Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making its way into the creative industries, generating everything from visual art to music and even literature. Tools like OpenAI’s DALL-E and JukeBox are offering artists and creators new areas to explore. But with these advancements, the question arises: Does AI enhance creativity, or does it risk replacing the unique qualities of human artistry?
In today’s day and age, AI has taken over lots of industries and made it so much easier and more efficient to do ones job. The same can be said for the creative industries. For example, DALL-E creates detailed images from simple text descriptions, allowing users to visualize their ideas practically in an instant. Similarly, JukeBox composes music by mimicking styles of different musicians, creating new songs that sound like they have been composed by certain artists (OpenAI, 2023). These tools offer exciting possibilities for artists, enabling rapid prototyping, experimentation with new styles, and creative exploration.
However, the rise of AI in creative fields also brings concern. It sparks the question if AI-generated art can bring emotion and depth or if that is something that only human experience can bring in traditional artwork. A different perspective came from a study done by the University of Vienna shows that, contrary to popular belief, people actually do perceive emotions and intentions with art that was generated by a computer (Demmer et al., 2023).
There is also concern that AI could replace human artists, especially in fields like graphic design, stock photography, or music production. These are fields where AI can generate work in just a fraction of time and for much cheaper. Specifically stock images, marketing materials and generic mass-produced works are sectors that are most likely to take a hit (Tremayne-Pengelly, 2023). In marketing, for example, companies are increasingly using AI-generated content for campaigns. That leaves the worry that AI will lead to job displacement for many creators, as AI is able to generate logos, designs and music so quickly.
I think that rather than viewing AI as a threat, it should be seen as a tool that artists can use to lift their creativity. Just like the fact that digital cameras and phone cameras didn’t eliminate paintings, AI should also be used in a way to complement human creativity, not replace it.
References
Demmer, T. R., Kühnapfel, C., Fingerhut, J., & Pelowski, M. (2023). Does an emotional connection to art really require a human artist? Emotion and intentionality responses to AI- versus human-created art and impact on aesthetic experience. Computers in Human Behavior, 148, 107875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107875
OpenAI. (2023). DALL·E: Creating Images from Text. OpenAI. https://openai.com/dall-e-2
Tremayne-Pengelly, A. (2023, 31 augustus). Will A.I. replace artists? Some art insiders think so. Observer. https://observer.com/2023/06/will-a-i-replace-artists-some-art-insiders-think-so/
An interesting study that I recently came across was regarding ads generated using GenAI for Denmark tourism. What they essentially found was that a lot of creative tasks that we relate to being “human” could be easily replicated using GenAI. In a research by Affectiva where they compared a human made advertisement with a GenAI made advertisement, they were able to see that both ads performed almost equally when a focus group was tracked for emotional engagement and smiles. It was also noticed that people did find the GenAI made humor funny and engaged positively with it.
GenAI, as you mentioned thus hold a large capacity for disrupting the creative process and it would be intereting to see what the future holds and how humans will adapt to it.
Alos attaching the link to the study by Affectiva for anyone interested: https://blog.affectiva.com/generative-ai-meets-emotion-ai
Hi Roxi, very interesting blog post. I would rather view it as a threat if I were a musician. Record labels have filed a lot of lawsuits based on copyright infringements by these music AI companies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKEEda_OHj0). Although it might not be as obvious as copying someone’s text, the melody and tone might be similar. GenAI must somehow learn to produce music from existing musicians, so it also makes sense that this overlap could happen. This is an obvious threat to musicians as it directly attacks the human musicians’ target market.
From an economic perspective, AI has another threat. As the variable costs of producing an AI-generated song are virtually zero (information good), it will be hard for real musicians to compete. I am worried that AI-generated songs will just flood the market and the ‘normal’ songs will disappear because it is cheaper and easier to produce music with AI. Also, musicians have a much greater economic incentive as costs are higher (e.g.: record label, studio costs, touring costs, promotion etc.). Only real-life performances cannot be replaced by AI-musicians but maybe holograms, VR and AR-glasses will also make real-life performances by real-life musicians redundant….