Sketchnoting in the Age of AI | Professor Michael Clayton in conversation with Karl Mortier, International Visual Storyteller and Master of Ceremonies Recorded at the International Sketchnote Camp (ISC) in Verona, with European Visual Practitioners (EVP). Host: Karl Mortier, International Visual Storyteller and Master of Ceremonies The Guest Michael Clayton is a professor of graphic design in San Antonio, Texas, teaching there 25 years. A lifelong doodler, he found Mike Rohde's work on Twitter around 2010. One bold DM led to lunch in Milwaukee, on the day Rohde handed in the manuscript of The Sketchnote Handbook. A network grew out of that friendship: Mauro Toselli in Italy, Makayla Lewis in London, Oscar Campo in Colombia. An informal gathering in Maryland in February 2017, later nicknamed "ISC0", became the seed of the first International Sketchnote Camp in Hamburg. Sketchnoting as a University Course During a 2016 sabbatical, Clayton went deep into visual note taking and discovered graphic recording, graphic facilitation and the wider field of visual practice. He built a course open to every department: education, political science, psychology, philosophy, nursing, sports management, fashion. Drawing skills are not required. If you can handle a dot, a line, a circle, a triangle and a square, you can do this. From there it moves on to icons, visual mnemonics, layout and hierarchy. He graded effort rather than style, because a sketchnote is personal and the only person who needs to decipher it is the one who made it. One student passed his history exam thanks to it, two others went on to teach the technique to elementary school pupils. Mind Mapping Karl Mortier tells how he once travelled to Henley-on-Thames to meet Tony Buzan in person, because he wanted the method straight from the source. Mind mapping as a metaphor for a brain making connections, with rabbit holes you can always trace back to the entrance. The Core: what is a Sketchnote in the Age of Ai? Clayton pitched a session at ISC on the definition of sketchnoting. The trigger was an article about AI sketchnotes: run a transcript through a prompt and let an image roll out. The group, including Mike Rohde, Rob Dimeo, Mauro Toselli and Steven Silbert, pushed back on two counts. Nothing about it is sketchy, because AI produces highly polished work, and the notes reflect what the machine found important, not what a human found important. Not a sketchnote, then, but a visual summary or an infographic. The session produced a clear distinction by audience and intent: Sketchnote: for yourself, your own thinking on paper. Graphic recording: live and visible, for others. Graphic facilitation: on the wall, with everyone contributing. Adrian from the UK introduced the idea of generative practices, broken down into the how, the what and the outcome. Mauro Toselli added the cooking metaphor: guests ask about the ingredients first, and only ask for the recipe once they like the food. Ingredients are the building blocks, the recipe is the framework. The conclusion is honest and uncomfortable. AI is moving in on graphic recording first, precisely the line item that gets cut when a budget tightens. Clayton does not fear the technology, he fears the wrong hands: who checks whether what the model pulled out is accurate and actually matters? It is the human who listens, filters and gets moved by something. Karl Mortier sums it up as a human field and offers a new term: human note taking. A profession in evolution: the curse of knowledge, roles being rewritten, and why ignoring something is never a strategy.