Artificial intelligence, the science of making things smart, has been around for several decades now. The drive towards artificially intelligent technology has time and again changed the nature of the design as work. In the recent past, machine learning – teaching algorithms to learn from data without explicit code – has brought with it the promise and acceptance of image recognition, voice assistance, and self-driving vehicles, to name a few. But as with every new technology even if we don’t quite understand how it works, we adapt and change the way we work as champions for users of the products and services we create.

In this panel, we draw from the expertise of UX professionals with a variety of specializations to discuss how machine learning (and AI) is changing design and UX; what our new roles and responsibilities are; and what
challenges we must get prepare for when we design ML-powered products.

We ask, how is designing with ML changing the way we design? What influence does this technology have on existing paradigms of user trust, control and transparency? In the age of machine learning, what does user advocacy for the UX researcher look like?

Through the lenses of high-risk industries such as healthcare and policy, we examine the role of UX in building accountability and trust  into ML-powered products, as they change our relationship with technology and with each other. We use ethics and policy as probes to understand how UX decisions   cab have societal impact.

This discussion will benefit any UX professional who is actively working or is looking to work on experiences that use machine learning. Attendees will walk away with a deeper understanding of how UX decisions can give shape to machine learning powered experiences. Through this panel, we hope to arrive at baseline considerations for product experiences, especially those
with long-terms consequences that influence the daily lives of the people we design for.

Panelists
Astrid Chow – IBM Watson healthcare
Juhan Sonin – Goinvo, MIT
Nicole Bradick – Theory and Principle
Dan Zollman

Moderated by Mahima Pushkarna, Google AI