New AI tool for visuals and slide decks (it's actually really good)
I listen to every ChatGPT report podcast. It is a modest commitment at about 10 minutes per episode and two episodes per week. It has just enough AI news to keep me up to speed without feeling overwhelmed. The hosts do a great job previewing new products and tracking key stories. Last week they introduced the audience to “Gamma” which is a new AI tool with a speciality in creating quality visuals for slide decks and websites. Sometimes these new tools are all hype and no substance, but their review of Gamma was quite positive, so much so that I paused the episode and created an account. I was blown away by the capacity and potential of the tool.
With a few prompts and the selection of a template Gamma will create a functional outline for virtually any topic. The program refers to the products as “drafts” and allows you to edit any part of the output. Gamma struggles with integrating citation into slide decks which is somewhat understandable given the varying conventions about the practice. It can also produce a deck based on an article, summary, or improve an existing slide deck.
Much like ChatGPT, the end product is not world class. The content will not always be accurate and checking it is a best practice. The aesthetics are good, but not great. My wife is a technical writer and does design work so when I showed her an output she was underwhelmed, but if your baseline is more like 19 year olds struggling to learn basic principles for a public speaking class (many of our students) or an overwhelmed college professor who doesn’t know much about advanced design (me) the decks look really good. There are two important takeaways.
This is a new disruption to something we teach students to do. This is especially true for those of us who teach oral communication and visual aides. Now there is yet another part of our domain that AI does effectively. Students still need to understand some basics about design to edit, prompt, and evaluate the products of programs like this, but this is an area of immediate impact. Research will need to be done to corroborate the content. Unlike some other spaces where we need to work around AI, I think we need to adjust our Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) in this area to match the new world. This is a specific skill we are teaching students and it is suddenly different or possibly obsolete. If our goal is teaching them stuff that will be useful in other classes and in their professional lives we have to change. I’ll have a more comprehensive take on this with a procedure for evaluating SLOs in a forthcoming blog post. If you elect not to adjust expectations or SLOs be prepared for a deluge of AI produced slide decks and visuals in the Fall.
There is no excuse for bad slide decks from us anymore. I’m writing this partially to myself. For years I have produced basic black text on white background with some images and no theme. I have done this partially as a rejection of the overproduced nature of visual aides. This isn’t really acceptable anymore. This program can help you create something from scratch. You can put an existing deck or even an article into Gamma and it will improve the product. Doing better was probably necessary before–now it is easy and mostly automated.
This is the classic dynamic of disruption. At one moment it makes your life more complicated, but it also can make you more productive and part of your life easier. Regardless, it has absolutely changed what we do and how we teach–whether we wanted it to or not.
Last thing: strong recommendation to subscribe to ChatGPT report. Their range is broad, but it is a good way to stay abreast of developments without getting into the details of the ChatGPT subreddit.