<div class='text-zinc-700 font-[InputMonoCondensed]'> Well, well, well. We're back with General Seminar, your favorite salon-like online seminar for discovering what lies at the vanguard of change, and what rests in the souls of those who end up inhabiting the future.<br/><br/> This episode is motivated by the recent release of Deepseek AI's new model, which is a game-changer in the world of AI. Deepseek AI is a company that has been making waves in the AI community with its innovative approach to machine learning and artificial intelligence. But over here? At Near Future Laboratory's Learning & Development Division? We are not just interested in the technology itself, but in the implications of this technology for our everyday lives. That's why we're excited to announce our next General Seminar S06E01 - A Design Fiction Sprint Into Everyday AI Futures.<br/><br/> How will commodity AI that's just comes out of the tap change the way we live, work, and interact with each other?<br/><br/> (Remember when not everyone had 'Internet' and it came in a box and you had to have a dial-up modem and it was a big deal? And then it just became something that was ubiquitous and you didn't even know you had it? Yeah, that. But AI.)<br/><br/> (Some of you might not know what this 'dial-up modem' thing of which I speak is. Ask your uncle Ned. He'll talk your ear off about 'BBS's' PPP, and Fetch.)<br/><br/> Ask yourself this: <span class='font-[InputMonoCondensed] font-medium'>If AI becomes commodity and as about as ubiquitous as luggage with wheels and teenage acne, what does that even mean to inhabit that world? What's sitting on our kitchen counters? How will you be deciding what to eat for breakfast? How will you <em>make</em> breakfast?</span><br/><br/> Etcetera. You get the idea. <div class='my-10 mx-auto bg-[#fffd42] rounded-md text-black p-4 max-w-4xl font-[WarblerText]'> <figure> <img class="mx-auto" src='https://nearfuturelaboratory.com/images/projects/2024/newspaper-from-an-artificially-intelligent-future/spreads/JCB_21122024_120253_7586.webp' alt='Turing Clamp Advertisement' /> </figure> <div class="mx-auto max-w-[85%]">Hey! Check this out! This was a similar process I ran to create a <a class='underline' href='https://nearfuturelaboratory.com/projects/2024/newspaper-from-an-artificially-intelligent-future/'>newspaper from an artificially intelligent future</a>! And you can <a href='https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/applied-intelligence-issue-n-001'>grab your own copy</a> over on my shop of artifacts! Limited Run! Just a few left!</div></div> These are the questions we'll be exploring in Season 06, Episode 01 of General Seminar as we grope our way around a near future of commodity AI, tripping over all manner of unexpected paradigms, interaction modalities, odd language and curious idioms. What kind of like..stuff is amongst us? What are the inexplicably other worldly ontological furnishings in this commodity AI near future? What are we going to do?<br/><br/> Ready to join me in the Near Future Laboratory's janky time machine? Want to join a group of forward-thinking creatives like you as we deploy Design Fiction to imagine and sense into the implications of AI in everyday life? Let's go.<br/><br/> We'll be dividing into small groups and working on ideating and prototyping an actual Design Fiction artifact that has come from a possible commodity AI future. Using Design Fiction methodologies, we'll create a prototype of an artifact that could exist in the future, and then present it back to the group.<br/><br/> A prototype might be a <a href='https://nearfuturelaboratory.com/projects/2024/newspaper-from-an-artificially-intelligent-future/'>short news article from the near future</a> in which AI is amongst us just as routinely as wheels on luggage. Perhaps you find an advertisement for a new kind of psychic intelligence parlor. Or you might find a bedside alarm clock or a companion intelligence that works with you on We won't be overly precious about the fidelity of our prototypes. We will be limited only by our imagination and our conversations with each other.<br/><br/> </div>