This is an excerpt from the second issue of AI Insider – a freshly-baked digest for all things at the intersection of UX and AI! Subscribe and join our mailing list here.
There’s a lot happening in the world of AI. But what do these changes mean for you?
We'll be diving into the AI world every month, fishing out the juiciest AI updates and helping you From groundbreaking AI tools that could revolutionize your workflow, to the latest debates on how AI is reshaping our field – we've got you covered.
AI <> UX Updates | August 2024
What’s New?
- EU’s AI act comes into force
- ColPali revolutionizes document processing
- Make your own AI with Meta
- Looppanel launches Smart Search
⚖️ EU’s AI act comes into force
The European Union has introduced the AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules to govern AI systems across the EU. It came into force on 1 August 2024. You can read the entire set of regulations here.
Why is this a big deal?
This is the first-ever legal framework on AI by a major regulator. The EU’s framework might form the basis for future regulations, and how lawmakers approach the industry overall.
The Act regulates AI systems based on the level of risk they pose. An AI system could be in one of 3 categories:
- Systems that manipulate behavior (think social scoring), or threaten personal safety and privacy (like real-time facial recognition surveillance tech) all fall in the Unacceptable Risk category. They’re outright banned.
- AI systems in health (medical devices), recruitment, infrastructure management and such critical areas are High Risk and subject to strict regulations, like registering with the EU, mandatory assessments and ongoing oversight.
- Rest of the AI systems fall in the Minimal Risk category, with basic transparency requirements, like informing users of AI-generated content, providing summaries of training data etc..
Why should UX-ers care?
The EU AI Act could be a new playbook for designing AI-powered products. It puts a spotlight on making AI systems that people can understand and trust. It's also an opportunity for UX-ers to become the bridge between AI development and legal compliance, ensuring AI systems are not just powerful, but also ethical and user-friendly.
📃 ColPali revolutionizes document processing
Researchers have introduced ColPali, an AI model that understands and retrieves information from complex documents like PDFs by looking at them as a whole, just like humans do.
You can read more about the release here.
Why is this a big deal?
- When machines are processing images, traditionally they start by extracting information, pulling out data from text, and converting everything into text that they can process.
- ColPali flips this on its head. It’s a ‘Visual Language Model’ that mimics how we naturally absorb information from documents. Just as our eyes are drawn to charts, images, and layouts before diving into the text, ColPali prioritizes visual elements.
- This is a foundational change in what data AI can use. Previously, image-based data was much harder and slower for AI to process. With this new technology, images should become easy for AI to process.
Why should UX-ers care?
ColPali's ability to process documents like humans do means UX researchers can analyze large volumes of complex documents – think research reports, design specifications, user manuals – in a fraction of the time.
If you work on a product with visual data (e.g., charts), there’s a whole new range of features you can provide to your customers.
🤖 Make your own AI with Meta
Meta's rolling out AI Studio in the US, letting anyone create, share, and discover AI characters. Built on Llama 3.1, it's going to be a playground for personal AI assistants.
Why is this a big deal?
Here's the TLDR:
- It's democratizing AI creation. No coding skills? No problem. Anyone can make their own AI assistant.
- The integration with Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp is slick. Your AI can slide into DMs (with your permission, of course).
- Some cool AIs already out there: a chef AI for travel dining tips, a photographer AI for lens advice, and even a motivational dog AI. Yes, you read that right.
Why should UX-ers care?
Meta’s AI tech could be a potential game-changer for the B2C world, especially content creators or brands dependent on social media.
Theoretically, influencers could use Meta AI characters to engage with their fans. Small, home-grown brands can use AI-powered support to respond to customer’s queries. You can even build a mini “app” like an AI assistant to help you come up with recipes.It’s a whole new social media world out there.
♾️ Looppanel launches Smart Search
Looppanel has just released AI-powered smart search to actually answer questions on your research. Check out the product .
Why is this a big deal?
You can now ask Looppanel’s AI questions about your users and get a comprehensive answer from across all your customer data.
The system will read through your user interviews, reports, insights, and more before providing an answer. What’s more, all answers come with citations and sources so you can drill down to the exact people who provided a certain set of feedback.
Why should UX-ers care?
All those times you get asked, “What do we know about X feature?” You now have a quick and easy way to actually find the answer. This means better, faster, data-driven decision making and building products users actually want.
.jpeg)
.svg)
