Latest / Speak In Flow / AI Tools for Public Speaking
Transcript
- 0:02Melinda Lee: Hello, dear listeners, thanks for joining the speak and flow podcast where we dive into unique experiences and strategies to help you and your team maximize their potential and flow even in high stakes situations. Today, I have an amazing innovative on the front line of technology. And AI, she's a media and technology strategist.
- 0:26Melinda Lee: executive producer. She's a Vp. And board of Directors of Xr guild as well as CEO, of a reality craft Evo painting.
- 0:37Melinda Lee: Hi Ivo.
- 0:38Evo Heyning: Hi, Melinda! Great to be with you.
- 0:41Melinda Lee: I'm so excited about our conversation today because it's juicy, it's fun and exciting. So let's just launch off, can you? You've been in the technology producing world AI world for many years now. So what are you seeing? That's exciting between AI technology and communication today?
- 1:02Evo Heyning: Well, we've seen an amazing convergence of the capacities of our tools. If you think of
- 1:10Evo Heyning: AI, and broadly, our digital tools as being a toolkit, that toolkit has expanded to be thousands of interesting tools that can be applied to any challenge.
- 1:22Evo Heyning: So I work on things like rebuilding and concept design after disasters. So I'm excited to see where things like a Gaussian splat and a scan of a space can meet the generative and the procedural AI to come up with a concept for a space that can be built quickly. So if you imagine that we have
- 1:46Evo Heyning: tens of thousands of people who've lost their homes to hurricanes and fires. Just in the Us. This year there is a huge need for being able to take our mobile phones out. Do a site plan, add our concept design works and our architectural works and get those through to permits fast. So this is where AI tools are meeting things like Bim, our building and infrastructure tools so that we can get things done together quickly and hopefully.
- 2:14Melinda Lee: It was a mistake.
- 2:16Melinda Lee: Yeah, it sounds like, and it's such a huge need. And so what do you think will be the struggles to getting to what you just described efficiently and effectively.
- 2:26Evo Heyning: Well, there's there's quite a few current struggles. I tend to be an early researcher at the edges of what these technologies can do. So what we're seeing right now are workflow challenges and bringing all of these elements together. And then we have the challenges of publishing that in a way that the Permit Office and County Hall is going to be able to say yes to it quickly.
- 2:52Evo Heyning: Right? So that's just one workflow. That's for rebuilding and resilience after disaster. But there are infinite use cases out there for being able to rapidly do concept design for storytelling, and then build that world so that people can participate in it, whether that's a game world or a story world, or making a film like the movie flow that was using Blender as a digital tool.
- 3:18Evo Heyning: So I'm excited to see the tools converging, and I'm excited to see what small, relatively independent teams can do with those tools in order to enhance and enable their own creative process.
- 3:31Melinda Lee: And what you've seen. Like, you mentioned the beauty beautiful part of this is like imagining things seeing a space and then using these tools to bring it to life. What are the things that are challenging and about doing that?
- 3:45Melinda Lee: The struggles about doing.
- 3:47Evo Heyning: Well, currently the the crop of generative media tools is going to be based on existing models of the world, and those are incomplete. So while we have a number of teams going out there and volumetrically scanning our cities and bringing together data so that we have better models.
- 4:09Evo Heyning: For now, if I type in, imagine a seaport that seaport might not look anything like the seaport that's in my mind, and so.
- 4:20Evo Heyning: We are seeing a refinement in especially 3D world building process and being able to take a conceptual 3D. Design and fill it out, using both generative or procedural methods. Right.
- 4:35Evo Heyning: That is closing the gap that is making it simpler and easier to go from my house burnt down to my house is now rebuilt right, which is currently sometimes a 4 or 5 year process. If we look at, for example, Paradise, California. This has been almost now 5 years to get people into their homes again right?
- 4:58Evo Heyning: Altadena and la! They're only 60 days out, right? They're just now returning to their homes for the 1st time. So anything we can do to shrink the gap by saying, use this information, including my volumetric scan, my architectural concepts, everything I know about resiliency and fireproofing, and bring that together into a plan that's going to work for me. That is where generative tools, I think, are going. That's.
- 5:28Melinda Lee: And regrett.
- 5:29Evo Heyning: One use case of many. But that's a use case that we know. Tens of thousands of people here just in America need.
