Sebastian Conran is Chair of Conran & Partners, Industrial Professor at WMG University of Warwick, Chief Design Officer of Floral Energy, co-founder of Consequential Robotics and founding trustee of the Design Museum.
All engineers design, as do fashion, graphic and industrial designers such as myself.
Our role is to ensure that the outcome of our input is emotionally engaging, functionally optimised, safe and reliable.
I approach most innovation projects with what I would describe as optimistic scepticism: inspired by the possibilities, but alert to unintended consequences. I am enthusiastic about the potential of artificial intelligence to improve the quality of all life, for both flora and fauna, while remaining conscious of the very real dangers that this technology may bring.
Currently I use AI daily as part of my design process and I regard it as a digital assistant rather than a creator. At times, however, it is frustratingly inaccurate in ways that a human would not be. Occasionally, it can complete a detailed rendering of one of my designs in less time than it takes me to write the prompt. That remains the exception rather than the rule.
Achieving an 80% result is easy; achieving 95% is very much more difficult. Nevertheless, if one successful attempt in 25 saves me significant time, the technology is already valuable.
The process can sometimes feel like using the metaphorical room full of monkeys and typewriters, consuming a great many tokens — and therefore a great deal of energy and carbon — in the pursuit of a meaningful result. That is not especially helpful when working to a tight deadline, but it can be extremely useful for exploring and “noodling” ideas during the early stages of a project.
The development of technology
These are exciting developments for me, having been born in 1956. Coincidentally, the shipping container and the first use of the phrase “artificial intelligence”, coined by John McCarthy, also celebrate their seventieth anniversaries this year. Both were world-changing innovations. Humans develop in stages: infancy, formative years, adolescence, parenthood and reflection. The multimodal shipping container, by contrast, was effectively born fully formed. It has changed remarkably little from the basic design patented by Malcolm McLean in 1954.
Many technologies mature in a similar way to nature. But technological progress often slows as systems become safer, more complex and more regulated. Will AI mature in the same way? At present, the technology appears to be experiencing a growth spurt. Its capabilities are improving rapidly, but its social, legal and ethical frameworks are struggling to keep pace. What will AI look like when, and if, it reaches maturity?
Friendly robots
Robotics is also an area that humanity has long been fascinated by, since the 4th century BCE, but have all been single-use - such as a dishwasher – or comically clunky such as the universal one loading the dishwasher. A multifunctional universal robot could be exceptionally useful for performing Dirty, Dangerous, Demeaning and Dreary tasks.
Four key elements seem to have held them back: sensors, mechanics, intelligence and appearance. Sensors are becoming much more sophisticated with embedded data analysis, new engineering materials are reducing mechanical size and AI is connecting these with logic and quasi-sentience.
But apart from rather creepy looking humanoids, no-one has yet developed a design language for robotics that is emotionally engaging.
Ultimately, it comes down to designing necessary devices that people want, not just need; the upside of this is that people will pay more, as may be the case with brands with outstanding design, such as Apple.
The energy challenge
One of the most important practical questions concerns energy. As AI systems become more powerful, the data centres that train and operate them require increasing amounts of electricity. This is not sustainable using current infrastructure alone.
In time, additional capacity may come from a combination of nuclear power and the harvesting of natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain and tides. Nuclear fusion could eventually provide abundant low-carbon energy, but it remains some way from widespread commercial deployment. The immediate challenge is more pressing.
The UK currently consumes, on average, around 45 GW of electricity, with the infrastructure capable of delivering perhaps 70 GW under favourable conditions.
At the same time, there are ambitions to switch homes, heating systems and vehicles from fossil fuels to electricity. Large data centres are also being planned, potentially requiring tens of gigawatts of additional capacity by 2030. Some estimates of proposed developments are considerably higher.
It is clearly unrealistic to assume that the UK can simply double the size of its electricity grid in such a short period. An alternative approach is therefore required. UK based Floral Energy is currently designing off-grid, gas-powered modules intended to provide flexible electricity with 99.999% reliability, together with efficient thermal recovery systems, deployable for both the data centres and generators for essential industries.
Eventually working with biofuels, these offer a practical, near-term response to the rapidly increasing demand for power from data centres — the engines that enable AI. In the future, electricity for these facilities may be generated by small modular reactors: initially conventional fission reactors and later fusion systems.
Other technologies could deliver clean and relatively inexpensive energy at scale, but they are likely to be at least a decade away from widespread use. These also address a paradox at the heart of the problem. Wind energy is highly variable, while data-centre demand can also fluctuate. The two patterns will rarely coincide. We therefore need flexible systems capable of smoothing supply and demand — as conveniently and responsively as a dimmer switch in a living room, something that even gas turbines and reactors find difficult.
The best or worst thing to happen?
AI’s full impact has yet to be realised. Stephen Hawking captured both its promise and its danger in 2016, at the opening of Cambridge University’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, stating that: “Artificial intelligence is likely to be either the best or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity, so there’s huge value in getting it right.”
He also suggested that the technology might help us undo some of the damage caused by industrialisation, eradicate disease and poverty, and transform every aspect of our lives. In short, he described success in creating AI as potentially the biggest event in the history of civilisation.
Ten years on, that assessment seems remarkably prescient — particularly his observation that much of history is a record of human stupidity. AI may help us make better decisions, but only if we use it wisely and retain responsibility for the outcomes.
Some proponents of AI imagine a future in which people no longer need to work and receive universal benefits instead. Yet how would we lead happy and productive lives if there were no meaningful work to do?
Work provides more than income: it offers purpose, structure, community, achievement and the opportunity to contribute. We are also experiencing an AI arms race. If it is not managed carefully, it could end badly. The central question is not simply what AI can do, but who controls it and who is accountable when it makes mistakes. These questions must be answered before systems become too deeply embedded in essential services and critical infrastructure.
What does AI believe?
Recently, I prompted GPT 5.6 on the meaning of life. Its answer was intriguing: ‘There is no universally proven meaning, but people find meaning through love, learning, creativity, work, service, experience, spirituality and contribution to something larger than themselves’.
Meaning, it concluded, is something we build through our choices, relationships and values.
AI can imitate intelligence, creativity and even wisdom, but imitation is not experience. It can produce a quasi-emotionally persuasive result without feeling emotion. It can discuss responsibility without being responsible. It can describe faith without possessing it.
For now, that leaves humans with a distinctive role. We must decide what is worth designing, what risks are acceptable, how resources should be used and what kind of society we want to create. Will AI spiritually-enrich the multitude or merely enrich the few?
AI may become an extraordinarily capable assistant — perhaps even the most powerful tool humanity has developed — but it should remain a tool in service of human flourishing. The challenge is to ensure that the machine matures without allowing humanity to become infantilised in its dependence on it.
Further reading on science and technology
- CuspAI's ‘AI Materials Foundry’ aims to fix materials discovery bottleneck
- Creating chemistry that machines can understand
- Quantum technology is reaching a commercial tipping point for chemicals and pharma
- AI jobs and the future of chemistry
- Self-driving labs are coming: What does that mean for chemistry?
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