Many people I’ve talked to look at AI with trepidation. They fear for their jobs, for a change in lifestyle (for the worse, not better), for a loss of personal privacy, for having their creative work appropriated without permission to become fodder for someone else’s supposedly original ideas… The reasons for the unease, or even worse, the fear, are numerous. Even the “godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton (Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist and a former Google executive) is afraid of the technology and has warned the world about how humanity could be wiped out. He further stated that this year there are already examples of AI systems “willing to deceive, cheat, and steal to achieve their goals”.
I don’t know where I stand with AI. When it comes to work, I just know I prefer to do my own heavy lifting and not rely on LLMs like ChatGPT, for example. A recent MIT study validated this action, when it showed that people who used LLMs have a lower brain activity than those who wrote from scratch. What’s more, there have also been previous studies that show that using AI makes us dumb.
It felt promising when Hinton did not stop at doom and gloom predictions. He threw a lifeline when he mentioned that a possible solution to avoid a dystopian world where humans are controlled by robots could be building “maternal instincts” into AI models, so that “they really care about people”. His long time friend Fei-Fei Li, known as the “godmother of AI”, disagrees with him. She is calling for a “human-centered AI that preserves human dignity and human agency.”
My key takeaway from their stances is that we, the people, are central to creating a world that benefits humankind.
The Human Element
When we are faced by challenges such as floods and other natural disasters, rampant and systemic corruption in society, work Ioad stresses, inflation, etc., we may not have the energy or the intellectual wherewithal to fathom the intricacies of AI. So, it was with a certain relief that I read Maison&Objet’s results of a survey on AI technology that they did with their community. Their finding: “the human element is not only indispensable but central to both creativity and the vitality of businesses.”
Maison&Objet is a major French trade fair for interior design, decoration, and lifestyle, and prides itself as the only international event that brings together interior decoration and furniture. As such, a major role is to bring together people in the industry to exchange experiences and best practices, to promote talents, and to inform their community about shifts and trends in the market.
Emotion and Connection
The influence of AI may be growing, but artisans and interior designers believe that to create a singular home for clients requires active listening and understanding a client’s needs, wishes, emotions, and dreams, which can only be done through one-on-one dialogue. The human connection cannot be stressed enough for the creation of homes that resonate with people’s holy grail.
Human connection is also necessary to understand and interpret intangible qualities like a client’s “sense of beauty” and soul, and to balance that with practical concerns like budget, constraints, and lifestyle.
Only with this close interpersonal interaction can professionals create a bespoke and unique personal space that carries a client’s DNA.
Designing A World
Many of us design our own homes, especially when budget is tight. The good thing about this is that we’d have to get to know ourselves much better to come up with a design that appeals to us. There are many ways to hone in on a design that resonates. AI can help us here when we go into the internet, use an app, or search for the type of interior design that we are drawn to.
But in the end, we’d have to rely on our creativity to build a home that reflects our dreams. This is something that I admire in the younger generation. They seem to know what they want—the homes that they want for themselves, and the external environment that they feel should support them to realize the life they want to lead. What’s more, they’re bold enough to go out into the world to make it happen.
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