Playing nice with AI:

Is creativity doomed? That’s the question everyone is asking as AI causally continues its quest toward world dominance. The tech community has recently introduced us to the creative side of AI and it’s frighteningly good. Needless to say, people are concerned; concerned for their trades, let alone the future as a whole. 

As a company that prides itself on creativity, we decided to weigh in. To understand our perspective, it’s important to comprehend AI’s limitations and the role of the architect and designer. To grossly oversimplify, AI retrieves information from its vast resources and learned experiences to generate a relevant output. While it performs at exceptional speed and provides countless possibilities, it lacks the ability to create truly new ideas or to function emotionally. That’s where we come into the picture.

Nothing can or ever will understand human beings better than, well, humans. Creativity in architectural design is so much more than a first impression or pleasing aesthetics. Our designs need to relate to a person on an emotional level and only then can they be appreciated for their individuality. The psychological experience of the end user is crucial whether we’ve opted for the most efficient or functional design or not. Machine learning struggles to grasp that.

We would be remiss to disregard AI in its entirety. As creators, we are responsible for learning and embracing AI’s plethora of abilities and channeling them toward mundane, yet key, tasks. With this shift in roles and our newfound time, we can emphasize originality and designs that resonate on a deeper and more personal level.

Naftali Silberberg – Designer at BEAM