AI and Creatives: Best Friends or Enemies?
We have always feared the fateful day that artificial intelligence replaces us, and it seems that for some people that moment is here. With AI’s new innovation to create pictures from text, many creatives believe AI is coming to take their jobs. These platforms create whatever you want by combining complex algorithms with billions of embedded images. You write, they create.
Among these image-generating AI programs, the two most popular ones are Midjourney and DALL-E. Midjourney runs through the messaging platform, Discord, to give users the experience of creating AI images. Meanwhile, DALL-E runs through its own website. Midjourney is simpler than DALL-E since it doesn’t require a detailed description to create exactly what you want.
But, the fear comes from the impact these programs already have on the marketing industry. They allow marketers to turn ideas into a reality within seconds. You no longer need to ask a graphic designer or an artist for a design; you can make it yourself. And some of the impact has been positive. According to an article on AI marketing by Venture Beat, using AI platforms creates a 40% increase in marketing productivity.
The advertising magazine, AdAge, decided to test if this was actually too good to be true by using DALL-E to come up with new branding ideas. AdAge asked DALL-E to create reimagined brand characters. Among the requests were to make Ronald McDonald a modern clown and Wendy’s Wendy an Instagram influencer.
AdAge still wasn’t convinced, so it tested DALL-E again to imagine new products for brands. So, DALL-E delivered Veuve Clicquot bottled water, Croc sneakers, and IKEA real estate. This proves not only can AI be used to update brand characters, but it can also imagine new products.
As you can see, the results are mind-blowingly good. The sky’s the limit when it comes to AI. The ultimate test was set by the women’s fashion and entertainment magazine, Cosmopolitan; they asked DALL-E to create their magazine cover.
A cover that would usually take about a month to do from planning to execution, now took less than an hour to make. If the image was real, it would have cost Cosmopolitan millions in set production. The DALL-E cover saved Cosmopolitan loads of time and money that can now be spent elsewhere.
Reimagined brands, new products, and magazine covers would usually fall as a creative’s job. Now AI can do in seconds what would take them days. How can they compete with machines?
We see AI as a tool for creatives – not a replacement. By using Midjourney or DALL-E, creatives can free up time spent on content creation, mood boards, and strategizing. Because at the end of the day, AI is nothing without a creative mind behind it.
The programs will always need human creativity, since their creations are based on mimics. It is meant to be a creative’s tool – not to take away their job. These programs are supposed to serve as an inspiration by making their creative’s ideas a reality within seconds. Creativity comes from newness and innovation, which cannot come from a machine.
