For week 14 our main objective was our video project. Below I have attached a link to view our final video project. For my project I decided to work with Andrew Johnson and Jackson Beale. We incorporated our created AI characters as well as Dr. Oblivion. Our video explains the pros and cons of using AIs from the perspective of Leo Storm, Himothy, Johnathan, and Dr. Oblivion. Alongside our pros and cons, we also include our overall opinion on AIs and the usage of them. To create our video, we used iMovie. Our first step was to find pictures to incorporate into our video. Once we found our pictures, we laid out the sequence of when each picture would appear. After we had all of our pictures laid out, we recorded our audio in iMovie talking about our opinions and pros and cons of using AIs. We did have some trouble when making our video. One main issue was overlapping of audio, to solve this we had to go back and space out each different audio piece, so that there was no overlapping. Another issue was uploading our video to WordPress. The file was too large to upload, hence why we had to revert to using a link to display our video. However, despite this trouble I think our finished product came out great in the end. Overall, this project was a great learning experience. I got to use all the different skills I’ve learned throughout the course of DS106 such as working with audio, images, and many more. I hope y’all enjoy the video as we worked really hard to create this. Until next time!
What a crazy last 6 hours it’s been. I just finished my final project and it definitely did not go as I expected. Last week for my weekly summary, I detailed how I was going to do a commentary video on some aspect of AI and the advantages / disadvantages. While doing the rest of my piled work for the week before finals, I thought about topics that I wanted to hone in on, and it was definitely the use of ChatGPT and other forms of AI assistance in assignments. I did not have any time until today to knock it all out, so I prepared myself to finish my creation in one sitting starting at noon today. Not the greatest decision, but it has been a trend during my DS106 career, and I have made some of my best works with this last minute sprint towards the finish line, so I was expecting the same here (spoiler, it did not go as expected).
While watching some YouTube this morning, I stumbled upon an edited video full of jump cuts and memes that I used to enjoy watching back in high school. I drew some inspiration from this blessing from the YouTube algorithm and decided to make one of my own. My intent was to create a POV story about a student who doesn’t have a job lined up, and is looking for his first opportunity. However, he stumbles upon ChatGPT and uses it throughout his schoolwork and his interview prep, which leaves him with no actual knowledge and coding ability. It was meant to be a commentary on harmful AI use in computer science students. At the end, I was going to add 3-4 minutes of recorded commentary answering the question of whether or not AI is beneficial or harmful to students.
Around 8pm, I started to write up a script for this 3 minute commentary at the end of my video that would tie all of the knots up and bring the audience to a good conclusion. By 9:30pm, I’d written up a solid few pages on this topic to be read into my mic, recorded, and then overlaid with some various clips that relate to the topic.
This was when I messed up.
I was writing on my Windows Notepad, the default one that is preloaded on every Windows computer. I usually never do this and write all of my documents on Google Docs, but since I had so many tabs open for ClipChamp, OBS, downloading music and clips, along with other programs, I didn’t want to open another tab for Google Docs, and thought that since I’d just be reading off of it and discarding it, I would just write it on the Notepad.
Of course, my computer gave me the blue screen of pain and suffering for the first time in my ownership of this PC, and wiped all of my tabs, and most importantly, my script. My edited video was saved into the Cloud via Clipchamp, but the script for my commentary was completely wiped.
I tried various methods to restore the lost text file, but it seemed as though the system cache was already wiped due to the reset. I tried to rewrite all of it, but with my 4 hours of sleep and the deadline fast approaching, I had no willpower left to recreate a script that I’ve been writing for almost 2 hours, and I didn’t want to give the SparkNotes version in my final video, either.
Completely demoralized, I came to the conclusion to publish my video as is, and detail these events in my summary post instead. I think that narratively, my project is missing a conclusive answer and purpose due to not having the commentary at the end. I was going over some DS106 examples of how a few of my daily creates were AI generated, and how many aspects of DS106’s topic of the semester being AI contradicted the entire essence of the class, as well as going over some other computer science examples of how AI is used in classes as a distraction to student learning.
While I cannot share these insights anymore with the limited time that I have remaining, I will go more in depth about the video and audio editing that I that made me jog my creative digital skills that I accumulated throughout the semester.
I used OBS to record myself going through a scripted sequence of searching on Reddit for advice and using ChatGPT to solve a LeetCode problem, which is just a practice website for coding interviews. I made sure that each click towards the next phase wasn’t too hasty, as I needed some time to overlay memes and audio clips to create the edit.
I then added this clip as the main background, and searched up various small videos and images that would add comedic effect to the story. A lot of the memes are from the mid 2010s, and the background music choice was also free music from Kevin Macleod that dominated YouTube for a long time.
The most difficult part about this was layering each clip and audio file to match the timing of each sequence. Also, having to track all of the different files in my arsenal became a bit of a hassle when the end product became almost 30 different files put together.
Most of the apps I used throughout the semester were used for this project. Without all of the experience I gained throughout DS106, this video probably wouldn’t have been possible.
I’m a little jumbled in the head right now from all of the stuff going on right now, but hopefully this was a comprehensive enough summary about my process. Looking forward to my conclusion to DS106 next week.
One of our headlines in the AI takeover final project is “AI-Powered Healthcare Innovations Transform Patient Care”. On Tuesday evening, I created a poster of nurse robots in a hospital and wrote about it https://gretahammen.com/ds106/progress-report-fp/.
Each of us in the group contributed by individually making videos and posters that would fit together like a puzzle at the end. We communicated on Discord and after completing any steps, we updated the Google doc for our final project.
