AI Is Not a Wildcard: Challenges for Integrating AI into the Design Curriculum

AI technologies are becoming increasingly important for the design of human-computer interactions and user experiences. Through their specialized knowledge and creative problem-solving skills, designers are well-positioned to drive stakeholder-centered adaption of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. However, these possibilities also pose new challenges for designers and design education. Even though AI has increasingly been entering design education, the structural implementation of AI technologies in the design curriculum remains an unsolved challenge. In this paper, we discuss and reflect on our experiences over several years of AI education at design schools. We outline the knowledge and technical intuition on AI we believe students must engage meaningfully with regarding AI technology and present our observations on developing and applying these intuitions in different teaching formats. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges that might hinder the structural integration of AI into the design curriculum.