DOHA, QATAR — Chadi Aoun, teaching professor of Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), delivered a keynote conversation to the UX Montréal community examining the critical ethical and design challenges arising as artificial intelligence becomes deeply embedded in technology workflows.
At the heart of his address was the ‘Simulation Paradox’— a growing risk in user experience (UX) design driven by the industry’s increasing reliance on synthetic data and AI-simulated user testing. Aoun warned that when systems undergo recursive training on AI-generated data rather than direct human input, the output quality suffers. Over time, this feedback loop erodes individual nuance, flattens human diversity, and shifts the core concept of a “user” from a unique human individual to a synthesized, generalized abstraction.
To counter this phenomenon, Aoun advocated for Synergistic Intelligence, a paradigm that pairs machine efficiency with human ethics, subjectivity, and critical thinking. Under this framework, UX professionals would act as active conductors—orchestrating AI tools to amplify productivity while retaining human agency, critical mindset, and moral oversight.
“As synthetic systems become embedded in everyday workflows, user experience design must recognise the risks inherent in the Simulation Paradox,” Aoun said. “We need to ensure that our systems remain human-centered, grounded in ethics, transparency, and human agency.”
UX Montréal is a professional community in Canada dedicated to providing space for UX practitioners to learn, network, and exchange ideas on the future of design.
