Blog

Tracing back to the web’s infancy, we’ve witnessed a continuous emergence of technologies that have shaped and expanded the online world.  From the simplicity of early HTML to CSS to the iPhone to social media, Hop Studios has experimented with them all, adopted beneficial advancements, and tactfully sidestepped what wasn’t (WML, anyone?).

The world is currently experiencing explosive growth in the use of Large Language Models (LLMs), a type of AI used in online content, development and design. As the use of LLMs increases, so too does the scope and scale of controversy about its capabilities and implementation. So I thought I’d take a moment to talk about how we’re using AI / LLMs at Hop Studios as 2024 gets underway.

A Quick Vocab Check

“AI” as a term in common parlance is currently used to mean a wide range of actual technologies.  It is used frequently to mean LLMs, and specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT tools, but also to mean other machine learning technologies like self-driving cars, pattern-matching medical tools, image generation services, machine-based translation, auto-categorization of images, and more.

Also, if you’re interested in a deeper discussion about the different types of AI tools, how they’re growing and changing, and how they might fit with your own services – you need more than a blog post, so get in touch. 😊

Gaining In-Depth Insights with AI-based LLMs

When used correctly, LLM tools such as ChatGPT, are adept at surfacing and exploring a subject, helping us to consider and to be thorough in our work. Our use of these tools is directly based in their ability to provide useful and efficient assistance with common tasks we perform, and to help inspire innovative ideas.

They help us to leverage the experience we already have, to train ourselves on the fly, and often lead to the discovery of new techniques and fresh ideas in our web design and development projects. By leveraging AI, we are improving our processes and enriching our creative arsenal.

AI is used for automation, to provide context, store, retrieve and summarize information. This helps us be more effective and accurate in all that we do, which leads to better work product. These tools are also being rapidly integrated into the tools we already use, so we use AI to understand how it might already be able to improve our work

Some of the places we currently use AI are:

• GitHub CoPilot for code creation, advice, review and analysis
• ChatGPT and Rewind for meeting preparation and review, transcription and summarization
• ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing for content inspiration, generation, summarization and collation
• DALL•E for generation of visual content for prototypes and examples
• ChatGPT and derivatives for research

Rigorous Review Process

Every use of AI at Hop Studios is subjected to thorough review processes. This includes fact-checking, adjusting for style, and ensuring the content aligns with our own and our clients’ brand and values. We firmly believe that while AI is a powerful tool for augmenting creativity and productivity; it is not, and should never be, used to make decisions without human oversight and approval.

There’s a possibly apocryphal but absolutely critical quote from a 1979 IBM presentation which says “A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION”. We believe in this.

Ethical Use of AI

At Hop Studios, our ethical compass guides our AI utilization. We’re cognizant of the debates within the AI community. For example: Where did these LLMs get their content from and are they entitled to use it as they have? Should image-generating tools be used to replicate personal styles of famous artists? Are LLMs promulgating anti-diversity trends? Are they going to destroy jobs, help enshrine the worst excesses of classism… the list goes on.

At Hop Studios, we promise that we will use these tools ethically and for ethical goals. We will not avoid their use simply because there are questions as yet unanswered about them – part of why we place ourselves in the forefront of technology growth is so that we can help explore these waters and navigate them for our clients – but we will do so always remembering that it is the user, not the tool, that is accountable.

Building Trust with Transparency

For us to do our work best, it requires a trust-founded relationship between Hop Studios and each of our clients, who come to us not just for tasks, but for advice and planning. This trust is made more necessary because so much of what we produce is virtual and intangible. It’s further critical because we are helping to build the digital presence and connections for our clients with their audiences and customers, both new and long-term. Care, accuracy and security are at the core of the website and digital services we provide.

Because of this, we acknowledge and credit any AI tool use we believe a reasonable person would want to know about (and our clients are all reasonable people). We carefully protect information or data requiring any level of privacy protection, as well as intellectual property (ours and our clients), especially checking to make sure there’s not the slightest ambiguity about how that data will be preserved, used and perhaps even re-surfaced.

Our goal is to always be forthright; to only delight, never surprise, a client with our use of AI.

For instance, if we use AI to help condense a client’s list of categories from 100 to 50, we’ll explain that we will do that before we do it – and explain that we will review the output too. On the other hand, if we use AI to help identify actionable tasks from meeting notes, we won’t remark on each task that it was identified by AI.

So: Did we use a LLM to help write this blog post? Yes, ChatGPT. Did we also use Grammarly and Google Docs for tone, spelling and grammar checking? Yes.

Inspiring Others in the Industry

Building and keeping trust is the driving reason for why we disclose, but it’s not the only reason. It’s not just about giving credit where it’s due; it’s also about setting realistic expectations regarding the capabilities and limitations of AI (and of humans) in our business. And we have always believed in being transparent about our entire process, never hiding behind a veil of tech-speak, so this fits with our overall culture and process as well.

By showcasing how we credit AI tools and commit to responsible practices and a thorough review process, we hope to inspire other companies in our industry and our clients to adopt similar practices. This will, we hope, foster a more ethical, transparent, and innovative web development community, benefiting everyone in the short and long run.

Preparing for the Future

As AI’s role in our industry burgeons, we’re not just preparing for an uncertain future—we’re shaping it.

A recent internal review of our clients showed that Every. Single. One. could benefit from the use of – or could suffer from competition by – AI-powered tools. Indeed, some are in industries that AI is likely to massively transform. For every client we serve, we’re navigating the evolving landscape of AI, ensuring they’re equipped for the transformations AI will undoubtedly bring.

Our commitment to using AI tools responsibly and transparently reflects our continued dedication to innovation, ethical practices, and building lasting relationships based on trust.