Will A.I Replace Car Designers? 

I absolutely love that Frank's take on this is optimistic, forward-looking, and grounded in decades of trying to make the aesthetic design process more efficient. I've heard enough doom and gloom.

I was told in school 40 years ago that computers would replace humans in the workplace, remember that at the time they were the size of rooms. I have had a 30 year career in IT and watched those old machines reduce in size over time to now be held in people hands. I don't think we are being replaced any time soon. Life will just get even faster.

I have been exposed to art from an early age. I'm a student who is currently aiming to become a car designer, but I'm honestly annoyed by the popularity of AI these days. AI is nothing more than a database and has no creativity. On the contrary, it ignores copyright infringement and is just like a thief. To put it bluntly, I think it should be regulated. I am about to get a job in the future, but I have no intention of using such a criminal tool. Because I think that person is disqualified as a creator when he uses this.

I don't think AIs or any other image generators like Bluewillow for example would replace artists. Maybe in the far future, but not anytime soon. AIs nowadays are not sentient and their responses are still based on human input and sources. Your craft is also your identity and we thank you for your art and contributions!

Great Video!! Loved the plot twist at the end. You are in my top ten designers off all time, up there with Giugiaro

Interesting that you did an episode about AI back in a real world setting. I was not a fan of the virtual studio you had been using. I always enjoy the content though.

I'm studying Auto Mechanics/ Mechanical Engineering to work in the car industry, I hope AI will be used just as another tool not to replace a human doing the creative work.

Great video. 👍 Love my 03 X5 4.4 sport pkg, still going strong, over 220k miles. Driven primarily in Florida and Texas USA. You knock it out of the park, the design has aged beautifully. 👍

really interesting subject to dive into, as always i appreciate your thoughts and input on it.

When I asked Chat gpt to list world's most influenced car designers , you were there

Hello Frank sir, I am one of the fans of your iconic car designs especially the mclaren p1 and my question is if any car company wants to work with u, will u be joining them?

Proof the world has gone nuts. Cutting corners using technology instead of humans to come up with ideas and designs. Its happening in all aspects of life. If they can find a loop hole they will use it.

I created so many cars with Stable diffusion, historical versions of modern cars, modern versions of historical cars, awesome mashups with the Delorean, Viper, Ferrari, etc. Regarding its use for car design all of the limitations Frank mentioned are spot on, it's an amazing tool to explore nascent ideas, concepts and variations but not yet very good at representing an exact vision, sometimes you can't even guide it properly. I've made mashups with the Dodge Viper and often the viper influence was much too strong for the vision I had. I had a difficult time reducing that to the amount I wanted without losing it completely. As an amateur, it's all fun.

Technologies like AI should be used as a tool to aid people in doing their jobs, not as a replacement for human capabilities. I've worked my entire life in IT and too often I've seen people lack fundamental skills because they rely on technology to do it for them. That's what scares me about AI...if you thought a person's inability to add two simple numbers together without a calculator was bad, imagine what something as powerful as AI will do to them. And as for that list of top 10 car designers, I'm guessing Exner, Earl, maybe Teague...and the rest are Italians 😆

this was an awesome video Frank. What a twist at the end. I think it's commendable that you're open minded to trying new stuff.

I'm studying car design, I use ai for time saving and will get it to do the storyboard or benchmark/research the stuff that doesn't require taste or skill

Problem with AI and art is not at the end of what is absolutely possible for us to achieve, in that regard it supercharges anyone who does design. Problem is how it it destroys paths towards an art job as only someone who's already extremely proficient can provide added value to what the AI delivers. I'd be very worried if it wasn't for the fact that a majority of people are threatened by machine learning, not just artists. The language models taking white collar jobs away is a major threat to the whole economy and society will have to pivot as a result, less the consumer base will be destroyed and we'll all be living in our local version of Detroit soon.

That's a great conclusion! With the tools updated with more AI functionalities, the process would first be more and more management involvement in the design in the industry. It could be both ways, Design leaders also need to take responsibility in marketing and more management or both. Or management has a deeper hands-on part in the design process. As other facilities grow such as 3D printing or milling, chassis design, etc progress, the automotive industry can be much more decentralized, Individuals may make the design both styling and engineering based on open source AI system and get registered within a particular legal system, then send the commission to wherever the factory is. Fuuny to think about these could be a few decades from now?

Isn’t design at the moment already to dystopian? Don’t need AI to make it colder

Hi Frank ,Both worlds will compliment each other hopefully nothing replaces the human touch in my opinion.

