Tomorrow TODAY - Design in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In our third installment of DK&Friends Florian will talk about the responsibility design has in an age of prediction. A lack of insight combined with human biases and intelligent machines might very literally destroy lives, if not kill. How can we use our new-found power to actually do good and not evil.

As humans, we try to anticipate the events, behavior, and circumstances of tomorrow in an effort to improve our lives, products, and companies. As innovators, designers, and engineers, we craft systems and services with the intention to serve the future and we believe that we can predict everything in their path: from optimal interaction patterns to the needs and wants of entire societies.

Unfortunately, humanity has a terrible track record when it comes to predicting the future. We tend to vastly underestimate the complexity of the systems surrounding us. Yet this time, we have an even greater responsibility on our shoulders: with the dawn of artificial intelligence and ubiquitous computing, engineers and designers are now at the helm of a runaway ship which will establish the path for generations to come.

In 2019, design has long become a driving force in the world, yet we seem to still often underestimate the impact of our work. Let’s ensure that we use design to consciously create a future which is not just a version of an erroneous past.

Florian Plank, co-founder and Managing Director of DK&A in Berlin, is a creative technologist, who has, as a trained designer and self-taught software engineer, spent almost 20 years crafting products, services, and experience across a multitude of industries. His speciality is uncovering how and why complex systems function.