Why design jobs will not disappear with the rise of AI.
The AI is moving fast, the new Chat GPT-4 is already here with an improved model that is supposed to be more accurate and fact-based (although it was fun to see how some people were pushing the previous version to its limits: see this hilarious blog post, where, among other examples, a user is trying to convince Bing that we are in 2023):
The new version can also read images, basically making most of the content on the internet fully machine-readable. So now, using AI, you can not only create texts and images, but also make:
🎬 Videos: check out Elai.io to create videos from a script or Fliki for adding voice over.
🎵 Music: Mubert creates custom soundtracks with the concept of Generative Music.
🖥️ …and even user interfaces: GalileoAI has been creating some hype recently.
There are already so many articles out there on how chatGPT can automate some of the UX tasks as well, from preparing and actually performing parts of your research, through brainstorming with you and giving some inspiring examples, suggestions and generally food for thoughts for ideation stages, to actually helping you prototype a solution with code. 🤯
OK, so should we as designers, artists and content creators start packing?
Well, not really… When I speak to my design colleagues about it, the conclusion is pretty clear:
AI is a powerful tool, but it’s still only a tool.
As impressive as it can get, it’s just a piece in the process of creation. As long as it provides inspiration, automation or simply a more intelligent and efficient way to do your work — be my guest!
We tend to forget that at the beginning and end of every request you give to AI there is YOU, as a human being. Your job is to give the right question or prompt (which actually is not that easy!) and to interpret, iterate or scrap the results it returns. Very often they are actually not what you are looking for at first.
Following this logic, a new valuable creative skill is the ability to shape the conversation with AI in such a way that it gives desired results that create value. And here, luckily, critical thinking is still critical 😉
To write a great prompt, first ask yourself:
- The need: What do I actually need from it?
- The purpose: What is the purpose of this request?
- The format: How do I imagine the result to be? How do I want to use it?
Describe it and write your prompt in as much detail as you can, hit generate…and get surprised. As Albert Einstein famously said before the AI even existed:
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
A note on digital craftsmanship
Just as with the industrialisation the craftsmanship did not disappear, it has changed, the same might happen with the digital work. What if in the future the concept of “digital craftsmanship” will be extended to everything that is NOT created by AI? Should we care or somehow make explicit if something is created by humans or by machines? Just as we see differently the value of objects that are “handmade”?
In the article , the CTO of OpenAI, Mira Murati, calls for an early regulation of the AI while we still can. I would listen to her, and the way to go is the same — by asking the right questions.
Credits: This text has been entirely generated by me as a human.
