The power of the Human/AI Sandwich – How Mint uses AI tools
Sick of hearing about artificial intelligence (AI) yet? If you went to this year’s Learning Technology Conference and Exhibition, it was almost unavoidable.
It’s an important topic, but there’s plenty more for us to discuss in the L&D realm – how many of you caught Gemma Nunn’s talk on Accessibility at Learning Tech 24? Shockingly, it was the only seminar on the Exhibition timetable to talk about this important subject.
Anyway, this blog is unashamedly about AI (sorry, not sorry) – more specifically, it’s about our approach to it at Mint.
In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and business, innovation is always the key to staying ahead of the curve. As businesses strive to streamline operations and enhance efficiency, the integration of AI has become increasingly prevalent. However, while AI offers immense potential, it also raises concerns about accuracy, suitability, and loss of the ‘human touch’.
So, that’s why we use a ‘Human/AI Sandwich’ (or ‘H/AI’ approach as we call it) – yes, maybe we could have chosen a better name for it, but we’re sticking with it for now…
Understanding the H/AI Sandwich
We recognise the value of both AI and human expertise and qualities. The H/AI Sandwich is our methodology that combines the strengths of AI (and other) technologies with human oversight. Here's how it works:
1) THE BOTTOM BREAD. Choosing a tool and inputting the request: The bottom slice of the sandwich begins with a human deciding whether to put a request into an AI tool. This request can vary from content/text work, to creating images, or any other task where AI can be utilised effectively. It’s hugely important to say that our humans make these decisions based on a number of complex factors.
Like whether it’s appropriate for us to use an AI tool based on who the work is for (not all of our clients would be cool with us using an AI tool), or what the copyright implications might be for how the output may be used.
2) THE FILLING. AI processing: Once the request is received, AI works its magic – and we get our output in the middle of our sandwich!
3) THE TOP BREAD. Human Evaluation: This is where the top slice of the sandwich goes, and our human element comes into play again. Our team carefully evaluates the AI-generated result, assessing its suitability, accuracy, and overall alignment with the initial requirement. This evaluation goes beyond just technical or ethical correctness to encompass subjective factors such as tone, style, and emotional resonance. Has it hit the mark?
The Benefits of a H/AI Sandwich
By combining AI automation with human judgment, we can achieve some things better or faster. While AI excels at processing vast amounts of data and performing repetitive tasks, humans bring nuanced understanding and contextual awareness to the table. This synergy results in outputs that are not only technically precise but also tailored to meet the specific needs and preferences of our clients.
In an era of misinformation and fake news, maintaining integrity and truthfulness is also paramount. The final evaluation step in the H/AI approach allows us to verify the accuracy and credibility of the content generated by AI. This ensures that our outputs are not only factually correct but also align with our ethical standards and values.
While AI continues to advance rapidly, it can lack the human touch that is essential for connecting with audiences on a deeper level. Mint's approach preserves this human element by infusing AI-generated outputs with the subjective judgment and emotional intelligence of human evaluators. As a result, our outputs are humanly authentic and appropriate for whatever requirement we had.
Also, sometimes AI can be horrendously incorrect and produce its own special ‘nightmare fuel’. Look what happened when we tried to remove the glare on Rosie’s glasses… 😱
Rosie did give us permission to share this… honest.
That’s why we need a human to check AI’s work.
Real-world applications of the H/AI Sandwich
The versatility of the Human Sandwich extends across various industries, use cases and tools. If it sounds familiar, and you think you’ve used the same approach – then you’re probably right! In fact, we’d be surprised if you haven’t used it…
…because it’s how most people approach the tools we have at our disposal in L&D anyway – and AI tools are no different!
If you’ve scoped out a project with someone and you’re thinking of making an eLearning course, you’ve almost certainly thought about the requirements of the learning, the objectives it needs to achieve and then selected an appropriate tool to build it in. That’s the H/AI Sandwich at work right there – a human decided what to use, used a tool to produce an output, and then evaluated whether it hit the mark.
Although we’ve just looked at AI here, we use our H/AI approach all the time with the tools we have at our disposal at Mint.
Embracing the H/AI approach for AI tools
In a world where technology continues to redefine the way we work and interact, embracing approaches like the H/AI Sandwich are essential for staying competitive and relevant.
At Mint, we believe in harnessing the power of AI (as well as many other tools), while preserving the invaluable contributions of human judgment and creativity. By combining the best of both worlds, we not only enhance operational efficiency but also deliver outcomes that deliver for our clients and their people (which is what it’s about for us after all).
We (like you) follow the online conversations about AI with great interest and there’s a few people whose posts always tickle our pickle – maybe you already know them…
Tom McDowall from our partners, Colossyan – as well as being the Chair of The Learning Network, Tom is a serial podcast host and poster about all things AI. His comment on the subject is always pragmatic, relevant and seated in reality, which makes what he says incredibly relatable and useful.
Ross Stevenson from Steal These Thoughts – we love Ross’s style and insightful exploration of the topic – always real and always based on real-world applications for AI.
Jon Fletcher from The LPI – these guys are at the very cutting edge of all things AI, including putting together the AI Learning Collective – a meeting of the very finest minds to discuss all things L&D x AI. Definitely worth checking out if you’ve not already.
For anyone still in the ‘AI is gonna steal all our jobs!’ camp, I personally take comfort that PowerPoint never made anyone a great presenter… and only around 50% of this blog post was written using AI. The other 50% was a 25% Human Sandwich either side 😉