Podcast transcript: DigiLab review
This podcast is part of the UCIL Digital Society course from the University of Manchester running in 2019/20 semester 2. The story it relates to is hosted on Medium and can be found here.
In this podcast Amala and Naman from the Library Student Team review the topic, Explore new technology with DigiLab, with help from your comments.
TRANSCRIPT
Amala: Hi, I’m Amala from the Library Student Team and I’m here with my fellow Student Team colleague Naman. We really enjoyed reading your contributions on the topic this week, which was about Exploring New Technology with Digilab. Today, we would like to discuss and elaborate on what you said.
This week, we sent you on a virtual Digilab field trip where you got to try out various new technologies. These ranged from musical technology to neural network technology that guesses what you are drawing. You left some insightful comments about your experiences and we really enjoyed reading them!
First, you played a neural network game which guessed what you were drawing. This is a great example of machine learning as the game guesses what you are drawing based on what past players have drawn. By the same token, your drawing helps the algorithm learn for the future. We asked you what you thought and you said it was “very entertaining” and that you were “very impressed it was able to figure out what [your] terrible drawings were supposed to be”. While we aren’t great artists either, we definitely agree that this game is very accurate and helps you understand machine learning well.
Naman: The second game you played was called ‘AI Duet’, which is an example of another machine learning algorithm that has analyzed lots of interesting music. When you play some notes, it will play notes that complement them. This is an amazing example of the power of machine learning! When we asked you what you thought about this game, you said “I think this would be an interesting tool when brainstorming for new musical ideas”, but the musically talented amongst you noted some of its limitations. You said “I tried to see whether the system could recognise key signatures and improvise within them but it appears to not be able to”. This highlights that one part of machine learning is the ‘learning’ bit, where it is continually growing its database from its users and other music played. Games such as this one have the potential to transform the music industry, and the more you play around with it, the better the algorithm gets!
The third game you played was called ‘Living Archive’, which is an archive for dance moves driven by pose recognition. In response to this game, you said “We can preserve our past ideas in order to re-use them and create new, in this case, dances” This is a great observation, and shows the wide range of uses of this technology. Another point you noted was “This tool also emphasises how AI is not just for the experts but can be used by amateurs”. This is really interesting because it highlights the wide range of users that are affected by AI and machine learning. This also shows one of the priorities of software developers, which is to make the content user friendly to all experience levels.
Amala: For those of you who struggle with striking a balance between technology and real life, we showed you a ‘Paper Phone’, which you noted was beneficial for “for someone who wished to undergo a digital detox.” In an age where technology is almost everywhere, creating a technology that helps you get away is very helpful and has a variety of uses. As you noted, “This kind of experiment may be particularly useful in schools to reduce teens dependency on social media and show that it is not the be all and end all. Skeptics need to see that this is not an attempt to undermine technology but illustrate that we do not need it constantly in our lives to function.” This is a great point which shows one of the many uses of the Paper Phone. With increasing research on the negative effects of phones, this algorithm is helpful as it will help those who are most vulnerable to the downsides of technology.
‘Giorgio Cam’ is an app that turns pictures into music by using machine learning and the music of Giorgio Moroder, who is dubbed as the founder of disco music. You had some very insightful comments including highlighting that “Image recognition is becoming an increasingly normal part of day-to-day life. We now use facial recognition to log into accounts and pay for things.” This is a great observation and points out that technology is more intertwined with our daily life than we think. You also noted that. “we must experiment to understand how we can use it to help in different sectors.” These experiments we have provided you with do exactly that, so you are learning about new technology by directly experiencing its uses in various sectors.
Naman: Some of you also had a go at trying out other technologies you found such as AutoDraw, which uses machine learning to recognize what you are drawing. A bit like the first neural network game, you commented that this technology “shows how AI can work alongside people and not just overtake them. It is also not all about data and recognition but can be used for art and creativity.” This is an excellent observation and highlights that we can use AI to make our lives more efficient, and using it for art and creativity shows that AI has the potential to change industries entirely. Overall, it is a very exciting time to be learning about this technology that has the potential to affect our lives.
Thanks again for your comments and we hope you enjoyed this summary. Feel free to add comments any time to keep the conversation going.
Amala: Next week, we are going to be talking about Ethics in a Digital Society. Ethics is a very important consideration when designing technology. We will explore the individual, identity, and ethics, and answer questions like ‘How does the individual exist within our networked digital society?’, ‘How do we control our online identity?’ and ‘Can we apply offline ethics to online?’. Join us next week to learn about these interesting topics in our Digital Society.
