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Designing with power in the age of AI
This video is featured in the AI and UX skill growth playlist.
Summary
AI didn’t emerge from nowhere—it’s built on decisions that concentrate power in the hands of a few. As creators, we can’t design responsibly without seeing those systems clearly. In this featured presentation, Anil Dash challenges UX designers and product leaders to confront who benefits from today’s AI landscape—and to imagine new ways of designing that return power, agency, and dignity to the people and communities we serve.
Key Insights
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People rarely ask for power explicitly even though it is vital in career and tech contexts.
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Power can be meaningfully understood through a framework of consent, consultation, and control.
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Control is necessary not only for individual agency but also for empowering communities.
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Many tech harms (harassment, exploitation, scams) were foreseeable but not prevented due to lack of power to intervene.
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The hiring of Daniel Penny by Andreessen Horowitz symbolizes extreme and troubling uses of cultural power detached from expertise.
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Big AI platforms frequently violate consent and control, generating user anger and distrust.
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Burnout in tech usually stems from moral injury—failing to affect meaningful ethical change—rather than workload.
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Design, particularly user-centric design, is a superpower that distributes power by embedding consent, consultation, and control.
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Historical design movements like the Web Standards Project show that grassroots collective power can overthrow corporate monopolies.
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Community-driven, purpose-specific AI tools like Corridor Digital’s open-source software provide hopeful models for ethical design and power sharing.
Notable Quotes
"Everyone has power. The only question is whether they know it or not, and whether they know how to use it."
"The most basic level of power is consent — did you choose to be in this situation or use this product?"
"Being consulted means people want agency and a degree of power in their experiences, not just passive consent."
"Control is the prerequisite for communities to form connections and have agency collectively."
"Many predictable harms in social media, gig economy, and Web3 were foreseen but not prevented because design lacked the needed power."
"Burnout comes from moral injury, not from working too hard or long hours."
"Big AI easily violates every part of the power framework: no consent, no consultation, no control."
"Design is a radical act that democratizes power by consulting people and giving them control."
"The Web Standards Project was just a group of regular people who banded together to wrest control from Microsoft for the good of users."
"When you have something grounded in community, it becomes easier to ask for power because you’re sharing it together."
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