Artificiality

Unending gratitude and appreciation for the energy, openness, and kindness of the Artificiality community who gathered for the Imagining Summit this weekend in Bend. We journeyed through the blending of synthetic and organic worlds, intimacy, spatiality, knowledge, consciousness, minds, kids & the future, inclusion, art & music. We learned, challenged, explored, wandered, and wondered. We sparked new friendships and deepened old ones. We feasted, shared stories, listened, and laughed. Helen and I are grateful beyond words for this extraordinary group taking a risk with us—trusting that we would give everything we have. We are inspired and overwhelmed. And we are already planning next year’s Summit! Thank you again to our sponsors—Oregon State University-Cascades, Bast AI, Wiqi—and our partners—House of Beautiful Business, DXM, Bend Entrepreneur Lab Much more to share soon. For now, here are a few photos. Aekta Shah, PhD Adam Cutler Alan Eyzaguirre Barbara Tversky Beth Rudden Cathy Clarke Don Norman Elena Sergeeva Jamer Hunt John Pasmore Joscha Bach Josh Lovejoy Lee Swearingen Michael Levin Rix Kramlich Steven Sloman

We're proud to have Bend Entrepreneur Lab as a partner in The Imagining Summit. The Bend Entrepreneur Lab is building a new community for startup founders in Bend—the home of Artificiality and The Imagining Summit. Thank you for your partnership and friendship! https://buff.ly/3Y5ltvD #artificiality #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #spaciality #consciousness #knowledge #mindforourminds

We're proud to have DXM as a partner in The Imagining Summit. Founded by friends we've known for nearly 30 years, DXM is delivering an exciting art project to The Imagining Summit which leverages the company's AI-powered design service. Our attendees will have the opportunity to co-create art with a Portland-based artist, Patrick Stull, using DXM's AI system. Thank you for your partnership and friendship! https://buff.ly/3Y5ltvD #artificiality #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #spaciality #consciousness #knowledge #mindforourminds

We're proud to have House of Beautiful Business as a partner in The Imagining Summit. Extending our multi-year partnership, The House of Beautiful Business is our guiding light for amazing events and community and its influence on The Imagining Summit can't be overestimated. Thank you for your partnership and friendship! https://buff.ly/3Y5ltvD #artificiality #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #spaciality #consciousness #knowledge #mindforourminds

We're proud to have Wiqi.ai sponsor The Imagining Summit! What is Wiqi.ai? Our Summit attendees will learn more... Thank you for your support! https://buff.ly/3Y5ltvD #artificiality #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #spaciality #consciousness #knowledge #mindforourminds

We're proud to have Bast AI as a sponsor of The Imagining Summit! The Bast platform empowers businesses to create accurate, transparent, and explainable AI—a fantastic mission to couple with imagining a hopeful future with AI. Thank you! https://buff.ly/3Y5ltvD #artificiality #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #spaciality #consciousness #knowledge #mindforourminds

We're proud to have Oregon State University-Cascades as a sponsor of The Imagining Summit. OSU-Cascades extends the academic and research excellence of OSU to Central Oregon, providing a vibrant university with a growth plan of supporting 5,000 students. And OSU-Cascades is the ideal academic supporter of our Summit! Thank you! https://buff.ly/3Y5ltvD #artificiality #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #spaciality #consciousness #knoweldge #mindforourminds

Whether you think we’re descending the back side of the hype cycle or you think the AI bubble is deflating, it’s pretty clear that we’re experiencing an important expectation-to-experience gap in the world of generative AI. While the promise is that generative AI will be the most significant technology we have experienced, the reality is far from that today. Yes, language and image models are impressive. But the realized impact leaves something to be desired. The fever pitch of AI expectations has grown in the echo chamber of Big Tech competition and their various cheerleaders. With every player clamoring for more attention, each new feature release is treated like the next stride in a 100-meter race, with victory won or lost declared by the next social feed update. The breathless coverage of the #unthinkingAIenthusiasts would drown out even the most excited coverage by sports journalists at the Olympics. OpenAI has won! Google’s new model is now the winner! Apple is so far behind, it will never catch up! I see faults in Big Tech pushing out ill-fitting products to boost investor attention. I see faults in large corporate customers declaring their AI intentions so as not to be left behind. And I see faults in the #unthinkingAIenthusiasts who appear to have more talent creating attention than understanding the trends they are attempting to surf. But these faults aren’t really about any individual or company. Those faults are the effect of the last gasp of the attention economy. https://buff.ly/3XtmBHX #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #chatgpt #complexchange #changemanagement #futureofwork #artificiality #mindforourminds #intimacyeconomy #agenticweb

Our Ideas: The Design Illusion of LLMs. It’s easy to fall prey to the design illusion that because LLMs look sleek, they must be well-designed. But aesthetics alone do not equal design. As Steve Jobs once said, “Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works.” Despite impressive capabilities, there is a disconnect between what’s expected and what’s actually delivered by large language models. This gap is largely due to a fundamental design illusion—one that makes these technologies look polished and ready for prime time but hides the real complexity and shortcomings underneath—and two category errors that have led these products to be designed in the wrong way: windows vs rooms and consumer vs professional. https://buff.ly/3zr41Z8 #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #chatgpt #complexchange #changemanagement #futureofwork #artificiality #mindforourminds #intimacyeconomy #agenticweb

The Science: What AI and Biology Reveal About the Future of Autonomous Systems. It’s fascinating when two people, from completely different fields, start asking the same questions. In a biologically-inspired model leveraging simple sorting algorithms, Michael Levin’s Self-Sorting Algorithm shows how simple cellular systems organize themselves into complex structures, suggesting minimal forms of agency. Meanwhile, in AI, Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s Computational Life explores how self-replicating programs emerge from random code in computational environments, mimicking life-like behaviors. It’s curious that these two papers, tackling such similar ideas, came out at the same time. Is this coincidence, or does it tell us something about where the study of life and intelligence is heading? https://buff.ly/3MOV3I3 #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #chatgpt #complexchange #changemanagement #futureofwork #artificiality #mindforourminds #intimacyeconomy #agenticweb