“I spent about 80 hours adding words like richness and splendor.”

The digital art ‘Space Opera Theater, Théâtre D’opéra Spatial’, completed using the generative AI program ‘MidJourney’ that turns text into images, won the Colorado State Fair in August. Artists were furious, and the creator of the work claimed in interviews with the media that the AI program was a ‘tool’ for creating new art, as he attempted to continuously develop the tone and manner from the initial image of a ‘Victorian woman in a space helmet’ more than 900 times.

According to a report released in 2013 by the Oxford Internet Institute, a research institute under the University of Oxford, the professions least threatened by AI were artistic and creative works such as painting and writing. However, earlier this month, GPT-3 wrote an article for New York magazine depicting the landscape of Donald Trump's 2024 presidential debate, and the generative AI startup service 'Consensus' provides a sequential list of conclusions from scientific papers worldwide, including the number of citations, in a matter of seconds in response to the author's questions.

In my case, the actual writing time usually takes less than half of the total work time, and most of the time is spent reading to figure out what can be put in a limited space and to determine the overall structure and important content. The above examples have made it possible to automate certain tasks that have historically been considered part of human creative processes, leading me to agree with the argument that creativity may no longer be the sole symbol of humanness. Of course, some might say that human intervention is still absolute and that artificial intelligence simply does what it is told. However, in a world where technology is more abundant and expanding faster than ever before, and where ethics are lacking, such stories are difficult to give much meaning to.

Sociologist Kim Moon-jo, honorary professor at Korea University, pointed out that in the digital age, humans are filled with attempts to pursue aspirations that transcend physical, material, and normative limits, making de-authenticity, the departure from humanism and truth, the direction of the times. We are already familiar with deepfake technology with the faces of celebrities in pornography, fake news on YouTube for views, and the compulsion for true news to become an entertaining news show. Furthermore, generative AI technology will accelerate the democratization of culture, which is becoming more concrete after the ability to easily capture and distribute everything through smartphones and social media.

So, what are the points that human creativity should consider to achieve differentiation in the market? Especially in the art or advertising and media content production industry, which is a sector where creators compete based on the results of their creativity, where can they find their own competitive edge compared to these generative AI programs?

First, focus on rich perspectives on the real world. Style has historically been a unique characteristic of artists. Even if someone writes to a generative AI program to implement Leonardo da Vinci's style, this means that the work will be classified as a derivative work influenced by the existing artist's style to the audience. Also, it is worth noting that the results of generative AI programs such as the aforementioned ‘Space Opera’ or ‘The Spiderman in Roman Times’ created by DALL-E can be interesting, but they show a sense of existential loss in the surreal direction.

A consistent and clear unique style of the creator stems from their own perspective on the world, and in this sense, it is necessary to refer to the ‘discordance frame’ that can be applied in the metaverse era. This makes it possible to understand both the popularity of omakase, a consumption pattern that is prevalent among the 2030 generation, and the popularity of the no-spending challenge, which contrasts with it, which cannot be explained by conventional sociological perspectives of poverty and inequality. Looking at aging as a discordance between birth and death, and polarization as a discordance between growth and distribution, it is useful because it intuitively helps to understand that ‘harmony’ between them is closer to a solution.

Second, value the process. In the world of current generative AI technology where commands are given in text, the creator's choice of what to write becomes the core technology. Showing the creator's proficiency in the process of how someone reached a result, and the amount of output during that process, can become the core of competitiveness. Related technology companies are likely to develop their own languages and systems to enable more refined control when writing prompts. In the future, creators who will use generative AI programs in their work, or creators who work in traditional ways, should all consider ways to incorporate and reveal richer insights into ‘each production process’ rather than just the results. The public will discover that the meaning they have confirmed is not simply fun, but a connection to their own lives, and this will help them to mutually confirm and determine the value of the ‘result’.

Despite the current era of contraction management, investment in generative AI technology companies for commercial commercialization continues to grow rapidly. The growth of the digital camera market and the rapid technological advancement of smartphone cameras have made the domain of so-called video production professionals in the advertising and film industries, which had been previously robust, easily accessible to ordinary people. Brands that have invested in Jasper, which writes advertising copy, are increasing, and the results of image synthesis programs such as Lensa AI have already filled a considerable portion of the walls within social media.

Anthropologist James Leach, in his book on the cultural customs and beliefs of the Rai people who live on the north coast of Papua New Guinea,'Creativity exists to control people, not things'In the end, creators must remember that they stand on the path to inspire audiences and help them find meaning in life through their work, and to bring about emotional and behavioral changes in the public.

*This article is a reprint of the article published on December 27, 2022 inElectronic Newspaper Column.

References

He used AI to win a fine-arts competition. Was it cheating?

That AI Chatbot Wrote a Pretty Decent New York Article

AI experts are increasingly afraid of what they’re creating

"The future will be an era of new civilization with mixed reality and hybrid humans"

How to study modern society?

At play with DALL-E 2: fieldnotes from the algorithm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