2025-01-08

January 8 (the second Wednesday of the month) is the 127th meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario. This will be an online session. Regular attendees will be recognized in the wiaiting room on Zoom.  Newcomes should register on Eventbrite at https://gen-ai-inquiring-systems.eventbrite.ca .

Generative AI and Inquiring Systems: Ways of Patterning and Ways of Knowing

Generative AI works by analyzing language (or other digital input), and synthesizing outputs. In what ways might system theories help us augment intelligence?

Five ways of knowing were philosophically grounded as inquiring systems.  

• "Inquiry is an activity which produces knowledge".  C. West Churchman (1971), p. 8

• "An Inquiry System, or IS for short, is a system of interrelated components for producing knowledge on a problem or issue of importance.".  Ian Mitroff (1995), p. 29

These ways of knowing not only explain how people can come to understand some ideas as "true", but also can aid in grounding logic(s) towards structuring the validity of findings and conclusions.

This session will:

• trace the development of information processing (i.e. from web search to generative AI);

• outline five ways of knowing, as inquiring systems; and

• review diversity in the way that generative AI is appraoched by a variety of (free, without charge) providers of chat.

Session Leaders

The session will be moderated by Zaid Khan, a strategist and graduate of the OCADU SFI program.

The lead commentator will be David Ing. a trustee of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, and graduate of IBM after 28 years.

The discussant will be Nishat Korada, a business analyst with experience in IT project management and data science.

Venue & Registration

If you're a regular at Systems Thinking Ontario, we'll recognize you in the waiting room at:

• https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/82286447477 

If you're a newcomer to Systems Thinking Ontario, please register at 

• https://gen-ai-inquiring-systems.eventbrite.ca

Suggested pre-readings / audio / video

View responses to chat prompts ... "Provide a summary of the book "The Design of Inquiring Systems" by C. West Churchman, with a comparison to "The Unbounded Mind" by Ian Mitroff"

• Via Perplexity.ai:  https://www.perplexity.ai/search/provide-a-summary-of-the-book-gqqm3ASqQvuPAEpuXI1PJQ#0 

• Via ChatGPT (4o) https://chatgpt.com/share/6776ffaa-c768-8013-95d8-4b0d81a425a1 

  • Microsoft Copilot builds on ChatCPT, and will only do formatting to copy-and-paste results.

• Via Claude (Sonnet 3.5, Explanatory), shared as an artifact https://claude.site/artifacts/97bef3d9-0349-4b84-a474-22c0159db509 

• Google Gemini will only do formatting to copy-and-paste results.

• Private to David Ing:  Via NotebookLM https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/62565fd6-d95d-40a7-a12a-1af1768d9629 

  • Shareable audio overview https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/62565fd6-d95d-40a7-a12a-1af1768d9629/audio 

Transformers

• What are Transformers (Machine Learning Model)?", IBM Technology, March 2022 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXiruGOCn9s (5m50s)

• "Attention is all you need explained", Lucidate, January 2023 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sznZ78HquPc  (13m55s)

Retrieval-Augmented Generation

• "What is Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)?", IBM Technology, August 2023 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-D1OfcDW1M (6m35s)

Agenda

Post-meeting artifacts

Bloggers are encouraged to write about their learning and experiences at the meeting. Links will be added to this page.