Introducing ‘AI Observer’

AI didn’t write this essay, but I suppose it could have. At least a passable facsimile.

And where does that leave me? Or you? Or us?

Of course, that is only one part of the existential angst facing most of us who work, create, lead, invent, design, teach, act, heal, build, code, write, sing — you get my point — for a living. Imminent replaceability is just one node in a long history of new technology shrinking the distance between what we want and need by eliminating the people who aided our quest. Sure, I pump my own gas.  And yes, I can open a bank account without ever talking to a human. But this is all hitting different now. Most days, I want AI to wash my dishes and clean my house so I have the energy to create something great, not do the creating and leave me to — and in — the dust.

But this, too, is true: the promise can be as great as the peril. This is where we must step in.

What often feels missing in these binary debates, these pitstops on the highway to unlimited scale and shareholder value, is a sense of common purpose: a set of shared values serving as guardrails and touchstones. A basic foundation from which to build, to play, to observe, to solve problems. Constraints that drive possibility. A deep understanding of stakeholders. If the future of AI sounds like a design challenge, it should.

In an age where AI super promoters can come off like Bond villains if they’re not careful, these are conversations we want to have.

So welcome to AI Observer, our latest editorial channel and our attempt to meet the moment we’re in, using the tools we’ve always relied on: reporting, conversation, critique, context, discernment, community, and play.

You should know that we also wrestle with these questions as an independent media company.

We believe that human editors working with human contributors make the kind of journalism that supports real people facing real problems in real communities. And so, we are a promise: that the voices you hear on our podcasts have not been manipulated, the words you read are derived from human judgment and experience, and that the Observed column, our curated news feed, was selected and written by real people with you in mind.

But this, too, is true: we will experiment with AI tools, just as we asked NYC-based journalist Xintian Tina Wang to do when she examined how ChatGPT interprets artists from different backgrounds. And just as some activists are doing to face life-and-death stakes, like investigative reporter Chantal Flores shows us in her piece on genAI art’s burgeoning role in the search for Mexico’s disappeared.

We will provide a platform for critique and context.

Art historian Sigourney Schultz raised important questions about what’s lost when fine art, in this case, created by the artists of Studio Ghibli, gets memeified and weaponized. “The danger is not in the tool itself, but in how it’s used: who holds the blade, and what they choose to cut away,” she writes. Design legend John Maeda revels in the ease with which computational tools are now available to designers and creators. And yet, as we find ourselves “in an era where machines seem to speak our language, [i]t’s essential to remember that they don’t yet speak human,” he says. “We must not be deceived by this appearance.”

And still to come this fall: a new season of the Design As podcast, featuring in-depth, candid conversations about responsible AI, taped at the Institute for Design’s annual Shapeshift conference in May. Guests include Omidyar Network’s Anamitra Deb, Waymo’s Ryan Powell, Microsoft’s Liz Danzico, Adobe’s TB Bardlavens, and design visionary Patrick Whitney. 

Design Observer’s mission has long been to offer our eclectic thrum of readers and listeners the information, inspiration, and joy they need to thrive in the world as it exists. To become better observers, in order to better redesign the future.

AI might soon sound just enough like me to fool you, but it can’t really speak human. Let’s use our voices and figure this out, together.

Here’s a slate of powerful perspectives to get us started.