The Autodesk University Journal – Day 1

Well, my class came and went and it was awesome. Not the delivery, I mean — I’ll leave that judgement to the participants — but I had a blast delivering it and my audience was wonderful. I think I was really able to articulate the key points between the complexity of designing for climate change, the possibilities and shortcomings of participatory planning, and how LEGO Serious Play might fit into that.

Beside that, I’m really happy. Attending a conference is always fulfilling and inspiring, and Autodesk University still undoubtedly is the top tier of its kind.

But you don’t want to hear about that: you want to know what I saw and learned, so let’s get to that.

1. Autodesk is using your data

I encourage you to go on-line and watch the opening session, when it will be available, and jump to the point where Raji Arasu, Autodesk’s CTO, talks about how Autodesk is developing their AI assistant. It can be summarized as follows:

1. Yes, we’re using your data;
2. Let’s address your concerns (except she doesn’t do that);
3. Your data is aggregated with other user’s data, so you don’t lose your intellectual property (no shit, Sherlock, that’s not the point);
4. Your data alone wouldn’t be enough for you to develop your in-house AI (again, no shit for generalist, generative AI, but potentially not so true for other applications), so you need to give it to us for your own good;
5. When the system will be ready (using your data), you’ll be able to opt-out from its functionalities (which we developed using your data) and we’ll stop using your data (which we won’t need anymore).

A bright future awaits us all. And i just want to remind you that Adobe tried a similar approach, except their customer base ate their faces off and they had to roll back. I don’t see it happening here.

The “good” news is that Autodesk’s AI still looks non-existent. Project Bernini still looks like a toy and its chairs are groctesque.

According to Autodesk’s CEO Andrew Anagnost, this is because we’re still in the hype stage. Except… are we? The winter of AI came and went, buddy, and genAI, for good or worst, is already productive. Maybe, just maybe, it’s not AI. Maybe it’s you who’s falling behind.

2. Everybody wants to talk about AI

But all everybody does seems to be talking. I have a couple of classes I’ll attend tomorrow on the topic, including Yael Netser and Michal Burshtein’s class on ethics, and we’ll see if that changes.

For now, all I saw was people standing in line to have their picture taken and their faces transformed into a superhero by AI, which is how these systems are trained. And they paid 2000 dollars to do it.

3. Empathy, Equity and Inclusion

These are big, this year. The highlights in my agenda for day one have been Nadia Simanjuntak and Michelle Weskler, who talked about a people-centric approach to change management during a planned transition from BIM360 to ACC, and Laura Kalinowski with Amy Porter’s contribution to strengthening the connection between our industry and STEM programs for girls. I would have liked this to be a little more in-depth on how they do what they do, but I’ll try to reach out and see if they’re interested in having an Italian volunteer as a mentor or lecturer. Their programs are Maker Girl Mania and Tech Girls.

4. Dynamo is still rolling

It might be because people are still going around with Dynamo tattooes from Day 0’s hackaton, but the community’s enthusiasm for our favourite (and only) visual programming tool doesn’t seem to have faded.

Huge kudos to the awesome Enrique Galicia, who will tell you about everyone else’s scripts, mention his own only when you ask, and when you tell him the concept sounds awesome will tell you “Yeah, we won.” Never change.

What’s for today?

AI, diversity, students building a rocket and a couple of keynotes. I’ll update you!