I AM FIRST I very much doubt that artificial intelligence is capable of creating something like BMW Z8, McLaren F1, Pagani Huayra, GMA T.50, RIMAC NEVERA

As someone getting my master's in transportation design at one of the top universities for the discipline in the US (not the one Frank Stephenson attended; the other one), my honest opinion is that car designers by and large lack the critical thinking to effectively use AI tools while avoiding their pitfalls. Look to Robert Miles, an PhD AI safety researcher who publishes youtube videos on the subject, to understand just how complex building effective AI can be. I will end with a quote from the great Chris Bangle, the only notable car designer who can really critically think about design at a high level: “[T]his is what really bothers me about car design is that for too long they've taken ideas like research and completely doped them into the corporate communication process so that all we get is some rehash of where they're going to go anyway”

Good to see this video! I am very scared my dream job of car designing would we snatched away by AI.

Thanks for your vision.

the grey mclaren concept at 3:21 is one of my fave designs of all time.

The A.I is just another tool that a designer can use to shape and refine their vision. Even with all the new and emerging technology, car companies still to this day commit time, people and money to building full-scale models in clay, for example. The creative (read 'human') element will never be supplanted, only supported.

"A picture is worth a thousand words Frank, so now you need a thousand words to describe the picture... 😳

Subjective! I love the new BMW grilles, especially on the 4 series.

I assume AI will replace some 'traditional' car design roles. Not dissimilar to 3D modelling reducing the need for clay modelling, or virtual crash testing. AI isn't able to replace all of these yet.

Great video. The editing and quality is outstandin. Thank you!

Greetings from Spain. A video explaining in depth what your personal style is and how to discover it in your past, present and future designs would be great. And your favorite designers with their best design in your opinion. Thank you

Most of the AI-generated McLaren SUVs just look like Lamborghini Uruses

Hi Frank. I absolutely love the content and appreciate your effort in educating the younger generations of designers. I'm studying industrial design and is transitioning into the field of automotive design. I learned a lot from your videos. Even just a few words from a experienced professional can go a long way in inspiring people. I do have one suggestion for the color correction & grading of the videos. It appears that the footages from your camera have a green & yellow tint. I suggest your camera man to use a grey card to calibrate the white balance before each filming. It's a simple thing to do and save you a lot of hassle in color correction.

Saturated Ai design will flood social media and young designers will get the wrong impression on what makes good design.

Hi Frank, thanks for having presented this new technology. As a designer I'm kind of concerned by this but I trust my brain to be more creative than a machine.

you are definitely on the top 10 list just by sharing your knowledge.

Amazing episode like always, thank you for sharing!

i mosly use it for quick album art as i make music and post it for people to lease and make songs with. it is a great tool for all kinds of artists, even chat gpt can be used to give artists ideas, and then use those ideas on stable diffusion to make a reference piece. and refine it with your own skill

this will lead to yet another shift of wealth from the many to the few.

It is unlikely that Bluewillow, or any other AI-powered platform, will completely replace artists. While Bluewillow is capable of generating unique images using GAN algorithms, it is not capable of replicating the creativity and skill of a human artist.

I love that you used t to I for all the retrospective images, lol. Probably your editor? There's always an uncanny valleyness to the images, lol. I didn't realize you have seven fingers?!?

2:39 LMAOOOOO

here's what I think. AI car design is not going to replace car designers. Reason being; AI cannot create anything from scratch. its very existence is dependent upon pre-existing designs that it compiles into its database. As a tool for reorganizing what we have created into a new interpretation? it's undeniable. But thankfully for car designers, we can create something completely new. Something which the AI cannot.

Definitely a thought provoking video.

Artificial intelligence should be used in automobile companies to make the vehicles more safe so that they don't crash into each other and have other new safety features, also the company should be responsible for the crashes at this point and drivers should no longer have to pay for automobile insurance, they could also use artificial intelligence to create the vehicles. The money saved could easily be used for a warranty on each vehicle and pay for any malfunctions or damage to the vehicle in the event that a crash still occurs, and the money saved also could cover any liabilities for any injuries to humans. Although some computer flaws are expected to occur in the beginning humans make much more mistakes and more often The kinks in programming it could be worked out later

The Ferrari FF is pretty much a hatchback tho :)

AI should only be used to help us, not replace us.

Wonder how current supercars will age with time. So many of them are ridiculously similar. Genuinely think the last truly beautiful Ferrari is 458 and that's like 12 years old already.

