The Unbearable Lightness of Prompting: A Critical Reflection on the Environmental Impact of genAI use in Design Education

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the environmental impact of generative AI in design education, proposing five alternative approaches to promote sustainable and conscious use among educators and students.

Contribution

It introduces a set of five alternative stances and actions for educators to address the environmental costs of genAI in design education.

Findings

Development of five alternative stances for sustainable genAI use

Workshop insights from 49 students on energy costs of genAI

Guidelines for educators to reflect on their practices

Abstract

Design educators are finding ways to support students in skillfully using GenAI tools in their practices while encouraging the critical scrutiny of the ethical and social issues around these technologies. However, the issue of environmental sustainability remains unaddressed. There is a lack of both resources to grasp the environmental costs of genAI in education and a lack of shared practices for engaging with the issue. This paper critically reflects on the energy costs of using genAI in design education, using a workshop held in 2023 with 49 students as a motivating example. Through this reflection, we develop a set of five alternative stances, with related actions, that support the conscious use of genAI in design education. The work contributes to the field of design and HCI by bringing together ways for educators to reflect on their practices, informing the future development of educational programs around genAI.