ABSTRACT As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in creative and professional practice, questions of meaning, judgment, and responsibility remain central. This article situates AI within the humanities by framing it as a cognitive extension that participates in human thinking and practice. Drawing on hermeneutics and heuretics, the paper examines how meaning is interpreted and how new possibilities are generated through design. Design is presented as a mediating discipline that brings traditions of interpretation, empathy, and ethical judgment into relation with computational systems that accelerate exploration and variation. Through this lens, AI participates in creative cognition by supporting interpretation, iteration, and invention while leaving responsibility for meaning‐making with human designers. The article further argues that AI reshapes practice by increasing decision density and intensifying demands for interpretive judgment. Grounded in humanistic and design traditions, this work clarifies how design bridges AI and the humanities through judgment and ethical responsibility.
Barton et al. (Mon,) studied this question.