Art meets AI | Inspiration | Applied Arts Canada's voice for visual ...
On the evening of March 21, tech blogger Matt Wolfe was in a state of high excitement. He had just attended the Nvidia GTC conference, where CEO Jenson Huang made some big announcements. Wolfe barely had time to catch his breath before jumping in front of the mic to begin his podcast.
Wolfe breathlessly proclaimed, “Last week was the craziest week I've ever seen.” The blogger was thrilled about the huge announcements from various tech giants, including Open AI, Google, Mid Journey, Microsoft, Stable Diffusion, and more.
Partnership with Adobe and Nvidia
The most interesting news for creatives was the announcement of a partnership between Adobe, Nvidia, Getty Images, Shutterstock, ensuring that their AI image generation would use licensed images only. This partnership addressed the issue of copyright concerns surrounding the images used to train AI models.
Adobe also announced Firefly Beta, a new AI art model, trained on licensed and open-source images. This initiative aimed to compensate artists for allowing the use of their images to train AI models, eliminating future copyright issues.
The Impact of AI on Creatives
The hype around generative AI has sparked both fear and excitement within the creative industry. While fears of automation replacing human jobs exist, there is also excitement about the potential benefits AI can bring to humankind.
As AI capabilities grow, creative firms face the challenge of redefining their value propositions to clients. The speed, volume, and variation of AI output put pressure on these firms to adapt and evolve their business models to integrate AI effectively.
The Call for Ethical AI Development
On March 29th, the New York Times published an open letter urging a moratorium on the development of powerful AI platforms, signed by tech leaders like Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak. The letter raised important questions about the ethical implications of AI development and its potential societal impact.
Some creatives have already experienced negative consequences of AI, such as unauthorized use of their work in AI-generated content. The story of Greg Rutkowski, a gaming illustrator, serves as a cautionary tale of the risks associated with AI's indiscriminate use of online images.
Value of Creativity in the AI Era
Despite the challenges posed by AI, creatives can still add value by dedicating time saved on mundane tasks to more in-depth research and creative pursuits. AI can enable creatives to expand their skill sets and take on higher-level tasks that were once out of reach.
As the creative industry navigates the integration of AI, the role of human creativity and ingenuity remains essential in driving innovation and creating meaningful experiences for audiences.
