Rethinking Creative Practices: The Impact of Generative AI on Design, Design Thinking and Content Creation (2023)
Article together with Dr. Afsaneh Asaei & Mahmoud Fazeli
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Intelligent image and text generation tools are here to stay. They are not a marketing hype, this much is clear. To enable designers, design thinkers and content creators to participate in the ongoing tectonic shift and reclaim a bit of their ability to reflect on and cope with these new methods and tools, this article wants to shed light on the world of Generative AI from a creative’s perspective. To do so, it answers the pressing question: What is the impact of Generative AI and its underlying AI models for design, design thinking and content creation, and how does it transform creative work? If language becomes the dominant paradigm for creation and traditional boundaries between creative domains are being dissolved, how does this change the way we need to look at design and content creation? For that, the article is divided into three parts. First, it takes a look at the so-called foundation models, such as large language models, which are the base for almost all Generative AI magic. Second, it explains the impact of large language models in general and the new conversation-based UX paradigm of ChatGPT specifically on creative work. And third, it takes a look at image generating AI and reflects on the ramifications of these techniques on design and content creation – now and in the near future.