Upskilling With AI: Part 1

“Upskilling” is the idea of a person gaining new skills for the purpose of giving and getting service better. Service is the application of resources (e.g., knowledge) for the benefit of another. Businesses help their employees upskill to improve their offerings to customers. Universities help students upskill to become better future citizens and employees. Even government policymakers create programs to help citizens upskill for the high-skill, high-pay jobs that often drive economic development for improved quality-of-life.

Why is upskilling with AI important? Service providers will not be replaced by AI, but trusted service providers who use AI (well and responsibly) will replace those who don’t. Everyone with a role in an organization is a service provider.

What is the good news about upskilling with AI? The good news is that it is really easy to get started using AI tools, and to begin upskilling. Today’s AI tools can help people quickly get started on a range of tasks from writing about a topic to creating artwork to accompany written text.

What is the bad news about upskilling with AI? The bad news is today’s AI tools are still at an early stage, and make a lot of mistakes. The statistical models of the world that exist in AI tools today have many technical limitations [1]. These limitations can and will give rise to a wide range of harms and social problems [2]. These limitations require the user to take responsibility for understanding the limitations, staying away from unethical and improper use of the tools, and a range of other considerations [3]. Of course, AI tools will get better over time – which will create additional potential benefits and harms [4].

Example: Using AI tools

A good place to start learning to upskill with AI is by trying out two AI tools from OpenAI, called ChatGPT (create an essay from a topic prompt) and DALL-E (create a picture from a topic prompt). Within two months, ChatGPT had achieved 100 million users.

Below is an example of what is possible, for example on the topic of “Upskilling with AI.”

Date: Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Dear, Jim. I thought it would be great to have a short guest article piece (300- 500 words max) on the topic of upskilling with AI. We are in the midst of uncertainty when many organisations these days are downsizing and laying off people while economists anticipate that the world economic growth will slow down in 2023. I think it would be nice to get some insights into how we could stay resilient by upskilling with AI. Thanks, Cecilia

Date: Friday, February 10, 2023

ChatGPT Prompt: I thought it would be great to have a short guest article piece (300- 500 words max) on the topic of upskilling with AI. We are in the midst of uncertainty when many organisations these days are downsizing and laying off people while economists anticipate that the world economic growth will slow down in 2023. I think it would be nice to get some insights into how we could stay resilient by upskilling with AI.

ChatGPT Output: Upskilling with AI: Staying Resilient in Uncertain Times

In today’s rapidly evolving job market, AI is one of the fastest-growing industries and it’s transforming the way we work, live and interact. In the midst of uncertainty and economic slowdown, upskilling in AI has become increasingly important for professionals to stay relevant and competitive in the job market.

AI is a vast field that encompasses a wide range of technologies, including machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing and robotics. Learning these cutting-edge technologies not only allows individuals to gain valuable knowledge, but also enhances their technical skills, making them highly desirable in the job market.

One of the benefits of upskilling with AI is that it can lead to new career opportunities. With the increasing demand for AI professionals, individuals with AI skills are likely to find new and better job opportunities, even in times of economic slowdown. Moreover, upskilling with AI can open the doors to new fields, such as data science, machine learning engineering, or AI product management.

Another advantage of upskilling with AI is that it can increase an individual’s earning potential. AI professionals are in high demand, and as a result, they tend to command higher salaries compared to those without AI skills. Upskilling with AI can help individuals increase their marketability and make them more attractive to potential employers, thereby increasing their earning potential.

Upskilling with AI is also a way to increase job security. As AI continues to change the way we work, there is a growing concern that it will displace certain jobs. However, upskilling with AI can help individuals stay ahead of the curve and be prepared for the future of work. It can help individuals transition into new roles or industries and increase their job security.

There are several ways to upskill with AI, including online courses, certification programs, and workshops. Many universities and online platforms now offer courses and programs specifically designed for AI upskilling, and they are accessible to individuals at any stage of their careers. Additionally, participating in hackathons, attending AI conferences, and engaging with AI communities can also provide opportunities for individuals to learn, grow and network with AI professionals.

In conclusion, upskilling with AI is a way for individuals to stay relevant, competitive, and secure in today’s job market. With the rapid pace of technological change, upskilling in AI has become increasingly important, and it’s never too late to start. Whether you’re a recent graduate or a seasoned professional, there are plenty of opportunities to upskill and grow your career with AI.

Creating Picture:

After ChatGPT created the above essay, I asked ChatGPT to create a good prompt for DALL-E to create a picture to accompany the article. The images below provide specifics.

Creating a short essay using ChatGPT

Creating a picture with DALL-E

Creating a second picture with DALL-E

DALL-E generates four pictures, and the user can choose the best of the four, and then the user has to add the text manually to the picture.

Because I wasn’t fully satisfied with the first picture, I asked ChatGPT to create a second DALL-E prompt, and show the second prompts results as well. Using AI tools to create essays and pictures from prompts is sometimes called “prompt engineering.” Prompt engineering is somewhat like learning to ask good questions. Prompt engineering is just one of the skills to learn when using certain AI tools, and it takes a great deal of practice to become good at it. Also, because AI tools often generate factually incorrect material (large AI models are trained on both fact and fiction, as well as both historical text and speculations), it is important to learn “verification techniques” as well – to ensure accuracy of information in the essays.

Concluding Remarks: Getting Real

By the way, to see the actual blog post and pictures that I used in the ISSIP Newsletter, which are quite different from the above, check out the February 2023 ISSIP Newsletter here [5]. You can judge which you think is better, the one that ChatGPT wrote in about 1 minute, or the actual one that I wrote which took about 30 minutes. Someday when I have a digital twin trained up on all my writings and my life experiences narrative, a future AI tool might be able to write something much better.

References

[1] Stephen Wolfram (2023) What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work? URL: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/

[2] Gary Marcus (2023) Two frightening things before breakfast. URL: https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/two-frightening-things-before-breakfast

[3] Ethan Mollick (2023) The future, soon: what I learned from Bing’s AI. URL: https://oneusefulthing.substack.com/p/the-future-soon-what-i-learned-from

[4] Elizabeth Weil (2023) You Are Not a Parrot. And a chatbot is not a human. And a linguist named Emily M. Bender is very worried what will happen when we forget this.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html

[5] Jim Spohrer’s actual blog post on “Upskilling with AI” in the ISSIP Newsletter
https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?u=d0f540537d3ef307e062e3dd6&id=c409413dfe

Survey questions and predictions

Survey question 1: Feel free to make a single prediction or multiple predictions about the best and most beneficial changes in digital life that are likely to take place by 2035. We are particularly interested in your thoughts about how developments might improve…
Human-centered development of digital tools and systems – safely advancing human progress in these systems
Human connections, governance and institutions – improving social and political interactions
Human rights – abetting good outcomes for citizens.
Human knowledge – verifying, updating, safely archiving and elevating the best of it
Human health and well-being – helping people be safer, healthier, happier
Other – you are welcome to write about an area that does not fit in the categories listed above

A. Humanity-Centered development of digital tools and systems: Predicting a shift from human-centered design to humanity-centered design for a safer and better world. Increasingly necessary perspective shift as people born of the physical realm push deeper into the digital real guided in part by ideas and ideals from the mathematical/philosophical/spiritual realms. Note the shift from “human-centered” to “humanity-centered” is an important shift that is required per Don Norman’s new 2023 book on design for a better world [1]. Safely advancing technologies increasingly requires a transdisciplinary systems perspective as well as awareness of harms, not just benefits that some stakeholders might enjoy at the expense of harms to under-served populations. The service research community which studies interaction and change processed has been emphasizing benefits of digital tools (value cocreation), but is now increasingly aware of harms to under-service populations (value codestruction) – so a broadening of the discussion to focus on harms and benefits, as well as under-served and well-served populations of stakeholders [2]. The work of Ray Fisk and the ServCollab team are also relevant regarding this change to service system design, engineering, management, and governance [3].

[1] Don Norman book – humanity-centered design: BiblioN2023 Norman DA (2023) Design for a Better World: Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Centered URL: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Better-World-Meaningful-Sustainable/dp/0262047950 Quotes: “Human behavior brought our world to the brink, human behavior can save us. The world is a mess.”;
[2] Service research on social robots – harms and benefits: BiblioC2018 Caic, M, Odekerken-Schroder G, Mahr D (2018) Service robots: value co-creation and co-destruction in elderly care networks. Journal of Service Management. Vol. 29 No. 2, 2018. pp. 178-205 Emerald Publishing. DOI 10.1108/JOSM-07-2017-0179 URL: Quotes: “Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential roles for service robots (i.e. socially assistive robots) in value networks of elderly care.”;
[2] Ray Fisk ServCollab – service action research – under-served populations: BiblioF2022 Fisk PR, Gallan AS, Joubert AM, Beekhuyzen J, Cheung L, Russell-Bennett R (2022) Healing the Digital Divide With Digital Inclusion: Enabling Human Capabilities. Journal of Service Research. URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/109467052211401 Quotes: “Abstract: The “digital divide” refers to societal-level inequalities of digital access, capabilities, and outcomes. To explore how the digital divide affects customers experiencing vulnerability, service interactions in essential service settings (health care, education, and social services) were empirically investigated and practices service system members might adopt to address vulnerability were identified.”;

B. Human connections, governance and institutions: Predicting greater emphasize on how human connections via social media can be used to change conflict into deeper understanding reducing polarization [4]. Predicting institutions and governance wise enough to eliminate poverty traps, and adopt “Buy2Invest” policy to reduce poverty in coming decades, ensuring that customers who buy are investing in their retirement account which is an index fund [5].

