But the real topic was deeper: how do we preserve and strengthen imagination in a world flooded with automation?
The answer is to cultivate a mindset of curiosity and experimentation, to embrace the unknown and to see challenges as opportunities for growth. To find the ways to innovate and create value in this new landscape, we must be willing to take risks and learn from our failures — and even redefine what ‘failure’ might mean.
What I've developed through my own practice is to look at AI as a collaboratory. A kind of co-creator or muse. I develop tools — like experiments that may or may not feel like they came from the future — that allow me to experiment with new forms of collaboration and co-creation. It's like making my own little science-fictional tools and to experiment with what AI might be like when it is a collaborator rather than something that deprives me of the kind of creativity that is uniquely and satisfyingly human.
For the second year in a row, my friends at Hyperisland asked if I would contribute to their Vision Week with some perspectives.
This year, the focus was on the implications of AI in the creative industries.
How do we harness the potential of AI while preserving the human touch in creativity?
Perfect. This is also the question I find myself pondering.
In an age obsessed with speed and automation, where does human imagination fit?
The stories I shared will be familiar to anyone who has listened to me wonder and wander around the topic of imagination, creativity and was of operationalizing this fantastic ability humans have to sense into the unexpected and the unknown.
The stories about joggers before jogging was a thing.
The story about luggage before someone decided to put wheels on it.
These are not just nostalgia.
These stories are a reminder that we have an existentially critical ability to imagine the world otherwise.
Innovation often begins with a faint idea, a whisper of something new that doesn’t quite make sense at first.
My work here now is about helping people see differently. To prototype what’s next, and stretch the limits of creative thinking.
Here I am not afraid nor opposed to AI.
I would rather use AI not as a tool to replace but to extend my creativity.
The AI + Designed Fictions Research Studio is a prototyping studio — a place where I make physical prototypes of possible AI tools and experiences. Things like Ghostwriter — an augment and power-lifting tool to bulk-up your ability to write. It doesn’t write for you, but writes with you.
Vibewriter — another AI-based writing exercise (like kettle bells for your brain) is a more playful tool for reminding you that writing can be fun, and a challenge at the same time.
The rush to adopt new technology can drown out the quiet voice of imagination, but perhaps that’s where the real edge lies.
If your team is trying to figure out how to implement AI without losing sight of your core values and culture, I’d love to help.
Let’s focus not just on what AI can do, but on what it should do—shaping futures that are as imaginative as they are innovative. In a landscape flooded with automation, the bravest move might just be to Imagine Harder.