Dan Foster-Smith from Yossarian talking about their lateral association tools

1. Yossarian: AI for Creativity
J. Paul Neeley
Dan Foster-Smith
Dr. Katia Shutova
Yossarian
2018
yossarian.co @yssrnlvs

2. Daniel Foster-Smith
Co-Founder & CTO
PhD Candidate in AI &
Creativity. MA in Design
Interaction.
J. Paul Neeley
Co-Founder & CEO
MA in Design Interactions
yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
TEAM: Expertise in design & creativity, development, computational linguistics & metaphor, working together for the past 9 years.
Dr. Katia Shutova
Co-Founder & Chief Scientist
PhD in Computational Linguistics

3. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
THE OPPORTUNITY: Instead of traditional literal search, we look to Augment human creativity through lateral / metaphorical search.

4. yossarian.co @yssrnlvsyossarian.co @yssrnlvs
THE PROBLEM: Current search tools return literal popular returns that collapse creative possibilities. Creatives are stuck in filter bubbles, exploring cliche, and reinforcing existing ideas.

5. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
THE OPPORTUNITY: Instead of traditional literal search, we look to Augment human creativity through lateral / metaphorical search.

6. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
A is B
METAPHOR: Metaphor is a comparison between two things which are not the same. The comparison helps us see A in a new way, by causing us to overlay the understood attributes of B.

7. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
Love is a River
Love is a Fire
METAPHOR EXAMPLES: Love is a river, because it can ebb & flow, overflow, or run dry. Or love is a fire, because it can start with a spark, burn, burn out, where there's smoke there is fire, etc.
or

8. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
A&E is a F1 Pit Crew
METAPHOR IMPACT EXAMPLES: Metaphors are critical aid to innovation and creativity by showing us new ways of thinking from other domains.
http://asq.org/healthcare-use/why-quality/great-ormond-street-hospital.html
“The real gain for patients was safety. Results showed that the new
handover procedure had broken a link between technical and
informational errors. Before the new handover protocol, approximately
30 percent of patient errors occurred in both equipment and
information. Afterward, only 10 percent occurred in both areas.”

9. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
Crime is a beast
Crime is a virus
METAPHOR SOCIAL IMPACT EXAMPLES: Metaphor can have powerful impacts on how we see the world, and getting the metaphor right can change our beliefs about how we solve a problem.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/february/metaphors-crime-study-022311.html
71 percent of the participants called for more enforcement when they read: "Crime
is a beast ravaging the city of Addison." That number dropped to 54 percent among
participants who read an alternative framing: "Crime is a virus ravaging the city of
Addison."
"People like to think they're objective and making decisions based on numbers,"
Boroditsky said. "They want to believe they're logical. But they're really being
swayed by metaphors."
or

10. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
METAPHOR SOCIAL IMPACT EXAMPLES: Metaphor can have powerful impacts on how we see the world, and getting the metaphor right can change our beliefs about how we solve a problem.

11. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
“Any supreme insight is a metaphor.”
- H. Parkhurst
"The greatest thing by far is to be
a master of metaphor.”
- Aristotle
“The most profound social creativity consists in the invention and
imposition of new, radical metaphors.”
- R. Kaufmann
WE BELIEVE: Metaphor is a power and fundamental mechanism of creativity.

12. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
Não é minha praia
(Not my beach) Brazil
It’s not my cup of tea
UK English

13. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
Metaphorical Search Engine
FUTURE IMPACT: Our metaphorical search engine has the potential to impact a number of creative activities across various markets. Through AI we augment human creativity.
PoliticsEducation Marketing
& Advertising
Communication
& PR
Innovation
& Discovery
Augmented
Creativity
Metaphor
Detection
Cross Cultural
Translation
Metaphor
Generation
Artificial
Creativity
Design
& Creativity

14. yossarian.co @yssrnlvsHOW IT WORKS/ LATERAL SUGGESTION: Users are suggested lateral associations based on their search term.

15. yossarian.co @yssrnlvsyossarian.co @yssrnlvsHOW IT WORKS/ CONCEPT SELECTION: Users select directions that are most relevant to their interest and creative problem.

16. yossarian.co @yssrnlvsHOW IT WORKS/ CONTINUED SEARCH: Users can continue to search each concept, leaping from idea to idea, and ending up in new creative spaces.

17. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
FEATURE LIST: We’ve built in a number of smart features to help make Yossarian fun and easy to use, and give you many ways to explore.
Conceptual Distance Slider
Yossarian suggests lateral
associations that are close to your
search, or that are more disparate,
depending on kind of lateral jump
you are seeking.
Search
A simple search feature lets
you start your exploration from
a vast corpus of language.
Words or Images
You can work in words, or
images, or both. Select what
best supports your creativity.
Multiple image sources
Once you’ve selected a
concept we’ll find images that
represent the idea. Explore
from several different images
sources to get a different feel.
Collaborators &
Conversations
Work alone or invite others to
build and explore your board
with you. Have conversations
about the various ideas right in
the board.
View Formats
Yossarian allows you to view the
connections between concepts
in a graph view or in a simple
moodboard view.
PDF & Image Download
Once you’ve build your creative
graph feel free to print it out,
make it physical to continue the
exploration.

18. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
FEATURE LIST: We’ve built in a number of smart features to help make Yossarian fun and easy to use, and give you many ways to explore.
Public & Private Boards
Keep your ideas private, or
open them up and share them
with the public.
Share Boards
Send the boards out into the
world to let others see and
react.
Connection Annotation
Once you have made a
connection you can annotate
each, keeping track of the
insight that came as you
selected the association.
Discovery Links
Easily jump off to other parts of
the web to explore a concept
further to keep the exploration
going.
Map Zoom
Zoom in and out, see the
detail of a connection and
then see the whole. Yossarian
lets you explore at a level that
works for you.

19. yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
FEATURE LIST: We’ve built in a number of smart features to help make Yossarian fun and easy to use, and give you many ways to explore.
Unlimited Boards
Each board is a canvas for
exploring ideas. Group
searches by project or brand or
topic as you like.
Unlimited Users Per Org
Our institutional licenses allow
for unlimited users, so you never
need to worry about team
members coming and going.

20. yossarian.co
Dan Foster-Smith
dan@yossarianlives.com
Yossarian
2018
yossarian.co @yssrnlvs
Yossarian: AI for Creativity
THANK YOU: We’d love to work with you to create the future of augmented creativity through AI. Let’s discuss how we can together!