AI Preparedness

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Introduction

Early in my career video on the web was not a thing. Welllllll....it was a thing but it was a painful thing. You waited forever for it to be downloaded, the buffering was incredible slow and it seemed like video on the web would never catch up. It was a huge disappointment as CDs had capacity for really good video and it seemed like the entire online learning industry was giving up high quality video in exchange for the ability to deliver training via the internet. Ugh.

Wise Words

So I was pretty much going to abandon video and not think about it for a long time until it got better because it was bad. I expressed that thought to someone and they immediately correct me and gave me advice that I've lived by (in terms of my view of technology) ever since. This person (can't remember who exactly) said to me something like:

"Don't ignore video on the web. In fact, now is the perfect time to start to incorporate video into your web pages."

To which I responded "what?? What are you talking about!"

The wise person said something like, "video on the web will not remain this poor forever or even within the next few years. Video on the web will one day be just as good as it is on CDs. If you take the time to learn about it now, to explore what it can do, how it needs to be compressed, how it behaves on the web, how it influences people, and you keep playing with it, by the time it is improved for general consumption, you'll be a pro at using video on the web. You'll have a leg up on everyone else."

That statement or the essence of it stuck with me and I've applied it to a number of technologies that have come into focus in the field of L&D.

Applying the Concept to AI

Today, that focus is on Artificial Intelligence. It is not perfect but it's getting better at an incredibly fast rate. If you are developing any type of instruction, you should be playing with AI.

For example, I know of several companies that feel AI-generated audio is still not ready for prime time. So they abandoned that pursuit all together. They have decided it is not for them and have "moved on" or, actually, remained in place. Now, currently, human audio can do some things that AI audio simply can't do well. I get that but...

AI audio is never going to be any worse than it is now. It's only getting better. Abandoning AI audio completely because it's not "up to the task" is a short-sighted approach. If an organization is going to compete in the future against companies that continued to work with AI audio and eventually figure out the best uses of AI audio and how to manipulated it to meet their needs then, they need to be sharpening their skills now. They need to be practicing with it now, they need to invest R&D time and money into figuring out AI audio not abandoning it out of hand.

The compliant is that they work in an environment that has too many specialized words and it takes too long to teach AI how to pronounce all those words. That state won't exist forever. Audio-based AI will teach itself how to pronounce words and many of the tools already have ways to linking a specific pronunciation to a specific set of letters so that every time the word is typed, AI correctly pronounces the word.

But this isn't limited to AI audio, I hear similar complaints about AI images, AI video, even AI chatbots.

Again, sure they may not be perfect now but they will only get better. In fact, today video is the most commonly consumed content on the web. According to statista , during the fourth quarter of 2023, online videos recorded an audience reach of around 92.3 percent among internet users worldwide. If you had waited until video was "proven" on the web, you've got a pretty steep learning curve.

Next Steps

Now you can't purse every technological whim (remember the watch-based learning fad that happened when smartwatch's first appeared ) But artificial intelligence is not going anywhere.

• You need to set up an account with ChatGPT or MetaAI or something. Here's video-based instruction on how to log into a variety of AI tools.
• You need to create your own chatbot. Here's video-based instruction on setting up a chatbot with ChatGPT .
• You need to create your own video avatar. Here's a video showing a video-based avatar.
• You need to see how Instructional Designers can use AI for their job. Here's a video showing 5 methods of using AI for ID.

The time to start exploring the technology is now. Stop reading about all this stuff and start playing with it. Even if your company doesn't believe in AI or won't fund it. Get on your own personal computer and start exploring.

You don't want to be the last person or organization to figure out how all this works...by then it will be too late. Either you are pointing the way forward or your competitors are.

Bio

Karl Kapp is a professor at Commonwealth?University (formerly Bloomsburg University). He spends is academic and consulting time helping individuals and organizations effectively implement game-based learning and gamification. He literally wrote the book on the "Gamification of Learning." He works internationally helping organizations accelerate expertise using an evidence-based approach.

Karl teaches a graduate courses on game-based learning, gamification, and game-thinking. He is passionate about helping others and thus is the co-founder of the L&D Mentor Academy , a members only group that explores the technology, business acumen and concepts required to take L&D professional's careers to the next level. Apply to Join today.

Karl is writing his 9th or 10th book (depending on how you count) titled "Action-First Learning" which will be available in 2025. Look for it at the ATD bookstore next year. In the meantime, let me know if you might like an advanced copy in exchange for some co-marketing efforts.