Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the creative world by storm.
We’re seeing this takeover happen in real-time. AI-powered programs like ChatGPT, Design.ai, and Filmora are being incorporated into the design process of multiple creatives.
These tools have evolved to create and design almost everything, from logo designs to sound bytes, captions to copies. And they all do it in a fraction of the time it takes a human.
Are we seeing a world where AI will be an indispensable tool of all designers and artists? We think so. Here’s why:
Benefits of Using AI in the Creative Process
Let’s start with the good part and cover the many benefits of using AI in the creative process.
Saves Time
The biggest benefit of AI is it helps save time. Creators can use AI tools to automate tedious, time-consuming tasks, like adding a filter to a photo or spell checking an article.
Increases Productivity
The more time AI tools help you save by automating certain tasks, the more productive you will ultimately be.
Promotes Consistency and Accuracy
AI can repeat the same task over and over without getting tired or frustrated. This means that the results will be consistent and accurate every time.
Sparks Inspiration and New Ideas
Some creators use AI to spark inspiration or help them explore new ideas that they might never have thought of before. This can breathe new life into a current or incubating project.
Cost Effectiveness
Many AI programs are either free or accessible via a small monthly subscription fee. This means that creators have access to all sorts of incredible tools to enhance their craft for only a small monetary investment. It pays for itself.
Examples of AI and Machine Learning in the Creative Process
Here are some examples of how some artists and designers are already using AI and machine learning to create new works.
Music Composition
AI programs like Soundraw, Boomy, and AIVA help artists compose entire music tracks in your desired genre from a few text prompts and filters.
Graphic Design
Venngage, Design.ai and Canva are popular websites that offer AI-powered tools to help you generate stunning graphic designs for websites, video thumbnails, social media posts, flyers, t-shirts, and more.
Writing and Content Creation
The realm of content creation and writing has witnessed a significant transformation with the emergence of content automation.
ChatGPT, Shopia, EssayWriter and Jasper Ai, which you may have heard about in the news, will automatically generate text for everything from social media captions to blog posts to essays to meal plans. All you need to do is enter a prompt.
Film and Video Production
For those who wish they could automate aspects of their film and video production process, there’s an AI for that as well. A video editor like Riverside cuts down on editing tasks by automatically managing transcriptions, titles, audio-video tracks, and video content summaries, making the entire production workflow more efficient.
Tips for Managing AI Tools in the Creative Process
To make the most out of AI tools for your creative process, follow these tips for managing them.
Understand the Limitations of AI
Artificial intelligence may seem like an all-powerful entity, but it’s not. Its greatest limitation is that it relies on the quantity and quality of the data and the prompts that it’s given. Furthermore, it’s still a computer; it doesn’t have human intuition or emotions to guide its outputs.
Select the Right AI Tool for the Task
Not every AI tool is the same. Canva doesn’t perform the same function as ChatGPT. This means that creators will have to find the right AI software to meet their needs.
Ensure Data Privacy and Security
With new technology comes new threats to personal privacy. Ensure that whichever AI program you’re using has a policy for keeping your personal data and the assets you create with AI tools secure. They shouldn’t share them with third parties.
Incorporate Human Creativity and Intuition
AI is meant to help your creative process, not take it over. Incorporate your unique human creativity and intuition into all the assets you generate using AI. Otherwise, you run the risk of producing generic, soulless work devoid of real genius. Additionally, you can use RLHF so that AI can complement your creative vision, enhancing rather than replacing it.
Potential Risks and Challenges of Using AI in the Creative Process
Just as there are benefits to using AI, there are also potential risks and challenges. Let’s go over the top ones now.
Ethical Concerns
We mentioned that AI runs on data. But where is that data coming from?
In many cases, it’s coming from the internet at large, meaning it’s being sourced from other people’s original works. That’s a serious ethical issue that has already impacted hundreds if not thousands of creators in all types of industries.
Job Displacement
Job displacement caused by AI integration is a legitimate concern. This is backed by experts from Goldman Sachs, who estimate that around 300 million jobs will become automated by the latest wave of AI advancements.
Lack of Human Touch and Emotion
While it’s getting better at sounding more human, AI still isn’t fully capable of replicating human touch and emotion. In a way, though, this could be a benefit rather than a drawback since it means that humans will always be needed to create and design.
Future of AI and the Creative Process
We know what the current creative landscape looks like with AI. What about the future?
Advancements in AI Technology
The fact is that AI is only going to continue to advance. This is a good thing in some respects, as it will lead to the creation of more sophisticated tools with which designers can automate even more aspects of their creative process more efficiently.
On the flip side, unless more is done to regulate AI’s mining of original works, and so it’s worth checking for plagiarism in any generated results, more and more creators will find themselves at risk for having their assets stolen or reused.
Integration of AI in More Creative Fields
As we said at the beginning of the article, graphic design, writing, and video editing is just a small taste of what AI can currently accomplish. In the future, its footprint will encompass even more creative fields. We can already see this through AI in advertising. From using AI to create interactive ads, the rise of AR/VR, and using AI to predict customer behavior to create targeted ads, AI will definitely make the marketing world evolve further.
The Role of Humans in the Creative Process
It’s clear that as AI grows more sophisticated, humans will have to take a more active role in the creative process. They will need to learn how to manage AI tools and monitor its outputs, so that their innate artistry and human touch is more evident.
In other words, every human will need to become an expert not just in detecting AI, but in controlling it.
Conclusion
Machine learning AI is both exciting and frightening. Exciting because it can make the creative process so much easier, but frightening because it can take over a project or even replace creators altogether.
The key to creating a space for AI in the creative process is to think of it as a tool, not a creator in and of itself. This is essential to help us stay responsible and not inadvertently steal from or copy other designers’ hard work.
Like any other technology, AI can be used to help humans in every aspect of life, including content and asset creation. We just have to remember that the human touch and the human imagination are what make designers designers.
To get a human to design your work, feel free to use traditional but tried-and-tested tools such as Adobe. Or you can outsource these professionals from crowdsourcing platforms such as DesignCrowd.
Written by DesignCrowd on Wednesday, May 17, 2023
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.