Books and Articles to Inspire Tinkering with AI

As part of my current prototyping work on developing new ways to tinker with AI tools and technologies alongside NEXUS Experiments, I’ve been reading and learning from a wide variety of sources to get new (and return to old) ideas and inspirations. Here are a couple of the books and articles that have resonated with me recently as I’ve been exploring the possibilities for creative and playful AI projects. 

First off, I recently received a complimentary review copy of “The Learner’s Apprentice” by Ken Kahn from the team at the CMK press. I appreciated the many concrete project suggestions in the book that each provide great starting points for further explorations. Khan obviously has a lot of expertise and experience with AI tools but I really appreciated his open and playful approach to the interactions. 

It’s clear to see the core constructionist approach that runs through the book as Kahn describes trying and testing out possibilities with AI tools. He often gets surprising results as he creates interactive stories, poems, images and games alongside the large language models that serve as a guide or a helper and uses those moments as important feedback for future iterations. Khan suggests an approach where the learners ask questions, probe and challenge the AI to make better creations. Instead of the AI doing things for the learners, the approach aligns with the idea of Seymour Papert where the students are meant to program the computer (and not the other way around). 

Speaking of Seymour Papert, I also recently re-read Chapter 7 of the seminal book Mindstorms which touches on the possibilities of AI to be a model of the processes that happen when people learn new things. I’ll admit that this was a chapter that I skimmed over on previous readings of the book, but this time I was really taken with the descriptions of how an AI system might help us better understand how ideas are created by learners.

The whole book of Mindstorms has many fascinating parallels to the present moment as it was written at a time when computers existed but weren’t yet ubiquitous part of home, work and school. We may be at a similar turning point with AI chatbots and tools which makes Papert’s concluding observation that “a new world [...] is about to come into being, and it’s history will be inseparable from the story of the people who make it” all the more salient. 

While experimenting with possible activity plans, I have been returning again and again to the article “Generative AI and Creative Learning: Concerns, Opportunities, and Choices” by Mitchel Resnick at the MIT Media Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten group. The post has helped me reflect on how to make sure that our experiments with AI keep the focus on playfulness, creativity, agency and development of learners’ ideas. As well, Eric Rosenbaum from the Scratch team has been developing characteristically playful prototypes and talking through specific examples of how they might work with kids and family audiences in his own medium posts.

Outside of the world of tinkering and education, there have been a couple other reference points that have helped me develop ideas around AI. I’m a fan of the Ezra Klein podcast and there have been many good episodes about the potential upsides and risks of these technologies. Another article that I recommend is “Machines of Loving Grace” by Dario Amodei of Anthropic. I’ll admit that this post made me feel a little queasy (even as he is trying to lay out the positive possibilities of AI development) since those in power might not take such a liberatory and optimistic view of the applications. There’s definitely a part of me that wants to disengage with the whole concept of AI and focus only on hands-on physical material explorations, even as I see the importance of tinkering as a way to better understand new and potentially scary technologies. 

For technical advice about AI tools that educators can use now, I appreciated Gary Stager’s rundown of the software that he uses to make his life as a teacher, writer and thinker smoother. I also just got introduced to the Mitra Martin’s substack and although AI isn’t the main focus of her writing, I really appreciate her emphasis on curating digital worlds for the young people in our lives. 

And I feel like this collection of examples needs to feature the artists and makers who are using AI in their work and have been experimenting for a while with these tools. My biggest inspiration in this realm has been the work of Nettrice Gaskins who has developed a personal style using AI as a collaborator in art making. I really appreciate how she describes her process of iteration and remixing designs on her blog posts. In the world of music I’ve been listening to Holly Herndon who creates with AI tools even though it’s not always my cup of tea. And for fiction, I just read the book “Death of an Author” by Nnedi Okarafor that touches on many AI related themes. All of these more artistic expressions of what’s possible with AI and visions of what could be in the future demonstrate ways that individuals can engage with these ideas while still creating personal and human works.

Please let me know what articles, books and artworks have influenced your thinking about playful and creative uses of AI.