Artificial Intelligence Turns Design Into A Collaborative Undertaking

The media films an artificial intelligence machine named AI-MATHS in Chengdu, in China's southwest Sichuan province. A Chinese aphorism says that "the fire burns highest when everyone adds wood to it." It's an apt way to describe the way that industrial design and product development are becoming a collaborative undertaking. Cities like Shenzhen, long known as factory towns that churn out low-end toys and shoes, are embracing a new identity as creative meccas for design. This trend is gathering steam worldwide, for one main reason: design tools are starting to function less like inanimate objects and more like colleagues or assistants.