- 5:36Melinda Lee: Right.
- 5:37Evo Heyning: Use today.
- 5:38Melinda Lee: And and are people adopting to these like you? Said the the government, the
- 5:45Melinda Lee: the the teams that are out there in the fields like? Are they taking these plans, and actually do? Are they adopting.
- 5:53Evo Heyning: Starting to see that right? So.
- 5:56Melinda Lee: Okay.
- 5:57Evo Heyning: Much of that rebuilding and resiliency.
- 6:00Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 6:01Evo Heyning: In the use of generative AI is early stage
- 6:06Evo Heyning: experiments where I work with teams in 5 different regions currently from Africa to Maui and Hawaii that are working on these methods, and in some cases building a stakeholder driven process so they can bring together the indigenous community. The universities, all of the local engineers to help make better decisions together.
- 6:29Evo Heyning: But that's again, not about the tools. It's about understanding the tools and then building a collaborative process that allows.
- 6:37Melinda Lee: Right.
- 6:37Evo Heyning: Participated.
- 6:39Melinda Lee: Right. And like you said, there's very specific language
- 6:43Melinda Lee: on how to do that. And how to. Yeah.
- 6:47Melinda Lee: A.
- 6:47Evo Heyning: There you go!
- 6:48Melinda Lee: Go ahead!
- 6:49Evo Heyning: I was. Gonna say, there's there's the
- 6:53Evo Heyning: essential tools. And then there's the essential language to learn. There are 2.
- 6:58Evo Heyning: Of this puzzle. When people are looking at, for example, how to unlock generative media for something they're trying to achieve, whether that's storytelling or concept, design or research, there's understanding language and how to use it, and how to clarify your language for prompt craft. And then there's understanding what tools do best, and which tool is right for you.
- 7:23Evo Heyning: And both of those skills are essential. If you're going to make the most of your generative process and not just sort of experiment with whatever someone handed you.
- 7:33Melinda Lee: Hmm.
- 7:33Evo Heyning: That's also essential. If you're going to be creatively leading the process instead of being led by the tool, which is what some people often fall into a trap of which is sort of over trusting the tool to tell you the future. Instead of telling the tool, the future, you want to create.
- 7:54Melinda Lee: Yeah, how do you know when you're being led by the tool versus? Okay, this is what I want to create. How would I know.
- 8:01Evo Heyning: If it looks like something very cool, but different than what you imagined. But you find
- 8:08Evo Heyning: on the rabbit hole, anyway, and it's a fun rabbit hole.
- 8:13Melinda Lee: Yeah, it's a fun rabbit hole.
- 8:16Melinda Lee: But then.
- 8:17Evo Heyning: Got to remember. It's like.
- 8:18Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 8:19Evo Heyning: You're like, you're like playing at that point. You're you're being 9 year old exploring. And then you have to come back and say, okay, was that useful? Or was that play.
- 8:31Melinda Lee: Interesting, interesting.
- 8:33Melinda Lee: I've been using some tools with my clients, usually an AI speech and coach
- 8:41Melinda Lee: beach coach AI tool. And it's I think it's great. I think it's fun. I think you get some really nice analytics from your practice. And you could do role play. And I also find that people are not as open to using it because it's something new, something different. And it's telling me something. And it's not a human.
- 9:05Evo Heyning: And it might be rubbing up against their ideas of is this appropriate? Is this.
- 9:12Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 9:13Evo Heyning: Trustworthy? Is it consensual? All things.
- 9:16Melinda Lee: Right.
- 9:16Evo Heyning: We go through and choosing whether or not any tool is right for us. Any digital.
- 9:22Melinda Lee: Right.
- 9:22Evo Heyning: Just generative tools, but especially generative tools. We need to be asking, Hey, do I trust the company on the other side of this tool to use my information effectively, and in some cases you cannot do that. So when I teach agencies or marketing professionals, or anyone who is publishing.
- 9:43Evo Heyning: they need to be using tools that they can trust, and they also have to pass it through their legal department. So they may say, we'll stick with the adobe creative suite and anything in adobe creative suites. Fine. But we don't want to come over here to these other tools because we don't know what they're going to do with our assets right? If I upload the image of my upcoming product? Are they going to somehow.
