The Regenerative AI Practitioner : Thinking and Designing With AI More Sustainably

Many designers wrestle with an internal, creative conflict. We consider ourselves authentic practitioners who have developed discrete tacit knowledge and skills which underpin how we practice our craft. Yet, many of us continue to serve a capitalist system that undermines our creative motivation and authorship. Our work is often reduced to a transient commodity that drives superfluous mass-production and consumption. Through our designs, we create carbon emissions, waste and deplete precious natural resources. Of the creative industries, design arguably contributes most to the Earth’s growing climate crisis. Emergent AI design tools are promoted as key enablers of a sustainable transition. However, like the technologies preceding it, the recent, rampant adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by the design industry is increasing injurious environmental impacts, as well as disrupting notions of design copyright and even jeopardising designers’ livelihoods. This chapter examines the psychological threats and promises that AI is beginning to pose for designers and their practice for engendering a sustainable future. Adopting a Regenerative Design lens, the chapter rethinks how designers can manage their inner dissonance to develop a regenerative AI design mindset.