Business as Imagination Machine

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Turn Your Business Into 'The Imagination Machine'

By Myles Suer | May 20, 2021  in CMSWire

How can businesses harness the collective imagination of their workforce at a time when innovation is at a premium? That is the central question of Martin Reeves' and Jack Fuller's forthcoming book, "The Imagination Machine." Are there methods to increase both the predictability and the frequency of bursts of imagination? Businesses tasked with innovating — and that means all businesses — struggle with questions like these on a daily basis. The strategic diagnostics Reeves and Fuller offer throughout the book make this a valuable read for every legacy organization looking to retain their market relevance.

Why Innovation Matters Now More Than Ever

Reeves and Fuller claim innovation matters beyond the walls of the corporation. They argue that winning corporations can change the world by combining their organizational abilities with the unique human capacity to imagine. “Imagination is needed now more than ever. Since competitive advantage is increasingly short-lived, driven by rapid evolution of the technological and business environment …. Since the 1960’s, the average number of Fortune 500 companies exiting the Fortune 500 has increased by 36% annually.”  ... 

Machine Learning will Lead to Imagination Workers

In Think with Google: Machine Learning, Intelligence: Imagination.

" ... Marketers will be more important, not less

While machine learning and artificial intelligence hold a great deal of promise for brands, it’s understandable that various people throughout your marketing organization might feel a little itch of worry. Could the move toward automation and assistance make their jobs obsolete? 

Rob Norman, former CEO and chief digital officer of GroupM North America, says the exact opposite is true. Evolution, in fact, is insurance against obsolescence. 

“Because as machines do more work for consumers, the need to invest in brand relevance, equity, and familiarity only increases. In other words, the work marketers do is becoming more important, not less.” 

Thirty years ago, he notes, marketers were information workers, then they became intelligence workers. The next step? Imagination workers.    .... " 

An AI with Imagination

Google's DeepMind creates an AI with 'imagination'

The AI firm is developing algorithms that simulate the human ability to construct plans   By Libby Plummer

 " ... The real world is complex, rules are not so clearly defined and unpredictable problems often arise," explain the DeepMind researchers in a blog post. "Even for the most intelligent agents, imagining in these complex environments is a long and costly process."

The researchers have developed "imagination-augmented agents" (I2As) – a neural network that learns to extract information that might be useful for future decisions, while ignoring anything irrelevant. These I2As can learn different strategies to construct plans, choosing from a broad spectrum of strategies.

"This work complements other model-based AI systems, like AlphaGo, which can also evaluate the consequences of their actions before they take them," the DeepMind research team told WIRED.

"What differentiates these agents is that they learn a model of the world from noisy sensory data, rather than rely on privileged information such as a pre-specified, accurate simulator. Imagination-based approaches are particularly helpful in situations where the agent is in a new situation and has little direct experience to rely on, or when its actions have irreversible consequences and thinking carefully is desirable over spontaneous action." .... "