In the third part of the discussion, “Can Designers Survive the AI Threat?”, The New York Times Graphics Editor Marco Hernandez shares his thoughts on AI with T.K. Sajeev of newspaperdesign.in
Can Designers Survive the AI Challenge?
Certainly we can. It’s true that AI development brings a challenge for professionals in many areas, but also brings a lot of opportunities on which we can make our work more efficient, reaching new horizons that in the past were almost impossible. I see it as a way to bridge disciplines and skills into a better final product.
How Can Designers Use AI Positively?
Start small, use a text model to explore ways to solve a problem. Let’s say you want to create an analysis that features the overlap of different data sets. You can use AI to teach you a way to process data and produce an image yourself like you’ve never done before. Teaching is a great use of artificial intelligence tools.
I have used it to learn how to process large data sets for mapping in developing languages that I know very little about. Before AI, the only way was to spend months learning a new coding language, now you can get the same result back not in months but in hours and focus your attention to the fun part.
Will AI Cut Off Designer Jobs?
Whether you agree or not, this is a huge leap forward for our industry and we can’t stop it. Designers who can take advantage of this technology and apply it to their daily routines will not only be safe but will also be at the tip of the innovation arrow. These are really exciting times, the AI is more of a tool rather than a replacement, we just need to learn how to use it to take advantage.
I like to think about it as a way of releasing my time to be creative with something else, maybe exploring new topics, exploring new ways to communicate, or simply more time to do what I enjoy the most of my work.
In the past we have seen how a particular software dies, then something else comes and then when you look back you might say “how did we manage to work without this for such a long time.” Tech evolves, people learn new ways.
Can the Human Creative Brain Overcome AI?
I don’t think it is race. If we try to beat the computer, we will lose. This reminds me of that massive room-size computer created to process things faster, but everyone remembers it because it was the first to beat a human in chess, that started back in the 50s by the way. That is a clear example right there, chess is still around, people still play chess, and we know computers do great.
So, what are we good at?
Well, we can think divergently, we can explore new things and point the technology into new goals. We can simply enjoy being creative, creating a small spark to generate something new, something that can become a magnificent result if we use these tools.
If we insist on competing against a computer, we probably will be like David Levy sitting sad at the table after its defeat. Good news is we don’t have to, good news is we can have superpowers nowadays to create better stuff. Train your own models, give that monkey task that consumes long hours of your day to an AI. Aim for more ambitious projects… release your true power.
PART 1:Can Designers Survive the AI Threat?
Renowned design consultant Dr. Mario Garcia is the first to share his insights
PART 2:Charles Apple says, “I distrust A.I”
