Roger Rohatgi

Adam Smith | President | Exhibition Team Adam, a Houston native, is a dynamic graphic designer with an emphasis in identity systems, motion graphics, and illustration. He strives to create sophisticated and logical design work that still feels lighthearted and fun. Beyond his creative pursuits, Adam enjoys catching up on his favorite shows, board game nights, and singing his heart out at karaoke with his friends. What’s your favorite board game? While I don’t have a single favorite, I usually love competitive, unorthodox games, like ‘Plunder’ or ‘Hues and Cues’. What’s your favorite candy? Reese’s Peanut Butter cups all-the-way-live-long-day What advice would you give your younger self? Be dramatic, loud, and outgoing because life gets much, MUCH easier when you let go and stop worrying about what other people think. #UHGD24

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There has been a rising tide in human-to-machine interaction. In the months and years to come, what could be the best approach to this evolution? Should we aim for an intellectually advanced AI with no emotions, or should generative AI have emotions to connect more with customers? This podcast, "Speaking of AI," discussed this. Personally, I believe we need a blend of intellectual and empathetic AI. Listen to the Amelia podcast with Nick Orlando, Ken Fleischer, Joshua Schechter and Matthew Portillo and share your thoughts!

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Interesting research on AI being used by human artists. Main takeaway? "While artists who used AI showed decreasing average novelty over time as compared to controls, both in terms of the content of their images as well as pixel-level stylistic elements, peak content novelty among AI adopters is marginally increasing over time, suggesting an expanding creative space but with inefficiencies. Still, artists of all levels of creative ability are evaluated more favorably after adopting AI if they successfully explore new concepts but are generally penalized for using AI for exploring novel visual styles. According to the authors, this result hints at the potential complementarity between human ideation and filtering abilities as the core expressions of creativity in a text-to-image workflow, thus giving rise to a phenomenon they term as "generative synesthesia"—the harmony of human idea exploration and AI visual exploitation to discover new creative workflows."

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If we disregard the major legal and ethical concerns regarding Generative AI and look at it from a purely macro-economic level, I think there are some glaring concerns that are being held underwater by creatives pushing the "adapt or die" narrative. The global creative community is an ecosystem fed by creatives and the clients that employ them. When I need an animator for a branding project for a client of mine, I reach into my network and hire a human being that will collaboratively work with us to produce killer results for the client. When that animator runs into a client that is in need of brand strategy, they'll likely think of / recommend us to that client, or another studio they have recently worked with. When building case studies, we spend thousands of dollars on mockups from studios that spend hundreds of hours photographing, editing, and turning them into unbelievable mockups for us to use. Their mockups help us get clients. They appreciate our support and if they or a friend needs branding work, they might refer us. Now, let's look at the alternative to this - which is that of Generative AI replacing the human in the process. Donny at "X" studio needs to shoot photos for a client but decides to keep more profit for himself and use Midjourney instead of hiring a person to do the work. The photographer he always reaches out to for badass work is now seeing multiple less projects per year with Donny's decision to cut the human out of the creative process. Now, what if 50% of that photographers referral network chose Midjourney over them? They are going to be seeing a major revenue decrease. In return, when they have a client that needs a visual identity, and instead of calling Donny, the photographer needs to keep as much margin as possible to make up for their expertise being replaced by Midjourney. So they use an AI service that generates a boilerplate logo, type system, and color palette, and they tweak it a bit themselves. It looks and performs like shit. No one benefits when we cut humans out of the creative process. The global creative ecosystem will crack, and we will all lose. When you decide to use a bot over a human, you're contributing to your own demise, whether it takes 1 year or 10, it's happening. Before you succumb to the "adapt or die" garb being pushed by big tech, it's important to consider the future we want. For me, I don't need to "brainstorm with ChatGPT" - that makes me feel unsettlingly nauseous. If I want to brainstorm I will ask a friend to meet and buy them lunch to kick around ideas. Why? Because we are humans, not cyborgs. AI does not have an imagination. It does not think. It is not "brilliant" and it would be inexistent without troves of stolen human ingenuity. That part is easily forgotten. LLM's are mere calculations based on the most likely outcome...they are not a super brain. Go touch grass or hug a tree, and god dammit, look out for your fellow creatives. Thanks, and love you.😘

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When Space Becomes Home. A new talk with my partner Mardis Bagley about how spaceflight is evolving to make it easier for the rest of humanity to reach for the stars. Which technologies can support our bodies and minds in an extreme environment featuring microgravity, isolation, stress, limited resources, and radiation exposure? We discussed the role of colors, sound design, sensations, textures, food, culture, rituals, and the neuroscience of rest. We also discussed why we go to space and accelerate innovation in biotech, material science, resource extraction and human resilience. Home is the familiar. It is safe, personalizable, and a place of community. Exploring space gives us the perspective to see that home is also planet Earth, and that she needs care and protection. In Yuri Gagarin's own words: "Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it." Nonfiction XPANSE Zina Jarrahi Cinker, Ph.D. #space #architecture #sensory #neuroscience

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Playing with Ai (ChatGPT) and this…. The glasses aren’t quite right but quickly learning that prompts are key to using this tool!

