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The role of generative AI in speculative design and futures thinking
Generative AI can become a new tool for designers, futurists, and strategists if they learn how to leverage it
“We are all immigrants to the future.” — Marina Gorbis, Director of the Institute for the Future
Ever since the hype started around generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Dalle-E, and Midjourney, it seems that all everyone is doing is trying to predict how the future of the world will be impacted by these tools.
Some lean on the side of doom-and-gloom (aka “All our jobs will be automated”) and some are a lot more optimistic (aka “Prompt engineering is the next hottest job in the market”), but it seems that we’re all about to experience some culture shock in the coming years living in a world that sees more and more of these tools.
As a professional working at the intersection of design thinking, data, and strategy, I decided that I’d really like to understand how generative AI tools can help us do exactly that — imagine a new future as part of our job.
In this article, I’m exploring how future thinking and speculative design can be done creatively by leveraging prompt engineering, specifically with ChatGPT. For me personally, this is just a starting point, and I’ll try to explore the topic in further articles in the future.
Let’s get started and travel to the future.
It’s all about using the right analogies
The rise of generative AI tools brings new challenges and opportunities to our work. A few years ago, I wrote an article on how we’re all likely to collaborate more and more with AI in the coming future, and I stayed very curious about the topic.
I believe that analogies have an important role in communicating what technology can do for us rather than how it can make us redundant. Ben Schneiderman, the author of the book Human-Centred AI suggests that we change our perspective on AI by changing the analogies we use to talk about it.
Instead of using the “assured autonomy” analogy while designing AI tools…