[4] Social media used to change conflict into understanding: BiblioO2022 Overgaard, CSB, Wooley S (2022) How social media platforms can reduce polarization. Brookings Institute. December 21, 2022. Tech Stream – tomorrow’s tech policy conversations today. URL: URL: https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/how-social-media-platforms-can-reduce-polarization/ Quotes: “Polarization is widely recognized as one of the most pressing issues now facing the United States. Stories about how the country has fractured along partisan lines, and how the internet and social media exacerbate those cleavages, are frequently in the news.”;

[5] Governance wise enough to eliminate a big poverty trap. BiblioS2021 Spohrer (2021) A service innovation whose time has come? Service-science.info blog post. URL: https://service-science.info/archives/5823 Quotes: “Automatic retirement investing is the key to making everyone a bit wealthier. For example, national central banks with a Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) could put in place retirement accounts for every person to facilitate a “buy2invest” program.”;

C. Human rights – abetting good outcomes for citizens: Predicting responsible actors learn to invest more systematically and wisely in protecting human rights, enforcing human responsibilities, via digital twins technologies that allow predicting harms and benefits for under-served and well-served populations. Service providers will not be replaced by AI, but service providers who do not use AI (and have a digital twin of themselves) will be replaced by those who do use AI [6]. Human rights and responsibilities, harms and benefits are responsible actors (e.g., people, businesses, universities, cities, nations, etc.) that give and get service (AKA service system entities). The world simulator will include digital twins of all responsible actors, allowing better use of complexity economics in understanding interaction and change processes better [7]. Note that large companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are building digital twins of their users/customers to better predict behavior patterns and create offers of mutual value/interest. Responsible actors will build and use AI digital twins of themselves increasingly [8],[9].

[6] Digital twins for all responsible actors upskilling with AI – Service in the AI Era (pages 45-54): BiblioS2022 Spohrer J, Maglio PP, Vargo SL, Warg M (2022) Service in the AI Era: Science, Logic, and Architecture Perspectives. Business Expert Press. URL: https://www.amazon.com/Service-AI-Era-Architecture-Perspectives/dp/1637423039/ Quotes: “Are you prepared for the coming AI era? AI advances will profoundly change your daily service interactions, so this book provides readers with a necessary understanding of service, the application of resources (e.g., knowledge) for the benefit of another.”;

[7] Complexity economics: BiblioA2019 Arthur WB (2019) Foundations of Complexity Economics. Nature Review Physics. URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-020-00273-3 Quotes: “Abstract | Conventional, neoclassical economics assumes perfectly rational agents (firms, consumers, investors) who face well-defined problems and arrive at optimal behaviour consistent with — in equilibrium with — the overall outcome caused by this behaviour. This rational, equilibrium system produces an elegant economics, but is restrictive and often unrealistic. Complexity economics relaxes these assumptions. It assumes that agents differ, that they have imperfect information about other agents and must, therefore, try to make sense of the situation they face. Agents explore, react and constantly change their actions and strategies in response to the outcome they mutually create. The resulting outcome may not be in equilibrium and may display patterns and emergent phenomena not visible to equilibrium analysis.”;

[8] Your own digital twin is coming: BiblioW2022 Wakefield J (2022) Why you may have a thinking digital twin within a decade. BBC News Online. URL: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61742884 Quotes: “We are living in an age where everything that exists in the real world is being replicated digitally – our cities, our cars, our homes, and even ourselves.”;

[9] Toy Jensen is a digital twin of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: BiblioH2022 Huang J (2022) GTC 2022 Keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. [online at YouTube] URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ubNuxnrK8 Quotes: “Note: Digital twin of Earth climate more accurate and faster than physics based models with respect to atmospheric rivers that cause flooding.”; “Toy Jensen is an interactive early stage digital twin or digital clone of a person.”;

D. Human knowledge – verifying, updating, safely archiving and elevating the best of it: Predicting increased emphasis on the democratization of open replicable science, including rapidly rebuilding knowledge from scratch – and allowing the masses to understand and replicate important experiments [10]. In the AI era, the future of expertise depends on people’s ability to rebuild knowledge from scratch [11]. The world needs better AI models [11]. To get the benefits of service in the AI era, responsible actors need to invest in better models of the world (science), better models in people’s heads guiding interactions (logics), better models of organizations guiding change (architecture), and better models of technological capabilities and limitations shaping intelligence augmentation (AI) [6].

[10] Rapidly rebuild knowlege/technology from scratch: BiblioS2012 Spohrer J (2012) A New Engineering-Challenge Discipline: Rapidly Rebuilding Societal Infrastructure. Blog service-science.info. URL: https://service-science.info/archives/2189 Quotes: “How quickly can an individual engineering student or team of students rebuild from scratch the advanced technology infrastructure of society? From raw materials to simple tools, from simple tools and steam engines to more advanced energy systems (force multipliers), from metals and glass lenses to photography and sensors (perception multipliers), from energy systems and sensors to more precise measurement and control systems (precise production scale-up), from lithography and printing and computers and software to self-replicating machines as envisioned by John von Neumann as a real-world follow-on to the symbolic-world’s Universal Turing machines.”:

[11] Future of expertise: BiblioS2022 Spohrer J, Griffith T, ISSIP (2022) Future of Expertise. ISSIP Learning Center Publication. URL: https://service-science.info/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Future-of-Expertise-20220708-v1.pdf Quotes: “In this whitepaper, 112 position statements and views on the future of expertise are distilled to 10 predictions that are rank-ordered. Civilization depends on the growth and sharing of expertise. Expertise can be described as legitimized competence. Expertise is most often shared in the form of service, the application of resources (e.g., knowledge) for the benefit of another.
Ten Predictions, by 2032…”;

[12] Better AI models – ChatGPT: BiblioS2022 Spohrer J (2022) ChatGPT. Service-scienve.info blog post. URL: https://service-science.info/archives/6309 Quotes: “I am really enjoying using it – even though it is imperfect – it is a useful cognitive tool that makes a lot of mistakes, but it will get better over time. I have to spend a lot of time checking assertions to determine if they are actually true or not (see addendum below). That is one of its biggest weaknesses. However, it will get better over time.”;

E. Human health and well-being – helping people be safer, healthier, happier: Predicting that we are entering a golden age of service, that will improve human well-being via confronting harms done to under-served populations, and thanks to AI’s advancing technological capabilities [13] [6].

[13] Golden age of service: BiblioS2022 Spohrer J (2022) The Dawn of a Golden Age of Service URL: https://www.servsig.org/wordpress/2021/11/jimspohrer/ Quotes: “The pandemic has changed our daily service experiences. COVID has taken its toll on all of us. All types of service systems – individuals, families, businesses, universities, cities, and nations – have had to adapt. However, perhaps one silver lining is the accelerated digital transformation of business and society. More of us are working from home, regularly using same day and overnight deliveries, participating in online classes, having online doctor’s visits, being aware of personal actions that slow the spread when we are out and about, and many more behavioral changes, large and small. Accelerated digital transformation and a focus on our daily interactions could foreshadow “the Dawn of a Golden Age of Service.” “;

F. Other – you are welcome to write about an area that does not fit in the categories listed above: Predicting the return of local energy infrastructure via decarbonized, geothermal drilling breakthrough innovations [14]. Universities are increasingly adding AI data centers on campus [15]. Universities are increasingly experimenting with geothermal [16]. Predicting that increased importance of the top university in each city as an example of decarbonized local energy infrastructure powering AI systems.

[14] Geothermal – Top Ten Innovations of 2023 (Energy – Quaise:  BiblioT2022 Thompson D (2022) Breakthroughs of the Year: Pictures of the beginning of the universe, medicine that can (kind of) reverse death, and other leaps of human ingenuity. PBS. URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/12/technology-medicine-law-ai-10-breakthroughs-2022/672390/ Quotes: “New Toys for the Green-Energy Revolution: Smaller nuclear reactors and bigger geothermal breakthroughs”; “Then there’s geothermal energy, which means drilling deep into the ground to use the Earth’s heat for power. Geothermal is an ideal energy source—more consistent than wind or solar and with none of the waste concerns of nuclear. The problem is that, in some parts of the world, you have to go really, really deep to access geothermally heated water. And when we drill deep into the planet, we hit ancient rock—typically granite—that requires new technology to penetrate. The start-up Quaise is working on a drilling technology that can vaporize granite with a highly concentrated beam of radio-frequency power. If such a technology became widely available, deep drilling would be commonplace and geothermal energy would be accessible on just about any patch of land. It would be as though humankind conceived of a magic wand that, waved across the Earth, makes any square mile as energy-rich as an oil-gushing stretch of Texas or Saudi Arabia.”

