Technologies have evolved with a simple motive: Either to make the process simpler or to achieve what has otherwise been impossible for humans. It has been serving its purpose and allowing human minds to leave the boring, repetitive tasks in the hands of machines and AI; more specifically Creative AI.
So far, it was never thought that technology could create or be present in the creative industry which today is being constantly challenged with all the recent success in the AI creative space.
When a machine exhibits full human intelligence, it is referred to as strong AI or general AI. AI that has been restricted to domains to work on specific tasks are called narrow AI. Most recent AI programs have been based on Machine Learning which is largely date driven. Today AI has learnt human behaviour, patterns, languages and the human nuances in each of them. ChatGPT is making the big noise, by scarily identifying or understanding human queries and responding back in the same way as well, gaining 100 million users in two months. While some regard it as no big feat, it is just highlighting how in the last 5 years AI has gone from automating repetitive tasks to writing a whole short film and creating images and designs with a string of simple keywords.
Creative AI? Friend or Foe?
“Where AI is the simulation of intelligence in machines, Creative AI is the simulation of creativity in machines." -Ed Newton-Rex
For long machines and creativity have been considered as oxymorons, as creativity has been an entirely human act. Now we have AI editing images, writing scripts and even creating trailers for movies! Naturally it raises concerns like, how much will AI replace humans or will it completely replace humans.
How is creative AI helpful?
Creative AI can help in enhancing and speeding up the process. All the data analysing, research and corrections can be improved with AI involved. This leaves more time and energy for brainstorming, ideation and visualizing.
Personalization can be achieved with AI creating accurate content, suiting the preference of the user after studying and analysing human behaviour.
With the power of AI and machine learning, human understanding and creation can be limitless. It can enhance collaboration amongst artists and help them explore more themes and inspiration.
Let's take a look at how advanced AI in creativity is:
Midjourney
Midjourney is an independent research lab that produces an artificial intelligence program under the same name that creates images from textual descriptions, similar to OpenAI's DALL-E and Stable Diffusion.
It operates in discord and you can generate 25 images after which you will need to subscribe. You can type in your request and describe the image and then upscale whichever version you like the best.
Dall-E 2
Dall-E 2 is an AI system that can create realistic images from a description in natural language. It can create images from descriptions, expand the composition of the image, edit and repurpose an already existing image.
The AI system has familiarized itself with all the images of a given keyword, and also understands the relation between the given keywords to create realistic and accurate images with 4x higher resolution.
Jasper.ai
Jasper is the generative AI platform for business that helps create content tailored for different brands 10X faster. It enables individuals and teams to leverage AI to scale content strategies.
It can write long form content like blog posts, emails and stories, which are SEO optimized as well.
Create ads, copy and creatives for advertising campaigns and social media.
Can help business and companies to scale.
AI has been in the music industry for a very long time, yes we’re talking about auto-tune. But it is not just that. In March 2020, the AI-powered music software Osmose won a Grammy award for Best Immersive Audio Album. Osmose was created by the French artist and researcher Jean-Michel Jarre and uses AI algorithms to generate music that adapts in real-time to a user's movements and gestures.
Sony flow has also released a song “Daddy’s Car” which is entirely composed by AI. The algorithm was able to create a new song in the style of the Beatles, which was then arranged and produced by human musicians.
We have just scratched the surface of creative AI’s role in these spaces. There are films, videos and writing where AI is gaining momentum and being more involved in the creative process. Even though AI has raised concerns regarding it taking over human jobs, there is an accepted notion that AI tools work better as assistants in areas such as image search, editing, etc..
Creative AI: your support friend
While creative AI has impressed many and shown promising potential, it is unlikely that it will take over humans entirely in the near future. There are quite a few reasons why. Firstly, art and creation has been a part of the human experience since the beginning of the world we know. While machines can create and learn art, it is human nature to understand art.
Creativity often arises from personal histories, emotions, and unique perspectives on the world. AI algorithms, on the other hand, do not have this same level of personal experience, and therefore may not be able to fully capture the depth and complexity of human creativity.
Secondly, the originality in AI art is quite a hot topic for discussion. AI machines draw inspiration from other existing artforms and other data that has been fed to them, but it can never create from scratch since it does not have a critical aspect of creativity, Imagination.
AI creativity cannot match human creativity, and it cannot do so in the near future at least. While machines can make it quicker, replicate it exactly down to the last detail, and provide insightful analysis and results, the human mind should not be underestimated. Art and creativity are subjective fields that rely on interpretation. Creating is a personal journey that coloured and painted by the original thoughts and understandings of a human. Do not worry, machines are not coming for your jobs.