Human-centered design demands a limited use of AI-generated personas, if at allA big debate among UX researchers is whether to use synthetic users in their studies. There’s one group of researchers who consider it no less than an abomination, unethical to use an artificial persona to test a product that serves humans. The second group defends it as a helpful tool that makes user research more efficient.Looking at it through a pragmatic lens, I understand both perspectives. UX teams may consider using synthetic users for low-level artifacts, the parts of a study you can reasonably simulate.Still, the word synthetic already tells you what you’re working with. These users aren’t real. As researchers and designers, our goal is to build products that solve real people’s problems. We need human feedback.What if synthetic users can help us solve those problems without losing touch with the...