Tag: Digital Design

Towards a more authentic AI?

With its ability to learn and simulate all sorts of aesthetic styles, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is arguably a powerful tool for imitation in design. The technology, however, is still in development and has often generated unexpected outcomes. These have ranged from extra fingers to distorted faces, although they have become increasingly less common. While such outputs are typically regarded as limitations of AI to be solved, architecture and AI professor Immanuel Koh argues they should instead be seen as artefacts of its generative logic. They represent the native expression of AI or what he calls Neural Tectonics.

Since 2020, Koh and his team at Artificial-Architecture have sought to theorise this by using AI to generate furniture designs. The latest being Neural Monobloc Black, which reinterprets the ubiquitous monobloc chair using a custom fine-tuned text-to-3D AI model. The results are eight warped and distorted chairs that sit awkwardly in our eyes and minds, raising the question of whether these are aberrations of AI or its very nature. Might designers be using AI all wrong? Such experiments highlight the issue and meaning of authenticity in the age of AI.

➜ Read the full conversation in Leida

Illustrating a More ‘Singaporean’ Digital Identity

From a public housing block to an otter, familiar sights and scenes of Singapore help create a delightful user experience in the redesigned Singpass app.

Void decks are a common sight at public housing estates of Singapore where most Singaporeans live in. These ground-level spaces are typically open and empty, except for a few sets of public furniture, to allow for various activities like weddings, funerals or simple hangouts with fellow residents. Now, void decks can also be found in the Singpass app!

➜ Read the full story on GovTech’s National Digital Identity Medium account

Not Just for Logging In: Redesigning Singapore’s Digital Identity App

The new Singpass reframes the app’s role as Singapore’s trusted digital identity platform while allowing space for its future expansion.

Every Singaporean and resident holds an identity card as proof of one’s citizenship and identity. Now, they can also have a digital version on their smartphones by downloading the Singpass app.

While this Digital Identity Card (IC) was introduced in Singapore’s national digital identity app in May 2020, few of its then over 2.5 million users knew of its existence then. Singpass had also been associated with simply authenticating and logging into government services online. However, the service set up by the Singapore government in 2003 had always been conceived as a national digital identity platform.

With the rebranding of Singpass in early 2021 to mark its evolution of becoming Singapore’s trusted national digital identity, the designers at Government Technology Agency (GovTech) decided it was timely to redesign the app.

➜ Read the full story on GovTech’s National Digital Identity Medium account