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Have you heard about the shopping cart that Ideo redesigned? If so, have you heard about the shopping cart that Drew Ann Long designed, also known as "Caroline's Cart"? In this design video, I explore the importance of inclusive design, and designing for the margins. I discuss how designing for the middle of normal distribution bell curve and mean we don't meet the needs of those who are most in need. If you don't know what a Caroline's Cart is, think the shopping cart should be redesigned, or care about inclusion in design, this video is for you! Link in comments #design #designthinking #designethics #inclusion #inclusivedesign #shoppingcarts #ideo #disability #caregiving

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Love the thoughtfulness and clarity of this piece by Ryan Lynch - "AI is a tool, like any other human tool. What's critical to remember is that brands aren’t the center of stories—people are. Brands help people along their journey. They are the Yoda to Luke or Leia, minus the funny voice and pointy ears." Check it out at Branders Magazine

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This is at the forefront of a continued discussion with my good friend Preston McCauley. I personally feel that if you cannot create work without the use of AI you can’t refer to yourself as that profession. I’m okay with referring to people who use AI as prompt engineers. However my belief is that if you can’t use mediums other than AI you are not an artist, musician, writer etc. Artists by definition can use pencils, watercolors, oil, ink and even digital versions of these on screens to create. There are many people who have ideas that then hire creatives to execute those ideas. In the film industry they would be producers or directors. Using AI to produce images is just a few steps beyond going to a stock mage library and typing in a description of an existing photo or illustration you are looking for. You might be really good at typing descriptions of what you want but that doesn’t make you a photographer or illustrator. As always my 2 cents.

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If you struggle with creativity or label yourself as "not a creative person", this is for you. Let's deal with the mindset first: This is the most important one: Do not label yourself. The act of identifying yourself as not creative limits your potential. It forces you to focus on all the times you didn't feel creative in the past and creates a feedback loop. It's not true anyway. How you frame it: Most likely you already use creative problem solving but you aren't aware of it. This comes down to your definition of creativity. Definition: to create something new and original. Don't interpret this as it has to be something that nobody thought of before. That almost never happens and if you evaluated the people you thought were creative by that framing they wouldn't qualify. It's context dependant. Applying an existing idea from another industry to what you are doing can be creative. You have to make it work for your needs and objectives. Expand your definition. Here are a few ways to express creativity: Art Writing Music Problem solving Framing issues While you may have a career where you follow a defined process and are evaluated on your ability to be consistent and not deviate, there are opportunities for you to be creative. Those who feel less creative find it easier to see their creativity on problem solving. Creativity is a unique approach to solving a problem or expressing oneself. Since creativity relys on a unique output you may feel that your idea is strange or that no one will like it. That's a normal feeling. As Nike says, "just do it". Share it. Build on it. Understand what impact it has and fix or amplify parts of it. Try this: document what frustrates you or has the potential to be better. You might find that during in the process of writing down the problem, you will have ideas on how to fix it. Write that down to. Keeping up look at your desk or type it in you know taking app. I'm sure there's parts of your job that frustrates you. It may be a specific part of the process you follow. Some things may not make sense. If you'd like to learn your creative type, here is a test that Adobe created. They have some fun visually to go along with it. https://lnkd.in/gpQFTRBR

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Nice to see the tasty evolution of the Nest thermostat as it gets sleeker, more contemporary while raising the bar on UI. Love the analog watch face dial option. How about a Rolex face option Google? #google #UI #UX #productdesign #smarthome

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Suzanne Kirch's right on point to say that the first step to adapting to AI is shifting our thought process. It’s not about fearing replacement; it’s about embracing the question: “How can AI help me?” By opening our minds to the possibilities that generative AI brings and asking the right questions that can lead to incredible insights, we unlock a whole new world of opportunities. Remember, if you’re unsure where to start, just ask! Tools like ChatGPT are here to support you in overcoming obstacles and achieving your goals. Catch our full conversation about AI at 👉 https://lnkd.in/gAcKXQtU #generativeAI #AIforBusiness #AItools #technology #productivity #businesspodcast #businesstalks #thebuildersfm

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Great write up of the emerging patterns of interaction, affordances, and heuristics in an AI world. . . . . . #ai #heuristics #ux #productdesign

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Let's get real about AI. (This is not about Drake - or maybe it is?) The reality is general purpose technology like recent advances in AI means big implications for our society. Unfortunately, that includes the worst parts of Big Tech's impact - from exploitation of the planet, to eroding democracy and deepening political divisions, to reinforcing unchecked biases in the data and systems we use at the expense of equity-seeking folks. If it feels like a lot to keep track of, that's because it is. In response, the Mozilla Foundation has produced the AI Intersections Database. It "maps connections between AI impacts and human rights issues" and "catalogs civil society organizations, social movement actors, researchers, and other entities working in this space." Feels like a very handy resource at a time we need it the most.

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💡 State-of-the-Art B-Rep Generation Using Machine Learning 🎙️ How do we bring the precision of #CAD into the world of #generativeAI On the latest episode of the CDFAM Podcast, Karl D.D. Willis from Autodesk Research dives into the challenges and breakthroughs of using machine learning for B-Rep generation. “3D is still hard. Manufacturable 3D is even harder because we’re dealing with precise surfaces, tolerances, and designs that actually need to fit together,” Carl explains, highlighting the complexity of moving from text and image AI to solid modeling." Introducing Autodesk’s latest innovation: a B-Rep diffusion model. “For the first time, we’ve introduced generative AI to the exacting world of solid modeling,” paving the way for smarter, faster, and more accurate CAD workflows. 🎧 New episodes drop twice a week! Don’t miss this presentation and more from the cutting edge of computational design. 📲 Listen now: https://lnkd.in/e2_MZXar #CDFAM #ComputationalDesign #GenerativeAI #MachineLearning #3DModeling #CAD #AdditiveManufacturing

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