Ethical Considerations: AI in Design

I worked for over a decade as a visual designer, user experience designer and art director. During this time, I was forced to contend with a number ethical and practical considerations when approaching design challenges and client projects. In addition to the ethical challenges faced in most industries (fairness in hiring, equitable treatment of employees, etc.) there exist a number of ethical considerations that must be taken into account when designing a product of any kind. Many forget that design is heavily focused on usability and effective communication and not just on making things look “cool” or pretty. In fact, “Communicate, don’t decorate.” was one of my favorite design quotes and a guiding principle in my work.

Ethical considerations factor heavily and are inherent in any design solution. From a justice perspective, a designer must consider whether solutions are partial to the needs of one user over another. A responsible designer must also respect the dignity of end users when solving problems and avoid falling into the trap of believing that designers themselves know best. In light of recent developments in AI, ethical concerns have arisen around the use of existing works by human designers that are utilized to train AI and that influence outputs. Additionally, human oversight of AI is essential from an ethical perspective to ensure that these systems make decisions that are aligned with human values.

I firmly believe that the most important ethical issues currently facing the design industry are, in fact, related to the proliferation of AI tools and their influence on design outputs. These tools are not without virtue. They have removed obstacles for many by speeding up creative work and by assisting in the creative process. That said, these tools would not exist without the human foundations upon which they are trained. Many designers, including myself, have experienced delight and developed great appreciation for these tools. At the same time, it is important to understand that generative AI has had profound financial implications for many designers who are coming to the realization that these new tools have decreased the demand for human designers. As demand for human designers falls, so too do the associated salaries and number of available roles. Many artists and designers also take issue with utilization of their work without compensation. The implications for those working in design roles in any capacity are profound to say the least.

One area that AI seems to excel in is bias mitigation. Design is very subjective by nature and it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks when it comes to inclusivity and accessibility considerations. I think that AI will be relied upon heavily as a validation tool in design. Designers can utilize AI to determine if things have been overlooked or if there are opportunities to improve design by making design executions more inclusive.

I believe that AI can potentially benefit the design industry (and many industries) when it comes to removing bias in decision making, but only to an extent. If AI models are exclusively trained on existing solutions, then I have questions regarding what new or original thought could be achieved by AI. I see it as a double-edged sword, as over-reliance on AI could potentially diminish human creativity and have a negative impact on the current value that we place on human creativity. For these reasons, I believe that it is essential for designers to work out what their goals and desired outputs are before involving AI in the design process.