Atm, I wouldn't consider any of these ai image generators to be creative tools at all (apart from maybe Vizcom). In the Renault Twingo AI 'design' competition being held on IG right now. Most of the submissions all have exactly the same front graphic on them. I think that's all the proof you need really. When Midjourney first launched in June it was remarkably interesting (except for the problems of them trying to sneakily commercialise use of the Laion 5B data set images) due to the generations being very rough and diverse. Now with the addition of Stable Diffusion to that tool what you now get is a much narrower set of generations that look more polished and when I say polished I mean polished turds because as soon as you look for more than half a second you'll always see the ai has screwed up something major on the image or you can even identify bits that it just plucked from one of its dataset images and slapped on the generated image. I don't see the fidelity as the way forward with these programs in the slightest

You,so right,Sir.

There is a big difference between AIRCRAFT design and car design - the eVTOL 'designs' alluded to and the brief snapshot of AI generated ones only go to show that GIGO still applies and where a multi constrained and or multi functional design result has to be achieved the chances of simultaneously satisfying a myriad of engineering,physical and -lastly, aesthetic requirements by some pre programmed software -even self learning/genetic based ones, is not yet clear (some design problems are still too complex for human designers to solve - eg the viable flying car (of which eVTOLS are but a poor reflection despite being often misnamed AS 'flying cars' --for "n" variables there are n! (N factorial = NxN-1 x N-2 etc ) possible combinations with more permutations and not allowing repeats --but when specifying a desired end result each new crtieria rules out an entire crop of combinations reducing rapidly the potential solutions . for example , needing to be road legal AND fly eliminates ALL eVTOLS but also rules 'in' the possible use for thousands of times more people and uses "Taxis' are a poor substitute for a personal vehicle and adding 'air' to the description does not chage that. That said I must investigate what AI has to show when given the task and specified criteria (we had a 'mix and match' computer 'game' at Melbourne's 'scienceworks' museum some time ago that let (mostly children) select features from a menu and see what the combination looked like - just like mythological combinations of horse and man (centaur) or horse and bird (pegasus) and so on have done in history -- unanticipated permutations might arise in something like classical evolutionary theory . Mostly though design competitions or group efforts fail to produce anything worthwhile - the recent Boeing sponsored GoFly contest ended in fiasco despite 600 teams entering , others similarly. In aircraft design the role of designER is still critical and design by committee is still seen as likely to be mediocre at best -- is AI design by groupthink ?

Excellent Video Frank! Really enjoyed the insights!

I remember a time when people were raving that crypto currency will replace real cash currency and yet here we are. Crypto:::::: NFTs:::::::AI Art 🤷‍♂

_They won't replace car designers, they will assist and inspire car designers._ That's my final answer.

Hi Frank, I really hope A.I doesn't take over artists and designers!!!!

Frank,i'd love to hear your thoughts on new Maserati Granturismo,i think they made terrific job since the previous model is one of my all time favorite cars

There's a few interesting tools. In particular you can draw an image and put it into context in NVIdia AI and in Stable Diffusion. They will then incorporate your existing drawing into their hallucination. I don't think a random hallucination (this word is most similar to how AI art comes about) will ever be as good as one guided by purposeful thoughtful designer, and I don't think the mere textual description is sufficient.

That’s literally the best take on AI’s impact on the industry, not biased and pointed out everything there’s about it… also, ChatGPT is super biased, ask it about some of the historical events and you’ll be surprised how much code has been put into to it, to give a completely left wing opinion… that’s shameful.

I'm still waiting for some schmuck to make a 3D procedural land vehicle generator so I can finally start looking at actually unique designs.

Wow, Frank. What an eyeopening and yet disappointing feature. This video was one of your best, even though somewhat disturbing. I can see the benefits, as you mentioned, but I got a sinking feeling listening and watching this. My favorite part was you sharing that you weren't on the top 10 designers list. Haha! Thanx!

brillant

Wich AI website did you use @Frank?

A.I. may be to clinical cool to make much required mistakes the best teacher.

Maybe Frank , someday we will have the technology to upload your consciousness , a unique A.I. specifically tailored to your design wisdom . You could be used at universities , colleges or at home in the form of a 3d hologram for anyone who wants to become a car designer (my tailored A.I. design teacher will be there when i need it to aid me).

Damn frank you might be the greatest of all time

There is this huge misunderstanding that AI as we have it today can create. It can't. It just recombines existing things it has been trained with in new ways. Looking at the outputs may inspire a human to create something innovative so there can be some actual progress.

Designers could sketch to ai image generation for different variations of the original design

Very interesting take!

i think ai would be perfect for beamNG automation

Can you review Split/Second cars ?

