Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

AI as Thought Partner: How to Use LLMs to Transform Your Notes (3rd of 3 seminars) (Videoconference)
Friday, May 3, 2024 • Rosenfeld Community

This video is featured in the AI and UX playlist.

Share the love for this talk
AI as Thought Partner: How to Use LLMs to Transform Your Notes (3rd of 3 seminars) (Videoconference)
Speakers: Jorge Arango
Link:

Summary

There is a lot of hype around AI. But in many ways, AI’s potential for augmenting your cognitive abilities has been undersold. Learn how tools such as ChatGPT can become valuable collaborators that expand and refine your thinking. This seminar by Duly Noted author Jorge Arango shows you how to augment your notes using popular AI tools.   Watch Part 1 Watch Part 2

Key Insights

  • Generative AI like GPT-4 functions best as advanced symbol manipulation tools rather than true sentient intelligences.

  • Digital notes serve as cognitive augmentations, especially powerful when users retain direct control over their data files.

  • Obsidian's use of plain text files enables flexible AI integrations beyond proprietary cloud-based note systems.

  • Anthropomorphizing AI is natural but should be tempered by understanding AI's actual functional nature.

  • Using AI as an amanuensis—a super secretary—can augment tasks like summarizing, translating, synthesizing, organizing, and providing feedback on ideas.

  • Transparency about which parts of your notes are AI-generated is critical to maintain clarity and trust in your knowledge base.

  • Cloud-based AI chat interactions can expose your data to training usage; API and enterprise plans often offer better data privacy.

  • Context-rich prompts and uploading source material improve AI output relevance and precision.

  • AI's training on word frequency probabilities means its feedback tends to be moderate and conventional unless carefully prompted.

  • Plugins like Obsidian's Smart Connections can automatically suggest relationships between notes without requiring explicit links, empowering better knowledge discovery.

Notable Quotes

"Thinking is something that happens as the brain interacts with the world, and notes are one of the best tools to think with."

"I think of generative models not as intelligences but as the most powerful symbol manipulation tools ever created."

"These models are to language what spreadsheets and calculators are to numbers."

"I don’t want an AI to think for me; I want to grow as a person, and these tools can help me do that."

"You should be transparent with yourself about which parts of your notes were generated by AI."

"The chat interface is just one UI on top of these models; APIs allow for much more powerful and flexible interactions."

"When you interact with AI via chat, your data can be used for training, but API and enterprise versions generally protect your data."

"Uploading documents like PDFs allows AI to summarize and explain complex or jargon-heavy texts more clearly."

"AI tends to give fairly middle-of-the-road feedback because it’s trained on word co-occurrence probabilities, not conceptual understanding."

"I wouldn’t want AI to automatically modify my notes without some control over the changes."

Ask the Rosenbot
Gina Mendolia
Therapists, Coaches, and Grandmas: Techniques for Service Design in Complex Systems
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Ellen Chisa
The Values of Design
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Jorge Arango
The Best of Both Worlds: How to Integrate Paper and Digital Notes (1st of 3 seminars) (Videoconference)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Leading through the long tail of trauma (Videoconference)
1970 • Advancing Research Community
Sheryl Cababa
Living in the Clouds: Adopting a Systems Thinking Mindset
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Prayag Narula
Empowering Designers to do Good Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
George Abraham
Design Systems To-Go: Introducing a Starter Design System, and Indigo.Design Overview (Part 1)
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Roy Opata Olende
How Zapier Uses ‘All Hands Research’ to Increase Exposure to Users (Videoconference)
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Uday Gajendar
From AI to Zeitgeist: Theory as the design antidote to AI hype
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Shipra Kayan
How Tess Dixon Facilitates Team Engagement and Collaboration at Condé Nast Using Miro 
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Rebecca Buck
Mission: Keep Talent in Research Roles!
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Deanna Smith
Leading Change with Confidence: Strategies for Optimizing Your Process
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Welcome / Housekeeping
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Tamara Hale
War Stories LIVE! Tamara Hale
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Erin Weigel
Real-world lessons to improve your conversion rates (Videoconference)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Adam Cutler
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold

More Videos

"Doctors hate using EHRs because it turns them into clerks, interacting more with machines than patients."

Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone

June 15, 2018

Simon Wardley

"There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all methods; what works in one part of the map doesn’t work in another."

Simon Wardley

Maps and Topographical Intelligence (Videoconference)

January 31, 2019

Sandra Camacho

"White supremacy is the belief system of the superiority of whiteness that can embed itself in algorithms."

Sandra Camacho

Creating More Bias-Proof Designs

January 22, 2025

Darian Davis

"I felt on edge around Jeff and physically depleted after our interactions."

Darian Davis

Lessons from a Toxic Work Relationship

January 8, 2024

Fisayo Osilaja

"We mitigated data privacy risks by subscribing to the corporate plan for ChatGPT, which offers enhanced security."

Fisayo Osilaja

[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist

June 4, 2024

Uday Gajendar

"How do you create a sense of craft in an environment fraught with ambiguity, complexity, and anxiety?"

Uday Gajendar

The Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX

May 13, 2015

Davis Neable

"Relying on a single content strategist was a strategic mistake that created a single point of failure."

Davis Neable Guy Segal

How to Drive a Design Project When you Don’t Have a Design Team

June 10, 2021

Eniola Oluwole

"Everyone wanted to know what was the official pattern and who was accountable for it."

Eniola Oluwole

Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site

October 24, 2019

Aurobinda Pradhan

"Design leaders want predictable roadmaps and healthy teams, measurable against timelines and goals."

Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank Deshpande

Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts

September 9, 2022