How Has AI Impacted Creativity?
How Has AI Impacted Creativity?
Is this the end for writers and artists?
Introduction
As the use of artificial intelligence increases, people are beginning to rely on AI to generate stories and digital art for them rather than creating it themselves. In my opinion, this is not authentic and takes away from the purpose of creativity.
I want to create a piece of writing myself without AI generating my words. I believe there should be a balance between creativity and the use of AI-generating tools to assist in the creative process. Therefore, I have promised myself to keep my use of AI generators strictly limited within my creative works.
The Pros of AI
Artificial intelligence has proven useful to a point. For example, I have used name generators for location name ideas within my stories and tweaked what came up. While I may expand my use of generators similar to this in the future, I will only do so if I am absolutely stuck and need assistance naming places, objects, or characters. One source that I use in these instances is a website called Fantasy Name Generators.
Some additional AI generators include fantasy map generators. I didn’t know these resources existed until I came across the video “How to Make a Map for Your Fantasy Novel” and the blog The 13 Best Fantasy Map Generators, Tools, and Resources created by Reedsy. Although I like using objects such as buttons or rice to form a continental shape and trace around it, these tools are also beneficial for world-building and design concepts.
I also use Grammarly, an AI writing program, to help give me ideas on how to refine what I’ve written on my blogs and social media posts.
It’s important to remember that while it’s a useful tool to have, AI isn’t error-proof. Therefore, although there are many pros to utilizing AI tools, it shouldn’t become something that people rely on. I hope people don’t put aside their own knowledge and skills and grow co-dependent on AI in the future.
The Cons of AI
The issue that I have with AI is when people use it to generate the majority of their work. To me, that’s wrong. Whether it’s writing a story or constructing artwork, it should be yours and reflect a part of you. That’s the soul of art. When you share your creation with the world, you should be sharing a part of yourself. If AI creates it for you, then it's not really yours and there's no soul or depth to that creation. Technology is meant to assist to a point, but please don't let it erase creative minds.
I found two interesting sources that further discuss the impact of AI and what it means for individuals and creativity. The first is the article AI versus Human Creation by Writer’s Digest which discusses the advancements of AI and what that means for writers. It also discusses what can be copyrighted and what cannot if pieces of a written work are produced by AI and not originally created by the writer. I’ve read bits and pieces of the article, and it’s disturbing what position AI threatens to put creative people in.
Despite this, I believe if creative individuals truly believe in their work and continue to produce authentic creations that they make themselves instead of relying heavily on AI to do the work for them, then there may be hope for the future of those individuals who seek to make a living out of their creativity.
The second is a YouTube video presented by a professional artist who goes by the name of Jazza. In his video “Artist Vs. AI,” Jazza demonstrates how AI is becoming more advanced in art creation and expresses how it feels like a threat to professional artists. Although Jazza points out some of the faults in AI’s ability to recognize and carry out specific details in the art it generates, it’s creepy how detailed some of the art is.
From the watermark shown in an AI creation presented in Jazza’s video, I have come to believe that AI takes various pieces of art from around the internet and combines them into one image. It does this based on the samples of text and sketches provided by the individual using the AI program.
If this is the case, that AI is searching the internet and taking samples from various artworks created by different artists, putting them into an AI blender, and spitting out something that looks original, then it could lead to copyright issues—if it hasn’t already.
For example, as demonstrated in one of Jazza’s other videos, Is this the END for ARTISTS?”, if an author hires an artist to create a book cover and the artist uses an AI-generated image, it would result in a mixture of images. The cover art would consist of artwork made by real artists and transform it into something that appears original. The author would then be fooled into thinking that the artist created something original when in reality, the artist did not. Using AI could potentially lead to copyright issues, and that wouldn’t be good for the author or the artist.
It might take some searching around, but there could be identifiable pieces of artwork within the AI-generated image that could be found and linked back to an artist’s original work. That’s why I value working with artists that I personally know and trust to design amazing and authentic covers instead of hiring an artist I don’t know who may potentially rely heavily on AI.
Conclusion
AI has impacted creativity both positively and negatively. Despite its usefulness, I find the escalating advancements of AI concerning. What’s your take on AI? Does it worry you about the future of creativity? How do you think AI has impacted your creativity?
Despite its advancements, I hope AI doesn’t discourage you from being creative. Keep doing what you're doing and demonstrate to the world how valuable human creations are. We’ve reached a crucial point in our time where we need to realize and preserve how meaningful authentic creativity is and how it ties to human connection.