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The world has been impressed by the newest text-to-image technology displays from OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 and Google’s Image. Beautiful and amazingly creative compilations, all generated by artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This is possible because the AI has learned to understand natural language by looking at countless texts and images.
Today’s systems have been trained to generate new images when text is entered alongside images, bringing two seemingly disparate things together in unique ways, much to the delight of viewers. A traditional image, such as an oil painting, can be co-opted to express something new or evoke an entirely different feeling. It’s a new way to create.
Transforming creativity
Imagine that with this AI technology, users no longer have to scroll through tons of image results to find the best content for their needs. In contrast to image search, people create something entirely new, something that has never existed, something that perfectly suits their desires, whims or content direction. All they have to do is type what they want, and the AI will draw images and construct photos as described in the given text, i.e. “Please give me a photo of a restaurant with a sign VentureBeat in the window that is on Mars.” New systems will return these photos.In essence, the system is an AI designer.
This creative power grows exponentially when it is also deployed to make videos from text that describe a situation and mood, and that incorporate virtual actors. Or when text + AI build the music to go with videos and images.
Text-to-video or music technologies are already commercially available and continue to be refined, opening up the potential to add more creative processes. If AI can draw pictures or design, the roles of human designers could evolve. Having brilliant and inspiring ideas would be more important, and the ability to discriminate the best output from the worst will be crucial as drawing skills could be replaced by AI. The less skilled could also develop their own creative products with less effort.
The new creative company
But it’s not just what you can do to be creative, it’s how this technology can be used to influence our world. There are certainly many entertaining or even comforting uses that can enrich our personal lives, but how will AI change creativity in the business world?
For starters, it can dramatically reduce the time, money and resources spent by marketing and advertising teams. New campaigns could be launched in the blink of an eye. AI-powered creativity would enable teams to respond to changing landscape, react to news or trends, or proactively launch products and services in entirely new ways.
Additionally, this content and materials could be easily replicated in multiple languages, using AI to enable businesses to quickly, easily and affordably reach global audiences, further aiding international expansion. These are powerful reasons to invest in AI technology for creative uses.
The evolutionary role of humans
However, the biggest question on many people’s minds is what might the deployment of this technology mean for the role of humans? If they no longer create creativity, are they even needed? I’d say they’re still creating the creative, just with different tools that make it easier and more cost-effective.
In a world where AI systems could enhance creative processes, humans would still be expected to take on higher-level tasks such as developing ideas, giving instructions, evaluating, revising and making final decisions, and would have infinitely more options to its disposition. . They would be in charge of building and defining the elements of the composition but without the burden of assembling it. By using AI tools, productivity AND creativity could increase as people perform various activities more easily.
Potential for misuse
As with any innovative technology, there is the potential for misuse. We’ve all seen how images, hate speech and misinformation have spread on social media – what would AI-generated content do differently? I believe our society can find an ethical consensus to use technology positively, but we have the option to regulate if necessary.
Perhaps a potential problem is the issue of copyright or plagiarism of an applied AI system for creative development. DALL-E 2 was trained on tons of online images and it may return an image very similar to an existing one. Likewise, problems can arise with AI writers, AI music compositions, and even more types of AI-generated algorithms.
Recently, for example, virtual humans with AI-generated voices and faces have become popular worldwide. In such cases, the face or voice of a virtual human can be very similar to the identity of a real human based on large training data.
Apply human rules to AI creations
But, our society has already reached a consensus about plagiarism of writing or composition by humans. For AI, similar guidelines could apply to creators, and if needed, an AI-based plagiarism checker could help review users’ decisions for absolute clarity. Humans are in control. Content creators define the rules for how text, images, video, and voice can be combined; they set the course.
AI for creative uses will be leveraged to elevate brands. As such, the AI providers that make these advancements possible can also be selected based on the types of licensing relationships they have, the volume and quality of images they have access to, the range of voice actors under contract, the capabilities to combine these assets to create unique footprints and more, if more oversight is needed.
And if it doesn’t, new technologies are rapidly being developed that can preserve digital identities and image authenticity. For example, each human voice, each face, is made up of tens of thousands of features. The same goes for images. This makes it very, very difficult to completely replicate them without permission.
Significant research into deep counterfeit detection is already underway. Similarly, researchers and data scientists are able to deconstruct the characteristics of a speaker’s voice to determine whether a single voice was used in a video or audio fragment, or whether a combination of many voices through the strategic and appropriate use of technology.
And researchers are working hard to develop other preventative solutions. The tech industry is learning from past mistakes to safeguard the future, especially when it comes to AI.
We sit on the precipice of a time when creativity can take a giant leap forward. Amazing things will be possible if we only open our human minds to what could be.
Taesu Kim is the CEO of Neosapience.
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