Artificial Intelligence has had some groundbreaking new developments in the last year, many of which have become for the first time openly available for the public to play around with and test. These experiments have clearly shown to the masses the great implications that Artificial Intelligence will have going forward in the future — No longer restrained to questions and theories, now we have undeniable evidence of how far Artificial Intelligencehas come, and its potential to go even further.

What does this mean for designers though? The good, the bad, and the ugly is exactly what I want to explore around a little in this article, so let’s get into it.

The Past

Design has evolved massively throughout human history, relying on the ingenuity of the creator to produce a variety of items, from waterways to the Mona Lisa. There are many things up for debate around design, such as whether or not design is inherently creative (think UX versus Fine Art), but one thing remains certain, and that is where design originates from — the Human Mind.

Whether it came from singular intellect or collaborative effort, all design has come from the human interpretation of the world around it, inspired by many things, such as animals, plants and even space itself — and this method of thought has produced every single one of the great inventions that have propelled humanity forward, but this is ever more clearly becoming something that will soon be displayed as a relic of the past.

Whereas once the designer was the engine, wheels, gears and everything else in between, we are now seeing a renaissance period where the designer’s place is no longer completely tangible & static, rather we have become a part of the machine, not the entirety.

The Gamechanger

We’ve come a long way since the proposal of the Turing Test in the 1950s, and further yet since the Greek myths of Pygmalion & Hephaestus. Of course we aren’t yet at those stages of mythical reality, but we’re getting close — So close that now the everyday layman uses artificial intelligence in their day to day life without even realising it, as well as being able to use advanced artificial intelligence that not long ago only a few were privy to.

With this shift and introduction of advanced artificial intelligences such as Dall E 2, Midjourney and many more, I believe it has become clearer for those in the design industry of the paths that design may take going forward. My belief is that rather than Artificial Intelligence ecoming the sole operator of the process, rather if we call back to the analogy of the machine, Artificial Intelligencewill become part of the body alongside us.

Understanding the implications of being able to utilise an incredibly well trained network would spark intrigue even in somebody with little interest in technology, as the effects span far and wide in everyday life. For the foreseeable future, this allows us to utilise Ai as somewhat of a supercharger, enabling designers to offload some of the creative burden (Yet not all) in order to improve the fluidity and effectivity of our designs!

Think about how much more our users would benefit if we had a neural network capable of assisting us in developing usability at scale on both a micro & macro level — It could go as deep in as analysing how certain sub-demographics behave when interacting with interfaces, or as wide as assisting in producing basic wireframes that meet the bias of a visual expectancy, saving hours of research!

The Future

10 years ago Artificial Intelligencelike Dall-E 2 and the plethora of fantastic systems that exist were in the imaginations of few, and in the minds of even less people, but now it’s here, and it shows us what is capable.

It’s impossible to tell exactly where artificial intelligence will take us, or what it’s truly capable of, as what we’ve seen so far is barely a drop in the water of the speculated uses and ability. Without a doubt if artificial intelligence continues to progress, it will be capable of completely replacing certain tasks performed by humans and produce results equal to, and possibly greater than what we could have created. In many places, this is already the case, even for instances such as design where Midjourney was used to win a digital art competition against human competitors!

In Summary

I believe the path we take going forward as humanity truly depends on how we intend to utilise Artificial Intelligence, and it’s pure sensationalism to claim things such as ‘Nobody will have a job, we’ll be out on the streets!’, because whilst it’s a possibility, a hundred other outcomes are also possible.

If you enjoy my content, you can Subscribe to Email Updates.

By becoming a Medium Member, you get unlimited article access & Support Creators Like Myself!

Check out my UX email newsletter, with Digestible Knowledge Every Wednesday.

I love connecting with new people, find me on Linkedin and Twitter!

You can find all my links and resources here at my UX Masterlist.

If you enjoyed my content, Drop a Follow, it keeps me writing! Much Love!