Student questions: AI in design

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping many fields including (especially?) graphic design. It brings a lot of important questions for anyone considering a creative-focused job.

In this student interview, I tried to answer honestly without pretending to have all the answers or offering easy ones. I believe we are at a point where the choices we make about how we use AI, how we think about our work, how we define value, and how we distribute wealth will matter more than ever.

If it isn’t clear from my answers, my view is hopeful but critical and I certainly cannot predict all outcomes. The responsibility to create meaning, to bring vision and human connection into the world, will remain with us.

These are my thoughts today, and because I want to live in a world where changing one’s mind is encouraged, they will probably keep evolving.

I’m more interested than concerned. I don’t think AI will take away the ability to make a living in design, but it will definitely change how we work.

Only humans have wants and expectations. Machines can imitate those things, but imitation is not intention. In design, we speak to needs like beauty, clarity, and connection. Those concerns are deeply human.

What will change is what we automate and what we spend time thinking about. Honestly, I think designers with their own distinct vision and taste will thrive.

Do you believe AI could be a useful tool in assisting designers, or is it better to avoid using it entirely?

AI is a useful tool, but its value depends on how it’s used. A hammer can build a house or break a window. AI can do so much but it can also encourage shortcuts and shallow thinking. The key is intentionality, vision, taste, judgment, and storytelling which must still come from humans.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to use AI consciously and critically. Humans must use AI to enhance their own potential not just sit by while AI generates spectacle. Anything we allow to replace our contribution can also replace our value.

Think about video games for a moment. Games require effort and participation. If a game were entirely a cutscene, it would not be a game, it would just be a movie. Deep down, we know there is value beyond simply hearing a story. The most value is in telling and being in the story.

Even with all the dangers, I am hopeful. As long as there are people, like you and me, who believe that living, not just being alive, is precious, creativity and meaning will continue to be a human activity.

How concerned are you about AI in general?

I am not concerned about AI itself. It is a tool without intentions. What does concern me is how humans use it and what values guide its development.

AI will reshape every industry and probably life itself. It can enable extraordinary progress or deepen problems like misinformation, bias, and over-dependence.

I approach AI with hope and critical thinking. When humans use tools wisely, we can do amazing things but the responsibility is on us to ensure AI expands our well-being and doesn’t erode it.

Personal Observations

In my limited observation (basically twitter and folks I work with), it seems that most of my fellow teachers tend to be very cautious or even strongly opposed to the use of AI in art and design, while many of the designers I work with outside of academia are much more in favor of using AI as a tool, some are even insistent. (I should note that “academics” and “designers” are not entirely distinct groups. Many designers are academics, myself included, and vice versa.)

I find this contrast interesting, and I don’t think it is simply a matter of being “for” or “against” technology. Most likely, it comes down to each group’s mission and their connection to the growth process. Academics tend to focus more on building base skills, while designers tend to focus more on adapting to industry demands.

My second suspicion has to do with each group’s relationship with fear. For teachers, the fear is that students will take shortcuts or settle for shallow learning. For designers, I suspect the fear is being left behind in a confusing and quickly changing industry.

It feels less like a simple disagreement and more like two different groups each responding to their own pressures and that might be the most human part of all of this. No one wants to be irrelevant. Everyone has some fear of change. More importantly, no one wants to lose their job or source of income, and that does feel at stake sometimes.

Honestly, I think each group could take a page from the other’s script. Academics could be a little more adaptive. No one is suggesting that students should not learn, but what and how they learn might need to evolve. AI is definitely going to become a growing part of the work world, especially in industries focused on information and technology, like graphic design.

On the other hand, designers should be cautious about giving up their own participation in the creative process. There is definitely a segment of designers who seem a bit too excited about the idea of fully generating complete designs. The best designers I know are the ones who are fully wielding AI, like someone just handed them Zeus’s lightning bolts, and using it to do amazing work that was not fully possible before AI and would not exist without their guidance and vision.

Academics Designers
Focus Growth, base skills, originality Results, adaptation, efficiency
Fear Shallow understanding Falling behind
Measure of success Student learning Project impact
Relationship to time An investment in growth A managed resource