments with Pika Labs
I made some sort of AI short film/project/experiment every week this summer. This is now about 2 hours of work. Images in Midjourney, script from ChatGPT, voiceover from Eleven Labs, video from Pika Labs, the music, however is still made by humans, from MixKit.
That’s a wrap! I hope you’re enjoying this rainy weather ad your thirst for knowledge is at least somewhat slaked by this newsletter. If you’d like a deeper dive on something, just send me a message!