WINSight // WIN x AnalogFolk Workshop - The Positive Power of AI
The future of technology and AI can be an inaccessible topic for many people. The focus on AI leans towards dystopian visions for the future with machine eliminating human skills, craft, and connections – but what if we can reframe that narrative? WIN London’s latest workshop in partnership with AnalogFolk explored the potential for AI to enable and strengthen human connections.
The workshop was hosted by AnalogFolk on Wednesday 24 April at their Clerkenwell-based offices. More than 30 members of the WIN community gathered at the event to understand how we can leverage the power of AI to create more human-centred solutions.
The workshop started with a provocation from Alisa Maul – head of strategy – and experience director Yasmin Nestlen from AnalogFolk. They challenged the concept that AI is harming human creativity and connectivity and instead suggest that it can be enabler for positive cultural change.
Changing the narrative around AI
They highlighted that globally the attitude towards AI is positive, citing a study by Google and Ipsos which found that more than half (54%) saying it will benefit humanity in the future, and 68% who are excited about its possibility in the future. But the difference in the adoption of AI is starkly differently between men and women, with 54% of men saying they use AI in their personal and work life, compared to just 35% of women.
We can perhaps attribute this gap to the way AI is currently applied in society. AnalogFolk shared a pyramid diagram – akin to that of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – to demonstrate how we use AI today. On the bottom on the triangle is ‘Function’ – this is the daily, functional application of technology to solve process-driven challenges such as Google Maps or Junk Mail, at the middle of the triangle is ‘Productivity’ – this level of AI enables us to make faster and better decision-making, for example using Alexa, and at the top of the triangle is ‘Connections’ – using AI to bring people together. This is where the AnalogFolk team suggests AI can have the greatest positive impact on humanity. At the moment, AI is still being used at a functional and productivity level, so the workshop focused on elevating the potential use of AI to impact human connections.
Workshop: using AI to support women in sport
After the provocation from AnalogFolk, the room was divided into five groups. The brief for each group was to identify some key cultural signals emerging around women in sports, and how we can use AI to overcome some of the barriers and challenges girls and women face in sport. Each group presented their ideas back to the wider room at the end of the event.
The ideas that stemmed from the break-out groups centred on matching sports with skill. The key cultural signal for many groups was that women often don’t know how to get involved in sport, or they don’t know what types of sports they can get involved in. One group proposed an app that tracked an individuals schedule, location, and even menstruation to understand energy levels and matched that with a potential suitable sport that they might like to partake in. Each group came out with innovative and interesting ways in which AI can enhance the experience for women wanting to get involved in sport.
When culture meets AI
The workshop highlighted that the potential for AI to make meaningful positive change is there – but we need to reframe how we use AI from being tech-led to emotion-led, efficiency-driven to impact-driven, and from personal gains to societal gains. Through this process we can shift the use of AI into the ‘connections’ tip of the triangle – and consequently the scales may balance for AI usage between men and women.
Written by Kasia Maynard, WIN LDN Research Lead