Artificial intelligence is here to stay. Should creatives start packing?

This post is sponsored by designory.

Image description: Not even a farewell lunch from AI colleagues. They’re too cold.

Just 11.23 seconds. That’s all it took to generate 10 variations of the title. On a medium service of about 99 Mpbs in an office of approximately 100-strong. Even the quickest-thinking writer struggles to achieve the speed of generating AI prompts in 11 seconds. Let alone spitting out article titles. 

Surely, AI is a great help? Except all 10 titles are paraphrased with the glaring absence of style and personality. For example, though “Enduring AI: How creatives can adapt and thrive” is sensibly correct, the choice of words is unconvincing. While 10 variations in 11 seconds is an applaudable feat, should we prioritise speed over quality? And should creative professionals be panicking?

Indeed, AI has firmly established itself in various industries, promising competence, innovation, and new capabilities. You find its influence extending to the creative realm of design, music, writing, and even film-making.

In advertising and marketing, AI can automate time-consuming tasks such as data analysis and content creation to bring efficiency to teams which are laden with insurmountable work and looming deadlines.

When it comes to personalisation, AI boasts of micro-targeting expertise to tailor one key idea into multiple messages catered to individual needs. It does appear that many roles can be subsumed, and it’s no wonder advertising professionals aren’t rushing to embrace AI.

We may have witnessed the surge in common-use AI tools in recent years and it may appear like AI is a new development in technology. But did you know the idea of AI was birthed in 1950 by the brilliant Alan Turing when he pondered in his paper – 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence' – if machines could do what humans do using available information as well as reason to solve problems.

The late 1950s through the 1960s was an era of infancy and growth. Fast-forward to the AI boom in the 1980s, followed by an AI winter where awareness dwindled, and interest was at an all-time low.

It wasn’t until IBM’s Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov at his game in 1997 did the world take notice of machine learning again. We digress. Today, there is no shortage of chess champions, and creativity hasn’t been impacted for the past 20-plus years.

Truth is, AI’s presence in creative fields is undeniable. Tools such as Adobe’s Sensei and DeepArt are revolutionising design by automating tasks, enhancing creativity, and speeding up production processes.

Musicians are leveraging AI to compose music, analyse trends, and produce unique sounds. In writing, AI-driven platforms such as GPT-4 (the technology powering ChatGPT) can generate content, assist in brainstorming, and even compose articles. These advancements showcase AI’s potential to augment creative processes, but does it necessarily spell the end for human creativity?

This writer is happy to report, no, AI cannot replace creative talent. Yet.

The initial draft of this article (as well as the 10 title variations) was first generated by ChatGPT. Only about 20% of the generated work was retained. After the third paragraph, it became obvious that AI repeats itself. A lot.

Its tone as unthinking as the technology is – mechanical. Unless, of course, one prompts it to create with a specific tone of voice. But alas, this writer is no Hemingway, Rowling, nor King, and to teach the machine to spit out writings in the style of an unknown individual takes time. Time that could have been better spent, well, creating.

AI excels at handling repetitive, data-driven tasks. So instead of getting it to create, I use it to crunch research into digestible summaries. I drop user comments (usually negative) and tell it to analyse the psychosocial motives of trolls. I prompt ridiculous design combinations just to have some mindless fun.

Those varieties become inspiration to spark unexpected pairings. I chat to it like how I would speak to a partner at a brainstorm. It feeds me information without the sassy attitude of someone severely lacking sleep. In fact, it enthuses with user insights that I don’t know about because some behaviours aren’t common in my geographical location and culture. It’s an assistant that I can call on for help anytime of the day without worrying if I’m disrupting its work-life balance.

Creativity isn’t about serving eight versions of the same story. It’s about connection and emotion through the telling of personal experience. Creativity often draws from the creator’s fears, dreams and ambitions, journeys traversed, and cultures encountered. It’s a window into the creator’s personality and unique style. Creations of characters and scenarios that resonated on a personal level.

While AI is adept at coming up with stories based on patterns and data, it lacks the emotional depth to move audiences. There are only so many unblinking talents in slo-mo one can take on Instagram. It’s safe to say, the human touch is irreplaceable. TikTok dance challenges can live on.

What AI lacks, humans must enhance. Continue thinking outside the box. Be wacky, be funny, be unexpected. Learn the craft and perfect the craft. Our job in the creative industry is to stand out from the clutter. And right now, what AI is doing is adding to the clutter.

The creatives who survive the AIpocalypse will be the thinking ones. The ones who persist in learning and evolving. The ones who use AI to their advantage. What will power the future of creativity boils down to how creative professionals leverage AI to explore new mediums, experiment with innovative techniques, and use AI to push the boundaries of their craft.

Creatives don’t have to pull out their luggage for now. But when the time comes, I’m pretty sure AI can help.

This article is co-created by ChatGPT and Christan Sow, head of creative and content at designory. Well, it was mostly Christan, but she would like to credit AI for respecting the Oxford comma.