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EXPLORING THE ROLE OF TEXT-TO-IMAGE AI IN CONCEPT GENERATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Ross Brisco ,
Laura Hay  and
Sam Dhami
Ross Brisco*
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde
Laura Hay
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde
Sam Dhami
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde
*
Brisco, Ross, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom, [email protected]

Abstract

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Artificial intelligence (AI) capable of generating images from a text prompt are becoming increasingly prevalent in society and design. The general public can use their computers and mobile devices to ask a complex text-to-image AI to create an image which is in some cases indistinguishable from that which a human could create using a computer graphics package. These images are shared on social media and have been used in the creation of art projects, documents and publications. This exploratory study aimed to identify if modern text-to-image AI (Midjourney, DALL-E 2, and Disco Diffusion) could be used to replace the designer in the concept generation stage of the design process. Teams of design students were asked to evaluate AI generated concepts from 15 to a final concept. The outcomes of this research are a first of its kind for the field of engineering design, in the identification of barriers in the use of current text-to-image AI for the purpose of engineering design. The discussion suggests how this can be overcome in the short term and what knowledge the research community needs to build to overcome these barriers in the long term.

Keywords

Artificial intelligenceConceptual designtext-to-imageDesign processConcept Generation
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 3: ICED23 , July 2023 , pp. 1835 - 1844
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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