Communal Computing and AI with Chris Butler (2/2)

In the previous episode, our Senior Content Advisor Q
McCallum met with product manager Chris Butler to
explore the role of uncertainty and how it relates to AI product
management.  That conversation sets the stage for Chris and
Q to talk about communal computing today.


Chris starts by explaining what shared, AI-backed devices mean
for data collection, analysis, and regulation. After that, Chris
and Q explore important questions such as: What are some
challenges in getting communal computing devices to
coordinate?  How do social norms mix with assumptions made
by the ML models behind these devices?  What do we lose when
we use data lakes? How do product managers and machine learning
engineers interact on these kinds of projects? What do communal
computing devices have in common with software developers on
shared platforms?And, most importantly: what does all of this
have to do with the film Napoleon Dynamite ...?


Chris has published a series of articles on communal
computing: Communal Computing intro, Communal
Computing’s Many Problems, and A Way Forward with Communal
Computing.

You can also watch some of Chris’s communal computing talks:

AIxDesign Communal Computing workshop with animistic design
mapping

Bots and AI Meetup - Communal Computing - Solving multi-user
Alexa and Google Assistant use cases