I was super excited to facilitate, create context for and present for Tech Concept Lab’s Design Fiction Hackathon and 24 Hour Sprint on the theme of A Future Of…AI.

The brief participants received was to use Design Fiction prototype that explored how AI had become as normal, ordinary, and everyday as wheels on luggage, and televisions we talk to.

The event was the second annual event organised by Tech Concept Lab, in collaboration with a two other labs (😄): Ericsson Consumer Lab and of course us here at Near Future Laboratory.

50 students from Hyper Island and Blekinge Institute of Technology worked in 8 teams to rapidly prototype and deliver their concepts.

The winning team’s artifact represented a felt human need: How can expats who miss home and loved ones share food and taste experiences that make them feel more connected to home. The team nicely connected a core value of Ericsson’s, which is using their technology to help connect people.

Awesome. Fun. Playful. And a great way to introduce the students to Design Fiction and its value as a process to working through ideas as they exhibit themselves in human needs (as opposed to just a technology for the sake of “technology”), and grounding the concept in a humble, normal, ordinary circumstance.