In this episode of Design As, host Lee Moreau explores a key tension in AI development: moving fast vs slowing down.

This roundtable conversation with Ruth Schmidt, Albert Shum, David McGaw, and Ruth Kikin-Gil examines the role of design in responsible AI and what happens when innovation outpaces our ability to reflect on its impact.

Institute of Design at Illinois Tech

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In this trailer, host Lee Moreau previews the upcoming season of Design As, which was recorded at ID’s Shapeshift Summit in May. The summit brought together leaders from the creative, technology, and business communities to discuss the implications of AI on design and human culture.

This preview offers a glimpse of their new season as it continues the conversations that started at Shapeshift— conversations that don’t oversimplify AI, but explore the many complicated ways it intersects with design.

Institute of Design at Illinois Tech

Discover programs and resources on design and systems thinking.

Subscribe to With Intent for more explorations into how design shapes our world, whether we call it design or not.

In this episode from ID's Shapeshift conference, Terry Williams-Willcock, Chief Customer Officer at RUSH Digital, and Chelsea Pratt, Design Lead & Strategist at Thoughtfull, discuss ways that intentionally designed AI can address challenges to democracy.

Key Topics

• Why "AI won't save democracy, but design might."
• The democratic crisis of trust: why people aren't disengaging from voting because they don't care, but because they don't know who or what information sources to trust.
• Designing for the margins to benefit everyone: how focusing on visually impaired voters revealed universal barriers to accessing political information and participating in democracy.
• Their work on Chime: using various AI tools to transform complex policy content into engaging, multi-perspective audio experiences.
• Why human values must drive AI design principles and move beyond commercial incentives toward transparency, accessibility, and shared truth as the foundation for democratic participation.

ID’s Shapeshift Summit: Shaping Our Future with AI

ID Events

Institute of Design at Illinois Tech

Discover programs and resources on design and systems thinking.

Subscribe to With Intent for more explorations into how design shapes our world, whether we call it design or not.