Ira Belsky, Artlist cofounder and Co-CEO.
getty
The buzz around generative AI has been building slowly over the last few years until it reached a peak when software like ChatGPT launched for the public. Many see it as a tool that can and will streamline workflows and reduce busy work—which sounds overwhelmingly positive. Meanwhile, its detractors fear that the care and nuance with which they approach the written word is about to become irrelevant.
Artists, writers and musicians are all skeptical about generative AI, and understandably so—there’s an intangible ingredient that goes into a creative’s work, something that’s hard to imagine generative AI can genuinely replicate: human expression. For exactly the same reason that there aren’t crowds of people rushing to buy self-playing guitars, generative AI can’t replace the basic human need for expression. Music, art and the written word are all vehicles to convey a message and express thoughts and share emotions, and no matter how useful generative AI may be, it can’t replace the urge to create.
It’s All About The Story
This feels like an apt moment to look back on history and remember that nothing is ever so black and white. Generative AI is a fairly polarizing innovation, but in many ways, it’s reminiscent of the early days of photography. After seeing photographs for the first time, 19th-century French painter Paul Delaroche announced, “From today, painting is dead.” His reaction was echoed by so many others from the time, much like the panicked responses of some of today’s writers, musicians and artists. Delaroche ended up changing his stance; the camera didn’t replace the painter, it created the photographer. If history can teach us anything, it’s that today’s artists will eventually make peace with generative AI too.
If we look at ChatGPT as an example, it’s an excellent tool for a wide range of technical writing that inherently calls for less of a human perspective. However, as a creator, when it comes to generative AI, there are two options. Like photography, you can use the output as a point of reference from which to base or inspire your creation, or you can make your creation entirely on the platform.
In the latter scenario, given the amount of refining your prompt would require in order to ultimately produce your desired result, the finesse, skill and effort involved would mean that you are still the creator. And so, either way, generative AI is a tool—and a useful one at that—but there is one thing it simply can’t replace.
Empowering The Creators
If everyone used generative AI, without human interference or edits, our world would become increasingly homogenized. But as a creator, you also have a vision. And so, every time you go back into the program to edit your prompt, making it more and more specific, redirecting the AI in the direction you imagined, the final result was entirely manipulated and molded by the person sitting at the keyboard. No matter how you look at it, as the creator, you are in control, and these programs are mere tools.
Additionally, these tools can help embolden aspiring creators to enter into an artistic field that might otherwise have been outside of their capabilities. Someone without any graphic design experience can use Dall-E or similar programs to generate a beautiful image, without having any understanding of color, shape or form.
In today’s creator economy, many creators may be called upon to produce everything in a piece of content—the music, visuals, copywriting, editing and more—all by themselves. Generative AI can be instrumental to broadening a creator’s offering. Every new tool that can empower people to create is an exciting development.
Ultimately, I believe generative AI will be incorporated as a feature in all sorts of products and be useful across a wide range of industries. However, the one thing it won’t replace is the creators themselves, the call to create or the need for unique creations. All of the complexities of the human experience and artistic expression cannot be replicated.
Future Challenges Are Around The Corner
Even though it’s still so new, it’s fairly easy to imagine the use of generative AI as a creative tool in the near future. Governments and regulators will need to understand it quickly to update and create relevant laws and controls. If generative AI pulls from pre-existing content, what happens to copyrights and the complexities of fair use laws?
Can copyrighted works be used to create AI-generated art? Furthermore, can the work produced by generative AI be copyrighted? Musicians, writers and artists harnessing this new technology will be particularly at risk of copyright claims as the law catches up.
That being said, generative AI as a feature within a licensed catalog of music, for example, would be a win-win. The original creator will be fairly credited and compensated for their work, while another creator will be able to use inspiring content to create something new.
A True Creative Mind
Generative AI opens us up to an even greater world of creative possibilities, and once the hype and fear die down, the imagined cinematic worlds it can help build, the stories it can help tell and the music it can help compose will be incredibly exciting. But it will never replace the basic human need to create for creativity’s sake. We are creative by nature, we always have been, and we always will be—every now and then, we simply update our tools.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