[15] University AI Centers – Nvidia AI Center: BiblioO2022 Ommar H(2022) Industry-University Partnerships to Create AI Universities. Center fort Data Innovation. ITIF. URL:  https://itif.org/publications/2022/07/19/industry-university-partnerships-to-create-ai-universities/ Quotes: “Introduction – Universities aid in national artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and competitiveness in several ways. Most obviously, they are where much AI research and technological innovation gets done. Countless major AI discoveries have been the direct result of university research; in fact, the field of AI research itself was founded at a workshop held on the campus of Dartmouth College in 1956.”;

[16] Cornell Geothermal – BiblioH2022 Himmelstein S (2022) Video: University explores geothermal heating option. URL: https://insights.globalspec.com/article/19065/video-university-explores-geothermal-heating-option Quotes: “In alignment with the goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035, Cornell University is exploring the potential of onsite geothermal resources to provide campus heating services. Drilling for the Cornell University Borehole Observatory (CUBO) is now underway and will be the site of tests to determine the temperature, permeability and other characteristics of the rock up to 10,000 ft below the surface.”;

Survey question 2: Feel free to make a single prediction or multiple predictions about the most harmful or menacing changes that are likely to take place by 2035. We are particularly interested in your thoughts about how developments in digital technology and humans’ uses of it are likely to be detrimental to…
Human-centered development of digital tools and systems – falling short of advocates’ goals
Human connections, governance and institutions – endangering social and political interactions
Human rights – harming the rights of citizens
Human knowledge – compromising or hindering progress.
Human health and well-being – threatening individuals’ safety, health and happiness
Other – you are welcome to write about an area that does not fit in the categories listed above

A. Human-centered development of digital tools and systems – falling short of advocates’ goals: Predicting that lack of accountability for criminals involved in cybersecurity breaches/scams slows digital transformation of adoption of digital twins for all responsible actors. For example, Google is unable to eliminate all the spam and phishing emails – even thought its AI does a good filtering job identifying spam and phishing emails. The criminals are not being held accountable. Predicting that the lack of “human-like dynamic, episodic memory” capabilities for AI systems slows the adoption of digital-twin ownership by individuals, and development of AI systems with commonsense reasoning capabilities.

B. Human connections, governance and institutions – endangering social and political interactions: Predicting that winner-take-all mindset, rather than balanced with collaboration to improve weakest-link mindset dominates in geo-politics of USA, Russia, China, India.

C. Human rights – harming the rights of citizens: Predicting that lack of embracing immigrants with accelerated pathways to productive citizenship is causing increasing tensions between regions, and wastes enormous amounts of human potential.

D. Human knowledge – compromising or hindering progress: Predicting that publishers will be slow to adopt open science disruptions.

E. Human health and well-being – threatening individuals’ safety, health and happiness: Predicting that mental illness exacerbated by loneliness will become the number one health challenge in all societies with elderly-dominant populations. Immigration with accelerated cultural and citizenship pathways could be one part of the solution.

F. Other – you are welcome to write about an area that does not fit in the categories listed above: Lack of focus on geothermal because of oil company interest in hydrogen economy will slow local energy independence.

=====
Quoted from Survey Organizers: If you know of other experts whose views who would contribute meaningful insights on these questions, please feel free to send them this link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PewElonDigFuture

The Pew Research Center and Elon University will issue a report in the coming months covering the answers we collect.

With deepest appreciation,

Lee Rainie,
Director, Internet and Technology Research
Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C.

Janna Anderson,
Director, Imagining the Internet Center, Elon University, N.C.

ServCollab Articles: Service Inclusion and Service Thinking

Two new ServCollab articles are worth checking out:

(1) Healing the digital divide with digital inclusion: Enabling human capabilities. (Fisk et al, 2022).

(2) Enabling a service thinking mindset: Practices for the global service ecosystem. (Alkire et al, 2022).

Both papers got me thinking even more deeply about learning to invest systematically and wisely in service system innovations that improve win-win interaction and change processes. When I learn of new and improved practices based on new concepts – I naturally ask: “Who is a role model for those practices?” Which responsible actors (e.g., people, businesses, universities, cities, nations, etc. – AKA service system entities) are doing the best job of learning to invest in service inclusion/digital inclusion and service thinking. Those would be role models to try to copy practices from and emulate (change/transform towards via social learning).

The first paper evolves a service inclusion framework to better conceptualize digital inclusion: “Using a strengths-based approach, we upframe two of the four pillars. That is, we replace the second “offering choice” pillar with “enabling choices” and the third “relieving suffering” pillar with “nurturing healing.” With this strengths-based terminology, we seek to shift the focus from reiterating the forces that drive the digital divide to exploring possible methods to cocreate value through digital inclusion. Interactions based on inclusive service practices can foster happiness.”

The second paper builds on and extends Raworth’s doughnut economics model to better conceptualize service thinking: “Service Thinking is based on a just, mutualistic, human-centered mindset, which is enabled by five practices of Service Thinking derived from a literature review: service empathy, service inclusion, service respect, service courage and service integrity.”

See my earlier blog post on ServCollab as well here.

References

BiblioF2022 Fisk PR, Gallan AS, Joubert AM, Beekhuyzen J, Cheung L, Russell-Bennett R (2022) Healing the Digital Divide With Digital Inclusion: Enabling Human Capabilities. Journal of Service Research. Via Ray_Fisk. URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/109467052211401 Quotes: “Abstract: The “digital divide” refers to societal-level inequalities of digital access, capabilities, and outcomes. To explore how the digital divide affects customers experiencing vulnerability, service interactions in essential service settings (health care, education, and social services) were empirically investigated and practices service system members might adopt to address vulnerability were identified. This research upframes the pillars of service inclusion framework to define human capabilities that result from service inclusion practices. Three research topics were addressed: how the digital divide affects vulnerability (RQ1), how the digital divide can be addressed through service inclusion practices (RQ2), and how service inclusion practices enable human capabilities for digital inclusion (RQ3). The findings illuminate: (1) how service employees can engage in service inclusion practices to address the digital divide (by letting go of rules and perspectives, sharing control, providing services beyond job scope, and facilitating social connections), and (2) how these service inclusion practices build human capabilities for digital inclusion (by building basic skills and capabilities for meaningful outcomes through role modeling, coaching, customer-to-customer mentoring, and expanding net- works). Contributions include conceptual models of service inclusion practices and fostering digital inclusion that specify a new meso level service organization pathway for healing the digital divide. Keywords: digital divide, digital inclusion, service inclusion, human capabilities, vulnerability, service practices”; “Using a strengths-based approach, we upframe two of the four pillars. That is, we replace the second “offering choice” pillar with “enabling choices” and the third “relieving suffering” pillar with “nurturing healing.” With this strengths-based terminology, we seek to shift the focus from reiterating the forces that drive the digital divide to exploring possible methods to cocreate value through digital inclusion. Interactions based on inclusive service practices can foster happiness.”;

BiblioA2022 Alkire L, RussellBennett R, Previte K, Fisk RP (2022) Enabling a service thinking mindset: practices for the global service ecosystem. URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1757-5818.htm Quotes: “Abstract – Purpose – Profound economic, social, political and environmental problems are cascading across modern civilization in the 21st century. Many of these problems resulted from the prevailing effects of rational economics focused on profit maximization. The purpose of this paper is to reframe the mindsets of scholars, firms and public policy decision-makers through enabling Service Thinking practices. Design/methodology/approach – Marketing, service and allied discipline literature are synthesized, and Raworth’s (2018) Doughnut Economics model is adapted to conceptualize and construct the Service Thinking framework. Findings – Service Thinking is defined as a just, mutualistic and human-centered mindset for creating and regenerating service systems that meet the needs of people and the living planet. Service Thinking is enabled by five practices (service empathy, service inclusion, service respect, service integrity and service courage). Practical implications – Actionable implications are presented for service ecosystem entities to uplift well- being, enhance sustainability and increase prosperity. Originality/value – Service Thinking practices are shaped by influencing forces (marketing, education and law/policy) and operant service ecosystem resources (motivation–opportunity–ability or MOA), which makes Service Thinking applicable to four economic entities in the service ecosystem: the household, the market, the state and the commons. Keywords Service thinking, Transformative service research, Mutualism, Human-centered, Service ecosystems, Practices Paper type Research paper”; “Raworth (2018), in response to these problems, proposed a “Doughnut” model of 21st century economics as an alternative to traditional economics (see Figure 1). Raworth’s (2018, p. 108) critique is that economic thinking is based on a flawed understanding of humanity: We wasted two hundred years staring at the wrong portrait of ourselves: Homo economicus, that solitary figure poised with money in his hand, calculator in his head, nature at his feet, and an insatiable appetite in his heart. It is time to redraw ourselves as people who thrive by connecting with each other and with this living home of ours that is not ours alone.”; “Specifically, through an extensive review of existing literature on service interactions (employee–customer, customer–customer, organization–customer, person to person, person/human nature and human–ecology) in business, marketing, service, psychology, sustainability and philosophy databases, our framework depicts five Service Thinking practices (service empathy, service inclusion, service respect, service courage and service integrity) for creating a “safe and just space for humanity” and outlines the influencing forces and operant resources needed to adopt Service Thinking.”; “We conceptualize Service Thinking as helping build a serving humanity logic and as the mindset needed to elevate HX by offering actionable guidelines for improving human well- being and planetary health within the global service ecosystem.”; “Using these three principles, we offer a new definition of Service Thinking as a just, mutualistic and human-centered mindset for creating and regenerating service systems that meet the needs of people and the living planet.”; “As shown in Figure 2, Service Thinking is based on a just, mutualistic, human-centered mindset, which is enabled by five practices of Service Thinking derived from a literature review: service empathy, service inclusion, service respect, service courage and service integrity. The Service Thinking mindset and practices shape influencing forces (marketing, education and law/policy) and operant service ecosystem resources in households, markets, commons and the state. Regenerative flow, which is represented by arrows, indicates how regulation shapes operant resources in the service ecosystem to support Service Thinking practices, which reciprocally shape regulation to circulate resources in the system.”; “Service thinking values the core contribution of households. Raworth (2018) presents households as a core economic contributor because they sustain the essentials of family and social life. Households constitute varying structures in societies involving groupings with no legal relationships such as cohabitation, voluntary social groups such as friends, adults with and without children, as well as family groups with personal and intimate relationships.”; “For example, organizations can show service courage by investing in social impact, not just economic impact.”; “Conclusion. The concept of Service Thinking was introduced as a just, mutualistic and human-centered mindset for creating and regenerating service systems that meet the needs of people and the living planet. Service Thinking applies Raworth’s (2018) Doughnut Economics model for reducing the shortfalls (the social foundation) of human needs and preventing overshoots (the ecological ceiling) and builds a Service Thinking framework for reducing suffering and improving human well-being, sustainability and prosperity in households, markets, commons and the state. “;

