AI tools, AI agents and heuristics

When engaged in ideation and problem-solving it can be difficult to differentiate between AI Tools, AI agents or heuristics. Simply, AI tools, such as ChatGPT work in a reactive manner in response to prompts whereas AI agents operates independently without human intervention. In contrast, heuristics are adaptive tools involving experimentation and trial and error. Or, to use an aviation metaphor, AI tools are like co-piloting, AI agents similar to auto-piloting, and heuristic tools comparable to flying manually. Key considerations when deciding between these tools include: task predictability; complexity of decision-making; and need for adaptability. The choice, however, depends on user needs as well as personal preferences. AI agents, for example, in automating decision-making processes, don't need step-by-step instructions but fall short of true autonomy. That is, in real-world applications, AI agents are faced with technical challenges and issues of trust and security. For everyday design thinking, this suggests using either iterative prompting to unlock the power of GenAI tools (a process of refinement) or using heuristic methods grounded in pragmatism and domain expertise, particularly to ensure decisions are made with ethical considerations and human oversight. However, designers typically use hybrid problem solving strategies and so prompt engineering may require heuristics too. Sources:  https://relevanceai.com/relevance-academy/when-to-use-agents-v-tools  https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-agents  https://mikecarruego.medium.com/choosing-the-right-algorithm-machine-learning-vs-heuristics-dc0b65e97d98

Practice makes ideas

Design ideas, or creative ideas in general, are typically considered new if revealing novel forms, patterns, methods etc. and perceived by others as being meaningful or useful. Ideas, then, motivate and drive many aspects of human activity. Yet often creativity is thought of as a special faculty, or gift even reserved for certain individuals, notably in the arts. But while creativity may come instinctively to some, everyday experience shows that creative ability or capacity is not only open to the few but to the many if not everyone. Moreover, creativity can be cultivated through sustained and deliberate practice. That is, simply making time for creative pursuits and activities, from doodling and clay modelling to playing with paper and crafting prompts. Designers, then, learn the core fundamentals of their discipline, including ideation, and then practise practise, practise. And so, to produce good ideas, designers generate a lot of ideas. In short, practising ideation. Interestingly, the habit of practising also appear in machine learning, ML, which imitates intelligent human behaviour,. That is, ML starts with data (including ideas converted into datasets) - and is trained on data. And so, the more data, the better the ML model.  See also: https://ideation-workshop.blogspot.com/

Preconditioned ideas

Design ideas sometimes need technological or cultural preconditions to be fulfilled for innovation to happen. For example, social media platforms would not have happened without the invention of the Internet. However, such preconditioned-driven innovation has a long history. Galileo, the Renaissance astronomer (1564-1642), for instance, used his skills as a lens-maker to greatly improve existing telescopes which, together with the use of illustrated printed books, enabled him to prove his theory of a heliocentric universe. Galileo, then, both as a thinker (conceptual innovator) and a maker (experimental innovator), is a powerful example of the key role that technologies play in enabling advances in scientific knowledge. Also, Galileo's achievements show how innovation, as a problem-solving concept, is preconditioned on previous ideas, research or experiments. Moreover, designers, through analysing and interpreting historical innovations may identify which ideas have been successful and which haven't. As a result, establishing a positive relationship to history, past ideas pave the way for future innovation. 

Ideation as function of human language

Ideas, as linguistic phenomena function at several levels of human language. Karl Popper, the philosopher (1902-1994), talks about higher and lower functions of language. Accordingly, the lower functions of language are self-expression and signalling whereas the two most important higher functions of human languages are the descriptive function and the argumentative function. Popper holds that the lower two functions are always present when the higher ones are present. Moreover, he regards the role of argument as important as observation and experiment. Now, if relating Popper's line of thought to ideation, one might say that idea generation corresponds to self-expression and signalling whereas idea communication compares to the descriptive function and the argumentative function. That is, designers generate ideas (self-expression) and communicate ideas (descriptive function and argumentative function), which constitute the ideation process. And so, self-expression is always present in the idea argument which reflects the transient nature of ideas, that is, ideas may always be replaced by other ideas. In other words, argumentation is an important part of ideation, or "proving" the idea.

Playfulness

Playfulness is evident in children all over the world. Children play to create, learn and communicate. And playfulness plays a creative role in design practice too. Indeed it can be seen as a methodology to support the design process. In this, playfulness reflects an attitude to designing that encourages creative thinking and making, from motivation and exploration to stimulation and collaboration. Moreover, playfulness encourages design teams to focus on creative potential rather than criticism of each others' ideas. A current example of playful design is the Play Pavilion in Kensington Gardens, London, a temporary summer venue open to people of all ages.The pavilion, with its single dome volume, acrylic skin and bright colours, is a joint project by the Lego Group, the Serpentine Gallery and the architect Peter Cook, a co-founder of the Archigram collective in the 1960. Cook describes the pavilion as a “theatre of formative play” where architecture becomes a stage for unstructured creativity. The project also expresses Cook's idea that building should be joyful, social, and open-ended, a reminder that architecture can be soft, silly, experimental, and still deeply intelligent. https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/play-pavilion-commission-by-sir-peter-cook-in-partnership-with-the-lego-group/

 

Ideation structure

Ideation, as a form of creative activity can be either structured or unstructered , as enjoyed or observed in the way we play games. Structured play, then, includes board games, such as chess, or organised sports, such as tennis. Unstructured play, or free play includes many collaborative improvisational games such as story-telling or role-play. Games can also be played solo, of course. But there is no single definition of free and unstructured play, nor are there any specific prescribed methods. And so, structured and unstructered creative activity may overlap. Brainstorming, for example, is a technique to generate ideas that can be either a managed, goal-oriented session or a more spontaneous, open-ended affair, or both, that is, hybrid. And so with ideation.

Original ideas in the age of AI

An original idea, as created by humans is said to be one not thought up by another person beforehand. Yet there are few truly original ideas in design as most ideas consist of recombination or reconfiguration of existing ideas or elements of thought. Moreover, the concept of originality is both culturally and historically contingent being influenced by prior experiences and existing knowledge. The modern idea of originality goes back to the Age of Enlightenment (knowledge gained through rationalism and empiricism) and its response in Romanticism (the importance of subjectivity, imagination and appreciation of nature). In law, originality is a legal concept with respect to intellectual property, IP, where creativity and invention are manifested as copyrightable works. But while the battle over artificial intelligence, AI, and copyright continues, ideas (and facts, and abstract concepts), are not protected by copyright law. That is, copyright protects the tangible expression of an idea, say, a drawing or a model but not the idea itself. This principle ensures that while unique expressions are safeguarded, the basic building blocks of creativity—ideas—are free for all to use and build upon. And so, because ideas per se cannot be copyrighted, anyone, including AI companies and creative industries can build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by someone else. But while combining AI and human intuition and emotional depth expands possibilities for human expression, the question about what is originality remains and so the nature of creativity itself. In addition to ideas, there are several other things that are not eligible for copyright protection: https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/whats-not-protected-by-copyright-law/