While by all accounts it may have been around for some time, the stand out tech subject for 2023, and quite possibly 2024 too, is of course AI.

This is due to the revolution of interest generated almost entirely by OpenAI's ChatGPT. This large language model platform has sparked a huge interest from humans in the sheer scale of its potential, the cleverness, productivity, convenience and power of AI. It has woken up legislators, politicians, investors, innovators and leaders of all sorts. Suddenly it seems as if by magic, a platform such as this enables us all to do amazing things never before possible.

But should we be a little more circumspect about it?

When people like Elon Musk state that it's the most disruptive force of our generation, it's natural for us all to listen, but really, so often new tech it seems can quickly reach the peak of inflated expectations only for it to even more speedily descend into the trough of despair. Often, never really to be seen in any meaningful way again.

I recall consumer 3D Printing dominating the tech narrative around 2012-13 just as we launched the InPrint Show. The BBC were leading the media frenzy with news stories on a virtually daily basis. As a result, events sprang up everywhere, 3D tech became the darling of the stock market, and it was expected that every household would own a device. This would mean that never again would people need to go out to the shops to buy items as basic as cutlery because anything could literally be printed in the comfort of our own homes, whenever we needed!

Then, it fell off its perch and descended into the trough of despair. Consumer 3D Printing has since remained a technology for the engineering hobbyist. Of course, 3D printing, or additive manufacturing as it is perhaps more correctly defined, has found a genuine role in many advanced manufacturing sectors. But it is still very far away from being the ubiquitous tech that peak overhype inferred that it would be back in 2012.

So what about AI? Is it overhyped or underestimated?

There is a big difference with AI v 3D Printing. According to Gartner right now AI is at the peak of inflated expectations. It's hyped! But I think that AI is different to 3D printing in that it is easily accessible to anyone, and anyone can play with it. You do not need an engineering degree like you did with 3D Printing!! It is so readily accessible and anyone with access to the internet can use it. While it may lack nuance, it has far more exciting potential in my view than the worry and concern over possible misuse, the loss of jobs, its frailties and inaccuracies, and the danger of it being used for organised cyber crime. Of course law is not a trivial issue, but the US is already creating statute that will legislate against its nefarious use.

Our recent AI for Print webinar pointed to 4 examples of how our partners and speakers are putting this tech to good use. And while it is a super hyped tech right now, the similarity to 3D printing will be in that it will just take a little time for us mortal humans to catch up, and then work out a role for it by playing with this tech to see what it might be capable of. Indeed, in a few years time, I am sure that AI will be playing a really invaluable role in our lives, and by then will have become normalised. We will have gotten used to it, accepted it and the fear of what we might lose will have abated and we will likely not be able to live without it!

For the print industry the challenge will be to find that role and make it work. In order to do so, we need to embrace it now, and while we should of course not see it as some kind of panacea to all ills, even more importantly we should not underestimate its potential by ignoring it or limiting ourselves, or being too cynical or worse still being fearful of what we might lose as a result of it. Personally, I am looking forward to seeing how this all pans out and hearing many more stories of how AI is helping creativity, productivity and effectiveness.

So in summary, underestimate AI in haste, and you might just come to repent about it at your leisure.

What we at FuturePrint would like to help with is to accelerate our understanding of AI for Print by hosting an event designed to share ideas, to showcase relatable examples of success but also an honest and useful pointers of its limitations, by having open discussions about how to best use this tech for the print industry. With as little overhyped bullshit as possible!!

So we invite all to join us April 16 in Cambridge for our first FuturePrint AI for Print Conference at the Moeller Institute., and check out the recording from our AI for Print Webinar Dec 19 below.

Register your interest here.