Creativity x AI: An Inflection Point
In my humble opinion, humans have reached an inflection point, all thanks to AI.
AI is the new “normal” that we all are grappling with today, as it makes its way into almost every sphere of our existence, creativity being one of them.
The “creator economy” is currently valued at around $14 billion per year. Augmented by new digital channels, independent writers, podcasters, artists, and musicians can connect with audiences directly to make their own incomes. Internet platforms such as Substack, Flipboard, and Steemit enable individuals not only to create content but also to become independent producers and brand managers of their work. While many kinds of work have been disrupted by new technologies, these platforms offer people new ways to make a living through human creativity.
Today, generative AI applications such as ChatGPT and Midjourney are threatening to upend this special status and significantly alter creative work, both independent and salaried. These new generative AI models learn from huge datasets and user feedback and can produce new content in the form of text, images, and audio, or a combination of those. As such, jobs focused on delivering content — writing, creating images, coding, and other jobs that typically require an intensity of knowledge and information — now seem likely to be uniquely affected by generative AI.
I believe we’re all lucky to be alive and to experience this massive transformation that’s unraveling around us in the way we do things. The digital juggernaut has changed virtually every aspect of our lives. Advertising and communication are no exceptions. Today, brands have already jumped on the digital bandwagon, inundating us with messages via every possible digital platform there is to explore. This has resulted in a prolific rise in the creator economy.
Rise of artists, influencers, gamers, bloggers, podcasters
No wonder we’re seeing a plethora of content creators — artists, influencers, gamers, bloggers, etc., most of them dishing out content that’s associated with some brand or another. The digital revolution gave them platforms to unleash their creativity.
Which brings me to my most important question.
Is human creativity still relevant in today’s AI age?
How relevant is human creativity in the face of this technological tsunami that has gripped the world, and brands, of course? This question has been gnawing at the back of my mind since we’ve discovered that AI can possibly do “just about anything” in the realm of creativity.
In the face of technological change, creativity is often held up as a uniquely human quality, less vulnerable to the forces of technological disruption and critical for the future. Indeed, behavioral researchers even call the skill of creativity a human masterpiece.
But today, as we know, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL·E are here to disrupt creative work as we know it. They have the power to alter creativity and, therefore, are popular in advertising creative circles today. And how do they achieve this? They learn from huge datasets and user feedback to create new content in the form of text, images, and audio, or a combination of those.
I’ve tried ChatGPT for my projects. It’s a phenomenal tool. But, as you know, the trick is to give it the correct prompts. So, in my humble opinion, one of the key skills going forward will be “Prompt Engineering.”
Definitely, creative jobs such as writing, designing, and creating images will be largely affected by generative AI.
What I think isn’t clear yet is what kind of impact it will have. In my opinion, I see these possible scenarios unfolding.
1. The advent of AI-assisted innovation
Today, most brands recognize the importance of adopting AI.
With the arrival of generative AI, we’re seeing experiments in creative work. About two years ago, GitHub introduced GitHub Copilot, an AI “pair programmer” that aids humans in writing code. More recently, designers, filmmakers, and advertising execs have started using image generators such as DALL·E 2. These tools don’t require users to be very tech-savvy. In fact, most of these applications are so easy to use that even children with elementary-level verbal skills can create content with them right now. Pretty much everyone can make use of them.
Generative AI, in my opinion, isn’t a threat to people who do creative work. Rather than putting many creators out of work, I believe AI will support us in the work we already perform, simply allowing us to do it with greater speed and efficiency. In this scenario, productivity would rise, reducing the time and effort required to come up with new ideas or content. This should give momentum to the output.
We can already glimpse what such a future holds: with reduced barriers to entry, we can expect many more people to engage in creative work. GitHub’s Copilot doesn’t replace the human writing code, but it does make coding easier for novices, as they can rely on the knowledge embedded within the model and vast reams of data rather than having to learn everything from scratch themselves. If more people learn “prompt engineering” — the skill of asking the machine the right questions — AI will be able to produce very relevant and meaningful content that humans will only need to edit somewhat before they can put it to use.
2. Monopolisation of creativity
A second possible scenario is that unfair algorithmic competition which can affect authentic human creativity. Human writers, producers, and creators are now drowned out by a tsunami of algorithmically generated content, with some talented creators even opting out of the market. If that happens, there’s a threat to producing new original ideas.
A nascent version of this scenario might already be happening. For example, recent lawsuits against prominent generative AI platforms allege copyright infringement on a massive scale. What makes this issue even more fraught is that intellectual-property laws have not caught up with the technological progress made in the field of AI research. This can hugely impact the work that’s being produced, and thereby have an impact on human creativity.
Moreover, cheaply made generative AI undercuts authentic human content, and there’s a real risk that innovation will slow down over time as humans make less and less new art and content. Creators are already in intense competition for human attention spans, and this kind of competition — and pressure — will only rise further if there is unlimited content on demand.
3. “Human-made” will be at a premium
Another scenario that might emerge is that people will begin to value authentic creativity more again and may be willing to pay a premium for it. While generative models demonstrate remarkable, they’re frequently producing text that sounds legitimate but is riddled with factual errors and erroneous logic. For obvious reasons, humans might demand greater accuracy from their content providers, and therefore may start to rely more on trusted human sources rather than machine-generated information.
Also, the uniqueness of human creativity reflecting social and cultural context, both across borders and through time will become important leverage. Culture changes much more quickly than generative algorithms can be trained, so humans maintain a dynamism that algorithms cannot compete against. In fact, it is likely that humans should retain the ability to make significant leaps of creativity, even if algorithmic capabilities improve incrementally.
Going forward, generative AI will be a major disruptor of our creative work. Businesses and the world at large will show little patience to apply the new emerging technologies to efficiently promote our level of productivity and content generation. So, be prepared to invest significant time and effort to master the art of creativity in a world dominated by generative AI.
It was Einstein who said that creativity is intelligence having fun. Creative work brings meaning and emotion to the lives of humans. From that lens, we will be responsible to decide how much of the creative work will be done by AI, and how much by humans. Finding the balance here will be an important challenge, but will also be the key for a balanced co-existence.
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Jayant Savant is an Independent Creative Director, who has created noteworthy campaigns for brands across India, Bangladesh, Nepal & Turkiye.