- 10:06Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 10:07Evo Heyning: Make make me more vulnerable or create a trust problem for me. And that's a huge issue, I think, for people at all stages of their career. Can I trust this tool? Can I trust the company behind this tool is really important inquiry. Early on.
- 10:25Melinda Lee: Right.
- 10:25Evo Heyning: When you're testing.
- 10:27Melinda Lee: Right, so fascinating. And what do you think is changing? How does this change our written language? And both written and verbal language.
- 10:38Evo Heyning: Well, I think we're seeing people becoming more concise in some ways an ideal prompt for many of these tools is going to be under 50 words and frequently under 25 words. And there are certain elements you need to hit like style or description that absolutely are going to need to be there for it to be effective.
- 10:59Evo Heyning: So that making language more concise
- 11:03Evo Heyning: is a clarification process. It's a little bit of a language dance like jazz, or like dancing. And you're you're finding your way over time. You're you're going to keep practicing at it until you find the words that work for you.
- 11:17Melinda Lee: Right.
- 11:18Evo Heyning: But then, on the other side, you're getting tons of stuff. If you're working with a large language model, I've been testing perplexity for doing both deeper research and for analyzing research across all different types of ecosystems.
- 11:34Evo Heyning: And you're getting so much information there, right? But relatively little of it is actionable, or things that I need to go. Take back to the board at Xr Guild and say, here's what we need to be paying attention to. So then I have to do the critical thinking work of. Is this important for us, or is this too much noise, too much information without meaning? Because a lot of.
- 12:00Melinda Lee: Hmm.
- 12:01Evo Heyning: Gonna give you lots and lots of information, very little, meaning very verbose. And that's not.
- 12:06Melinda Lee: I.
- 12:07Evo Heyning: Helping any of us get forward.
- 12:09Melinda Lee: Right. I mean, we can easily turn it around and write it up and then post it and get it out to the world again. And yeah, and it just becomes a lot of information.
- 12:22Evo Heyning: That are slop right. They think of it as having very little meaning, because it's just adding to the noise without adding to the insight in the public.
- 12:32Melinda Lee: Of correct and losing authenticity, and losing possibly connection.
- 12:37Evo Heyning: It, probably, especially if you're prospecting
- 12:39Evo Heyning: over time. This is what I heard.
- 12:41Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 12:41Evo Heyning: Is that some people keep a strong filter away from all things. AI, because they're noticing that for them it it gives them a red, alert.
- 12:51Melinda Lee: Oh, yeah.
- 12:52Evo Heyning: Trust it.
- 12:53Melinda Lee: Right.
- 12:54Evo Heyning: Have to recognize that if I'm going to use AI tools, that there is a certain audience that is not going to see it or read it, or pay attention to it.
- 13:02Melinda Lee: Right right? They can smell it.
- 13:04Evo Heyning: Yep.
- 13:05Melinda Lee: And then what about verbal communication? How do you think this impacts herbal.
- 13:10Evo Heyning: Well, I think we are starting to.
- 13:17Evo Heyning: think about how we clarify language a little bit differently in the conference room. I've seen this in my Zoom Meetings. They tend to be a little bit shorter, and then we go back and use our AI notes. And so we have a little bit more of a longer train of collaboration. But it's not happening inside the meeting. It's happening outside the meeting now. Which is nice. Actually, I prefer shorter meetings and.
- 13:44Melinda Lee: And we can.
- 13:44Evo Heyning: Of bang through things quickly, and the note takers done all that work right
- 13:50Evo Heyning: doesn't have to be certain types of roles in the room, freeing the the secretary of the board up to.
- 13:59Melinda Lee: Correct.
- 14:00Evo Heyning: Right? That's that's a really valuable role as an Ombudsman or as a data manager, or as someone who's making sure that our systems and security are not being compromised in some way or that we're speaking about things in the right way.
- 14:17Evo Heyning: What I've noticed is that many, especially nonprofit organizations don't have an AI policy. And so they're having to come together now and very quickly sort these things out and say, Okay, we trust these tools, but not these tools. We absolutely don't want you to put our data sets into certain tools, because that might compromise the groups we're trying to work with. That might be a data.
- 14:39Melinda Lee: Goodness.
