Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck (born 1949 in Paris) is the most prolific and celebrated designer France has produced — author of thousands of objects from the Juicy Salif lemon squeezer to hotels, yachts, and even a wind turbine, all animated by his creed of “democratic design.”

The first chair designed outside the human brain

At Milan Design Week in April 2019, Starck, Kartell, and Autodesk unveiled A.I., promoted as the first production chair created with generative artificial intelligence. Starck posed the software a single question — how to support a human body with the least possible material — and iterated with the algorithm in a process he compared to a conversation. The result, manufactured in 100 percent recycled thermoplastic, went on sale in 2020.

Starck framed the collaboration in typically cosmic terms: because the AI lacks culture, memory, and human habit, it could escape the sameness that even genius designers are locked into by their own DNA. He called the chair “the beginning of a great freedom,” and in interviews since — including a 2026 Forbes conversation — he has continued using AI in pursuit of dematerialization: fewer materials, less ego, better objects.

Critics of generative design note that the A.I. chair still needed heavy human curation to become sellable furniture, and some found the “designed by AI” billing more marketing than method. But as an early, unambiguous embrace of AI by a design superstar, the chair remains a landmark.