Experts Discuss the Impact of Generative AI on the Creative Industry
On Thursday, October 12th, Solomon Page hosted a panel discussion highlighting the impact of AI on the creative industry. Moderator Brian Hull, VP, Global Creative Labs at IBM/The Weather Company, led the conversation with panelists:
- Robert Redmond, IBM Design Principal, VP of AI Product Design, IBM/The Weather Company
- Alexia Adana, VP, Director of Creative Technology, Edelman
- Michael Francello, Director of Innovation, Shutterstock
- Larry Adams, CEO/Founder, XSTEREOTYPE, Inc.
- Mitali Banerjee, Creative Strategy Lead, Dell Blue
By dismantling myths, identifying current uses, and understanding the future of technology, this informative conversation served as an entry point into comprehending Generative AI. Influencing every aspect of our lives, panelists explored AI’s impact on creative processes, innovation, and storytelling, as well as the challenges and ethical considerations it presents.
Learning from a distinguished panel of experts that have been at the forefront of these developments, let’s recap:
What is Generative AI?
While artificial intelligence has existed for some time, Generative AI is semi-new. As Mitali Banerjee mentioned, it is the next "blank" using artificial intelligence to determine the next "blank". You can replace "blank" with an image, picture, code, or any content created. The difference with Generative AI is that data that goes into determining and predicting may not all be known. Larry Adams added that Generative AI uses past data and creates its own weights and measures to create the next thing. It takes information and decides how important that is to generate a response. While we continue to use Generative AI, we are teaching it to make decisions that in turn get better and better over time.
Redefining Generative AI
Generative AI is new and exciting, but it is still largely dependent on human interaction, and is not merely a technical advancement. AI is a visual form that has been trained on data that perpetuates outdated notions of beauty and biases that exist. Which begs the question of what can we do train the developers, instead of the data? Alexia Adana noted that we can’t change the data, but we can create experiences and make statements through how we use the technology. What you put into it is what you get out of it. Michael Francello added that we do face issues with authenticity. We must encourage human content creation to train Generative AI to create more representative and diverse models. By understanding where these tools fall short, we can also identify how to push them forward.
Navigating Ethical Terrain
Addressing the ethical concerns designers, companies, and the public face when interacting with Generative AI, Robert Redmond highlighted that in present-day, it is a challenge to understand what is being fed into these systems because it is being pulled from so many places. From an ethical perspective, there can be a lot of potential, harmful outcomes. Systems are trained on whatever is available and data will be slightly biased and skewed. Larry Adams added that there is a legislative piece and an ethical piece. We need to train data with different perspectives and educate the public on what it all means. Alexia Adana also added that AI is your co-pilot. It is another tool in the toolbox. We should not be completely reliant on it and should have a human element.
Redundancy Concerns
Acting as an extremely powerful tool, many wonder if their job will be impacted by Generative AI. Mitali Banerjee stated that within this moment, we do not know if it will replace jobs or not. Likely, our jobs will all evolve to incorporate AI into the way we work; however, humans need to review the work created by AI. There is an opportunity for roles to be redundant, but an even greater opportunity for roles to advance even further as well. Michael Francello added that AI will not replace you, but someone who knows it and works with it really well will.
Perpetual Innovation
Moving towards the future, people are consuming; therefore, others are consuming more content than ever before. Michael Francello stated that there is a need to create at the speed of your imagination. AI solves that problem by providing content instantaneously. Larry Adams added that there is an overwhelming need to understand diverse experiences. AI can help automate the process by pulling insights and amplifying what people see. Robert Redmond also mentioned that he is excited about the technical sides of these tools. By taking the data, pushing it into a system, and asking what the system sees, we will be able to pull new insights to make creatively informed decisions.
Based on tangible, real-world experiences, panelists closed out the discussion with their hypotheses on ways that Generative AI may further evolve the creative industries and the ability to concept, create, manage, and deliver well-crafted, effective advertising and experiences.
Thank you to our moderator and team of panelists for contributing. Interested in future AI panel topics? Contact us today.
