Technology design is increasingly seen as being fraught with challenges tied to extractive economic models and political power. The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, has intensified these concerns by reshaping how information is produced, disseminated, and consumed, largely through social media. AI-curated content has been linked to increased political polarisation, democratic erosion, and large-scale data exploitation. Nevertheless, AI-based technologies also promise to strengthen governance and civic participation. The potential of such technologies for both desirable and undesirable societal consequences raises a question about the role interaction designers and AI developers play in aligning AI-based systems with democratic values.
This thesis would use qualitative methods, starting with interviews using a phenomenological and micro-phenomenological approach to understand how designers and developers of AI-based technologies feel about what they do and how it affects the products they design or make.
Through a combination of literature review and interviews, the work would aim to register and analyse entanglements between design, politics, and technology, identifying moments of significance that might impact efforts to cultivate democratic resilience.
- IN4020 – Transformative Design (Spring, 2027)
- IN5120 – Tangible Interaction (Spring, 2027)
- IN5510 – Participatory Design (Fall, 2027)