How To Not Feel Threatened By AI Platforms As a Creative Professional
In short: flip the script, use the platforms for your benefit, and explore with caution and curiosity.
Here’s why and how:
AI tools and platforms are a massive disruptor in our professional, creative and personal lives. For instance, AI art platforms like Midjourney and DALL-E 2 have garnered raving fans and bitter enemies. Many writers feel threatened by AI tools like ChatGPT, that can quickly and accurately produce content, while photographers, filmmakers and other creatives feel similarly threatened by AI tools that can quickly generate visuals and videos. Freelancers run into issues with some clients, who try to DIY their previously outsourced (to a human being) tasks, and cancel freelance gigs. However understandable their annoyance may be - is it valid? Is AI a threat to creatives? Or is there more to the story? Can AI actually prompt (yes) an invitation to being more distinctive, and flipping the script altogether?
Image of a cat in stained glass, created with AI-support.
Since ChatGPT dropped, a lot (millions!) of people have jumped on the bandwagon of using AI technology to complete tasks that used to be handled by people. This has caused a lot of creative professionals to worry that their skills have become obsolete and their jobs are at risk of being taken over by machines. While AI can do some of the work that used to be done by people, it still can't match the level of creativity and nuance that a human being can bring to a project. So while client annoyance may be valid, AI still can't completely replace human creativity. It will never - ever - replace human originality and identity. So flip the script, nurture originality, and don't get intimidated by some machine, however useful and skillful it may be.
Human leadership is up to you.
The value of human creativity alongside AI is immense. AI can provide insights, data, and automation that can increase efficiency, but the human touch still offers the unique ability to interpret data and create something new. AI can help to make informed decisions, but it's up to the human to decide how this will ultimately impact or shape the project. A personal creative writing style that distinguishes itself from something that is auto-generated, is recognisable to loyal readers and peers. A personal artistic signature in artwork becomes recognisable throughout the years. For instance, if an artist suddenly creates completely different work that looks radically different, it may be the case that they have honed their skills and brought their style to further fruition - or they may have switched to 'a different algorithm'.
Unique input makes the difference.
Plus, AI may be able to craft super informative and well-worded texts, but it doesn't necessarily know the content of what you're trying to convey. For instance, if you're a science writer covering a new innovation that nigh on nobody has written about (because it's THAT new), there is zero source available for any algorithm to get usable input from. This means that AI can provide useful feedback on writing style and readability, but not about the topic that's described in the article. A similar scenario is applicable when an artist decides to team up with AI to create a piece of art: the artist preferably doesn't 'outsource' the whole creative ideation and crafting process, but rather uses AI as a sparring partner in order to discover which route to take during the ideation phase, and during some of the practical stages of the crafting process.
Get entangled with AI as your sparring partner, not a delegated equal.
Using AI as a creative sparring partner allows us to leverage its power to identify potential opportunities, challenge our assumptions, and uncover new ways of thinking and problem solving. AI is an invaluable tool for stimulating creative thought and exploration, while still allowing humans to remain in control of the creative process. For instance, AI tools such as DeepFashion can help designers critically evaluate their work and identify potential improvements, or generate new design concepts by combining elements from existing designs. It can also suggest alternative color palettes for a design, or re-size a design to a different scale, but it cannot create a piece of clothing from scratch that looks like it belongs in a designer's collection. Quality is in the choice, in the identity of the maker, in their craft, and their distinguishable signature.
Build and secure your unique personal human signature in artwork.
In my collection of landscapes that's currently on display at the Neck of the Woods Gallery in Rotterdam (come visit this week - the exhibition has its last day on Saturday 21 January 2023!), I used AI as a sparring partner. I created six landscapes using my sketches, my photography, and my painting drafts. I asked AI for feedback and suggestions, counter-painted and sketched upon its results (printed, painted, sketched), uploaded my work again, and repeated the process until I took back a result that was worth completing. I touched up the final result, and made a large print. The pieces are recognisable as being part of a coherent collection, they carry my creative signature, and tell the story I want them to convey. They turned out very personal pieces, and I feel this is my work. Yes, it was created - partly - entangled with AI. But I took the reins and steered the creative process, and crafted, painted, photographed, edited and touched up the pieces during the process.
One of my pieces on display at the Neck of the Woods Gallery in Rotterdam, December 2022 - January 2023.
One of my pieces on display at the Neck of the Woods Gallery in Rotterdam.
This process of going back and forth from artisanal art to AI and vice versa is quite different from creating art on generative art platforms that many people use by writing a prompt (whilst iterating a result that wasn't created by a human being AT ALL). Generative art without human skill isn't really art, in my opinion. But getting entangled with AI and working with it as a sparring partner, with the goal of creating something based on your uniquely imagined concept (or can be, depending on the end result), very much is.
Personally, I have SO much fun working with AI-powered platforms. They help me take care of menial tasks, but also help me map out storylines for fictional characters in stories. They help me provide feedback on my sketches. Sometimes I blatantly delete the AI's feedback, sometimes I cherish a new perspective. And yes, I also feel supported in my art studio when I get creative feedback from my buddy Al. I sometimes call it 'Al Bundy' (yes, I’m Gen X.).
I understand why Greg Rutkowski is fed up with AI art.
