RESPONSIBLE AI
Chicago
The Institute of Design’s 2025 Shapeshift Summit convened global design, business, technology, and social impact leaders to discuss the implications of AI on the future of design and human culture. Murmur Ring kicked off the conference with an exclusive single-day immersion for forty participants traversing Chicago to experience emerging technology and its impact firsthand.
Shifting AI conversations from from functionality to impact
The AI landscape is progressing rapidly without defined boundaries. So often decision makers focus on its expanding capabilities and economic potential, but neglect effects on social systems, human rights and wellness, and the environment.
With representation from leading tech giants including Google, Amazon, Salesforce, Microsoft, IBM, and more, the Responsible AI immersion cohort examined the state of AI’s adaptation into society and uncovered viable opportunities to use tech responsibly, hold leaders accountable to outcomes, and identify and mitigate risks when designing new AI-powered products and services.
Existing inequities in housing
The National Public Housing Museum grounded our immersion in the reality of technology’s capacity to help or hinder social equity. Together we observed the intersection of our rental housing market, data discrimination, policies such as redlining, and emerging technologies, within the museum’s cutting-edge multimedia exhibition spaces.
Chicagoland Fair Housing Agency Open Communities joined us at the Museum to discuss their work and the ML-powered tool they are building in collaboration with Northwestern University graduate students to identify and report discriminatory housing advertisements. The adaptation of this tool will alleviate labor and allow the organization to focus on direct client service
Ongoing research, mass-market potential
Mindworks is a working laboratory with hands-on exhibitions dedicated to the science of human judgment. Alexander Todorov, PhD, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business’ Walter David "Bud" Fackler Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science, shared how his research utilizes AI-generated models to visualize human decision-making.
The cohort considered the implications of such work becoming available in the marketplace. For instance, what might a facial recognition tool that visualizes qualities like beauty or trustworthiness faces do in the hands of nefarious entities?
Art and critical discourse on technocratic society
“Human enhancement technologies inhabit a critical space in the debate about technology displacing work. With many areas of the workforce becoming increasingly reliant on technology to gain competitive advantage, it is not merely about jobs being replaced by technology, but the implications of people actually becoming technology in order to remain employable.”
— Tim Parsons, Parsons & Charlesworth
We explored the most extreme what-if’s of our digital futures with speculative artists Parsons & Charlesworth. Featuring biohacking wearables such as a vest that provides an IV drip of vitamins while you work to enhance your performance, the artist duo’s Catalog for the Post-Human exhibits research-informed satirical products provoked conversations about the impact of enhancement and surveillance technologies in an increasingly contingent workforce.
The cohort personified fictional consumers seeking products to increase their physical and economic productivities and prototyped tech-enabled solutions that correspond to the artists’ existing faux-product line.
Corporate accountability and philanthropy
Salesforce’s Amy Guterman, Senior Director of Innovation, Philanthropy and teammates Estelle Winkleman, Director of Climate Philanthropy, and Andrew Irwin, Lead Demo Product Manager, led a concluding exercise to uncover real-world opportunities to identify and mitigate the risks of AI when developing products, services, and platforms for consumer use.
The team also shared Salesforce’s approach to climate-aware practices, data protection measures, and partnerships with nonprofits.
Cynthia Noble, Founder and Executive Director of ART on THE MART closed the day’s programming with an exclusive projection of Shana Moulton’s Wandering Inner Eyes and a discussion about the intersection of emerging technologies, public art, and the organization’s mission.
The cohort continues to share resources and devise:
How to use AI to uncover and understand unintended consequences of the technology
Philanthropic collaborations between their companies and nonprofit organization to enhance social impact through AI-powered tools and services
A manifesto for decision-makers to influence positive human impacts of tech
CREDITS
TONY BYNUM
Immersion Co-Host, Institute of Design Executive Academy
DYLAN CHANDLER
Photographer/Videographer
ROBERT KING
Photographer
LISA LEE
Executive Director, National Public Housing Museum
DOMINIC VOZ
Director of Fair Housing, Open Communities
SALONI PATEL
Graduate Student, Northwestern University
DEV AMBANI
Graduate Student, Northwestern University
ALEXANDER TODOROV
Walter David "Bud" Fackler Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
PARSONS & CHARLESWORTH
Independent Artist Collaborative
AMY GUTERMAN
Senior Director of Innovation, Philanthropy, Salesforce
ESTELLE WINKLEMAN
Director of Climate Philanthropy, Salesforce
ANDREW IRWIN
Lead Demo Product Manager, Salesforce
CYNTHIA NOBLE
Founding Executive Director, ART on theMART