- 14:40Evo Heyning: And so this is no
- 14:42Evo Heyning: organizations, health providers. Everyone who's in any sort of service with the public has to figure out, okay, what's my AI policy. And am I like just going to take my data, set upload it to the web and just hope that it works out. Okay, these are conversations that pretty much. Every group I know right now is having around the board.
- 15:05Melinda Lee: Right?
- 15:06Melinda Lee: Right? And it's gonna continue to evolve. But we have to have these conversations. What are we gonna do? How are we going to have what policies are right. And yes, how do I, as a person, use it ethically, effectively.
- 15:20Melinda Lee: Wow, I'm so I've learned so much today. And
- 15:25Melinda Lee: I want to close off with. Can you share with the audience? What is that one leadership, takeaway that you want them to remember.
- 15:35Evo Heyning: Well, we have talked to just a little bit about flow, and about the importance of being centered in yourself.
- 15:43Evo Heyning: in your own creativity in your own vision when I'm going on stage to talk about AI for me. That's a quick meditation process and just taking a few deep breaths. But in my creative process and in my leadership process both. I like to take a step back, breathe, listen, and then ask a good question.
- 16:06Evo Heyning: Think about what everyone else in the room is probably holding on to, but isn't speaking into, and then point a question in that direction, because there's a way in which you can open up everyone in the room at once, just by asking the right question at the right time.
- 16:25Evo Heyning: But to do that you have to be attuned to the people you're working with. So that takes a little bit of centering and being
- 16:33Evo Heyning: be very focused in yourself
- 16:35Evo Heyning: so that you can then be open and aware and really present with everyone around you.
- 16:41Melinda Lee: That is beautiful, especially in tying this into your expertise about generative AI and discussion it. Kinda can you tell us a process of similar. So you said, take a pause, breathe, get centered within ourselves, and then what is the space like inviting
- 17:00Melinda Lee: what is here?
- 17:02Melinda Lee: And noticing what is here? And then asking the right question to to move forward or to learn to. So that's just like what we do with AI or the generative.
- 17:12Evo Heyning: It is.
- 17:12Melinda Lee: Share the key. Tie that? Yeah.
- 17:14Evo Heyning: It is. It's certainly tied together in the places.
- 17:17Melinda Lee: Yeah.
- 17:18Evo Heyning: Generation, right? So many of us are
- 17:22Evo Heyning: constantly tapped into various forms of inspiration. But we're very rarely putting language to it. And what generative tools invite us to do is to give it language, and then the language is going to give something form, so you can create any world you want. You don't have to be stuck with a dystopian mindset just because it's on the TV at the Evening News. You can create something completely new.
- 17:47Evo Heyning: But to do that you have to center in yourself and think about. Well, what is the world I want to see? And how is it different from all the noise around me.
- 17:57Evo Heyning: and then, once I give that language, that inquiry becomes the seed for a prompt that I can then take into any tool I'd like.
- 18:07Melinda Lee: Beautiful that that gives me chills. I love that so beautiful. Thank you, Evo, and you teach classes on on this like, can you share with the audience how to find you more about the classes.
- 18:21Evo Heyning: Sure. So I wrote a book called Promcraft in 2023. I'm currently working on a second book and a new edition
- 18:28Evo Heyning: of prompt craft, so prompt craft and reality craft are interactive guidebooks. I teach them both internally inside companies and organizations as well as
- 18:38Evo Heyning: in public and on zoom, and you name it so you can go to evoist, which is my website and channel. There you'll see some previous talks. You'll find out how to book a session, and you'll see a number of different creative projects that I've done over the years to integrate different tools, technologies and methods.
- 18:59Melinda Lee: Wonderful reach out to evo. This is amazing, innovative, and brings our creativity into the world. So how do you want to bring your creativity into the world. This is your opportunity. Yeah. So we have all your links in the show notes, click on the links and reach out to evo.
- 19:18Evo Heyning: Thanks.
- 19:18Melinda Lee: Thanks so much, Evo, and thank you so much. Audience, for being here. I trust that you got your golden takeaway. And remember, anytime you have an opportunity to communicate, you have an opportunity to connect with others and inspire and make a bigger difference in the world
- 19:34Melinda Lee: until next time. I am your sister-in-flow. Take care, bye, thank you.