Issue #6: Brainstorming the Buzz for AI

Boom! Special issue week!

Great opportunity to shake virtual hands with Kathryn Grayson Nanz and get a sneak peek into her awesome Substack - Focused Input!

As always if you've had a good 5 min here, reading opinions, articles, finding new reads or authors, Subscribe to the newsletter to stay informed of new editions!

P.S. Also subscribe to Kathryn's Substack - there are gems there. Rare gems. ??

Hey there! My name is Kathryn, and I’m lucky enough to get to do a takeover of the TechRel newsletter this week. If our paths haven’t already crossed on the Telerik blogs, Twitch stream, or elsewhere, let me introduce myself: I’m a Senior Developer Advocate at Progress, focusing on UI/UX design, accessibility, and front-end development (especially React development).I also have a newsletter of my own, Focused Input, where I write about the intersection between design and development – and this week’s TechRel newsletter is an extra-special crossover episode.

AI is the buzzword on everyone’s mind right now. My calendar has been rife with meetings where various teams want to brainstorm ways that we can incorporate AI and leverage the hype. I would guess that a significant percentage of you, readers, are experiencing something similar.?

Here’s the point at which I should be honest: I’m an AI skeptic, to put it lightly. I have seen some really cool examples where AI is being used in interesting and helpful ways. But, if I’m honest, those seem to be in the minority when compared to the vast amount of dreck where AI has (a) clearly just been shoehorned in because someone wanted to say a product was “AI powered” or (b) been used to replace the human touch entirely. I’m pro-AI as a tool to expand human capability; I’m anti-AI as a tool to replace human creativity. Is that a thin line to draw? Perhaps, but I do think it’s an important one.?

My primary distaste is with generative AI, especially when used (as it so often seems to be) for content creation. There are plenty of reasons to dislike GenAI: the lack of concern for permission and ownership when scraping the web to build datasets , the biased results , the significant amount of misinformation , the numerous ways for users to outsmart the system , etc. However, right now I’d like to talk a little bit about the terrible user experience it creates.?

Because at this point, GenAI isn’t very good. Sure, from a technical standpoint it’s impressive, but compared to other human-generated content it’s still not great . Those numerous issues listed earlier mean that it’s still very possible for users to see generated art where the details don’t make any sense, be given an obviously incorrect answer when they search, or get stuck in a loop chatting with some tech support AI. As a user…all of that creates an experience that really sucks.?

When we use GenAI to write website copy, generate illustrations, respond to support tickets, etc., what we’re really saying to our users – loudly and clearly – is “you’re not worth our time.” Your needs, your experience, your time, your goals – those are unimportant to us, the people who designed and built this product. We didn’t care enough to actually make this content ourselves, but we still expect you to be satisfied by it.?

Using AI (at its current capability level) in our products means that it’s a matter of when (not if) the actual humans who use our product will bump into the edges of the AI’s capability – like video game characters hitting the invisible edge of an open-world map. AI is inherently disconnected from the real human experience. It cannot have empathy, it won’t accommodate for human error, it’s not capable of coloring outside the lines or creating new ideas – all it can do right now is regurgitate whatever it scraped. That is, without a doubt, noticeable in the content it generates. And when users see it (and by extension, our lack of care for them), our relationship with them is severely damaged – and only time will tell if it’s recoverable.?

Links?

While writing the main post this week, I came across several interesting AI-related articles, so the links this week are pretty single-topic. We’ll be back to our usual mix next issue.?

ChatGPT is not ready to handle web accessibility remediation : Karl Groves explores “Accessibility Copilot”, a ChatGPT powered accessibility testing product, and discusses the prospects of using AI to help improve accessibility on the web.?

Using AI for Accessibility: Breaking Down Barriers in Content Creation? : Moritz Gie?mann makes the argument that, while AI is imperfect when it comes to accessibility, it can offer a solid first step – a “something” that’s better than nothing, and could be further refined by an actual human in less time than it would take to do the work completely from scratch.?

The AI Dilemma in Graphic Design: Steering Towards Excellence in Typography and Beyond: an explorational look at what AI could be helping us with in the future – as well as what we should be doing now to help shape what that future looks like.?

Something Cool?

A new conference, AI in Production , will be happening in Asheville, NC this July. They’ve just been announced and will be opening a CFP soon.?

The thing I’m most interested in with this conference (and what looks different about it from other AI conferences and conference talks I’ve seen so far) is the emphasis on the inclusion of product teams, current implementation approaches, practical use cases, and limitations. Hopefully it lives up to some of those stated plans – it’s happening not-too-far from me, so I’ll probably swing by and check it out.?

?

That's a wrap! It was a thrill to have Kathryn host her...Focused Input here on the TechRel newsletter (we couldn't resist the pun)!

Everyone on the team agrees that you should 100% subscribe to her Substack to enrich your reading list, and if you want to hear more of Kathryn here, well, you most certainly will in the coming weeks with another special issue.

Until then hug a loved one, finish that project, create beautiful code & have fun!

- The TechRel Team ??