This summer, furniture company Kartell will start selling a new plastic chair designed by Philippe Starck – with some help. The system used – not, perhaps, strictly an AI – was a generative design software platform from Autodesk. Supplied with initial design goals, along with parameters such as materials, manufacturing methods and cost constraints, the software explores all the possible permutations of a solution to generate design alternatives. It tests and learns from each iteration what works and what doesn't. "As the relationship between the two matured, the system became a much stronger collaborative partner, and began to anticipate Starck's preferences and the way he likes to work," says Mark Davis, senior director of design futures at Autodesk.