Generative AI: Imagining a future of AI-dominated creativity

AI-generated media has reached an explosive tipping point. Even before the debut of OpenAI Chat GPT. Electrifying the Internet, the research laboratory attracted the attention of the art and design world Generative AI system DALL-Eallows anyone to create images to their heart’s desire by simply entering a few words or phrases.

In the past months, more than a million users have signed up to use it. dall– O sonand the company is expanding its reach further by offering a API So creators, developers and businesses can integrate this powerful technology and further explore its creative potential. Meanwhile, AI-generated work is disrupting other corners of the cultural landscape. Six figures Creative Portrait Sales Controversies of the Year from 2018 at Christie’s Awards A top prize for AI artwork Compared to emerging artists.

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With the advent of AI creations in the art world’s most advanced fields and the proliferation of user-friendly AI software such as DALL-E 2, The middle journey And Lens Creative production and ownership have been discussed anew, and attempts have been made to provide practical answers to questions previously in the realm of theory: What distinguishes a machine-made painting from a work of art? How do we—as creators, curators, collectors, consumers—assign meaning and value to art? And perhaps most critically, what impact will creative AI technology have on the future of human creativity and artistic expression?

The impermanence of art

As Walter Benjamin wrote. “Give the work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction The modern world’s reproductive and creative technologies separate all art from its primordial, formal, and sacred context, making art editing and copying and reproduction a permanent feature of art, so that in the modern world, Art doesn’t talk anymore. Eternal concepts of beauty and aesthetics but for constant flux and impermanence that are always variable and changeable.

For AI-generated art, this instability is reflected in the fluid, distorted, lo-fi and sometimes disturbing qualities of the works that generative adversarial networks (GANs) produce.

has been, surprisingly, significant Reaction From artists and creators, many of whom argue that creative art is plagiarism and that threatens Humans Artists’ creative agency and livelihoodothers, such as famous designers Jessica Walshare less concerned with such problems: “Any time a tool threatens people’s jobs there’s always going to be a backlash,” says Walsh, “but the reality is that AI is already here. has, and will continue to have, an increasingly large presence in the creative world.”

In the music industry, for example, digital editing has become the norm: musicians love it. Brian eno And Apex Twins Using tape loops and computers to create ambient or generative music gained notoriety in the last few decades, while sampling is a cornerstone of popular modern music genres such as hip-hop, pop and electronic music. In 2022, the best-selling artists in pop music use auto-tune and compression to varying degrees in their music, essentially correcting the organic anomalies of the individual human voice.

Credit where credit is due.

Much of the debate centers on the question of credit and creative authorship: Who is the artist of works generated by algorithms, written by coders and remixed with photo-editing software? While we typically don’t credit the underlying tools used to create — such as Photoshop, specific hardware, Font Foundry or Auto-Tune — this standard may change in advance. Many AI-generated artworks also carry the creator’s “signature” — often a jumbled string of code or text — much like a human artist signs their name to indicate authorship.

The rise of AI-influenced imagery has spurred tech giants such as Adobe, Microsoft And Canva To start featuring their own creative products – and while a massive image hosting site Getty Images Photos have announced. That no AI-generated content will be allowed on its servers, the platform acknowledges that moderation of this policy will rely on users reporting suspected “fake” images.

And so, with this rapid spread of creative AI in the creative and commercial scenes, could we be entering a world where a little editing by AI, like a film photographer editing scans or filters in Lightroom? The use, becomes so common that it is a coercive oppression. Need art production at all? Or, as defenders of creative AI predict, will the technology be empowering for artists, driving creative innovation through increased productivity and access?

Another framework through which we can try to understand or predict the future societal role of AI in the creative industries is the debate over the production and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food. . In the same way that we certify the products we use as organic, or GMO-free, will there ever be a day when we consider our creative works to be fully produced, partially augmented, or zero digital? Would you describe it as developed with technology?

Perhaps the better question is: Will we be able to tell the difference between AI-generated work and human-created art, and will we care? Oh 2017 The Rutgers study It appeared that the majority of participants were unable to distinguish a clear preference for human tasks over AI-generated tasks. Perhaps where taste is concerned, the perceived ability to distinguish AI from human effort can be a mark of refinement and distinction.

Where will creative AI art take us?

If we value creativity and what is inherently human, will we see a day where machine-generated creativity dominates, and purely human-based creativity gains cultural and economic value? be Or, as with the music industry, will the normalization of AI alter the artificial/human creative binary, fundamentally changing consumer preferences and public attitudes toward the production and consumption of art?

In his nearly century-old “Work of Art” essay, Benjamin suggests that it is in the nature of art to transcend the formal boundaries of the technical paradigm in which it was created. In this way, art is not a function of technology, but a creative force behind it, driving innovation and desire that does not yet exist.

Brandon Seiko is the founder and CEO of QZium.