ChatGPT

A lot of people are asking me for my opinion of ChatGPT these days. Here is what I am telling them:

(1) What I think – I enjoy using it
I am really enjoying using it – even though it is imperfect – it is a useful cognitive tool that makes a lot of mistakes, but it will get better over time. I have to spend a lot of time checking assertions to determine if they are actually true or not (see addendum below). That is one of its biggest weaknesses. However, it will get better over time.

(2) Can it be viewed as a virus? See reference [1]
Yes. A virus spreads, mutates, and can cause harm. So yes, in some ways it is like a virus. However, people can adapt to viruses. Think of it more like a bacteria. Some are harmful, and some are helpful – and in fact we would not live long without all the helpful bacteria in our body. To deal with complex urgent problems, we need better tools – and ChatGPT-like systems will certainly get better over time (less misinformation generated from inferior models), and people will adapt to the negative parts (harms), while embracing the positive parts (benefits).

(3) Should OpenAI have released ChatGPT?
Yes, AI will continue getting better, and the world needs to ‘upskill with AI’ (see reference [2]) – and get prepared. Future generations will have 100 digital workers working for them, and they need to be able to imagine a worthy future to be collectively working towards with AI/cognitive tools, assistants, collaborators, coaches, and eventually cognitive mediators (trusted to negotiate contracts on your behalf) (see reference [3]). Will bad things happen along the way as well?. Yes, that is true of all technologies – the potential for harm and good are always both there. I want to live in a world where we have harnessed AI primarily for its benefits, while mitigating the potential harms. Yes, regulations have arrived, and more will come in time as more cases of harm appear. Unfortunately, we are not smart enough to know the future as Kedrosky mentioned (see reference [1]).

(4) What is ChatGPT? A ‘humanity-level intelligence test’
I use ChatGPT to work on problems that are important to me. More broadly, I see ChatGPT as a ‘humanity-level intelligence test.’ Millions of people are already fantastic at generating misinformation using incorrect or outdated models of the world. We need better models. That is the theme in my recently co-authored book with Maglio, Vargo, and Warg – ‘Service in the AI Era’ (see reference [4]) – that we need betters models of the world (science), better models in people’s heads (logics), better models of organizations (architectures, including businesses, universities, cities, nations), and last but not least better AI models. We also need humanity-centered design to build a better world (see reference [5]). Yes, I see this as continuing to evolve all disciplines that are on a transdiscipliny journey, including the emerging transdiscipline of service science (see reference [6]).

(5) What do I recommend for the future? Learn to invest wisely and systematically
Try ChatGPT, and think of it today as a cognitive muse (see reference [7]), that will eventually become a useful cognitive tool, assistant, collaborator, coach, and finally mediator (see reference [3]). Overall, humanity needs to learn to invest in improved win-win interaction and change processes (service innovations) (see pages 45-54 in “Service in the AI Era” – reference [4]). On the current trajectory with increasing AI capabilities, we can get there by having “AI/digital twins” of all responsible actors (people, businesses, universities, cities, nations, etc.) that both give and get service daily, and try to invest in a positive future. This will allow calculating benefits and harms better than we can do today. As individuals adopt better strategies based on better models, collectively the future is shaped with better models. All models are wrong, but some are useful. Better models are more useful for shaping a positive future. This will allow shaping the future (not predicting it – that is impossible) better than we can today – shaping the future with more benefits and fewer harms – more good days of service for more people, and fewer bad days of service for just a few people.

(6) What do I recommend for today? Spend one hour ‘upskilling with AI’
To spend one hour ‘upskilling with AI,’ I recommend watching some social media and readings – see these YouTubes and Tweets (see references [8], [9], [10], [11], and [12]). Remember ChatGPT-types systems are a mirror of the information people share with each other daily. With better models (science, logic, architecture, AI) the quality of information sharing can potentially increase substantially in the future.

Hope this perspective is helpful to some readers. -Jim

Addendum

Spohrer: “Please describe how AI systems, such as ChatGPT that generate text responses to prompts, can help users evaluate fact from fiction, and well-sourced opinions from non-expert influencer opinions.”

ChatGPT: “AI systems such as ChatGPT are trained to generate text responses based on a given prompt. In the context of helping users evaluate fact from fiction and well-sourced opinions from non-expert influencer opinions, ChatGPT could be used to generate responses that highlight the credibility of a particular source or piece of information. For example, if a user were to ask ChatGPT whether a certain statement was true or false, ChatGPT could generate a response that indicates whether the statement is supported by evidence or whether it is merely an opinion. Additionally, ChatGPT could be used to generate responses that provide information about the credentials and expertise of a particular person or organization, which could help users determine the reliability of their opinions.”

Spohrer: “Provide additional feedback: This response is very helpful. In fact it addresses the key weakness that I see in ChatGPT. Furthermore, this type of response annotation would make a useful sidebar for many responses. See more thoughts here: https://service-science.info/archives/6309”

For those interested in exploring some of the dangers inherent in powerful AI technologies, see reference [13]. In [13], Marcus summarizes three key problems with these types of systems, and proposes four remedies that should be explore. The fourth remedy seems very important to me – build better AI to verify truth. For more examples of misinformation (old information, made-up information, etc.) see reference [14]. Nevertheless, with the help of [13] and [14] to keep our eyes wide open about potential harms, Foundational AI models and systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which achieved 1 million users in the first five days of its release to the general public, seem to be at or near a tipping point of being generally useful to people across a wide range of industries, enabling ‘the possibility of human-machine hybrid work’ [15].

References

[1] BiblioL2022 Loizos C (2022) Is ChatGPT a ‘virus that has been released into the wild’? Government & Policy. TechCrunch. URL: https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/09/is-chatgpt-a-virus-that-has-been-released-into-the-wild/ Quotes: “Paul Kedrosky isn’t an educator per se. He’s an economist, venture capitalist and MIT fellow who calls himself a “frustrated normal with a penchant for thinking about risks and unintended consequences in complex systems.” But he is among those who are suddenly worried about our collective future, tweeting yesterday: “[S]hame on OpenAI for launching this pocket nuclear bomb without restrictions into an unprepared society.” Wrote Kedrosky, “I obviously feel ChatGPT (and its ilk) should be withdrawn immediately. And, if ever re-introduced, only with tight restrictions.” We talked with him yesterday about some of his concerns, and why he thinks OpenAI is driving what he believes is the “most disruptive change the U.S. economy has seen in 100 years,” and not in a good way.”; “I heard from a colleague at UCLA who told me they have no idea what to do with essays at the end of the current term, where they’re getting hundreds per course and thousands per department, because they have no idea anymore what’s fake and what’s not. So to do this so casually — as someone said to me earlier today — is reminiscent of the so-called [ethical] white hat hacker who finds a bug in a widely used product, then informs the developer before the broader public knows so the developer can patch their product and we don’t have mass devastation and power grids going down. This is the opposite, where a virus has been released into the wild with no concern for the consequences.”;

