Rosenverse
AI as Thought Partner: How to Use LLMs to Transform Your Notes (3rd of 3 seminars)

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

AI as Thought Partner: How to Use LLMs to Transform Your Notes (3rd of 3 seminars)

Friday, May 3, 2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Share the love for this talk
AI as Thought Partner: How to Use LLMs to Transform Your Notes (3rd of 3 seminars)
Speakers: Jorge Arango
Link:

Summary

There is a lot of hype around AI. But in many ways, AI’s potential for augmenting your cognitive abilities has been undersold. Learn how tools such as ChatGPT can become valuable collaborators that expand and refine your thinking. This seminar by Duly Noted author Jorge Arango shows you how to augment your notes using popular AI tools.   Watch Part 1 Watch Part 2

Key Insights

  • Generative AI models like GPT-4 are best viewed as powerful symbol manipulation tools, not sentient intelligences.

  • Digital notes serve as cognitive augmentation devices that expand our thinking abilities.

  • Having direct control over note data enables better integration with AI tools compared to cloud-locked systems.

  • AI can effectively assist with summarizing, translating (including to domain-specific jargon), synthesizing, and connecting ideas.

  • Using AI as an amanuensis—a kind of super secretary—is a practical middle ground for augmenting cognition.

  • Uploading documents like PDFs into AI chat interfaces allows jargon simplification, e.g., explaining academic papers to a 10-year-old.

  • Transparency about which content is AI-generated is essential to avoid confusion or mistaken ownership of ideas.

  • API access to AI models offers more privacy and customization than chat interfaces, which may use data for training.

  • AI tends to produce middle-of-the-road feedback, requiring user expertise to detect inaccuracies or hallucinations.

  • Plugins like Smart Connections in Obsidian use local models to find non-linked related notes safely without sending data externally.

Notable Quotes

"Thinking is something that happens as the brain interacts with the world, not just inside our heads."

"These tools are the most powerful symbol manipulation tools ever created, like spreadsheets for language."

"Notes are preeminent things for thinking with because they expand our cognitive abilities."

"I think of AI models as amanuenses, like super secretaries aiding scholars in the early modern period."

"Uploading a paper and asking the AI to explain it as if I was a bright 10-year-old helps break through jargon."

"You want to be very clear about what was generated by AI and what is your own stuff in your notes."

"If you use these chat interfaces, your data might be used for training, but API access can preserve privacy."

"AI gives feedback that’s generally conventional and middle-of-the-road, so you need to verify its output."

"I wouldn’t want AI to think for me; these tools are to help me grow, not replace my thinking."

"The ultimate purpose with AI-augmented note-taking is to think more effectively, not to outsource thought."

Ask the Rosenbot
Gabrielle Verderber
Documentation Your Team Will Actually Use
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Dan Mall
“Ask Me Anything” with Dan Mall, Author of Upcoming Rosenfeld Title, Design that Scales
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Cheryl Platz
Merging Improv with Design
2019 • Enterprise Community
Joanna Vodopivec
One Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Mike Brzozowski
UX in everyday products: Empowering climate conscious choices
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Candace Myers
Standardizing Design at Scale
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Theme One Intro
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Melissa Eggleston
Practical People Skills for Building Trust on Teams and with Partners
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Bob Baxley
Theme 4: Intro
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Sam Ladner
How Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Cornelius Rachieru
Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
SUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Ilana Lipsett
Anticipating Risk, Regulating Tech: A Playbook for Ethical Technology Governance
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Meghan Bausone
Systems Thinking and Design Innovation: Working with Leverage Points in Rural Maternal Health Systems
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Alnie Figueroa
The Future of Design Operations: Transforming Our Craft
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Yasmine Khan
Checking Bias and Listening to Financially Vulnerable Americans
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold

More Videos

Louis Rosenfeld

"We have got you covered with sketch notes, resource lists, session notes, videos, and decks all shared ASAP after presentations."

Louis Rosenfeld Bria Alexander

Day 1 Welcome

September 23, 2024

Lisa Gironda

"Communicating as a proxy for a senior leader taught me how to tailor messages for different audiences."

Lisa Gironda

Opener: Chief of Staff–An unexpected journey

January 8, 2024

Jamie Beck Alexander

"Anything that you can do is needed because our institutions were inherited from the past and need us to lead them toward the future."

Jamie Beck Alexander Nina Gregg Shawn Petersen Bill DeRouchey

How can you find your role in climate?

January 17, 2024

Iram Shah

"Employees are more important than customers and shareholders in designing and delivering experience."

Iram Shah

Closing Keynote: The View from the Top

June 4, 2019

Melinda Belcher

"The agencies don’t often know what happens to their work after they deliver it unless they hear about it third hand years later."

Melinda Belcher

Insider preview of Enterprise Experience 2020

May 28, 2020

Natalia Radywyl

"Power sharing requires behavior change, reflection, and descending about expertise."

Natalia Radywyl

Co-Designing New Power in Australia's Public Sector

November 16, 2022

Uday Gajendar

"Enterprises are places where one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing and sometimes despises it."

Uday Gajendar

The Rise of Meta-Design: A Starter Playbook

May 19, 2022

Jesse Zolna

"Non-researchers often think you can just jump in and start asking questions, but that can be inefficient or risky."

Jesse Zolna

Inviting the Whole Org to Come See For Yourself

March 30, 2020

Steve Baty

"Communication over communication and creating safe spaces for people to disagree leads to healthy exchanges and minimizes detractors."

Steve Baty Richard Dalton Maria Giudice Harry Max

Discussion

June 9, 2016