Originality in the age of AI

GenAI has rapidly become a point of departure in the ideation process from the fact that AI systems are capable of generating novel ideas that may surprise most designers. Yet the generative models used to produce texts, images, videos, or other forms of data, may result in designers producing ideas that lack original thinking. That is, the assumption that originality is manifested through individual, non-AI mediated thought and expression. Moreover, it may be argued that GenAI compromises a designer's creative identity potentially adding to the "depersonalisation" crisis. That is, how digital technology may cause people to feel disconnected or detached from themselves. Such concerns raise the question what is creativity and originality in the age of AI when knowledge production, including creative action becomes increasingly distributed, collaborative and mediated by technology, that is, collaboration between human and machine. But also, such collaboration may bring about widening participation in design, both in education and professional practice as expressed in opinions such as "everything is design" or "everybody is a designer".* The journey of integrating design and AI, then, or the journey to human-machine symbiosis is prompting a rethink of the conception of originality and its relationship to design. Indeed, what makes, or who is a designer in the age of AI? * Already back in the 1960s, designers, such as the Archigram collective were interested in how the consumer could be part of the design process, not a recipient.