[2] BiblioS2022 Spohrer J (2022) The Future of AI and IA: A Service Science Perspective. Presentation to India’s AIMA Delegation at Berkeley on Monday November 28, 2022. URL: https://www.slideshare.net/spohrer/spohrer-aima-20221128-v8pptx Quotes: ” Still haven’t found a good way to include these materials from Frank, Thompson, Davis, and Zyer in my standard stump speech about the future of AI and IA (Intelligence Augmentation – AKA “Learning to Invest in Upskilling with AI”)  which is the main message of my recent book “Service in the AI Era” (pages 45-54).”; “The Future of AI and IA: A Service Science Perspective: This talk explores the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligence Augmentation (IA). IA can initially be thought of as people “upskilling with AI” tools.  In this talk, after a preamble on understanding “value” in the world today, a roadmap for solving AI is proposed. Second, an approach to measuring IA is suggested. Finally, the importance of trust, purpose, and human values are examined as “reality” is extended for populations of evolving service system entities learning to invest systematically in becoming better future versions of themselves. For example,  AI, both service robot automation and service augmentation platforms, are poised to improve service productivity, quality, compliance, sustainable innovation, resilience, equity and inclusion for under-served populations. Service is defined as the application of knowledge for the benefit of another. Service innovations improve interaction and change processes in business and society. However, to achieve these outcomes and create value with AI, responsible actors (people, businesses, governments, universities – AKA service system entities) must learn to invest wisely in becoming better future versions of themselves augmented by their AI digital twin. Learning to invest systematically in upskilling with AI can accelerate both value cocreation and capability coelevation in a virtual cycle of responsible actors’ improved win-win interaction and change processes. Service innovations improve win-win interaction and change processes in business and society, but require learning to invest systematically and wisely in shifting conflict and fear to understanding and more than coexistence to collaboration. However, great risks must also be avoided – as benefits for some may cause harm to others. ”

[3] BiblioS2017 Spohrer J, Siddike MAK (2017) The future of cognitive systems: tool, assistant, collaborator, coach, mediator. In Augmented Intelligence: Smart Systems and the Future of Work and Learning (New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies), Editor D. Araya. Peter Lang Publisher. URL: https://www.amazon.com/Augmented-Intelligence-Learning-Literacies-Epistemologies/dp/1433133334 Quotes: “Chapter Abstract – Abstract: In this chapter we explore the future of cognitive systems that progress from tool to assistant to collaborator to coach to mediator over time, augmenting both cognitive and social intelligence.  We argue that in the decades to come most people will use cognitive mediators to boost win-win interactions with others.  Furthermore, we argue that future innovation will be driven by people with a T-shaped skillset and mindset, who with the help of their cognitive mediators, know how to rapidly rebuild socio-technical systems from scratch.  T-shaped professionals with cognitive mediators will be expert at people-centered system redesign thinking, and have a deep understanding of service science – the science of value co-creation and capability co-elevation.”; “Book – Where the Agricultural Revolution harnessed domesticated animals for pastoral farming, and the Industrial Revolution leveraged machines for factory production, so today the Computational Revolution is advancing computers to augment human intelligence. Indeed, many now argue that the promise of exascale computing and the slow migration towards a computational society may represent a new threshold in human history. This “transcension” of earlier stages of tool-mediated work and learning foreshadows a momentous change in the kinds of cities we might build, the kinds of medicine we might practice, and the kinds of education we might provide. What is perhaps most surprising about the current Computational Revolution, however, is its expanding reach. The question that many now ask is “what is the trajectory of this human-machine symbiosis?” It would appear that we are on the cusp of a sea change in our capacities to augment human intelligence. But what is the future of work and learning? Will augmented intelligence help us in transforming a waning industrial society? These are the kinds of questions that we explore in Augmented Intelligence: Smart Systems and the Future of Work and Learning.”

[4] BiblioS2022 BiblioS2022 Spohrer J, Maglio PP, Vargo SL, Warg M (2022) Service in the AI Era: Science, Logic, and Architecture Perspectives. Business Expert Press. URL: https://www.amazon.com/Service-AI-Era-Architecture-Perspectives/dp/1637423039/ Quotes: “Are you prepared for the coming AI era? AI advances will profoundly change your daily service interactions, so this book provides readers with a necessary understanding of service, the application of resources (e.g., knowledge) for the benefit of another. In just minutes, you can learn about today’s use of early-stage AI for automation and augmentation, and essential elements of service science, service-dominant (S-D) logic, and Service Dominant Architecture (SDA). Ultimately improved service for all is possible with human-level AI and digital twins – but requires investing wisely in better models: Better models of the world both complex natural and social systems (science), better mental-models in people to improve interactions (logic), better cultural and structural models of organizations to improve change (architecture), and better trusted and responsible AI models. The service innovation community studies and builds better models to improve interactions and change in business and society. The book challenges all responsible actors – individuals, businesses, universities, and governments – to invest systematically and wisely to upskill with AI (the X+AI vision). The service innovation community is a growing transdiscipline harnessing all disciplines to become better T-shaped professionals. Extensive end notes, bibliography, and index are provided.”;

[5] BiblioN2023 Norman DA (2023) Design for a Better World: Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Centered
URL: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Better-World-Meaningful-Sustainable/dp/0262047950 Quotes: “Human behavior brought our world to the brink, human behavior can save us. The world is a mess. Our dire predicament, from collapsing social structures to the climate crisis, has been millennia in the making and can be traced back to the erroneous belief that the earth’s resources are infinite. The key to change, says Don Norman, is human behavior, covered in the book’s three major themes: meaning, sustainability, and humanity-centeredness. Emphasize quality of life, not monetary rewards; restructure how we live to better protect the environment; and focus on all of humanity. The book presents an eye-opening diagnosis of where we’ve gone wrong and a clear prescription for making things better. Norman proposes a new way of thinking, one that recognizes our place in a complex global system where even simple behaviors affect the entire world. He identifies the economic metrics that contribute to the harmful effects of commerce and manufacturing and proposes a recalibration of what we consider important in life. His experience as both a scientist and business executive gives him the perspective to show how to make these changes while maintaining a thriving economy. Let the change begin with this book before it’s too late”;

[6] BiblioW2022 WladawskyBerger I (2022) The Current State of Service Science. URL: https://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2022/12/reflections-on-the-current-state-of-service-science.html Quotes: “On October 17, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) conducted an online forum on Service Systems Engineering in the Era of Human-Centered AI. “With AI advances poised to drive service system productivity and quality – similar to the way previous generations of technology revolutionized agriculture and manufacturing productivity and quality – it is time to take stock for industry-academic-and-government stakeholders on this important topic,” wrote the NAE in its website.”; “Sometime in 2016 I had an interesting conversation with analysts from an IT research organization who were preparing a report on the state of service science. They noted that we were hearing quite a bit less about service science in those days compared to 5 or 10 years earlier. Was it because we had become tired of the subject and moved on to other areas of innovation?”; “For example, in their recent book Service in the AI Era, Jim Spohrer, Paul Maglio, Stephen Vargo, and Marcus Warg wrote that “Service is quickly becoming the central concept of our time, as service offerings become infused with advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and scale to new levels of quality, productivity, compliance, and sustainable innovation. Throughout history, scientific revolutions have been launched when new tools make possible new measurements and observations, e.g., the telescope, the microscope, spectrometers, DNA sequencers. Our new big data tools have now been ushering an information-based scientific revolution, helping us extract insights from the huge amounts of data we’ve been collecting by applying tried-and-true scientific methods, that is, empirical and measurable evidence subject to testable explanations and predictions.”

[7] BiblioF2022 Flux Collective (2022) A muse, rather than an assistant. The FLUX Review, Ep. 64 August 18th, 2022. FLUX Review. URL: https://read.fluxcollective.org/p/64 Quotes: “A muse, rather than an assistant. With large-language-model-powered tools taking early adopters’ attention by storm, we are inclined to pause and consider the potential future uses of these tools. Some of them already exhibit remarkable abilities. Still, rough edges show up quickly: faces melt, sentences stop making sense, and so on. We are still in the early stages of understanding how to best use these tools. As we continue to explore, it is important to keep in mind both the potential benefits and their potential risks. However, we have found one use that already seems intriguing: a source of inspiration. Especially in the busy Midjourney community, the creative vibe is nearly palpable. People riff on each other’s creations, showcase their best, and most interestingly, show fascinating new uses of the tool’s output.”;

[8] BiblioF2022 Frank T (2022) Notion AI is Here: 10 Ways to Use This Powerful New Tool URL: https://youtu.be/0DIn0Ws9yTE Quotes: “Notion just released a suite of AI tools that live directly inside the Notion app. Today I’ll show you 10 amazing examples of what these artificial intelligence tools can do – from generating blog posts and comparison tables to even writing code! Learn more about Notion AI and join the waitlist: https://www.notion.so/product/ai”; “Written version of the video: https://thomasjfrank.com/notion-ai-guide/”

[9] BiblioT2022 Thompson AD (2022)  Devoxx Keynote – Artificial Intelligence: You Are Here – Alan D Thompson (12/Oct/2022. URL: https://youtu.be/D3tTsoX02d8 Quotes: “On 20221015 – 6,303 views  Oct 13, 2022  The Memo: https://lifearchitect.ai/memo/ Read more: https://lifearchitect.ai/ https://lifearchitect.ai/models/ A look at Transformer, RoBERTa, GPT-3, Pathways + PaLM,  Chinchilla, Google Imagen, Google Parti, NUWA-Infinity, Google Imagen Video, and much more… Dr Alan D. Thompson is a world expert in artificial intelligence (AI), specialising in the augmentation of human intelligence, and advancing the evolution of ‘integrated AI’. Alan’s applied AI research and visualisations are featured across major international media, including citations in the University of Oxford’s debate on AI Ethics in December 2021. https://lifearchitect.ai/”;

