By Carolyn Mish
Tucked inside the Old Wrigley building, up a staircase, and behind decorated double doors, you’ll find Idea Fab Labs. Once you make it there, the possibilities are endless.
A collaborative art and technology space, Idea Fab Labs regularly hosts open houses to allow visitors of all ages to learn about and experience cutting edge technology, like generative artificial intelligence (AI). On Saturday, Oct. 18th, Idea Fab Labs hosted Prompt to Production: Creating in the Makerspace with Generative AI from 1-3 p.m, in collaboration with the Santa Cruz Public Library (SCPL). Participants were guided through demonstrations by Idea Fab Labs volunteers, enjoying the opportunity to engage with AI. This event, among other collaborations with SCPL, has allowed patrons to expand their knowledge and experiences with AI, beyond the library. Both Idea Fab Labs and the libraries have digital and technological literacy at the forefront of their missions, making events like these possible.
Just beyond the threshold, visitors greeted Mary, an AI chatbot designed for a museum in Palo Alto who listened to live questions and provided information about Idea Fab Labs. Her face shifted with helpful, serene microexpressions as the bot loaded photos and screenshots from the makerspace’s website.
Oliver Davies, an Idea Fab Lab volunteer and career game developer, demonstrated a draft of a storybook game he had created a few years ago. The game combined graphics, animation, music and voice generators with large language models to create a choose-your-own-adventure story in which participants can instruct the model to create a plot about anything under the sun, and it would spontaneously generate novel content. I generated a story about Otter 841 and her oceanic escapades, and was stunned at how seamlessly the project knit together a story about her surfboard stealing tendencies. Another attendee prompted it to create a fantasy saga about a female heroine striving for unity in her kingdom.
“Without the advances in AI from the past few years, a project like this would not have been possible,” Davies said, noting that he had just recently revisited the game to include updated AI models to see how it would impact the stories it produced.
There was a distinctive air of discovery and excitement inside the makerspace. Volunteers guided attendees through successfully prompting Chat GPT, and one participant even downloaded the app on her phone after using it for the first time. Another watched as Jordan Layman, owner and co-founder, edited vectors to be laser printed using AI generated artwork. It was clear that people came with questions—about the technology, about how to use it—and everyone at IFL intended to answer them, or add to them in new and interesting ways.
“An event like this gives people an in person opportunity to experience AI,” said Bjorn Jones, Digital Learning Librarian at the Downtown Library. Jones and his colleagues, who are currently taking a course on AI Literacy, have been working to create guidelines for library staff, allowing them to responsibly use and educate others on AI and best practices when utilizing these new technologies. Prioritizing human agency, Jones said, is a top priority, and it’s important to keep that in mind even when utilizing AI’s many benefits.
To learn more you can check out the Libraries’ digital learning event page. https://www.santacruzpl.org/digitallearning/
How are you using generative AI? You’re invited to drop by the Idea Fab Labs to explore the answers every 3rd Thursday. AI Discussion Meetup for November and December.
Carolyn Mish holds a position at the Division of Undergraduate Education at UCSC as a Student Writer. She reports on events and community stories in order to highlight voices and perspectives.