Summary
In this panel discussion, Cheryl Kaba, Ethan Marotz, and Meena Previ reflect on the challenges and opportunities of designing with AI. Cheryl highlights the need to think beyond narrow AI use cases, stressing long-term impacts and ethical considerations, especially in education where AI might replace teachers. Ethan points to AI shifting design roles to supervisory or editorial, raising concerns about de-skilling and labor protections, drawing parallels to recent labor strikes in creative industries. Meena emphasizes ethical AI practices, co-creation with stakeholders, and transparency, cautioning against blind acceptance of AI outputs. Together, they explore the importance of intentionality, participatory design, and power dynamics in AI systems, noting capitalism’s role in shaping AI's adoption and urging designers to critically engage in shaping AI’s future. The panel also discusses transparency in AI confidence, ethical frameworks beyond compliance, and the lifecycle of AI hype. They close with calls for conversations among coworkers about AI’s role, and critical questioning of who designs AI and for whom, advocating sustained reflection on AI's social and labor impacts.
Key Insights
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AI design is currently in an experimental stage, often focused on narrow use cases rather than broad impacts.
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The shift to AI often changes designers' roles from creators to supervisors, potentially leading to workforce de-skilling.
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Ethical AI practices require active inclusion of marginalized groups in the design and feedback processes.
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Transparency about AI confidence levels has decreased in modern chatbots, complicating trust and interpretation.
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Designers must balance augmentation and automation carefully to avoid disempowerment and job losses.
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Power dynamics are central to AI system design; systems should promote empowerment rather than control.
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Sustainability and AI's environmental impact are often overlooked in technology discussions.
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Ethical frameworks vary and should be adapted to specific communities and organizational goals rather than treated as universally equal.
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Labor movements and unionization are relevant lenses to consider protections against AI-driven labor changes.
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Effective AI integration requires intentional conversations and collective reflection among workplace stakeholders.
Notable Quotes
"We’re in this initial stage of tinkering, just trying to make the tech behave the way we expect it to."
"AI moves the practitioner into an editorial or supervisory role, which often signals de-skilling."
"We want AI to augment human skills like an electric bike, not replace them like a robotic vacuum cleaner."
"Who is designing these AI systems, why, and for whom? Are those most impacted even involved?"
"Designers need to have critical conversations with stakeholders about the direction and impacts of AI."
"Ethics is not just about compliance; it’s about doing the right thing holistically."
"Most people’s fears about AI are actually fears about capitalism."
"Transparency of AI’s confidence has mostly disappeared because generative AI is inherently confident by design."
"AI tools today are sandwiches in search of picnics—useful, but lacking killer applications yet."
"We need to redesign capitalism, but right now we don’t have time for that."
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