In this week’s edition, Kalita looks at what companies like Shield AI are doing to help spur creativity from home.

It was more than a year ago when Blythe Towal, senior manager of engineering for Shield AI, started work on a product for the San Diego-based company. Shield AI makes self-driving software for the defense industry, and is used by the U.S. military in conflict zones. Towal heads a team that, among other duties, trains robots to detect human beings (versus a tree, building or some other object). She planned a series of exercises to “teach” the device. 

Then came the pandemic. Assembling large groups of humans, and different-looking ones at that, became impossible. 

“The network hones in on the essentials of a person,” explained Towal, saying machine learning often requires large data sets. “Three individuals, that was not going to be sufficient. And so we sat down and asked, ‘how do we get more variety?’”

The answer came by putting three members of her team (a limited number due to COVID restrictions) in wigs and costumes to make them look like different people. Sometimes, the team would bulk up to appear heavier or taller. The product, known as the Nova 2 and marketed as able to navigate challenging communication environments and “complex subterranean and multi-story buildings,” remains on track to launch next month.

It’s really hard to be creative right now. Many companies entered lockdown and work-from-home with an eye toward business continuity. As they near the one-year mark, it’s becoming clear that is not enough, namely because there’s no business as normal waiting on the other side of this. No company, human or robot is untouched from having to radically reinvent how to work. 

Kalita goes on to write about what companies like Shield AI have learned about unlocking creativity—and what your company might do differently, too.

Read her full column here.

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