The Good Robot Podcast: The Role of Designers in AI Ethics with Tomasz Hollanek

In this episode of The Good Robot, Tomasz Hollanek explains critical design as a practice that interrogates the social and economic power structures embedded in technology. Moving beyond traditional human‑centered design, he argues that good technology must incorporate friction—deliberate pauses or "cognitive glitches"—that force users to question smooth, obedient AI assistants. By shifting the focus from seamless usability to reflective interaction, designers can expose hidden biases and encourage a more nuanced relationship between people and intelligent systems.

Hollanek also critiques the burgeoning market of AI ethics toolkits, noting three recurring failures: narrow value sets that overlook sustainability, reduction of ethics to checklist actions, and decontextualized methods that enable ethics‑washing rather than genuine change. He highlights alternative frameworks informed by intersectional feminist thought, which re‑introduce friction by gathering diverse stakeholders, emphasizing participatory design, and foregrounding power dynamics. These tools aim to make ethical deliberation a lived, contested process rather than a superficial compliance exercise.

To cultivate truly critical designers, Hollanek proposes cultivating epistemic humility—recognizing the limits of one's own knowledge—and integrating feminist‑informed participatory practices. He cites the High‑Risk EU AI Act Toolkit as a concrete example that couples regulatory compliance with deeper critical reflection. By embedding these principles into curricula and industry workflows, designers can move from passive implementers to active interrogators of technology, ensuring that future AI serves a broader, more equitable vision of the good life with technology.