Human Creativity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

A major thread of the discussion was the anxieties posed by AI in how they could instigate massive job cuts in the industry which would in turn lead to increased competition in an already oversaturated market. These anxieties are well founded, considering the historical pattern of technological advancements removing jobs from industries.

The solutions posed to combat this problem were focused on legislation and the potential implementation of an independent body that monitors how technology is released. Whilst legislation moves slower than these tech companies, we have seen recently that the US decided to make people and companies unable to copyright generative art.

This led to another interesting aspect of AI art. It was pointed out that whilst these models can create sophisticated images in a short amount of time, they often do not reflect exactly what you want from them and thus need further human alteration to become something viable. This begs the question, ‘Who made this image’ the model or the human, and ‘How much human creativity needs to be present in AI art for it to be classed as copyrightable’.

The group agreed that the introduction of these technologies within the industry is inevitable, even if legislation later changes how they are used. So, whilst the larger question of who can say they own the images lies in a grey area, the uses of them are ever increasing.

From this, we spoke about the potential skills that need to be developed by creative practitioners to keep up with the movement of the industry: from basic computer literacy and a focus on art direction to the value of creative education. Whilst an intangible skill, the ability to discern what makes images and branding successful is not a universal skill. By leveraging skills that machines cannot replicate (I.e., making well-thought-out decisions based on intended audiences or subjective metrics) we are able to show that generative images are not the end-all be-all.

This discussion covered valuable topics that will become more important as this technology and its uses evolve. Whilst this report cannot touch on all the ethical implications of these technologies, companies will make use of them whilst they are unlegislated and thus this discussion tried to focus on how creatives can better understand the landscape they are about to enter.