06:19 that's some fingers there chief.

Nice vid, and totally agree with the final conclusion! haha!

Therapist: "Don't worry, AI generated Frank Stephenson doesn't exist, he can't hurt you." Ai generated Frank Stephenson: 1:18

Sketching doesnt teach you how to draw it teaches you how to see. If we lose drawing we lose our perception of the world.

MR FRANK................MUCH LOVE AND RESPECT 💚💚💚 A.I WILL NEVER REPLACE HUMANS EMOTIONS ......................CARS ARE STUNNING LOVE AND CULTURE CREATION.............SO NOTHING CAN REPLACE THE POWER OF //HUMAN LOVE//............I THINK.

The holy grail will be when they can simulate trillions of human brains and use AI to test the brains reaction to trillions of different design iterations/combinations. That could unlock the ultimate in design. The design would invoke the maximum pleasure in the the human brain possible.

A fascinating subject. I would like to see some AI examples surrounding the more common EV alternatives. While EV in itself is a great step forward; I feel that we are still designing cars in a very 20th century way/ideal. I don't find them efficient enough, neither in design or manufacture, and the answer to this, so far, is to use bigger batteries. Well this is just going down the same route with petrol over 100yrs ago, isn't it? With EV, I feel we need an entirely new design and manufacturing culture. A 4ton Hummer EV, as an example, is just a ridiculous current solution imho...

I must mention its possible to have the AI deviate to create new stuff. The same way we can have AI learn a style (picasso style/mclaren style for example) we can make it learn how to deviate to innovate. We will get there.

you are the one of the best top 10 car designers

Frank i was wondering. Is it forbidden to make front engine mounted f1 cars? If a team wanted to do this, what would it look like?

Let AI design everyday cars, a computer can come up with a more fuel efficient and spacious design than a human. Let the designers have their way with sports cars, supercars, and hyper cars. They don't need space for kids or be extremely fuel efficient. They're toys.

The ai’s impression of of a Mclaren SUV looks more like a heavily modified off-road Lamborghini Urus. Almost like a SEMA build lol.

Not on the list?! WHAT?!

What's impressive to me is how they are getting relatively good, consistent symmetry with perspective applied.

On the topic of "Which McLaren SUV concept excites you most?" - NONE! I say we have more than enough SUVs to choose from. Give us more fun cars from other categories!

Thank You,Sir.

Great video Frank!

There is lack of human empathy here and level of manufacturability to build these AI vehicles, would be difficult to produce. It could help design iteration and conceptualizing. That McLaren SUV, is crazy, probably impossible to make, however human could use it as design study.

AI will replace designers, artists in many different areas and even programmers. It won`t replace 100% of the jobs but many of them and only few certain specialized places will be left for people, who will then use the AI to do these jobs.

Instead of complaining, people should ask AIs to follow a reasonable list of requirements and create the best design possible out of it. If the result is amazing and better than anything anyone could do, then people should take note and learn from it, study what's the thing AI figured out and humans overlooked. After all, the rules are the same for both AIs and human designers.

Considering the way modern cars look, I'm sure AI can do better.

The problem I can see with ai is that it generally takes what cars had been in the past and mixes them up. No real innovation. Ai has a hard time creating new ideas but instead uses old ones and combines. It is possible a feedback loop may occur where the ai repeatedly produces cars that are similar to those that have been used in the past, and on seeing the positive impact of those cars creates another tired design. Possibly

I asked chatgpt "top 10 car designers" and you came up 10th.

Those McLaren 'concepts' look like they have taken their Extreme E car as a basis. I doubt AI could totally replace human ideas as all they really just regurgitate existing ideas rather than truly coming up with anything novel.

nah, AI's still can't even draw a hand lmao. they'll never replace us humans in terms of creativity and details

What's the name of the tool Frank is using in this episode to generate pictures?

The ending I loved it

6:21 shows 14-fingered Frank sketching away.

What's with the "younger you" on the airplane having 14 fingers? Was the surgery painful? 🙂 As it is, this future of AI is disturbing to me. It appears to me that the disadvantages will outweigh the advantages. When machines replaced muscle it allowed us to to have time for humanity to expand intellectually and artistically. What will happen when AI replaces intellect and artistry, not to mention the human touch?

Yo pienso que tanto la Inteligencia Artificial como las diversas tecnologías que se van desarrollando a pasos agigantados, pueden ser un complemento a la creatividad humana y además está seguirá ejerciendo en mayor o menor medida, el principio rector de los procesos creativos, entre ellos, el diseño automovilístico. Un saludo Curro.