I think it best to start this article by noting my personal bias. I am not overly excited about AI. I am not necessarily against it, but I think it’s become a catch-all phrase used to describe a lot of things that aren’t AI. I also think that the old Jurassic Park quote of “They were so excited to build it, they didn’t stop to think if they should” may also apply to some AI concepts being thrown about.
But I thought I should do my best to have an open mind as I was invited to Sydney to attend a presentation from AMD, HP, Microsoft and BlackMagic Design looking at AI in the creative field. My fellow attendees seemed to be a mix of media and some folks from the creative field.
The evening started with four “demo stations” where we were broken up into small groups and given short demos of some of the features of various hardware and software solutions. The folks from HP were showcasing HP companion which is kind of like an AI system that works in conjunction with the Microsoft operating system on the computer. It can scan a document and create a summary for you or help you find a setting that you want to change but can’t remember where the button is. That second one is certainly something I could find useful.
We also had a quick demo of Topaz Labs. For those who may not be aware, Topaz Labs is a suite of apps that use “AI” to help you sharpen older or low resolution images and videos. It does more than sharpen but imagine you’re editing a documentary and have archival footage that was shot at a lower resolution and is a bit meh or even very grainy and soft. This application can make it look like it was shot with a modern camera and help it “fit” better in your edit. They have one for photos and one for videos. The demo was very impressive; having said that, I’ve used Topaz in the past and whilst it can be very impressive the real world result can be a bit hit and miss.
This also brings in my first “well technically” thought. I understand why folks want to call it AI because everything is AI at the moment. But I would rather call what Topaz Labs does “machine learning”. It has been taught what a “good image” looks like and then makes grainy images look better. It’s more of a “if this than that” rather than artificial intelligence.
By this logic could you call autofocus on camera AI? I think a lot of AI is not that dissimilar to a machine performing tasks. It’s amazing tasks and it’s doing it very quickly, but it’s not “intelligent” It’s only doing what we told it to do.
(I know I am fighting a losing battle with that argument and the ship has kinda sailed on the term AI, so I’ll leave it, but wanted to mention that at least once in this article.)
There were also demos of tracking in DaVinci Resolve in order to apply effects and changes to only a person’s face in a video or even just to elements of their face as well as a demo showing how you can create images in Microsoft Paint – now that’s come a bit a of ways since I used it last in the 90s. Finally we watched a demo of image creation being done on device; this of course showing off the power of the AMD hardware side of things here.
The demos where followed by an on stage presentation. Keynote style.
We heard really interesting things from the folks from AMD, HP, Microsoft as well as a filmmaker, Goldie Soetianto. A quick disclosure: I’ve worked with Goldie in the past and she’s fantastic. If you like a bit of fantasy comedy, you should totally check out the YouTube channel that she and her partner produce at Deerstalker pictures.
The presentation was overall really interesting – they talked about how AMD tech was being used in not just creative spaces, but also in science, industry and healthcare. They included some really well-produced videos about how AI is being used in different fields.
The evening finished off with a really fascinating Q&A with all the presenters and the director of one of the videos we saw, which was a promo AMD created with Goldie.
But let’s get to the crux of this event. To be frank, I think the entire evening could be summed up as a group of technology companies coming to a group of creatives and saying “Don’t worry AI isn’t going to put you out of work” and then proceed to show us how AI is going to put us out of work.
There is more to it than that, but that was what was going through my mind more than once during the presentations. We heard how AI could be like an personal assistant for those who can’t afford one and how AI can help make things far more cost effective. That’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it? Cost effective is all well and good as long as you aren’t the cost that is effectively being cut.
I do have to give credit to the team from AMD. They didn’t shy away from the AI generated elephant in the room. I got the impression that they are acutely aware of how there is a decent amount of concern, and I may even go as far as to say fear, in the creative industry at the moment about AI.
They said things like “Creativity comes from the soul, it doesn’t come from algorithms” and “AI doesn’t do stuff. We do stuff with AI.” At least they are trying to bring us along on this journey and not leave us behind. I do appreciate that they are aware of the how a great many of us in the creative fields are concerned about what AI could represent for us.
My view/hope about AI going forward is, well, here we go. I think there is no doubt that it can and will replace people’s jobs. Any task that is repetitive and or involves seeing patterns could probably be replaced by AI. On the surface a lot of those tasks would seem like entry level tasks. But I would argue that a part of being creative is seeing patterns and using those in your creativity, so that’s a concern for me.
Another concern is that many of these repetitive tasks are how a lot of us got our starts in the industry. If those entry level tasks are replaced by AI, then how does one get a job as an apprentice or a runner or a PA or any other job that helps you get experience and a “foot in the door”?
I also wonder about how this may effect neurodiverse people who often thrive in the workplace when given repetitive tasks that involve finding patterns as they can be really good at those tasks that others may find boring.
The other side is that AI can help a lot of us. Those of us who are independent or smaller businesses who can’t and never will afford a personal assistant or book keeper etc. AI could do the boring tasks for us and therefore give us more time to focus on the creative “fun” stuff we started the business to do in the first place.
Where a lot of creatives are concerned are areas where it looks like the bean counters at companies think they can replace us with AI. So for example AI could write scripts for movies, AI could generate video so no need for film crews on set anymore, AI could generate actors.
I think/hope those things will and won’t happen. At least for now, I don’t think AI is that good yet. It’s very good and very impressive, but it’s still got a long way to go. Even if it gets 90-95% to writing an amazing script or generating a scene, it still won’t be as good as the real thing. And going from my decades of experience with technology, that last 5-10% is really, really, really, hard to get right.
So, I think for folks who are getting started in the industry or work in the entry level areas, it’s going to be tough. I can see how for example an agency with a client who may not have a big budget for a job could think “instead of hiring a person to write this script and a crew to shoot it, we can use AI”. The result would be “ok” but it won’t be as good or creative as if you’d used people. But I can see the argument that if you can’t afford people, you can’t afford people.
If I was being positive about it, maybe this means that companies who may never have commissioned creative work before because they couldn’t afford it, will do more creative things with AI and when they can afford to then hire actual creative people to do the work. They now see the advantage of spending that extra budget to get creative work made by people which is better. I think that may be a stretch, but maybe.
At the end of the day, AI is going to happen. So we are going to have to find a way to work with it.
I will admit again, that I came into the evening with a rather cynical view of AI. Whilst I can’t say I left being converted to thinking “this is great and only good things will come of this”, I do genuinely appreciate that these companies recognise not just the advantages, but also the challenges that these technologies represent and are wanting to have the conversation about how we can all make the best of the transitions and changes that are coming, wether we like it or not.
