Applications Of AI In The Ideasicle X Model: From Wow To Holy Moly
The virtual idea generating model we’ve created at Ideasicle X was designed to augment human creativity. To speed up ideas, accelerate inspiration, and create more unexpected connections than traditional methods. And it works. Having 4 people on a team instead of 2, having exactly the right 4 people, and allowing creative people to work in time deferred ways. All of these things have accelerated human idea generation already.
But what about inhuman influences? Specifically, what about artificial intelligence (AI)? Could AI further improve the virtual model we’ve already created? To explore what’s possible I’ve had several conversations with companies who specialize in AI. What follows are simple applications of AI we came up with, progressing from the basic wow to the less expected holy moly.
Sampling culture to inspire the creative team.
The first application of AI in our model is pretty low to the ground, but still could be a significant shift. That is, build a simple AI engine that could “read” a creative brief, “watch” the video briefing, “monitor” the ideas that our teams post, and at the same time scour the entire internet for relevant articles, research studies, images, videos, and/or anything else that has a connection to the topic. Think of it as constantly sampling culture and injecting what it finds into the virtual creative process in realtime.
The output of this AI engine would be dynamically changing over the course of the project, reflecting all the ideas posted at any given moment. It could be a side-bar box with a simple list of links that the team could check out when looking for inspiration. In that sense, this form of AI does not “engage” with the team, but is a passive resource the team can use if they want to.
I found this idea to be pretty cool but one AI exec rolled his eyes and said, “Yeah we can do that. But let’s go further.”
Strategy generation.
The best creative briefs commit to an angle, around which the entire brief is written. Coming up with that angle is the art of brief writing. I witnessed one AI engine that allows the user to select a category (automotive, retail, sneakers, etc.), type in any keywords or messaging statements, and even select preferred tonality (e.g. serious, funny, dramatic, etc.), and the AI engine will come back with multiple strategic angles in seconds.
Not all of these angles make total sense. The AI exec behind this innovation even admitted, “Ah, sometimes it hallucinates.” But more often than not, there are angles in there that are incredibly interesting, unexpected, and, therefore, useful. At a minimum this process will inspire the user to think about the problem differently, resulting in a whole new angle.
Pretty cool, but you ain’t seen nothing yet. Ready for some holy moly?
AI NPC participants.
Have you seen the movie “Free Guy” with Ryan Reynolds? In it, the main character is Guy, played by Reynolds, and he is a non-player character (NPC) whose existence is only to help make the rest of the gaming experience more realistic. The people walking down the street, for example, when your fighter jet is chasing an enemy fighter jet as you weave around sky scrapers in the city. The NPCs on the street don’t play, they are ambiance to add realism to the game. Free Guy is a great movie because Guy suddenly awakens to his NPC status and wants to break out of it. Hilarity ensues.
But what if an Ideasicle X subscriber could assign not only people to a job, but NPCs? What if Guy were an Ideasicle Expert? Would it work? Would it be productive?
I posed the question to an AI exec and he not only said it was possible to add an NPC like Guy, but possible to fine tune the personality of the AI “talent” you want to recruit. Meaning, we could build a virtual Ideasicle Expert from scratch. Maybe you want someone funny with a flair for PR and fashion experience. Or maybe you want someone who’s serious, knows everything about social media marketing, and understands the Canadian market. It’s just the click of a few profile buttons and, boom, you’ve got a PC, or a playing character, contributing ideas to the job like the humans. Guy would probably love it.
Work would need to be done to integrate this technology - which exists, by the way - within the Ideasicle X technology to make this virtual expert appear as seamless and natural as possible. But this is where it’s hard for me not to exclaim, “Holy moly.”
But human beings still have an unfair advantage.
Everybody knows AI, by definition, knows everything. Just like the internet “knows” everything, any form of AI has access to all knowledge. But that’s not enough, is it? Human beings currently have an unfair advantage over AI, an advantage I’m not sure AI will ever overcome. That is, when humans come up with ideas, those ideas are ALWAYS for other humans to consume. Humans understand humans, understand context, understand nuance, and understand culture not as reported by thousands of links but as lived everyday on the streets and coffee shops and basketball courts of good old Earth.
That doesn’t mean I think AI isn’t useful today. Short term, my strategy is to find ways for AI to augment human creativity within our virtual model. Like sampling culture and inspiring creative briefs, as described above. Both of those applications still depend 100% on human creativity, and just make it more likely for ideas to occur. I’m down with that.
Creating AI personalities to contribute ideas to actual idea jobs? I’m open to it, but I’ll need a lot more proof that these PCs can post actual interesting ideas for human consumption. Without hallucinating.
Sorry, might be a while, Guy.