Cognitive Experiences — App Pitches
After dwindling our list of fifteen ideas down to two our group began discussing and developing a pitch for these two ideas: The News Exposure and Cultural Immersion Experience. Read more about them below.
News Exposure
The aim of our second concept is to increase US college students’ exposure to media that does not necessarily reinforce their existing beliefs. Most media platforms, whether they aggregate different news outlets or present original content, are biased towards specific political views. While this does provide individuals with content that resonates with their existing beliefs, algorithms which match users exclusively with media that affirms their beliefs present a heavily biased sample of all existing media and, consequently, a skewed perspective of reality. The problem is that we are constantly blowing up political bubbles that will never pop because we will never learn about the other side.
Our goal for this concept is not to create a politically neutral news platform; rather, it is to create a tailored news experience for individuals based on their existing political perspectives and those that lie to their immediate left and right. The underlying intent behind this concept is to empower young adults to shift their views at their own will, as opposed to the tunneling precision of a predictive algorithm.
The platform will bring great clarity in an increasingly informational age, however we realize that this clarity will not come without its challenges. Not all people love to have their views challenged even if they have an open mind. However, we believe that on the other side of some of these challenges is a world that allows for users to make less biased and better decisions with more relevant information about the environment around them. We believe that our platform will allow for more truthful and wide ranged views that will lightened the darkness of the vast information that is out there.
The defined intent of this project is to pop these political bubbles that we are consumed in. We believe that people should have the power of what news is pushed towards them, rather than constantly listening to only one side that they grew up with or their current environment encourages. Our market consists of people like Anna:
Meet Anna, a recent graduate in UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Anna has participated in some protests in the past and is planning to vote in local elections this year. However, Anna is unsure of her political perspective and wants to learn more about differing views. Anna currently receives her news on her mobile phone and reads a few blogs recommended from her friends.
With our concept, Anna could start reading different articles that challenge some of her current viewpoints. As she continues, she can different perspectives on the same topic or same perspectives on different topics. Through different notifications, Anna is now exposed to different news sources that are not just recommended by her parents or friends, but rather an AI system that selects degrees of perspectives to introduce new thoughts to Anna.
We believe that the cognitive value of our concept augments the user’s capabilities to interact with news. Whenever users read news now, they typically interact with only news that supports their perspective. However, now users can interact with varying perspectives and ask the AI different thoughts and even debate with it. Reading the news is no longer a transnational relationship. Users can read, debate, and offer different thoughts with the AI to truly understand society and politics.
Product Fit Map
Product: A web/mobile application that aggregates news articles from across the internet and shows those with a range of viewpoints to its users.
Elevator Pitch: Young adults with a hunger for unbiased news sources will be able to use the algorithm based news feed to read articles from across the internet in order to attain knowledge that supports and challenges their perspective.
Gain Creator
- Exposes users to a wide variety of viewpoints
- More honest news
Pain Reliever
- Removes fear of reading/consuming only biased articles
- Helps build informed discussions
- Removes judgement for a lack of knowledge/information
Cultural Immersion
Money tight millennials with fantasies of traveling are now able to immerse themselves in far away cultures just a few minutes drive away. The Cultural Immersion experience will enable users to completely immerse themselves and experience people, history, and communities through a cognitive experience that takes into account their needs and preferences.
The majority of young adults lack time, money, or experience to travel abroad. Visiting a new country has a list of its own challenges and obstacles once you are there. The Cultural Immersion (CI) experience, an online (web and mobile) application, serves the job of creating a new kind of cultural exploration and engagement. Instead of having to take a week plus off of work to fly across an ocean, see and experience a new country, and fly back, the CI experience looks to connect its users with relevant and highly recommended areas around their communities.
