AI as design material: More like paper or plastic?
“Feels like paper!” by Lukas Moro (top); “Who does the math?” by Aras Bilgen (bottom)
What are the best explorations you’ve seen of AI as a design material? At Designing with AI 2025, we're highlighting two compelling case studies grounded in simple, hand-written math.
Generative AI doesn’t behave like a “traditional” computer program, which means to design for it, we need to discover afresh how it behaves across a variety of contexts.
Designers Lukas Moro and Aras Bilgen both kicked off explorations of generative AI with simple math problems, but ended up making very different discoveries about AI's possibilities.
Lukas set out to discover how he could make the abstract informational qualities of AI more tactile–and decided to do it with augmented reality and physical sheets of paper. What is it like to solve math longhand, with a ghostly assistant that can “write in” its own suggestions? By working with physical objects, Lukas demonstrates the limitations of flat screens, and why it’s crucial for designers to think beyond the chat window when it comes to AI.
Aras also started his AI explorations from math–designing an AI-enabled tutoring app for children. Aras shares a candid account of what can go wrong when AI capabilities change in the middle of a design project, and asks the question that many designers are thinking right now: is there even a place for designers when AI can increasingly do design tasks? He thinks there is, but outlines new responsibilities for designers creating with AI to avoid troubling long-term consequences.
It’s exciting when you see two talented designers solving the same problem in very different ways. Starting from simple math, Lukas and Aras have both looked into the future of designing with AI and provided us with a roadmap (albeit from different lenses) of how to get to the good timeline.
I’ve been working with Luka and Aras over the past few months to develop their talks for Designing with AI 2025. You can hear both of their stories June 10-11!