It’s Friday and the final project is complete https://gretahammen.com/ds106/final-project-%f0%9f%8e%a5/. I appreciate this group and all that was done for the final. So far, it has been the most responsible group at UMW, that I have been in. My memory is strong and I will always remember this experience.
The final project above was fun to do. I had some ideas and some good people to work with. This exceeded my expectations of what we could do. Can I do all group projects with them forever?
Week 13 was really light. The main focus for this week was our final project. I decided not to do any daily creates this week, as I wanted my focus to be on the final project. Not that I don’t love doing daily creates, I just wanted to really focus on working on the project. For the final project I am going to be working on it with Jackson Beale and Andrew Johnson. We worked really well in the past and I believe we can produce a great final project. As far as what we are going to do we have a few ideas. Our favorite idea is we are going to discuss the opinions on the pros and cons of using AIs from the perspective of Dr. Oblivion and our created course character. As far as the process for creating our project, we have met once to talk about ideas we wanted to do. We also have started to outline our video we’re going to do. I’m excited to see what our finished product will look like. I’m also excited for y’all to see as well. Until next time!
Alright, I’m here. This week I worked on my final project. I had several ideas, one of which I decided to start actually working on.
Part 1: Brainstorming
First, I brainstormed from the prompts we got. The possible projects are a response to AT’s legal team, a wrap-up of our class characters, or a general analysis of the pros and cons of AI. I had a lot of thoughts, but there was one that I felt would be the most fun.
Part 2: The Idea
A few days ago in my English class, a friend and I put characters from some of our readings into a Drag Race simulator. I am a huge Drag Race fan and have been keeping up with season 16. The finale is this week (the day I am posting this, actually).
With AI and Drag Race bouncing around in my head, it was only a matter of time before they collided. The Drag Race Simulator is not a super high-level AI, but the simulator does let you put in stats for each queen so presumably there is some analysis. I think it could be really fun to “test” AI in this type of silly way and would let me talk about AI’s merits without the video feeling too heavy.
Part 3: The Plan
My current plan for the video to put the season 16 queens into the simulator, give them as accurate stats as possible, and see how close the program’s prediction is to the actual season. I already filmed the main simulator section and, without spoiling anything, it certainly made some choices. I am still working on the main script and trying to figure out where some actual analysis of AI should go.
I am very excited to see what this project becomes. It is definitely a loose interpretation of the “AI analysis” assignment but I think still works.
This week I have been very stressed in my other classes and having some sort of break from completing work in this class was awesome. As much as I love DS106, a break from the assignments helped a lot. I was able to catch up on a lot of work in other classes. However I still took a dive into planning this final project.
I was able to talk to Andrew Poon and Andrew Johnson about our assignment. We decided it would be best to work together as our radio show was certainly a hit, we might as well run it back! I am really excited to see what we have in store for this final project.
After doing some brainstorming we have come up with a few different ideas. We have not fully decided what we are going to do but aggressive technologies or including our course character would fit well, however we were thinking to branch off into something different and becoming more creative with this final project.
Stay tuned for our final project because it is going to be a good one.
Alright after the sculpture business I got to messaging my group. Ravioli Radio is not doing a second production. Those that wanted to work in a group again got most of the band back together. Just like any reunion we even grabbed a new member. We discussed some ideas on discord and came up with an idea. A news broadcast. We can all make what we like to do and what we feel we are best at. It will start with a news anchor starting the nightly news. The different segments will be made by different group members. Destiny and I want to do the final edit and put everyone’s work together. I want the broadcast to highlight the starting of the AI uprising. Everyone in the group gets to make their content with their own slant and ideas. It will have variety. We have a google doc with our outline of the show, content ideas, and what people are working on. Destiny and I want to start putting it together Thursday and the project is due Friday. I am excited to see what everyone makes. I am working with some creative people again so it should be great. It is a busy time at the end of the semester and one team member is getting over the flu. Curve balls are already being thrown. I will try to check back in with progress in a few days.
On Thursday evening, I wrote the script for the news anchor to say in the video. I put the video together on elevenlabs.com and d-id.com to have an avatar and my script come together. The news room video needed to be put together first, to provide a foundation for the group to insert their videos of AI issues that have taken over. “C:\Users\greta\Downloads\AI Take Over Breaking News.mp4.
A pretty view for Friday’s tdc, that I’m thankful for. We board one horse and she is in the pasture on the other side of the horse fence in my daily create https://social.ds106.us/@gretahammen/112299433494628688. She will stand near to us to hear talking and to be a groupie. If you look closely you will find her, through the first lantern near to the top.
This week’s assignment was to just plan out our final project and document progress on it. I had a lot of work piled up for this week and I wasn’t able to start putting the video together, but I’ve done a good amount of brainstorming about the idea I would like to delve into.
For my final project, I would like to deviate away from my course character idea and make a video essay. I’ve always been an enjoyer of video essays on a variety of topics from sports to video games. Planning out a script and analyzing the pros and cons of AI appeals to me as something I would make myself if I ran a YouTube channel.
I’m envisioning a 5-8 minute video with a variety of graphics on screen, different backtracks based on the topic at hand, as well as segments of me talking on camera to bring a more human aspect into the project. I still need to think more about which aspects of the analysis I would like to hone in on, but I’m most likely going to talk a lot about how AI is too powerful in the scope of college assignments, ranging from Daily Creates and other DS106 assignments, as well as some insight into the problems of AI in Computer Science courses as well.