Many parts of the United States and Canada play host to large communities of immigrants who have set up restaurants, religious places, ceremonial areas, and events that welcome the neighboring communities. However, without a place to share these experiences and find them, many go unattended or unheard of. Especially some opportunities (like special ceremonies, classes, etc.) might not be accessible unless they’re advertised effectively. Furthermore, CI will relieve some pains such as time and cost to travel. Since these events/activities are found in the user’s local area, the user does not have to experience these pains. CI could also extend to tourists which are visiting a large city and want to explore a hidden gem which could be less crowded and more worthwhile in terms of learning the culture.
CI looks to correct that and connect curious people with these communities through a cognitive application/website.Specifically, we target young adults in a middle/high socioeconomic class who have an interest in culture, but may not be able to study abroad or travel. CI would be built with the capability to recommend and connect curious adventures with experiences wherever they might be or might be going. By feeding CI information the app can make a set of suggestions and build an itinerary around the experience. The different gains that the user will experience include a comfortable way to get out of your comfort zone, explore different communities nearby, and develop social bonds with other people. For an example, let’s say there is a Chinese New Year celebration parade in Austin. If the user is interested in this culture, the application will recommend this activity to the user.
Through continual feedback CI would be able to better understand what a person and the community as a whole values as a good, okay, and bad culturally immersive experience.
The value of a cognitive experience is plentiful in this case. Instead of relying on a human, which might be biased or swayed because of some promotion or deal, the computer would aggregate various ratings, comments, and inputs to build an experience that the user is looking for. The user would be able to set interests, things they might want to do, things they can and cannot do, experiences they want to have, and more. As the user continues to interact with the interface, CI will be able to recommend other experiences and talk with the users about different cultural topics.The experience would be one driven by user input and machine learning. Building a fair and trustworthy technology for people to take advantage of in their communities.
Example
You, the user, live in the Dallas, Texas area. You’ve downloaded CI to your mobile device and are interested spending a day learning about many of the cultural communities around the city. After answering some questions about things you like to do (individually built for each user using a system to assist in making the fewest miss-suggestions possible).
Using either voice or a series of inputs you can make your initial selections. These include day, time, number of interests (food, buildings, ceremonies, galleries, museums, etc.), and budget. This prompts CI to scan its knowledge base for suggestions of things to fit those preferences. Instead of just slotting in “the best match” which existing search engines do, CI will develop a couple of suggestions that best match your user profile and the surrounding area.
User: “Hey CI, I’d like to learn some more about China today.”
CI: “Okay, how long would you like to immerse yourself today?”
User: “How about 4 hours?”
CI:“Perfect! I see you normally like to eat, do you want to today?”
User: “Yes! I’m starving”
CI:“I’ve found a few places that match the area you typically spend most of your time in. Do you want to explore elsewhere today?”
User: “Nah.”
CI:“Okay! Check your phone for a few suggestions. And let me know which works best! Or, say ‘Tell me’ and I’ll go through some of the options over voice”
A conversation like this might be something CI would have with you. Your CI will know places you’ve gone before and areas you typically hang out. It will always suggest 2–3 different sets of plans with the option for you to select or deselect any it has made.
After you’ve made your selection the plan it developed and pushed out to your favorite map app. From there you get to experience a culture, history, and tradition you might not be able to normally. And, every experience will be completely customizable and hopefully teach you a little bit more.
Product Fit Map
Product: A mobile application based on current location and user preferences which can generate unique experiences that expose the hidden cultures in medium or large cities.
Elevator Pitch: The cultural immersion app can introduce a user to a variety of cultures within diverse cities by discovering experiences which include cuisine, art, or language and are tailored to user’s interests and schedule.
Gain Creator
- Build a tour to gain knowledge of international communities
- Gaining new experiences
- Becoming a more informed global citizen
- More authentic
Pain Reliever
- Less money spent
- Less time = more experience
- Disabled/impaired person can have an experience like travelling without having to go to far
The other authors on this publication are Su Fang, Ahsan Hussain, Martha Czernuszenko, and Peter Shortino.
