AI-generated Content: Boon Or Bane For Creativity?

Yousuf Rangoonwala Mar 16, 2024

AI is imagination brought to life or executed, for anyone, anywhere and at a much faster pace, than human beings have produced, so far.

You will hear, that AI is complicated, AI is powerful and AI is limitless. It’s true, except for the first trait, written in the previous sentence. The reality is, that AI is simple and it is getting simpler. So, any person’s 'what if' within a creative journey, has an answer today. It begins with a ‘prompt’ or ‘command’ (dangerous vocabulary for human beings, because it implies outsourcing tasks to a butler, rather than using AI as a competitive friend who pushes us to do better), but does not require a special language like HTML or coding did. It's as easy as ordering a drink at a restaurant or simply communicating what you want and it is given to you in a few minutes, or maybe a few hours.

AI-generated Content Vs Human Intervention

Through this ease to which technology is constantly moving, AI-generated content has created waves which include deepfakes (convincingly altered videos and pictures that only a person whom it is about, or a sharp tech forensic expert can identify as fraud), articles and news stories for media outlets; chatbots designed for customer service and engagement on websites, personal content recommendations on OTT apps like Netflix and APV and others; music and art, creativity that mimics human artists and virtual influencers on social media platforms who engage audiences with nearly authentic content. The latest is AI girlfriends and boyfriends (we are not kidding).

With all of this content generated or executed, the thinking is still human. That's why it is a boon for creativity. Creativity is not going away anywhere. It can only be grown through AI. But, while AI will help our imagination sail further than ever before, it will limit our learning of skills or execution, and hence, deprive an entire generation of the critical ability of 'doing'.

Pressing Painpoints

This is simply because human beings can now be satisfied with 'thinking' and let AI 'do' or 'execute'. This is dangerous because as we know of the Neanderthals, over-optimising our brains or intelligence will only lead us to our downfall. As a result, it is bound to make creators feel ‘incomplete’ since we are used to executing our own creativity. E.g.: what would you call a designer who can think, but can’t design and has MidJourney implement his thoughts for him?

In such scenarios, there could be mental health issues for creative folks because they could feel less useful or incomplete in life. As creative people, a lot of our work has a part of us - it's personal, not just professional. Who we are, or what we are trying to discover within ourselves influences the kind of work we do.

Of course, we can recognise biases and eliminate them, but the neural connections that happen within our minds can’t be fully understood (it’s an enigma), yet they affect what we make. AI implies that work doesn’t have to 'bear the stamp of the maker' because the thinker and maker will be separate. That might be tough to accept.

With AI, it’s evident that the effort in executing content will get very low, which will mean, more time to think. Less time for doing won’t mean that the value of the thinking has gone down, or the value of execution will be cheaper. People will pay for more creativity, that’s all.

AI-generated content does create questions regarding IP rights and ownership. For instance, who owns the rights to creative assets produced by an algorithm? Should AI be credited as a co-creator alongside the human being who offered the ‘commands’, and should credit be given to the programmer of the AI too? So, clear guidelines and regulations for the use of AI with creative tasks will be required.

Effectively, I can say that to make AI a boon for creativity, our mentality towards AI-generated content will need to change, and we need to be aware that we are moving to times where we will stop becoming 'doers', which is a mountainous risk, for the future of humanity. So, maybe we will call AI-created work human thought AI executed.