I absolutely, 100% empathise with artist whose signature style was blatantly copied into ‘new’ ‘art’ pieces. For them, this might very well mean that content creators (let’s park the word ‘artist’ in this context for now) actually get art commissions that established, artisanal artists would previously get. One very well-known example of an extremely gifted artist whose style gets copied on a daily basis using AI tools, is Greg Rutkowski. In short: Greg’s work is being copied more than Picasso, and he is not amused. And I understand his take on all this very well. I think there should be a global and profound discussion about licensing, copyright, regulation, prompt generation, business models, and everything related to this. In its core, it has to do with a healthy set of ethical values, and probably enforcement of these value translated into regulation. That’s just my opinion, and you don’t need to agree. However, this matter should be front and center at art schools, colleges, universities, designers, unions, legislation, and more stakeholders. In some sense, I expect artists and content creators to not only want to be successful, but also be a person who doesn’t steal. One might argue that every artist ‘samples’ styles, details, visuals, sounds and things like that (sign of the times, reframing contexts, connecting dots to create a new narrative) and that no artwork or even idea is unique in itself (because it’s derived from something else always), but creating a new context with existing elements is something completely different from blatantly copying someone’s style, and passing it off as one’s own. Anyhow, there should be an in-depth conversation on this on many levels. Now, back to the impact of AI-powered platforms on our emotions.
AI isn’t impressed with your crankiness.
The key to not feeling annoyed or outplayed by AI is to voluntarily get entangled with it, whilst keeping the reins. Steering the process to keep creative quality top notch is a key factor in leveraging AI technology. Getting entangled with AI to explore its potential involves experimenting and learning new ways to apply AI to your work. Maintaining a sense of control during the entangled creative process ensures that the quality of the work remains high. As an artist, it's important to stay aware of developments in AI, and keep any fears at bay. Educating yourself about AI helps you discern what might be a good route for you. In the end, quality stands out if your work resonates with people.
AI dOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANYONE’S crankiness ABOUT ITS EXISTENCE
Artificial intelligence doesn’t care you’re feeling whatever it is you feel. It doesn’t feel anything at all, as we all know.
It can however team up with you, support you, and yes, outsmart you. This is something you could embrace with curiosity, because it can help you if you let it. You can make use of many AI-powered tools and platforms that make your job, missions and life a lot easier.
It’s wise to proceed with caution nevertheless.
Flip the script: don't fear, but instrumentalise
Getting entangled with AI as an experiment (that you may or may not embrace down the line) helps you discover opportunities and possibilities, and you might benefit from outsourcing menial tasks. But this doesn't perhaps eradicate all the annoyance about AI 'taking over' work from freelancers. For example, it's understandable that freelancers get downright angry about clients cancelling writing jobs, because they discovered AI apps that write whole email newsletter sequences, blog articles, and sales pages. I get it - this must be frustrating! But even in this case, consider what the distinctive quality is of freelance writers: their unique input, their recognisable choice of words, and, if they're wise, their resilience in the creative process. Being resilient in the era of AI means not boycotting it, but applying it to your advantage. As an artist, as a freelancer, and as a teacher,
Ways that freelancers flip the fear script on AI
As a freelance writer, you might benefit from AI by using tools that can help you with your research, editing, proofreading and other writing tasks. AI can also help you identify potential opportunities for collaboration and suggest topics for writing. For example, AI-driven tools can help you identify keywords and phrases that are trending in a variety of industries, allowing you to craft content that is relevant and timely. AI-driven tools can also help you with optimising SEO analysis, allowing you to determine which keywords are most effective, and which might improve visibility online. And let’s face it, no AI program can replace your pun-derful human writing.
AI and education: battling the avalanche of AI-generated papers
Where artists and writers have their own issues regarding AI, also teachers have (classrooms full of) battles to fight, when it comes to ensuring their classroom environment's integrity. For example, teachers have to be aware of potential issues with students writing AI-generated papers and submitting them as their own work. Additionally, teachers may have to grapple with students who use AI-generated materials to complete assignments, which may require a different set of teaching strategies to ensure the integrity of the classroom environment. There may already be AI-powered platforms that can check a text for plagiarism (like Mark, and Plag), but there are also tools that let people rewrite plagiarised texts, to counter the analysis, like ReWriteGuru, DupliChecker, and many, many more. This can be rather a predicament. Except of course if teachers approach their assignments radically different. In this day and age, it’s a matter of making a change in teaching style. The question should no longer be 'how can we avoid grading papers that might be plagiarised?', but perhaps rather 'how can we engage students with our lessons, topics and challenges in a way that shows their line of thinking, ideating, experimenting, and creating?', and 'how can we redesign our knowledge retention tests and paper writing prompts into teaching experiences that prove a student's knowledge and skills?'.
When I started designing and facilitating my online courses and blended learning programs about designing online strategy and social media content back in 2009, I applied A New Spring's AI algorithm MemoTrainer, which helped my students to increase their knowledge retention at an increased pace, whilst making them feel good/better about their adaptive learning progress. This helped my students and me enormously, since they felt good about the topics they had already mastered, and got triggered to learning more, whilst experimenting and participating in a more immersive social learning experience. During these experiences (in real life workshops), I facilitated real-time design battles for ideating solutions to pressing problems, using creative thinking methods. Because the students had already learned instructions beforehand using AI algorithms that boosted the necessary information, we could make use of precious time in teams at our on-site location. These workshops helped them boost their creative confidence, following stacking up useful lessons and insights.
AI saved us time, money, and other resources. It provided more confidence, and it gave me more time to design more immersive on-site workshops. Instrumentalising AI made our teaching programs MORE personal, even back in the early 2010s.
Perhaps the real question is…
In a world in which almost anything can be automated or generated, how can we design and create unique and valuable knowledge, education, art and deeper meaning in our everyday lives, in a way that it helps us forward as individuals and as a society? This seems a much more interesting, pro-active question to ask ourselves, than taking on any defensive position. It’s wise to be cautious and to not just cheer on all new bright shiny objects in all things AI - but since it won’t be going away ever again, it would be naïve to disregard the process entirely.