A Creative Way To Use AI To Enhance Communication

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is getting a mixed reception at the moment, and maybe for good reasons. There are plenty of people using AI inappropriately, and in ways that are harmful to others. But as with any emerging technology, AI can also be used for good.

I’ve been exploring how to use AI to reimagine some photos of James into cartoon style images, so that I can put them together into a communication booklet for him to use to share what he would like to do. James has very limited communication, with a handful of words supplemented by gestures, facial expressions, sounds, pointing, and sometime the use of choice cards. I’m going to see if ‘cartoon James’ can help ‘real James’ to communicate his choices more easily…

For the tech minded, I’ve been using Microsoft Copilot, dragging a photo into the input box and then typing ‘Make this image into a cartoon’, before sitting back and watching AI do its stuff.

Here’s a selection of the cartoon images created so far…

We’ve got more images to convert, including ‘screen time’ and key moments during the day like ‘dinner time’ and ‘going to bed’, but hopefully we will be able to create a useful tool for James to use to help him to communicate his choices. When we’ve created James’ communication booklet I’ll share some images of it here.

Why not have a go yourselves? Could you use AI in positive ways to support a child, young person, or young adult that you journey with? Let’s take advantage of the benefits AI can give us. If you have a try, share how you get on in the comments!

All the best,

Mark

© Mark Arnold / The Additional Needs Blogfather

See also:
Artificial Intelligence ‘AI’ And Additional Needs
https://theadditionalneedsblogfather.com/2022/01/14/ai-and-additional-needs/