[10] BibloD2022 Davis T (2022) TL;DR 11 free AI tools that will make you unstoppable. URL: https://twitter.com/tessardavis https://twitter.com/TessaRDavis/status/1595749323995840513 Quotes: “TL;DR 11 free AI tools that will make you unstoppable.• #1: Super Meme
• #2: Hotpot
• #3: Dall•E 2
• #4: Sembly
• #5: Browse AI
• #6: Posied
• #7: Lalal
• #8: Magic Eraser
• #9: Synthesia
• #10: Soundraw
• #11: Replika”;
“#1: Make custom memes with Super Meme.
Lacking meme inspiration?
http://supermeme.ai
• Write a sentence
• Describe an emotion
• Upload your own image if you want
Your own custom meme in 2 minutes.”;
“#2: Restore old pictures with Hotpot.
Have an old photo you’d like to improve?
Upload it to http://hotpot.ai
It’ll:
• Remove scratches
• Sharpen images
• Repair gaps
Transforms your damaged photos.”;
“#3: Create amazing images with Dall•E 2
Have an idea in your head for an image?
http://openai.com
• Type in the description
• Be as specific as you can
• It’ll search for existing images
• Or generate new ones for you now
The AI stock photographer you always wanted”;
“#4: Easily take notes with Sembly.
Need meeting notes?
http://Sembly.ai
• Generates meeting summaries
• Automates your minutes
• Shares with your team
Integrates across all platforms.”;
“#5: Check out your competition with Browse Ai.
Need info on your rivals?
http://Browse.ai
• Scrape posts from Medium
• Get lists of YouTube videos
• Extract company info from LinkedIn
Make your research easy.”;
“#6: Improve your public speaking skills with Poised.
Are you a nervous presenter?
Get coaching with http://posied.com
• Record
• Get feedback
• Track your progress
Watch your skills improve.”;
“#7: Separate audio tracks with Lalal.
Have a music track you want to separate?
http://lalal.ai
Just upload the track
It extracts the vocals and separates each instrument.
No need for fancy editing tools.”;
“#8: Edit out parts of photos with Magic Eraser.
Have a great photo but with something annoying in the background?
Remove it easily:
http://Magiceraser.io
• Upload the photo
• Select the part you don’t want
• Press ‘erase’
And voila. It’s gone.”;
“#9: Create professional videos with Synthesia.
Need a video quickly?
http://synthesia.io
• Add your text
• Use templates
• Edit it as needed
You’ll get an AI-generated video within minutes.”;
“#10: Create unique music with Soundraw.
Need some music for your video?
http://soundraw.io
• Choose your mood
• Choose the genre
• Choose a length
• Edit if needed
Now you’ve got your own AI music.”;
“#11: Create a new friend with Replika.
Feeling lonely?
http://replika.com
• Build your own AI
• The more you chat the more they learn
• Express yourself and build a human-AI bond
Is this the future?”;

[11] BiblioZ2022 Zyer E (2022) If you’re not using AI, you’re losing out.8 mindblowing AI tools (you can use today) that will save you hours. Twitter Eyisha @eyishazyer. URL: https://twitter.com/eyishazyer/status/1597573909104427009 https://twitter.com/eyishazyer/status/1597573909104427009?s=20&t=v3okqE9sQNZTEmJocroSTQ Quotes: “”;”1. @lexdotpage
Unlock your best writing with Lex.
Any time you don’t know how to continue your text, type +++, and Lex continues for you.
It also helps generate titles for your texts!
“;
“2. @runwayml
The runway is the content creation suite of the future. It has magical AI tools like:
– change images with text descriptions
– remove objects in videos
– remove video backgrounds
– expand images with descriptions (as seen in the video)
+++”;
“3. @diffusionbee
DiffusionBee is a free macOS app for Stable Diffusion. Give it a text prompt, and it generates a picture based on your text.”;
“4. @LexicaArt
Providing prompts for text-to-image solutions is an art.
LexicaArt is a Stable Diffusion search engine that shows prompts others have used to generate images.
You can also see variations of a prompt.”;
“5. @metaphorsystems
Metaphor is a new search
engine based on generative AI.
You prompt it by writing a phrase that looks like it could end with a link.”;
“6. @SoundrawUS
Do you need some unique music for your podcast or video? Soundraw is a music generator for creators.
Select the type of music you want – genre, instruments, mood, length, etc. – and let their AI generate beautiful songs and variants for you.”;
“7. @clipdropapp
Relight your existing photos
& drawings with ClipDrop Relight.
Relighting a picture after it is captured is possible thanks to their custom AI that maps depth into your pictures.”;
“8. Talk to books
Get quotes from more than 100 000 books that respond to your question.
A creativity tool by Google to explore new ideas and get relevant quotes.
http://books.google.com/talktobooks/”;

[12] BiblioG2022 Griffith T (2022) AI-Supported Tools for Personal Automation. Website. URL: https://terrigriffith.com/blog/ai-supported-tools-for-personal-automation Quotes: “AI-Supported Tools for Personal Automation – Automation is part of our work. The question is whether we are finding the tools to augment our abilities or waiting for our organizations to decide what to automate and who to replace. Research finds that people who craft their work are more productive and employable. In this earlier post with Brett Li of Tonkean, we talk about that research and the steps you can take to craft your work. But what tools can help us?”;

[13] BiblioM2022 Marcus G (2022) AI’s Jurassic Park moment. New systems like chatGPT are enormously entertaining, and even mind-boggling, but also unreliable, and potentially dangerous. The Road to AI We Can Trust. Substack – Gary Marcus Dec 10, 2022. URL: https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/ais-jurassic-park-moment Quotes: “Something incredible is happening in AI right now, and it’s not entirely to the good. Everybody is talking about systems like chatGPT (OpenAI), Dall-E 2, and Lensa that generate text and images that look remarkably human-like, with astonishingly little effort. These systems can be incredibly fun to play with. Take this example, generated by chatGPT by Henry Minsky (son of Marvin Minsky, one of AI’s founders), who asked chatGPT to “Describe losing your sock in the dryer in the style of the declaration of independence”:”; “That a machine could do this, with so little effort on the part of the user, is frankly mind-boggling. But at the same time it is, or should be, terrifying. It is no exaggeration to say that systems like these pose a real and imminent threat to the fabric of society. The core of that threat comes from the combination of three facts:”; “Spohrer: (1) Inherently unreliable – user beware, (2) Can be weaponized, (3) Inexpensive to bad actors.”; “Thanks Gary for making helpful points that these Generative-Pretrained-Transformer AI systems, like ChatGPT, are simultaneously very fun to use and yet (1) make many mistakes, so user beware, (2) can be weaponized by bad actors, and (3) are inexpensive to use by bad actors and other users alike. My further opinion here https://service-science.info/archives/6309”; “YouTube: Dr. Ian Malcolm gives Hammond an ethics lecture: Gee the lack of humility before nature that is being displayed here staggers me. Don’t you see the danger inherent in what you are doing here. Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet has ever seen. But you wield it like a kid who has found his dad’s gun. Scientific power did not require any discipline to attain. Didn’t earn it. Didn’t take responsibility for I’ll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you’re using here: it didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you’re selling it, you want to sell it!”; “Marcus: All of this raises a critical question: what can society do about this new threat? Where the technology itself can no longer be stopped, I see four paths, none easy, not exclusive, all urgent:”;”Spohrer paraphrase: (1) social media and search engine bans (like StackOverflow), (2) nations need to make misinformation an actionable offense, like libel, (3) ensure provenance of all user accounts (real people, real responsibility), (4) build better AI to verify truth.”;

[14] BiblioB2022 Banavar G (2022) ChatGPT’s deep fake text generation is a threat to evidence-based discourse. Medium – Guru Banavar. URL: https://medium.com/@guruduth.banavar/chatgpts-deep-fake-text-generation-is-a-threat-to-evidence-based-discourse-c096164207e0Quotes: “The insidious nature of such generative AI models is that they produce plausible sounding health information in a smooth conversational style, that is at best is generic in nature and at worst completely fictional. The problem is that most people cannot tell the difference between the two. “; “It can be argued that the information put out by ChatGPT is generic conventional wisdom, so it is not seriously problematic, and that it is the nature of science to continuously unearth new and improved truths. Also, it will always be the case that there will be outdated information in vogue. After all, the medical practices from the last few centuries are still being practiced in some form by subgroups of people somewhere in the world. But this is precisely why we would like modern AI systems to help us in curating the most evidence-based and trust-worthy information!”;

