Artificial Intelligence Tools and Chatbots for Design Education

Rapid advancements in computing power and artificial intelligence (AI) have propelled the development of advanced tools and chatbots for design education. These generative AI tools can provide inspiration to solve problems based on prompts. ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) model, but it is limited to generating verbal responses and basic images. Hence, it cannot contribute heavily to the design process due to the inability to generate complex images and 3D models. Other AI tools, like Craiyon, Sloyd, and 3dfy, can process text to produce images or 3D models using convolutional neural networks. In this paper, these tools are used in the design process by employing prompt engineering. A sample project is documented, and different conceptual design phases are identified. In each phase, assistive AI tools are incorporated and the outputs—with and without AI tools—are compared and analysed. It is inferred that AI tools can potentially transform the domain by making the process faster and more effective. Currently, these AI tools are assistive, however, in the future, they might contribute more significantly to the process. Hence, AI tools should be integrated into the design curriculum, reducing the time spent on gathering resources and increasing the creativity of solutions.