Live Event: AI & UX Research

Our team hosted an event recently to discuss how to use AI to do research with Notably. The discussion was hosted by myself, Britt Fuller, the Notably co-founder & CEO, and Sergey Avdyakov, Notably’s lead engineer. 

We were inspired to host this conversation because we’ve been releasing new AI features, but even more importantly because the conversation around AI, its implications, ethics, and safety, is one we are paying a lot of attention and staying close to. You may watch the full recording here or continue reading for the highlights.

The event was an opportunity to share with our community some of the technical basics of AI, in hopes that researchers and designers working with AI would have a better understanding of its innerworkings and potential. 

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We shared how Notably integrates with OpenAI and utilizes GPT-4 and some of the reasons we’re excited about that partnership, including:

1. An accessible developer experience: The team appreciated the ease of access and overall developer experience. They were able to quickly get started, with plenty of documentation available throughout the process.
2. Backed by industry veterans: The backing from Microsoft, a trusted organization in the B2B and enterprise space, added credibility and trust to the platform.
3. Transparent ethos: OpenAI's foundation of transparency and focus on models that serve the public good appealed to Brittany and the team.
4. Open to feedback & responsive: The receptiveness to feedback, especially around AI ethics and the design of the models, though there is always room to embrace this feedback even further.
5. Compliant & willing to work with regulatory agencies, highlighting OpenAI's willingness to work with regulatory agencies and how the use of AI from vendors beyond OpenAI will create new challenges for policymakers.

The conversation delved into the broader implications of AI and its rapid growth, noting that not everyone agrees on all aspects of AI. Several hot topics came up, including the ethics of AI use, its impact on the job market, potential biases, and data policy considerations. This discussion served as a reminder to be mindful of both the benefits and risks associated with AI.

One specific area we explored was the job market, highlighting the new jobs created by AI, such as "prompt writing," which didn't exist a year ago. Notably's cautiously optimistic approach to the continued growth of OpenAI and GPT was also discussed. We discussed several potential use cases for AI to help teams conduct better and faster research, such as improving research efficiency, generating more insights, making high-quality research accessible, and enhancing the future of work and living.

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3 aspects of AI that Notably is particularly excited about include:

1. New UX patterns that communicate AI collaboration
2. Efforts to open source AI models and invest in safety and security research
3. The ethics and challenges of designing, building, and researching with AI

Towards the end of the conversation, we shared how Notably uses AI in our research platform, with the following features:

1. Converting audio to text in over 20 languages and dialects
2. Analyzing sentiment across multiple languages, even less widespread ones
3. Generating summaries from recordings (a new feature)
4. Generating insights from themes and tags

The discussion concluded with a Q&A session, where several insightful questions were addressed. We hope this was a valuable learning experience for those interested in AI and its applications in research.

Many thanks to the team, Sergey and Jessica, for their time and effort in organizing and facilitating this conversation. Watch the full recording here.