Tweaking is Optional: The Podcast
The Tweaking is Optional panel in Milan (image courtesy of Nicole Marnati and Moooi).
Discussions about artificial intelligence are everywhere.
A quick search on Google shows that in the last 24 hours alone (at the time of writing), a huge number of articles have been published on the topic: ‘UK to host first global summit on Artificial Intelligence’ (GOV.UK), ‘Stay ahead in AI race, tech boss urges west’ (BBC), ‘Aberdeen AI trial helps doctors spot breast cancer’ (BBC), ‘Don’t blame us for AI’s threat to humanity, we’re just the technologists’ (Financial Times), 'Love in the time of AI: Woman create and 'marries' AI-powered chatbot boyfriend' (Euronews), ‘Chatbot that offered bad advice for eating disorders taken down’ (NPR). The list goes on.
Surveying these headlines, it’s clear that there are many conflicting and complex views on AI. Human-robot interfaces can detect cancer and save lives, but they could also profoundly harm us. Nations are gathering to debate AI and discuss whether to safeguard against it, while individuals are harnessing it to meet their needs and desires.
Amongst this backdrop of surging excitement, panic and confusion about AI, Disegno partnered with furniture brand Moooi to gather together a group of designers to delve into what AI means for the design industry. At Milan Design Week 2023, this was made manifest in a panel discussion called ‘Tweaking is Optional’.
Tweaking is Optional, a podcast by Disegno for Moooi (image courtesy of Moooi, generated by AI)
Today, we are releasing a podcast of this panel, featuring a recording of the live conversation between designers Marcel Wanders, Yves Béhar, Anahita Mekanik, Frederik Duerinck, Clark Scheffy and India Block, Disegno’s deputy editor. The panellists asked: how can design brands create meaningful partnerships with AI?
The designers (like the news headlines) offer diverse opinions and insights into what AI means for the industry and their practices. Scheffy, who works for IDEO, says that his company was “diving headfirst into it and using it in as many ways as we can right now” because “as designers we need to be out there working with it, or it'll work us”. Béhar, too, utilises AI as a tool in projects around health and learning with his team at Fuseproject. However, he proceeds with caution, sharing his nervousness about the “unintended consequences” that cannot be predicted.
“Yes, there’ll be some mess […] but it’s gonna be an interesting journey, like this journey [of design] has always been.”
Meanwhile, Mekanik and Duerink of Algorithmic Perfumery, are using AI to create personal scents based on their audience’s engagement with an AI-responsive survey. Mekanik believes that “using AI is like using pedal assist on your eBike to be able to get further than you would have ever imagined.” Wanders similarly embraces AI, saying that “AI is just going to make our lives a lot more beautiful.” He says that, as designers, “it is our task to make that happen. Yes, there'll be some mess […] but it's gonna be an interesting journey, like this journey [of design] has always been. So let's celebrate it.”
Tune in to the podcast to hear the full debate on Disegno’s podcast stream or on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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