Writing

AI and sustainability

I picked up a few threads from a conversation in December 2023, where Naveen Balani, Chris McClean and others were talking about where ‘green’ AI could be headed. I noted some great points, a lot of them to do with the application of models in enterprise environments:

• Caching and timeshifting as key tools in the development workflow, to flex how much energy is used depending on its production status
• Prompt strategy - how they’re developed, stored, backed up
• Recognising the environmental harm of AI as a known entity, a known cost, rather than a risk to be mitigated or explored further, therefore measuring the cost from internal AI initiatives as you would any such programme that impacts existing internal CSR or green policies

A line in the sand

How do we, as UX researchers, feel about the irony unfolding in our discipline currently? As AI platform CEOs and proselytisers promise a revolution in how companies engage with their users, the more we use the tools they promote, the more we discover that - maybe to our surprise? - the human element has never been more critical.

What even is user research

This an ancient x-post from Medium. Still up for knowing if you think this is a useful way of encapsulating things.

Notes on the Atlas of AI

I enjoyed reading Kate Crawford’s Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence last year.

Plotting the family

This is an attempt to run a script on my site that shows the relative heights of all the younger members of my family. I’m hoping that as few people as possible see this, so that I don’t get anxious about putting this info in the public domain.

Notes on AI from 2023

Here are a few brief quotes and thoughts from the past year or so that feel a bit useful.