I am not a robot.
Just to be clear before we start- I can spot lampposts in any picture.
It’s getting harder to tell though isn’t it and the march of the robots that AI has caused has sent creatives running into the streets in a Black Monday, Orson Welles style, War of The Worlds panic.
I hear-
“AI is going to take our jobs”.
“AI is the death of creativity”.
AI is all around us, helping us in our daily lives. Machine learning is helping the advancement of medicine, physics, biology, astronomy.
So why are creatives so scared of it?
Technology has always revolutionised creativity, throughout History- from oil paints to the iPhone. It has always changed the game, so why are we so scared of this turn of the wheel?
Maybe because oil paint has never beaten you at chess?
Maybe it’s the Uncanny Valley of something so close to humanity but isn’t?
Maybe because we’ve seen marketing teams eyes light up at the thought of not having to be in awkward meetings feeding back to creatives?
Or maybe we just know we’ve probably not been trying as hard as we could have.
Whatever it is, I think AI is actually the superhero creativity has been looking for- well, perhaps more a super villain, but every Superman needs a Lex Luthor and here it is.
AI is that hot new intern that your boss is obsessed with, the one that makes you think, "shit, I need to start punching above my weight again”. It’s the competition, the arch rival, the City to your United that we’ve needed for so long.
We can’t dial it in anymore- mediocre can be done by a computer now, so we need to make sure we are better. We need to start thinking- “AI couldn’t do that”.
And it’s good to remember, there is so much that AI can’t do.
AI has never looked a human in the eyes, it’s never felt warm when someone laughs at its jokes, it’s never lost anyone, it’s never felt excited about season 3 of The White Lotus, it’s never played army in a playground, it’s never had it’s heart broken or had heart burn, it’s never eaten a Greggs Vegan sausage roll, it’s never thrown up after too much tequila with it’s friend holding back it’s hair, never smelt a flower or farted in a cab. And it never will.
Code can’t feel.
It draws from what is out there all ready. It's brand new second hand.
It can’t, truly, connect with people, draw from collective experience, create new adventures or form lasting relationships.
It can write OK scripts, it can create images, video, music- but it can’t create magic.
Only humans can. And only humans can be touched by magic too.
AI is a great tool, it’s fun, smart and amazing- so lets use it.
It can help us. It can inform us. It can do the dirty work.
Let AI pick up the generic, the metric driven, the churn, the stuff that keeps us in bed in the morning.
Let it do the dishes while the humans create the Michelin star winning main course.
And let it keep chasing us so we push ourselves.
It is time to become 1980’s action heroes with our own robot side kicks and kick some butt.
Let’s move people.
Let’s have some fun.
Let’s make.
Let’s craft.
Let’s be smart.
Let’s be funny.
Let’s make some shit out of paper mache and chicken wire.
Lets make sure AI can’t do this.
The future is ours.
Tony Pipes is a Creative Director and Writer.
