Thriving Through Change: A Spectrum of Positive and Negative Beliefs About AI

“I should preface this by saying we are not trying to convince anybody of either side. This is not a debate to see who wins. We’re just presenting perspectives.”

The Philadelphia chapter of CreativeMornings held a participatory event where they explored differing viewpoints on the potential impact of AI. Armed with post-it notes, markers, and spicy opinions, attendees shared their concerns and hopes, voted on which topics to dive into, and listened to each other with open hearts.

The event was part of our special event series called “Thriving Through Change” designed to foster meaningful discussions about the challenges that creative professionals are facing today. Thanks to our Global Partner Adobe, some of our most engaged CreativeMornings chapters around the world are designing interactive event formats that unleash the collective wisdom of our community.

​​The discussion opened with a “spectrum line” activity where everyone in the room stepped up to a line of red tape on the floor to indicate where their beliefs fell on the spectrum between “AI will solve our biggest problems” and “AI will become our biggest problem.” Surprisingly, most people clustered in the middle of the line.

“AI is a tool. And a tool is a reflection of who uses it.”

Next, in a rapid-fire brainstorm, everyone wrote their answers to the question “What worries you most about AI?” on post-it notes and stuck them to the wall. Then everyone used red dot stickers to vote on which concerns resonated the most. Topics ran the gamut including bias, environmental impact, IP theft, mediocrity, the erosion of truth, and mass manipulation.

Two topics rose to the top; the environmental Impact of AI’s energy consumption and how who controls the tech affects marginalized communities. After voicing these concerns participants were challenged to flip these negatives into positives using “how might we” statements.

“Climate models are really complex and difficult to get insights out of. You can use AI to help sort through that data a lot more quickly than a single human or a group of humans can do. AI should be turned towards big problems to help improve all of our lives rather than just making unicorns float on social media.”

Then they repeated the post-it note exercise answering the question, “What excites you about AI?” Responses ranged from speeding up the timeline of bringing new drugs to market to automating tasks for greater efficiency to understanding what whales are saying to each other.

“It helps me organize my chaotic ideas into something less so.”

“Let it do mundane tasks to free up creativity and leisure.”

After voting with red dot stickers, gain in efficiency and advancements in healthcare were the clear winners. But instead of simply believing the hype, participants were challenged to poke holes in the positivity.

“Science will sometimes focus on a certain population. And so, is there implicit bias in what is being cured and how it’s being cured?”

To close the event, participants were asked to stand on the red tape line again to indicate if their beliefs had shifted at all after the discussion. Most people still clumped in the center, but some shifted a bit towards a more positive sentiment.

“I think that the efficiency gains are pretty huge. So, that’s where I bumped a little more to the center.”

You can check out more conversations about AI in our Thriving Through Change series hosted by CreativeMornings chapters around the world.