The ClimateAction.tech (CAT) Generative AI Exploratorium is a 4-part community exploration that invites all curious CATs to explore diverse perspectives on how generative AI might support or oppose different types of climate actions. If you’re new to the series, you might want to start with the recap of the first 💬 questioning session.
In this post, you’ll find a recap of the second CAT Gen AI Exploratorium session dedicated to 📚 learning, as well as learning prompts you can try on your own, regardless of whether you currently have the time and capacity to actively participate in the Exploratorium.
If you feel inspired to participate more actively, be sure to join the #gen-ai-exploratorium channel in the CAT Slack or register for one of the upcoming live sessions.
📚 Learning session recap
The second 1.5-hour long live session took place on Wednesday, Nov 13, and was attended by 16 curious explorers. During the brief warmup, we reviewed the session’s goal and ensured that everyone was familiar with the tools being used, in particular the collaborative Mural whiteboard that supports the exploration both during and in between sessions.
In this session, we were able to dedicate one full hour to open discussion. To prepare, we started with a bit of grounding, a stretch, and a reminder that we all have the ability to contribute to our shared forest of knowledge. Then, explorers were invited to choose questions from the previous part that most resonated with them. To make discussion easier, we divided into three breakout rooms, each with its starting question/topic:
- five explorers in the 🍁 Collaborative Maple room decided to explore ways in which UX design could contribute to reducing the environmental impact of AI systems;
- five explorers in the 🌳 Grounded Room spread their roots wide and explored how we might minimize and evaluate the damage done by gen AI, and even discussed possible mental health impacts;
- two explorers in the 🍄 Inquisitive Mushroom room shared different thoughts and perspectives on how we relate to gen AI tools and how these tools are changing the way we think, work, and communicate.
Having a full hour dedicated to the activity allowed explorers to switch between discussion, sharing, focused work, adding resources, and even (re)organizing their space. The UX-focused maples demonstrated their design skills by identifying and systematically organizing three key themes related to their guiding question. The other two groups took a more branching, exploratory approach as their conversation covered a greater variety of topics and perspectives.
Throughout the discussion, the Exploratorium Mural whiteboard was used to capture and connect additional questions, notes, and resources related to the questions that were being explored. As a facilitator, I mostly observed discussions from a distance, allowing explorers to self-organize and direct their own learning.
After the discussion, we all gathered back in the main room for a short cooldown, during which explorers shared that they felt more optimistic after this session, but also acknowledged how complicated the intersection of climate action and gen AI is. Given all of this, we agreed about the importance of having exploratory conversations that bring together people with diverse backgrounds, such as the ones we are starting in the Exploratorium.
Examples of shared resources
If you’re interested in any of the topics that were being explored, I invite you to join the #gen-ai-exploratorium channel in CAT Slack and explore all the wonderful thoughts, questions, and resources that have already been added to the collaborative Mural – and start contributing your own.
To give you an idea of the variety of discussion and shared resources, here are some of the resources the UX-focused maples uncovered just during their initial one-hour discussion:
- links to relevant organizations, such as The Sustainable UX Network, AIxDESIGN, Climate Change AI;
- articles with specific advice for designers, such as Sustainable Design Through AI: Building for a Greener Future;
- general sustainable AI resources, such as the IEEE webinar and survey What are the Building Blocks of Sustainable AI, from Design to Deployment?;
- general articles about the environmental impacts and possible benefits of AI, such as Generative AI’s Impact On Climate Change: Benefits And Costs;
- the climate job function action guide for product designers by Project Drawdown;
- book recommendations, such as Designing for Sustainability by Tim Frick.
And I’m sure more resources, notes, and ideas will be added as explorers continue documenting and sharing their learnings and prepare to commit to concrete climate action in the next part of the Exploratorium.
📚 Learning activity prompts
It’s worth reiterating that the conversational learning that happened during the session was just a starting point for participating explorers. Learning takes time, research, and conversations to be fully absorbed. Explorers were encouraged to continue learning both on their own and through additional conversations. And so can you by engaging in any of the following suggested activities:
- Choose an open-ended, thought-provoking question at the intersection of climate action and generative AI as a starting point. If you’re a member of CAT, join the #gen-ai-exploratorium channel to get the link to the Exploratorium Mural, copy the question to the learning canvas and start adding your thoughts and resources. Alternatively, use other tools to document your learning and connect different threads and ideas.
- Start discussions in CAT or your work Slack, and reach out to your professional or personal network to explore additional perspective or questions.
- Explore what large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT know about your topic of interest. Ask follow-up questions to uncover assumptions in LLMs’ answers or your own questions.
- Look for answers or additional questions in fields or perspectives you don’t usually engage with.
- If relevant, run experiments, which might include anything from calculating emissions to experimenting with gen AI tools. Share your learnings and thoughts with others.
- Was anything you’ve learned unexpected, surprising, or even challenging? Make a note of it.
- Keep adding resources and notes to the Exploratorium or your own learning canvas, and get inspired by what others are learning by having additional conversations.
Up next: 🐱 practicing
The next part of the CAT Gen AI Exploratorium will be dedicated to 🐱 practicing. Explorers will have the opportunity to connect their 💬 questioning and 📚 learning to their professional or personal context and commit to a concrete climate action.
If you missed the previous parts, you’re still welcome to join by exploring the questions and learnings in the Exploratorium Mural – and adding your own. It’s never too late to begin your exploration journey!
And if you want to start learning together with other CAT explorers, I invite you to register for the 🐱 practicing live session happening on Wednesday, November 20 at 6 PM CET / 5 PM UK / noon EST / 9 AM PST – you can check your local time on the event page. If you can’t attend the live session, you can still contribute to the collaborative Mural async and participate in discussions in the #gen-ai-exploratorium channel in the CAT Slack community.
Until then, keep learning and exploring, and follow your curiosity!
Update: you can now read a recap of the 🐱 practicing session.
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