Dive Club 🤿

Maheen Sohail - Navigating ambiguity in AI design

Aug 22, 2024

In this conversation, Maheen Sohail, a senior staff designer at Meta, dives into the world of generative design and AI. She shares insights on creating new interface patterns amidst ambiguity, emphasizing that even experts are learning as they go. Curiosity is highlighted as the core trait for designers, while Maheen's passion projects, like using AI to colorize images of Pakistan, showcase the power of hands-on exploration. Discussions on ethical dilemmas and the evolving role of designers in AI further illuminate the transformative landscape of technology.

45:45

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Episode guests

Maheen Sohail

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Navigating ambiguity in AI design requires a collaborative mindset, acknowledging that everyone is still learning and exploring new possibilities.

Curiosity is deemed the most important trait for designers interested in AI, overshadowing other qualities and driving innovative exploration.

Deep dives

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Intro

2min

Designing the Future: Insights from Emerging Technologies

26min

Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in AI Design

4min

Exploring the Intersection of AI and Design Tools

3min

Designing for the AI Era

8min

Enhancing Design Skills for AI Integration

3min

This week’s episode is with Maheen Sohail who is a senior staff designer working on generative at Meta. She joined as one of the earliest designers on both the VR and AI teams, so a big part of this discussion is about navigating ambiguity when there’s no clear playbook to follow.

We go deep into:

New types of interface patterns for AI
The unique ways she thinks about prototyping
Ethical considerations when designing AI produdcts
How Maheen explores AI models through side projects
Why the goal posts for what it means to be a designer are shifting
a lot more

⭐ KEY TAKEAWAYS

Nobody knows what they’re doing

This is especially true when you’re designing products for emerging technologies like AI. It’s easy to look at people working on these AI-native products and assume they have it all figured out… but we’re all still learning and exploring what’s possible. This came up in George Kedenburg’s episode too.

Curiosity > everything

I asked Maheen what traits are more important than curiosity for people interested in designing AI products. Her answer? Nothing.

The importance of passion projects

There’s a trend I’m noticing in these interviews… the designers who are creating cutting edge use cases for AI are the ones actively exploring the technology with side projects. Reading essays isn’t the way to learn. You have to want something to exist in the world and use that as a reason to figure out what’s possible. For Maheen it was using AI models to colorize images of Pakistan. For Nate Parrott it was using AI to hallucinate in HTML.