Augmented designers are the future
AI's integration into design has already begun, and those who learn to work alongside these tools will lead the way.
A historical match
In 1996, one of the most pivotal chess matches occurred.
On one side, the contestants were Garry Kasparov, a chess grandmaster.
On the other, Deep Blue a computer built by IBM.
After multiple duels, IBM finally defeated Kasparov and changed the public perception of what "intelligent" computers could achieve.
In the final match, Kasparov got the impression that a human had interfered in some of the moves Deep Blue executed.
Whether it was true or not, he realized that humans and computers think differently and excel at different things.
He realized humans could leverage machines to improve their game dramatically.
AI-powered players, chess players
Kasparov came up with the concept of Augmented Chess.
A game where algorithms analyze thousands of potential moves, and the human player uses their intuition to decide.
It's the perfect marriage between machine and human intelligence. They are also known as Augmented Intelligence.
Augmented chess players outperform humans and machines if they play alone.
AI's role should be to augment our capabilities, not to replace us
The little story of Kasparov illustrates what I believe should be the proper use of AI.
It makes little sense for us to think of technology as the Skynet that's coming to replace us.
Instead, it's more helpful to think of technology as "human plugins," which isn't new, by the way.
Whenever we need to fact-check something with friends, we go to Google. The knowledge we get from our search enriches the conversation. This is exactly the point.
Augmented designers are the future
AI's integration into design has already begun, and those who learn to work alongside these tools will lead the way.
We should be spending time learning, testing, and learning how to integrate them into our workflows to enhance the quality and speed of our solutions.
Eventually, the level of output of human-AI designers will become the expectation. And an "only human" designer will struggle to compete, just as humans could hardly compete against Kasparov's augmented chess players.