Will AI Tools Make Us Dumber?
Like the guests on the Space liner in Wall-E
Wednesday, June 12
I have a confession to make, I have an irrational dependance on the voice directions in Google Maps. Even though I’ve lived I’ve Seattle for 25 years and I have a great sense of direction, I frequently select my destination and wait for those turn by turn instructions. If I ever lose my GPS connection or my kids are talking too much, I literally fall apart. Rationally, I know I don’t need this, but I have somehow come to believe that I cannot function without it.
I’m concerned about a similar pattern with with AI tools as we jump onto workflows that promise incredible time savings. Case in point, over the last year I have tried to learn everything I can about YouTube, the algorithm, cameras, lighting, audio, and editing. I found video editing to be incredibly frustrating and only managed to get proficient by sticking to it for over a year. While I’m nowhere close to mastery, I can now click a button in Capcut and switch to text based editing (Also available in Adobe Premiere and Descript) and eliminate all my awkward pauses and filler words in minutes instead of hours. If part of your creative work feels like a chore, and you’re just using an AI tool to move something to the ‘done’ pile sooner, is there any incentive to learn your craft?
I don’t actually want you to click on this clickbait-y link, 10 AI Figma plugins that Every UI/UX Designer Should Learn in 2024, but it exemplifies the problem I’m trying to describe. I’m not criticizing the author since I’m also guilty of breathlessly using terms like ‘Game Changer’. I didn’t test every plugin on the list, so maybe I missed a few gems, but I’ll share some of the language included in their promise.
UX Pilot seamlessly guides you through the entire UX research process, making it the go-to tool for designers aiming to enhance their workflow.
Through the seamless execution of queries, AI Designer facilitates the creation of intricate mind maps, finely-tuned UX writing, detailed user personas, meticulously designed wireframes, intricate diagrams, and seamlessly connected user flows.
The Ando AI plugin allows designers to effortlessly simplify and elevate their creative process by tapping into a vast reservoir of design possibilities. It can generate millions of design ideas, drawing inspiration from prompts, shapes, and images to spark unparalleled creativity.
QoQo.ai can help designers overcome limited resources for research by generating Personas to better comprehend and serve your users, as well as User Journey Mapping, Information Architecture, UX Copywriting, and User Interviews.
If I were to advise my students to start using these plugins in the name of time saving, they would never really learn anything and be unprepared for the professional world that awaits them. If you’re an experienced designer, you probably already understand this, but if you’re new, those AI tools cannot be a substitute for craft.
On Monday, Apple announced that soon we’ll have ‘Apple Intelligence’ right in our pockets (assuming we buy a new phone) and we can all become super-charged paragons of executive efficiency. However, even Tim Cook is unsure if Apple AI will be always accurate:
I think we have done everything that we know to do, including thinking very deeply about the readiness of the technology in the areas that we’re using it in, So I am confident it will be very high quality. But I’d say in all honesty that’s short of 100 percent. I would never claim that it’s 100 percent.
If you’re ready to pause and reflect and you can take a little time for a longer read, I highly recommend this article by Alexy Evdokimov. 12 Questions to Consider When Using AI: Path to AI Power User. It will help you become a smarter AI user.
The Future of AI in Graphic Design
As recently as six months ago, naysayers were still telling me that ‘real’ graphic design firms were never going to use AI tools and they had no place in my curriculum. flash forward and this article from Creative Bloq has some great real world examples and how they see it impacting their workflows in the near future
Additionally, we've used text-to-voice generators to create guide VOs for brand videos at the start of production. We also regularly use AI tools to enhance, extend or upscale images and videos, ensuring high-quality outputs
Designer Engagement Report
At first I thought this smacked of confirmation bias because it comes across as the “Pissed off designer report”, and it’s survey asks loaded questions such as “Why are you unhappy at work”. However, Matej Latin is an author I respect, so I decided to look at the results. I work in Academia, and not in an office, so I’m always grateful for any insights I can find. I’ve written ( and referenced) a lot in this past year about the changing nature of the UX design profession, and this seems to back that up. Here’s his distillation of designer frustration:
For designers, the top three problems at work are
Limited ability to conduct research and get feedback on their work (28.2%)
No strategic approach to design (26.2%)
No career progression opportunities (23.4%)
I found it to be a very useful resource, you should go check it out
If you like his writing, and you are looking for work, you may also want to read this article about why your UX portfolio is getting rejected in less than 30 seconds.
Perplexity’s ‘Pages’ Feature
If you’re a regular reader, you’ve heard me wax enthusiastically about perplexity.ai as my favorite AI Assistant. Their new ‘pages’ looks really impressive, especially if you need to aggregate information for your team or classroom. I haven’t used it yet because it’s tied to the paid plan, but if you’ve just done a bunch of research, you can set some parameters and perplexity will compile it into a wiki for you.
With Pages you ask a question and set the target audience, then Perplexity parses the billions of webpages it has indexed and uses AI to collate the results. Instead of simply replying to your message in the chat window with the response, it turns it into a targeted Page.
This is from an excellent article on Tom’s Guide if you want to check it out
Amazon Debuts Two New AI Certificates
To be honest, I’m not really excited to take any online classes or pursue certifications, nor do I want to work for Amazon. However, part of the mission of this newsletter is to help people find jobs in a rapidly changing workforce. While this may not sound like fun advice, it’s a great way to prevent ‘becoming redundant’.
AWS Certified AI Practitioner is a foundational-level certification. It is designed for people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to showcase their understanding of AI and generative AI concepts, their ability to recognize opportunities that benefit from AI, and their knowledge on using AI tools responsibly.
They also have some more advanced, technical certifications, Check it out
That’s it for today. I hope you’re learning a lot and getting some value from this newsletter. If you haver any questions or things you’d like me to cover, just send me a message.