[15] BiblioM2022 Mollick E (2022) ChatGPT Is a Tipping Point for AI. HBR December 14, 2022. Via: Larry_Hiner URL: https://hbr.org/2022/12/chatgpt-is-a-tipping-point-for-ai Quotes: “Summary. We’re hitting a tipping point for artificial intelligence: With ChatGPT and other AI models that can communicate in plain English, write and revise text, and write code, the technology is suddenly becoming more useful to a broader population of people. This has huge implications. The ability to produce text and code on command means people are capable of producing more work, faster than ever before. Its ability to do different kinds of writing means it’s useful for many different kinds of businesses. Its capacity to respond to notes and revise its own work means there’s significant potential for hybrid human/AI work. Finally, we don’t yet know the limits of these models. All of this could mean sweeping changes for how — and what — work is done in the near future.”; “This highlights the third major change that happened with this release: the possibility of human-machine hybrid work. Instead of prompting an AI and hoping for a good result, humans can now guide AIs and correct mistakes. (Despite what my AI writing partner claims above, it’s not always accurate.) This means experts will be able to fill in the gaps of the AI’s capability, even as the AI becomes more helpful to the expert. This sort of interaction has led to increases in performance of players of Go, one of the world’s oldest and most complex games, who have learned from the AIs that mastered the sport, and become unprecedentedly better players themselves.”; “The problems of AI remain very real, however. For one, it is a consummate bullshitter, and I mean that in a technical sense. Bullshit is convincing-sounding nonsense, devoid of truth, and AI is very good at creating it. You can ask it to describe how we know dinosaurs had a civilization, and it will happily make up a whole set of facts explaining, quite convincingly, exactly that. It is no replacement for Google. It literally does not know what it doesn’t know, because it is, in fact, not an entity at all, but rather a complex algorithm generating meaningful sentences.”;

Complex, Interconnected Service System Characteristics

Best Prepared – current undergraduates degrees prep adequate
Narrow, well-defined technical system problems
Technology – Automation of simple capabilities
Measurement – Productivity, Quality, Costs
Data Science and Analytics – Recommender Systems
Manufacturing systems and value creation (Goods-dominant logic)
Linear supply chains
Single discipline, well-defined problems
Artifact design and interface design
Change of simple processes

Least Prepared – current undergraduate degrees prep inadequate
Open-ended, ill-defined socio-technical system problems
Technology – Augmentation of human intelligence
Service systems and value cocreation (Service-dominant logic)
Highly interconnected supply networks
Multiple discipline, wicked problems
Service design and user experience design
Change of organizations and ecosystems

We get the future we invest in

We get the future we invest in

The above title is the important message of a new book Service in the AI Era by Spohrer, Maglio, Vargo, and Warg. The last two sections of this blog post summarize some of the argument.

Register for this free NAE event to get a free digital copy of the book (just invest a few minutes and it will be sent to you)

  1. Please take 1 minute to register here and now for this NAE event – Monday Oct 17th – even if you cannot attend, you will be emailed a post event summary – and be on the list for future events regarding complex service systems. … and we will know where to send the book.
  2. Please take 5 minutes to answer four very short questions about preparing students as complex systems thinkers, who are prepared to understand and improve today’s complex, interconnected, digitally transforming, business and societal systems (what we call service science and service systems at the online NAE conference, what others at NAE call systems engineering and complex unifiable systems). … and we will have insights from you as we prepare a next publication.
  3. Spread the word – if you know 2-3 colleagues who are systems thinkers and who may have an interest in preparing better to innovate business and societal systems in the AI Age.

Why how we invest (our time, effort, money, etc.) matters, especially in the era of AI

Every person gives and gets service hundreds of times a day – and increasingly often this generates data for AI models. What is service? Service is the application of knowledge for the benefit of another. From turning on the light switch in the morning, to scanning social media, to getting to where we are going, to doing what we do when we get there, the activities and interactions that make up our lives are all about service. Increasingly AI capabilities are playing a bigger and bigger role in the daily “give and get” of service. Businesses and nations are investing in AI to stay competitive. The data that allows businesses and governments to build more powerful AI models comes from the activities of customers, employees, citizens, and even visitors.

To learn about some of the most powerful AI models in the world today, watch these two keynote talks – Alan D Thompson (AI models to create art, stories, programs, etc.) and Jensen Huang (increasingly large and sophisticated AI models – like the digital twin of Earth and digital twins of people – are built and run on powerful computer chips). After watching these two keynotes, there can be no doubt that AI models are getting bigger with more advanced capabilities to deliver useful service to people, and also that building and using these large AI models takes an enormous amount of (a) data, (b) energy, (c) advanced technology and (d) highly skilled people.

To learn more about the kind of data signals we are sending intentionally and unintentionally consider this…. What most people don’t know or think much about, unless they have studied service-dominant logic and service science to learn about service and service systems is that value is cocreated – meaning that both the service provider and the service customer play an important role. Cocreation is easy to understand in some service systems like education, since a student (customer) who does not prepare well for class may not do very well. Cocreation is harder to understand in some service systems like retail, since it seems like the customer is just buying something to use or consume, but in fact if the customer did not come in prepared and has to return the item, or throw away the item, the costs in the service system may make it difficult for other people to afford the service in the future. Waste is just one of many aspects or characteristics of service systems that is under-studied and leads to unintended consequences – that is not getting the futures we want. For more on waste, read this book Wasted: How We Squander Time, Money, and Natural Resources-and What We Can Do About It. For more on the data we are sharing, read this book What You Don’t Know: AI’s Unseen Influence on Your Life and How to Take Back Control.

The truth of the statement that we get the future we invest in is obvious to some people, but not everyone. However, like the genie in the lamp, AI models can be thought of as powerful servants designed to give us what we want and our collective data tells the AI model what we want. Every customer is a cocreator contributing data to AI models being developed by businesses and governments around the world. To better understand, invest ten minutes as described above and get the book Service in the AI Era. I also recommend pre-ordering Design for a Better World: Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Centered .

Investing to get a future we would want to live in requires understanding both AI as well as complex service systems, the data source for AI models

Every person who plays a role in an organization can be thought of as a service provider. Service providers will not be replaced by AI, but service providers who use AI will replace those who don’t. To learn more, please register for the NAE event on Oct 17th, and even if you cannot attend, you will be emailed a summary of the event as well as receive a copy of the book he book Service in the AI Era.

Service Systems Engineering in the Era of Human-Centered AI

The Forum on Complex Unifiable Systems (FOCUS) of the US National Academy of Engineering is hosting an online event entitled Service Systems Engineering in the Era of Human-Centered AI on Monday October 17, 2022 from 11am-5pm ET. Register online here. For more information about the event please see here. The event will NOT be recorded. Those who register will be notified of future events that may be organized on this topic. Also, those who register are invited and encouraged to take this short survey to provide a position statement on the topic. Dr. Vittal Prabhu will lead a moderated discussion near the end of the online event. For additional information that is related to this topic, see also the Bridge issue on Complex Unifiable Systems and the book Service in the AI Era.


Invitation:
NAE Virtual Exchange on Service Systems Engineering in the Era of Human-Centered AI

Dear Colleague:

On behalf of Dr. Guru Madhavan and Dr. Bill Rouse from the National Academy of Engineering, I
write to invite you to participate in the October 17, 2022, NAE Forum on Complex Unifiable
Systems (FOCUS) program’s virtual exchange on service systems engineering in the era of
human-centered AI, an event being co-organized with Dr. Paul Maglio and Dr. Jim Spohrer.

With AI advances poised to drive service system productivity and quality—similar to the way
previous generations of technology revolutionized agriculture and manufacturing productivity
and quality—it is time to take stock for industry-academic-and-government stakeholders on
this important topic.
  This online exchange will begin with an opening keynote from Dr. Nicholas
Donofrio of IBM (Retired Executive Vice President Innovation and Technology), followed by four
panels and an open discussion on next steps that the National Academy of Engineering could
pursue on this subject. The meeting agenda is attached, we believe your participation can help
stimulate a lively exchange of ideas.

Please register here for further event details and the Zoom link.

With our thanks and best wishes,
Guru Madhavan
Bill Rouse
Paul P. Maglio
Jim Spohrer
cc: Darul West


Additional Resources

Human-Side of Service Engineering Conference (July 26-28, 2022)

The Human-Science of Service Engineering Conference
July 26-28, 2022 (with ISSIP.org recognition for the best paper awards)

Conference Website: https://2022.ahfe.org/board.html#hsse

Instructions: Day of the event, 10 minutes before the session start time, click on the bold hyperlinked name of the session below to join the session via go-to-meeting.


Co-chairs: Christine Leitner (LI), Clara Bassano (LI),Walter Ganz (LI) ,Debra Satterfield (LI)

For more information see the ISSIP Website Blog Post for this conference.


Tue Jul 26 5amPT/8amET: HSSE Welcome and Keynotes

Co-Chairs: Christine Leitner, Walter Ganz, Clara Bassano, Debra Satterfield, UK/Germany/Italy/USA

Keynote 1:

Keynote Video: https://vimeo.com/chrisryancreative/review/732529502/05c8646d35

Ralph Perrine. Director, Innovation Garage at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (also thanks to Keith Duprey for creating the video with Ralph)

… about 8 design pillars, first is better predictions, to transform healthcare system.

