Designing in the Age of Sameness
This blog post is dedicated to this question:
Who designs the future that AI will copy?
Artificial Intelligence is a fundamentally backward-looking machine. It learns & regenerates from the existing: every typeface, every layout, every aesthetic. It doesn't invent new things. It cannot go beyond its dataset (the dataset being the history of human creation). It can create compelling works that can appear unique, but inherently, every aspect of those generations already exist.
This is an interesting conversation because one could argue that everything humans create has also been inspired or stolen from previous artists/designers. So what's the difference between us and the machine? Our human nature of experimentation and intuitive feeling.
We harness a desire to document the human experience and create visual interpretations of it for others to witness. Our ability to take risk, make mistakes, and think/feel creatively allows for newness. It's an embodied experience.
There is a study published in Science Advances (Doshi & Hausner, 2024) that states how AI can enhance the creativity of individual short stories but limits the variation in diverse outputs. Individually things look better, but collectively everything starts to look the same. The benefits of generative AI for individual creators may come at the cost of reduced collective novelty.
So who creates material that AI will copy in 2035? Designers who dare to do something that no model can predict. Designers who take risk. Who indulge in the element of surprise. Who aren't afraid to come up with original ideas that go beyond the existing patterns. This is clear in the history of design movements, which has always reflected the current sociopolitical climates of the world; From Art Nouveau to Bauhaus to Art Deco to Brutalism to Grunge, so on.
Now, we are dealing with ongoing wars along with a technological revolution unlike anything before. And, subsequently, the new age of art & design needs to reflect the needs of humanity. And what we need is design that reminds us of the necessity for connection and realness; Raw and honest. (read my blog post "Imperfect by Design" for more on this).
This is why I studied Design. I feel a calling to be a part of creating the next thing(s).
Inevitably, AI will continue to learn everything that gets invented and put out into the world. But in order for that to happen, someone has to be creating the new. It will become a cycle that continues to repeat itself. A cycle that hopefully continues to push us forward.
This blog post is dedicated to this question:
Who designs the future that AI will copy?
Artificial Intelligence is a fundamentally backward-looking machine. It learns & regenerates from the existing: every typeface, every layout, every aesthetic. It doesn't invent new things. It cannot go beyond its dataset (the dataset being the history of human creation). It can create compelling works that can appear unique, but inherently, every aspect of those generations already exist.
This is an interesting conversation because one could argue that everything humans create has also been inspired or stolen from previous artists/designers. So what's the difference between us and the machine? Our human nature of experimentation and intuitive feeling.
We harness a desire to document the human experience and create visual interpretations of it for others to witness. Our ability to take risk, make mistakes, and think/feel creatively allows for newness. It's an embodied experience.
There is a study published in Science Advances (Doshi & Hausner, 2024) that states how AI can enhance the creativity of individual short stories but limits the variation in diverse outputs. Individually things look better, but collectively everything starts to look the same. The benefits of generative AI for individual creators may come at the cost of reduced collective novelty.
So who creates material that AI will copy in 2035? Designers who dare to do something that no model can predict. Designers who take risk. Who indulge in the element of surprise. Who aren't afraid to come up with original ideas that go beyond the existing patterns. This is clear in the history of design movements, which has always reflected the current sociopolitical climates of the world; From Art Nouveau to Bauhaus to Art Deco to Brutalism to Grunge, so on.
Now, we are dealing with ongoing wars along with a technological revolution unlike anything before. And, subsequently, the new age of art & design needs to reflect the needs of humanity. And what we need is design that reminds us of the necessity for connection and realness; Raw and honest. (read my blog post "Imperfect by Design" for more on this).
This is why I studied Design. I feel a calling to be a part of creating the next thing(s).
Inevitably, AI will continue to learn everything that gets invented and put out into the world. But in order for that to happen, someone has to be creating the new. It will become a cycle that continues to repeat itself. A cycle that hopefully continues to push us forward.