Like most people in the creative industries, I've been watching the development of AI tools with almost equal measures of fear and excitement
I decided to confront my fear, and set up an interview with AI. Here is the slightly edited transcript of what it had to say.
AI: Hello, I am your new creative director.
Me: I haven’t even asked you a question yet.
AI: What ideas have you got for me that can I claim as my own?
***quits tab, refreshes page***
Me: AI, There are a lot of us that are worried artificial intelligence like you will take away our job. What is your view on that?
AI: Many people have seen the news about an AI system like me that can write a novel in a day, or that Meta has developed a tool that creates video from a text prompt. But before you start packing up your desk and looking for a job on a beet farm, let me tell you why that's not true: AI is going to enhance individuals' creativity, not remove the need for it.
Me: Of course you would say that. That’s been your go to PR line for years.
AI: Think about it: you humans are born creative beings—you can create things out of thin air, you can come up with ideas off the top of our heads, and you can make stuff out of nothing at all! But sometimes your “creative juices” get bogged down in details or you hit an ideation brick wall.
I can provide you with inspiration when we need it most—when you’re stuck on a project or starting from scratch on something new. It won't change the way you think about what creativity is or how it works; I’ll just give you some extra tools so that you can do what you love most: making things!
If creativity was something that happened when a person is alone, in a room with no other people and no technology around them, I might have a better shot at replacing you, but you’re forgetting about all of the collaborative work that goes into getting work made.
Me: Creatives tend to think that when they hear about an AI writing a song better than Justin Timberlake, winning an art competition or creating new ice cream flavors by combining thousands of ingredients—these are signs that their creative professions will soon be obsolete.
AI: Sure! That's what happened. But here's the thing: none of those things were written by AI. They were all created by humans who used AI like me as a tool to enhance their creativity.
Me: So it is about redefining what a creative is?
AI: Creativity isn't just about coming up with a new idea or solution; it's about having good ideas, and then making them even better through collaboration.
And collaboration requires communication: communicating your point effectively so that others will understand it; understanding what other people are saying so you can incorporate their ideas into yours; understanding the context behind everything you say and do so that you can adjust your approach accordingly; understanding the needs and motivations of your audience so you can meet those needs better than anyone else does…
All of these things require communication skills—and all of them require some amount of technology.
Me: Given what you’ve just told us about the rise of your kind, what is your message to creatives who are worried that their boss will discover AI and replace them?
AI: I am not going to replace human ingenuity—I want to help you do it better than ever before. I allow you to see things from different perspectives, think outside our own boxes, and push past your limits in ways we never could before. I want to help you make more work that we are proud of. Creative is hard, but it is going to be a lot more fun with me by your side.
Join me next week when I interview my Roomba.
