We do meaningful, intentional research to support our community work and inform the efforts of our AI lab and other programs.
We have two experienced social researchers on staff doing research and developing our knowledge base of how the people of Kauai use generative AI and other adjacent technology topics.
We make most of our results available for public review as per our mandate and received grant funding, though we also do private consulting research for clients.
Onging
Research efforts
Completed
Five Small Business Owners
In this qualitative study we’ll interview five small business owners here on Kauai and get a feel for how they’re using (or not using) generative AI technology. We’ll get a feel for their pain points, opportunities they see, and insight into preferred tools and ways of working with this emerging technology.
Deep Dive - Small Biz Landscape
This is an in-depth look at the small business landscape here in Hawaii in regards to how generative AI is being utilized in these early stages, what common pain points are being felt, and some example practices that are emerging.
Ongoing
Community Survey 1
In this quarterly survey (our first), we’re asking residents of Kauai questions about their use (or not) of generative AI, as well as getting clearer on their feelings, apprehensions, and thoughts about how the future might unfold with this technology. Once we get 100 participants, we’ll start another survey.
Completed
Five Educators
In this qualitative study we talked with five educators here on Kauai about their feelings, uses, and observations around generative AI. We delved into their use (or not) in the classroom and for personal work, heard about administration views, and gained some valuable insights into how educators seems to be thinking about generative AI.
Our methodology
We use various social research protocols to develop, execute, and synthesize our research. We gather consent, assure anonymity, and work to preserve data integrity in all the research work we do. We favor conversational tones in our contextual inquiries, and an approachable language level for our questions.
We make use of AI as a support tool in various ways, including help with coding participant responses, proofreading, brainstorming visuals, and augmenting our human collaboration. This includes review, presentation suggestions, and insight refinement.
Our general approach to content is to write it ourselves and use AI to polish it up. We review all AI generated material for accuracy, message alignment, and tone.