What to do about AI if you care about design.

The Clankers are not an act of nature. AI is a choice we make.

This art Made by Meat ©2026: IE; me. And it will soon be available for T-shirts and mugs.

Pick up just about any history book. Leaf through it. When you find an era where the most powerful and wealthy elites in a society are investing in and pushing hard for some technological disruption, and they tell you it's inevitable, you can bet it is a terrible idea.

From the Enclosure of the Commons to Subprime mortgages, it's a guarantee that whatever the thing is, if the Oligarch class says you, Average Joe, better accept it or else? You are about to have your pockets picked.

There is now a looming $3 TRILLION DOLLAR AI investment bubble. And the tech oligarchs have leveraged more than enough wealth into AI and data centers to fund healthcare for all of Western Europe and North America for at least a decade.

These 2,500 acre data centers can consume more than 4 million gallons of fresh water a day. Ever ravenous for energy, these data centers double even triple local utility rates. And when that energy supply isn't sufficient, they use tractor trailer sized portable propane generators that burn so hot, and spew so much pollution, they propell heated microclimates.

The tech oligarchs are desperate to justify all this to nervous shareholders. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying governments to deregulate and block guardrails. And they retrofit every conceivable software niche out there with some sort of AI tool regardless if it breaks security, violates the law, or even works at all.

I have tried my best to find both utility and an clear conscience path through AI technology.

I really liked Figma Make. I really like using some LLM integration into platforms, like Wix, for very limited use cases. Excellent for inserting custom CSS quickly.

If I was generating more web design and UI work I might be more enthusiastic. But it is clear to me that these systems, and the economic uncertainty that comes with them, are drawing more work away from designers than the productivity value. Our web work has all but evaporated this spring.

None of these tools are groundbreaking enough (yet) or such a boon to my productivity and life, that I believe it's worth all the other negative externalities coming with AI technology. Nor is it worth my time to chase every single new AI app out there.

It is also impossible for me to believe that there are AI experts out there. The technology isn't even 3 years old yet. The majority of integrations less than a year old. And it has evolved so quickly that between start-up collapses and depreciated systems, the only expertise is that which we have always had: Fundamental design principles. Despite the hype on your LinkedIn feed, very few people are an AI expert. The people claiming to be so are largely opportunists. Not a small share are PR troll farm bots.

AI is liar. It is a lazy, lazy liar.

It will take the path of least resistance. Most of the big enterprises out there that have laid off employees, largely writers, software engineers and dev's, have done so not because AI has replaced them, but because almost every software company has over invested in AI and it failed to meet return expectations.

Turns out this great labor replacement costs about three times more than the labor. Burning up those tokens that keep getting more and more expensive. Like AirBnB and Uber before it, the AI disruptor economy will hook a large chunk of users then pull the rug out. And soon you will spending a mortgage a week burning up those tokens.

So what do we do? Focus on your strengths. Make things that you can touch.

We have begun focusing again on print work and building out clients confidence in it. We've been selling our ability to do long form print production and design. Large reports. Instruction manuals. Publications. NGO materials. Government documentation. Way-finding. Signage.

Also refine and sell your judgement. Your experience in a given niche. AI is only an experincial middle-man. It doesn't know how to judge which experience applies to any given situation. It will only ever take a path of least resistance.

Also: Make friends.

AI cannot make friends. Never undervalue any opportunity to connect and network with peers, creatives, and potential clients out there in meat space. People are hungry for it. Uncertainty breeds the need for connection. Start your own happy hours. Organize a tour of an art exhibit or walking tour of your town's architecture. Invite friends and clients.