2024 Predictions | IT in AV
We are now in 2024 and it is time to make our predictions again. Before I jump into this year’s predictions, let's see how I did with last year’s. I mentioned that we are killing AV as we know it. A quick summary of that is that I meant that we are losing the basic knowledge due to AI. I feel I am right on this as I see more and more folks using AI to do even the simplest of tasks. This year's prediction is on AI again but not that it's going away but that we will see it being used differently and with more guardrails.
AI is killing AV as we know it.
As I mentioned last year, AI is still hurting AV as we know it. The best example I have is auto tracking cameras. Over the past year I have been on many video calls, webinars, etc.. During these events some of the presenters/ guests had auto tracking cameras. I would become distracted as the person moves, just a little, and the camera adjusted to center them again, they move back and again it adjusts to center them. During one call this happened so much that I started to feel ‘sea sick’; now I know I was out to sea so should I call its AI sick? This leads me to how AI is killing AV. In the past us AV techs would take time to set up cameras in the best location to provide the best view. If it was a bigger ‘production’ event then we might even have a skilled camera operator or even a production team to smoothly move cameras/viewing angles. Now we just place an auto tracking camera up and call it a day. We no longer consider the effect this has on the far end as they are watching the camera move up / down / left / right / in / out as the presenter moves around. Then we have the situation where someone in the audience makes a noise and the camera does a scan of the room; which reminds me of The Price Is Right when they call people down and the camera operator is trying to find that person.
Using AI differently
I feel we are going to start using AI differently in AV and mainly in higher education. I am already hearing, from others, that many faculty members want auto tracking turned off. The faculty member gets distracted or even bothered by the moving camera. Also there are times they want the camera looking at the whiteboard, which might be showing an assignment, while the faculty member checks something on the computer but with auto tracking cameras this does not happen.
I feel we are going to see less auto tracking, auto tuning, auto… in our equipment. I am not saying AI is going away but I feel we will see it more on the data side of things. I also do not even really consider this AI but very good programming but that is a story for another time. We are going to start seeing more AI in our management systems. It is going to aid us in finding which rooms need to be updated, which equipment are having problems, which sources are used or not used. We have been seeing this for years now. I mean even in Excel we can have it highlight duplicate words or what not, so it's really nothing new for us. I just see this becoming more widespread and built into more of our dashboards.
AI Guardrails
Another change in AI I see coming is more guardrails for AI, mainly in education. There are some folks who are scared that students are using AI to write their papers and are trying to punish these students. A couple of months ago I even read an article where a professor accused a student of using AI to write a paper, which he didn’t, because the professor ran it through an AI detector. This AI detector software falsely flagged the students paper and the professor just accepted the report blindly. Now lucky the student’s parents were lawyers who helped him battle this; unfortunately not every student is that lucky. I feel administration will start demanding guardrails on not just students using AI but also faculty members using AI. These guardrails will help shape how AI is used properly in classrooms, research, and other means of education.
When I attended the 2023 AI4 conference, AI guardrails was a big theme in all the sessions. When I attended the higher education round table session we all agreed that guardrails were needed. I do not know who or how these guardrails will come into play but I do agree guardrails are needed.
My main prediction
AI being defined better. We all know AI stands for Artificial Intelligence but what does that really mean? Cambridge Dictionary defines Intelligence as “show intelligence, or able to learn and understand things easily” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/intelligent. For me the keypart in that is ‘understand’ I do not feel AI, as we currently know it, understands but just is quicker at linking data together. I believe we will see less buzz words of AI being used as we all define it better.
Conclusion
I know that was long winded and my 2024’s prediction might not be fully clear so here is a quick summary.
Start seeing AI guardrails
- Less auto tracking, auto tuning, auto…
- More AI driven data analytical
- Better definition on AI
We also need to remember that AI is a tool and just like any tool, we need to understand how to use it properly. AI is not going away but we do not need to be scared of it nor do we need to blindly follow it. As of now we still have the ‘understanding’ part and once we stop understanding the data then we start losing.
