Straddling AI & Creativity
Lets visit our reliable well of stories- the world of Generative AI.
There has been a bit of a flutter in the UK, when The Telegraph reported that ITV will use AI to come up with programme ideas. The broadcaster is looking for “an expert who can use AI to help create material for TV shows, films, and digital-first content”, using generative AI technology to help with “character development” and “ideation”.
For many, the instinctive reaction to this is to bemoan the death of creativity and herald the dumbification of creative processes. The Guardian amusingly calls it the "worst idea since monkey tennis” and “quickest way for the medium to stagnate to death”; a redditer said “If the quality improves we will know they are using AI”; other industry folk’s reactions have included words like “depressing”, “disturbing” and “dustbins”.
Ok, I made up the last word, but the alliteration was fun.
Generative AI has tempted many in the wider media space with all the the potential it has. ITV just seems to be the first to raise its hand, “Yup, we’re going to go for it”. What exactly they hope to achieve, how much they feel this will progress or elevate their content strategy, remains to be seen. For now, expect some follow up comments around “enhancing human potential” and “AI is merely a tool”.
While on this- Meta has teamed up with Blumhouse Productions, the very successful (and largely horror) Hollywood company behind "The Purge" and "Get Out," to put its new generative AI video model 'Movie Gen' to the test.
To actually see some of this generation in action go to Runway, the video-focused artificial intelligence research firm. It released Gen:48, a showcase of AI- generated pieces, with ‘winners’. They are mostly very short, so go on- have a look and see what you make of them.
On the flip side, here are some oddities from Gen AI. Ted Gioia says Google now thinks Beethoven looks like Mr Bean. Cute little baby peacocks waded in, because recent searches for images of these little fellas threw up (pun unintended) some four real images out of 15- the rest was just AI muddying the pool.
You could say these are just the early days in Gen AI and such aberrations, numerous though they are, will settle down soon enough. You could also say that these are early days in Gen AI and such aberrations are just a peek into the bottomless pit of artificial slop that will suck in all our online lives.
Hello, Emma.
Yet, amazingly, in the rush to be ahead of the curve and “with it”, organisations are happy to launch utterly undercooked AI initiatives.
Take this, from the German National Tourist Board, no less. Emma is (unabashedly) “an AI travel influencer”, billed as an “innovative, interactive brand ambassador” created to convince travelers to visit Germany. While she is apparently more a chatbot than anything else, the pitch seems to be that she is the first of other ‘influencers’ planned, and is- of course- on Instagram. I’m not clear why those promoting tourism will want to do so with unreal visuals- fake German backgrounds and settings behind a fake German girl, really? Hmmm. Forbes has a good report here.
Look, lets put aside any inherent reservations you & I might have with gen-AI. What boggles my mind is that in the rush to ride this bandwagon, entire organisations are fine to put forward material that looks woefully amateur; creations probably only slightly better than the late night prompt experiments in some recess of the interwebs by user @machinemakethaman. It reminds me of these awful AI generated ads from Singapore’s Ministry of Finance some months ago.
For everyone who worries that there is going to be a deluge of AI-generated cringe, practice your cringing with these exhibits, because it is a gallery that promises to get depressingly long.
Meanwhile, lawsuits continue thick & fast in this space.
Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal are suing Perplexity for copyright infringement. Perplexity - if you haven’t heard of it- calls itself an “AI-powered Swiss Army Knife for information discovery and curiosity.”
In Hollywood, the producers behind ‘Blade Runner 2049’ have sued Elon Musk’s Tesla & Warner Bros. Discovery. Pray why? It alleges Tesla, in a deal with WBD, fed images from the movie into an AI image generator to create unlicensed promotional materials around the launch of Tesla’s Robotaxi.
I wonder what Philip K Dick would have had to say about all of this. Maybe, “see, I told you”?