The first keynote is an ISSIP Excellence in Service Innovation Distinguished Recognition Award winner from 2021.

Keynote 2:

Keynote 2: Transformation in Action: Digitalization for achieving sustainable social development, Arman ABDRASSILOV, Kazakhstan

… about digital transformation in government with a focus on rural areas of Kazakhstan.


Tue Jul 26 9amPT/12noonET: Augmenting Service Capabilities in the Post-Pandemic Era

Co-Chairs: Kazuyoshi Hidaka and Kentaro Watanabe, Japan

Hisashi Masuda, Japan
Ichii Kenta, Hisashi Masuda, Japan
Shotaro Okamoto, Hiroki Takahashi, KOJI KIMITA, NARIAKI NISHINO, Japan
Kentaro Watanabe, Bach Ho, Mai Otsuki, Yusuke Kishita, Maiko Kobayakawa, Japan
Md Abul Kalam Siddike, Kazuyoshi Hidaka, Japan

Tue Jul 26 11:30amPT/2:30pmET Emerging Research Innovations in Service Design, User Experience, and Design Research

Co-Chairs: Kim Mitchell and Debra Satterfield, USA

Sam Anvari, Gabriella Hancock, United States
Julie Hurley, Nico Raddatz, Debra Satterfield, United States
Kimberly Mitchell, Xiaopeng Zhao, John Hooten, Robert Bray, Luke Macdougall, United States
Debra Satterfield, Jose Rivera-chang, David Teubner, Tom Tredway, Wesley Woelfel, United States
Hiromi Masunaga, Tianni Zhou, United States

Co-Chairs: Laura Huisinga and Joshua Ian Robles, USA

Laura Huisinga, United States
Glenn Terpstra, United States
Zahrasadat Golestanha, Debra Satterfield, United States
Nathaniel Pereira, United States
Jens Neuhüttler, Philipp Christel, Truong Le, Günter Wenzel, Antonio Ardilio, Germany
Joshua Ian Robles, United States

Wed Jul 27 7amPT/10amET Creating Value in Teams, Organizations, Communities, and Societies I

Co-Chairs: Youji Kohda and Yasunobu Ito, Japan

Nikka Ko, Youji Kohda, Naoshi Uchihira, Japan
Porruthai Boonswasd, Kunio Shirahada, Japan
Moritaro Inoue, Naoshi Uchihira, Japan
Hiromi Yamaguchi, Yasunobu Ito, Japan
Yaeko Kawaguchi, Yasunobu Ito, Japan
Masaya Ando, Yasunobu Ito, Japan
Jesselyn Alcain, Charlie Marquez, Lara Camille Beriña, Luke Samuel Bulaon, Jane Andrea Cheng, Gennes Erika Cruz, Philippines

Co-Chairs: Youji Kohda and Yasunobu Ito, Japan

Kagari Otani, Yasunobu Ito, Japan
Shun Coney, Yasunobu Ito, Japan
Su Wutyi Hnin, Amna Javed, Chawalit Jeenanunta, Jessada Karnjana, Youji Kohda, Japan
Aki Shimbo, Amna Javed, Hideomi Gokon, Youji Kohda, Japan
Yoshito Kubo, Osamu Sato, Japan

Co-Chairs: Clara Bassano and James C. Spohrer, Italy/USA

Alessandra Amendola, Alessandro Grimaldi, Walter Distaso, Italy
Francesco Polese, Luca Carrubbo, Antonietta Megaro, Italy
Valeria Damato, Pietro Campiglia, Clara Bassano, Italy
Teresa Marrone , Pierpaolo Testa, Italy
Sergio Barile, Clara Bassano, Paolo Piciocchi, Pietro Vito, James Clinton Spohrer, Italy

Co-Chairs: Walter Ganz and Jens Neuhüttler, Germany

Claudia Dukino, Damian Kutzias, Maike Link, Germany
Janika Kutz, Jens Neuhüttler, Jan Spilski, Thomas Lachmann, Germany
Adrian Campos, Toni Waefler, Anina Havelka, Patricia Deflorin, Switzerland
Michel Muschkiet, Tobias Wulfert, Germany
Christian Schiller, Michaela Friedrich, Simon Buchart, Germany
Alexander Gorovoj, Christian Schiller, Michaela Friedrich, Abdul Rahman Abdel Razek, Germany
Thomas Meiren, Christian Schiller, Germany

Co-Chairs: Walter Ganz and Jens Neuhüttler, Germany

Sandra Frings, Holger Kett, Jürgen Falkner, Germany
Damian Kutzias, Claudia Dukino, Germany
Maximilian Feike, Philipp Christel, Germany
Anne Sophie Tombeil, Rainer Nägele, Germany
Lena Ahner, Jens Neuhüttler, Nicole Gladilov, Germany

Chair: Christine Leitner, UK

Kristina Reinsalu, Estonia
Christian Stiefmueller, United Kingdom
Markus Warg, Germany
Mohammad Allagha, Oskar Kruschitz, Katherina Voss, Stefanie Binder, Kevin Truckenthanner, Austria
Flora Poecze, A Min Tjoa, Austria
Shrikant Parikh, India
Christoph Glauser, Uwe Serdült, Japan

Thu Jul 28 11:30amPT/2:30pmET Service Innovation in a VUCA World 

Co-Chairs: Christian Zagel and Freimut Bodendorf, Germany

Yuriko Sawatani, Japan
Christian Zinke-wehlmann, Julia Friedrich, Vanita Römer, Kristin Gilbert, Ulrike Pietrzyk, Anne Steputat Rätze, Germany
Matthias Scheibe, Germany
Dam Thi Thien Nhi, Leonhard Glomann, Alexander Piazza, Germany
Nina Merz, Joerg Franke, Freimut Bodendorf, Germany
Christian Zagel, Matthia Leyendecker, Germany

Thu Jul 28 1:30pmPT/4:30pmET HSSE Wrap-Up and Awards

Co-Chairs: Christine Leitner, Walter Ganz, Clara Bassano, Debra Satterfield, UK/Germany/Italy/USA


HICSS56 CFP: Industry-University Collaboration for Future of Work

Minitrack call-for-papers: Innovative applications of technologies in industry-university collaboration to prepare for the future of work

Read the call for papers details here.


Please see HICSS website for more details, and select author to submit a paper. Please retweet on Twitter.


Important dates:

April 15 Paper submission system reopened for HICSS-55
June 15 Papers due
August 17 Notification of acceptance/rejection
September 4 Deadline for authors whose papers are conditionally accepted to submit a revised manuscript
September 22 Deadline for authors to submit final Manuscript for publication
October 22 Deadline for authors to make the $275 paper production fee payment
November 30 Deadline for authors to submit presentation materials

International Society of Service Innovation Professinals (ISSIP.org)

What ISSIP offers to help its members grow their global technical eminence

1. Awards – annual excellence in service innovation award (Feb 28th deadline) [example blog]

2. Speaking opportunities that earn “knowledge sharing eminence” badges [example blog]

3. Conference speaking and publication opportunities that can earn best paper awards and badge recognition (e.g., HSSE, HICSS, etc.) [example blog]

4. Concise, expert book publication opportunities  – many professionals are excited when they publish their first book [example books]

5.. Leadership opportunities – recognition on ISSIP website and social media for leading special interest group online events and speaker series

6. Committees leadership and membership opportunities

7. Amplification for service innovation offerings, events, publications in ISSIP social media, interviews, and newsletter

8. Volunteer recognition in bi-annual progress meetings

What members can do to help ISSIP

1. Join ISSIP for free at the website, and get the monthly newsletter in email

2. Subscribe to ISSIP YouTube, follow @The_ISSIP on Twitter, and join ISSIP on LinkedIn

3. Encourage senior leadership in your organization to support ISSIP as an institutional member – and help set priorities for events and other activities

What is the ISSIP Platform
1. Opportunities for awards, badges, recognition for members

2. Website blogs and newsletter about members awards and activities

3. Sponsored conferences with speaking, publication, and best paper opportunities

4. Events including online discovery summits and special interest groups

5. Book publications

6. Social media channels – Youtube interviews, Social media amplification

What is the ISSIP Global Network

1. Industry, academic, government professionals with an interest in promoting service innovation

2. Students learning about service innovation techniques, doing projects, publishing papers, launching their careers

3. Over 40 counties, and 1400 individuals

4. Over a dozen leading companies, universities, and government organizations via ISSIP Ambassadors

What is Service and Service Innovation

1. Service is the application of resources (e.g., knowledge) for the benefit of another

2. Service innovations improve win-win interaction and change for individual, business, and societal wellbeing

3. Service  innovations increase the number of “good days” of interaction and change, while reducing the number of “bad days”

4. Service innovations happen as responsible actors learn to invest (systematically) in becoming better future versions of themselves

5. Responsible actors are viewed as service systems that give and get service include individual people, businesses, universities, governments, etc.

6. Advanced technologies and new regulations are two key drivers of change in the way actors interact (e.g.,, smartphones, GDPR)

7. Upskilling of people is also a key driver of change in the way actors interact (e.g., growth mindset, agile, service design, data science, system thinking, open source, etc.)