Background

The premise of this class is that generative AI models present a major new opportunity for designers to shape the future of computing. Computers can talk back to us now, in unpredictable and humanlike ways. What new experiences can we create with this technology? In this space, there is no incumbent advantage — in fact, fresh eyes can be an asset.

Design a novel interface that takes advantage of the material properties of generative AI models. It should be a working, interactive project connected to at least one generative model. It can be software-only, or hybrid software-hardware. Do not build a chatbot.

Use the capabilities of models currently on the market today. While you can consider speculative future model capabilities (e.g. self-directed AI agents), do not turn in a project that would only work in that speculative future. Your project needs to work with the models as they are right now.

Test your project with real people every week and adjust as needed based on user feedback. Can you move beyond “cool tech demo” into something conceptually interesting? How could you create a meaningful experience for people who interact with your project?

This is an individual project. What is something only you could make?

Note: you have $100 debit card to help cover the costs of any materials & APIs for this project.

Learning objectives

• Understand how to work with generative models via API
• Understand the strengths and limitations of the current class of models by working directly with the material
• Develop a perspective on how to use model outputs as part of an overall experience

Requirements

• Integrate at least one generative model into your project.
  • Likely via APIs and prompting.
  • If you wish to challenge yourself technically or make deliberate decisions around training data as part of the project concept, you are welcome to fine-tune models, train your own custom model, or run a local model. However, this is not required.
• You can build pure software, or hybrid hardware-software.
• It needs to be able to respond to real user inputs.
  • If you are building a website, please deploy it so people can visit it even after finals.
  • If you are making an iOS app, please have it available for testing on TestFlight.
  • If you are making a physical object, it needs to work with real user input during the final crit on 12/2.