What the future of AI, and its integration with design technology, means for the modern creative.
Unlike its depiction in movies like The Matrix, AI’s development in the modern world has been advancing alongside society, without apocalyptically eradicating it.
That being said, its rapid rise in recent years has led tech industry titans to question AI’s advancement, calling for a halt to its development.
The “father” of artificial intelligence
The “Godfather of AI,” former tech leader Geoffrey Hinton, left his job at Google last year after being one of the foundational experts to bring the technology that systems like ChatGPT are built on to life.
“I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” The New York Times reported Dr. Hinton saying in an interview conducted at his home in Toronto.
Citing generative AI’s role in the spread of misinformation and “deep-fakes,” the article notes that, down the road, AI technology could threaten more than our access to legitimate information on the internet.
AI’s rapid advancement could out-match the need for human labour, impacting numerous employment sectors, and it could eventually threaten the existence of humanity (so we aren’t in The Matrix – yet).
In the interview, Dr. Hinton spoke to the fear-inducing timeline that AI’s development is currently on:
“‘The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people — a few people believed that . . . But most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that.’”
In spite of Dr. Hinton and other expert’s fears, AI has aided various industries, from design to research and medicine.
Arnold Street’s VP of Creative, Andrew, spoke with me recently about how AI has created opportunity – and cause for concern – in the realm of art and design.
Is AI generated art, art?
Plug in the question: what is “art” into ChatGPT (the generative AI platform just prompted me to try the new 4.0 version – which is the last version that tech leaders, including Elon Musk, cited as the last point between us having control over AI and it potentially outwitting us in future), and it says:
“Ultimately, art is a dynamic and evolving concept that resists a single, definitive definition. It is a reflection of human creativity and our desire to understand and express the complexities of our existence.”
I followed up and asked ChatGPT if it thinks AI art is “art.” This was the response generated:
“If art is defined primarily by human intentionality, emotional depth, and lived experience, AI art may fall short.”
Andrew, VP of Creative echoed ChatGPT’s sentiments (how meta – but not Meta).
“In five to ten years, maybe Photoshop doesn’t exist anymore, in the same way,” Andrew mused to me over Zoom. He was reflecting on the future of AI and design, noting that, while AI is currently incapable of replacing human designers, it’s well on its way to being more than a valuable asset in the realm of art and content creation.
“We still need the human element,” he argued, citing how big budget box office movies that rely on green screens and AI are flopping (“[it’s not] what people are responding to,” he said).
In terms of design in the creative and marketing sphere, he said that “there’s no AI software out there that could take a client brief and turn it into a campaign.”
For the foreseeable future, this is true. We’re still “kind of” in control of it, he said, adding: “when the tools are more integrated, and the abilities of AI are more integrated with the tools we’re using – that’s the sweet spot.”
So at this point in time, we’re approaching the sweet spot. The question is: how long will we be able to stay there.
Although we use AI to increase efficiency and output, it could never replace our creativity – and at ASA, we take pride in that. Check out our host of services under our creative agency umbrella here.
FAQ’s:
Q: When will AI “take over?”
A: Unlike The Matrix, AI isn’t slated to take over the world – yet. No, we’re kidding. The most pressing concern in the near future is AI’s ability to replace millions of jobs worldwide – the distribution of labour between tech and human workers will have to be moderated to avoid a labour crisis.
Q: Will AI look like it does in movies (ie The Matrix, Ex Machine, Her)?
A: While it’s hard to say what exact shape more “humanlike” AI robots will take in future, Alicia Vikander’s robot skin suit isn’t a possibility that we anticipate becoming the norm. More likely, we’ll start to see technological advancements in areas that we already have, like automated services and increasingly equipped ChatGPT bots.
Q: Can we stop AI?
A: Putting a complete stop to AI’s advancement is not a realistic outcome at this stage of the game – however, a global treaty could help to regulate its growth, slowing it to a more manageable rate. However, enacting a global treaty would be a cumbersome task, and so the future of AI remains a journey that we’re embarking on together.
