Does AI have a future in the creative space?

Ever heard of Lensa? Flick through your Instagram feed and you’ll likely come across digital artwork created through the app.

Perfecting the shape of your nose, outlining your Cupid’s bow, and arching your eyebrow just right, Lensa uses AI technology to create alarmingly accurate digital portraits in the matter of minutes, based on the photos that you upload. Proving popular on social media, the app charges users between $3.99 and $7.99 to produce AI-made portraiture.

Similarly, the newly-introduced AI chatbot, ChatGPT, has been widely talked about in the media, seeing Sky News produce an article with the help of said technology. The publication concluded that ChatGPT provided “a suspiciously sterile impersonation of a genuine newspaper column, rather than a convincing replacement.”

If you’re not familiar, artificial intelligence technology allows machines to learn from experience, training computers to accomplish human-like tasks, and is becoming increasingly popular both in industry and for entertainment purposes. With proficiency in detail-orientated jobs, AI can deliver consistent results and prove useful for data-heavy tasks – but it’s also becoming much more prominent in the creative space.

Evident by apps like Lensa, AI technology boasts a handful of helpful tools for creatives, but it also threatens the risk of removing the complex thought, personality, and individuality from the work of designers and copywriters, as suggested by Sky News.

Our Copywriter, Chloe, weighed in on the future of AI: “For me, the prospect of AI generated copy is a bittersweet one. Yes, it's a great tool to harness when client demands outweigh my capacity, however with the speed of advancing technologies nowadays, it's a little scary.

“The thought that one day a chatbot could perhaps run the risk of me being out of a job is a little daunting. But ultimately, AI copy could never replace authenticity or client communications and quantity will never rise above quality.”

Our Junior Creative, Jess, took a similar stance: “I think AI definitely has its place in the creative field as a starting point for creative concepts or for quick grammar fixes, but I don’t think (at least at this current point in time) there’s any risk of it taking over from an actual human writing copy.

“Whilst AI can make logical assumptions and spit out functional copy within seconds, it lacks the creativity and personality that comes from a copywriter. Do I think AI could effectively write the on-pack description for a paracetamol packet? Absolutely. Do I think AI could have come up with the iconic Volkswagen Beetle ads? Not a chance.”

Coming from a design perspective, Mark, our UX/UI Designer, said: “Currently, I see AI as a creative tool that we can use to enhance or speed up our creative work. AI design/art is becoming more impressive by the day but feel there will always be a need for human designers or artists to add a natural and personal touch.”

To iron out concern, as reported by CTV News, Lensa’s owner Prisma tweeted: “Whilst both humans and AI learn about artistic styles in semi-similar ways, there are some fundamental differences: AI is capable of rapidly analyzing and learning from large sets of data, but it does not have the same level of attention and appreciation for art as a human being.”

More specific to Together Agency and the creative industry, many of us have been made familiar with Dall-E, an image generator AI software, and how it can serve brands.

Our Creative Director, Anil, was recently interviewed by Sarah Smith, Head of Nova Innovation (part of the MMR Family), to discuss the positives of using the Dall-E software in the creative process. “Dall-E feels like we’re cheating, but we’re not!” Anil shared.

“It’s actually saving us (creatives) a whole load of donkey work. What would take us three days now takes us a couple of hours. That’s the big benefit for us as an agency. We’re always looking at efficiency and being agile, and really responsive.”

If you’re interested in finding out how our creatives can help your brand or business, head to the ‘work’ tab.