The Creative Algorithm

No. 18

*Reader, be warned, I use a bit of profanity in this post.

Q: Is creativity an algorithm?

The world changed. Did you see it? In the summer of 2022, Midjourney and Dall-E were introduced as publicly available AI visualization models. Chat GPT followed closely behind, and the world from the highest levels of tech companies to the academic classroom shuddered. 

Through the mainstreaming of Artificial Intelligence and a reductive process called stable diffusion and pattern recognition, the totality of human creative efforts amassed online has been fed into an algorithm. In reality, it always has been. Creativity has been an essential human characteristic in our evolution and the survival of our species. We have gotten here, in this moment, through trial and error, inspired genius, the limitations of life, wars, conflict, catastrophes, bloodshed, heartache, will and determination. Our culture and history- documented through our words, our pictures and our artifacts are an imprint of the human condition. Machines now have the ability to recognize patterns in all of this collected data that we have captured in the form of paintings, drawings, literature, sculptures, dance, fashion, science, engineering and health innovation. Our manifested ideas are the solutions to the history of humanity’s problems. The machines are learning from our mistakes. They can iterate faster than we can innovate. Ironically, a business professor said nearly the exact same thing to me years ago, but said it this way: “I can imitate faster than you can innovate.” He said it with a smile and my skin crawled. Computers and business professors don’t give a fuck. Your creative ethics, distinction, lived experiences and humanity may be governed by an unspoken code in creative communities, but we are facing a calculating and powerful replication of human creativity that has the ability to synthesize thoughts through the sheer volume of iterations it can reproduce. Your government won’t protect you.

Here in the United States, our ability to profit from our talents was included in the original 1790 Constitution, which set into motion the most innovative country in the history of the world. This has been updated throughout the years to keep up with the times. Our ability to reap the benefits of our labors and creative efforts has long served as the incentive that fuels our dreams and drives our economy.

 

From the United States Constitution written in 1790.

Article I, Section 8: [The Congress shall have the Power To] promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;  

But legislation moves much slower than innovation. Law, after all, is hindered by politics and politics are emotional and inefficient human constructs. Machines, like businesses, are not hindered by emotion. They seek efficiency, particularly those machines directed by businesses. The best predictor of sentient technology is the unflinching resolve of authoritarian governments and unethical corporations.

The adoption of AI by businesses will allow them to move more efficiently. To grow, to scale, to develop, to iterate. The need for skilled creators will most certainly be diminished, particularly in the production pipelines of creative industries. This will shine an even brighter light on the need for intelligent ideas, focused intention, clear vision, stories and physical artifacts. The clarity of vision and authoring of ideas and stories has always been the high-water mark for creativity. In the coming years, this will become even more apparent. Complex creative disciplines such as animation, VFX, filmmaking and gaming will become exponentially faster processes with diminishing degrees of human input. Yet, for those of us who have a creative vision and the ability to shape ideas into reality, our ability to develop complex solutions has been and will continue to be augmented through technology. We are entering the era of the truly independent storyteller, filmmaker, game developer and animator. The complexity of these industries is the very opportunity afforded by this significant upheaval. This is the scenario if considerable resistance and ethical guidelines do not protect the basic rights of creators to profit from their creations. Homogenization and the metaphorical death of the individual are probable conclusions.

Consumerism will continue to rise, while those with the ability to support themselves through their creative efforts will fall. 

Within the arts, specifically those working directly within the confines of commercial enterprises including entertainment, editorial, books and advertising, businesses will favor efficiency and skill will no longer be the pre-requisite for an artist. Artist-driven companies and corporations and those institutions that support and promote the arts will be the resistance at the front lines. The bottom line, which is the lifeblood of nearly all companies, will ultimately win out in most scenarios. Will the arts, which are inherently progressive and have always been at the bleeding edge of cultural change choose to sit this one out? I don’t think so. 

Those artists choosing to stand idle will find themselves racing the steam engine. Those who embrace these tools feed the machine. It’s like being asked to train your replacement at work. They are younger, cheaper, better and faster than you and you are making yourself irrelevant. 

We have seen this scenario unfolding within our culture over the past decades. This began as ideas that challenged ownership. At the onset of the internet, there was a concerted effort to introduce the Orphaned Rights Work bill by Lawrence Lessig, which would let anyone who discovered a work of art severed from its creator to use that work as they see fit. Within fine arts, there has been a deliberate focus on the de-skilling of creative efforts and the embracing of appropriation as a valid thread of creative inquiry. The value is in the idea, they say, not the execution. The making of artifacts can be outsourced. Stock agencies that aggregated the photography and illustrations created for books and magazines and resold them at much cheaper rates decimated the photography industry. The only thing that spared illustration and design was their slower rate of production which requires the creation of one-of-a-kind solutions. While a photographer could shoot hundreds, if not thousands of shots in one session, an illustrator and designer could only iterate ideas at a human pace.

That has all changed. 

I would expect companies like Disney that own their own intellectual property and copyrights to create closed neural network systems that will generate and iterate with their own material and stories. Artists and illustrators who have long been needed to translate words into pictures in the early blue sky stages, are now being presented with finished layouts and definitive guides from editors, writers and administrators. In the battle of words VS pictures, words are winning.

On December 13^th, 2022, I was eagerly watching the press conference from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the successful progress in fusion ignition. In particular, I was listening for Director Dr. Kim Budil to utter two key words. Halfway through the announcement, I heard it. “…discovered with the aid of machine-learning”. This was quickly followed by the stated use of this fusion technology for national defense, as well as future clean energy solutions. Like all discoveries, this technology will save us; it will destroy us. Outside of creative industries, AI will be used to address some of humaniti’s most pressing wicked problems. The discoveries that we will see in health, science, engineering, aeronautics, space travel and beyond will be staggering. If this is a Man VS Machine scenario, it likely will yield a Man + Machine solution. Augmentation has been and will continue to be the next evolution of humanity. 

Globally, within the job market and related economies, the ramifications of AI will be transformational. Here’s the catch. If AI can replace creative jobs, AI can replace any job. Let me repeat- if AI can replace creatives, then there is nothing that a person can do that can’t be replicated and eventually done better by a machine. 

Weren’t we told to stop complaining and learn to code? Sorry, but AI can do that, too.

To automate creativity is to kill the economy.

As an artist, and more importantly, as a Professor and a father, I must take a close look at the ramifications of this technology. It has outpaced our hold on it and it is drifting further and further with each user input. You will have to make a decision, as well. Are you part of the resistance, or will you embrace this fundamental and extraordinary shift? Is there a space between these two options?

Who will benefit? Those who author ideas, own their own characters, stories and intellectual property, those who use these tools to navigate the time constraints and technical complexities of interactive and time-based media like animation, film and gaming. Those seeking independence in their creative output. Those creating their own closed neural networks. 

Who will fail? Those creators who’s entire identity is built around skill and craft working in the development of other people’s ideas.

Why bother? As long as people are your audience, there will be value in your ability to create within the limitations of the human condition. 

Remember why you create. From your earliest memories, you drew to understand. To process. To clarify. You draw to get the good shit and the bad shit out of you. 

The first act of Art is therapy. This is understanding.

And it is in your willingness to share these inner thoughts with others that you have given shape and form, that we are given faith in humanity. In the individual, we find the universal. Your emotions, thoughts and ideas manifested as art have the ability to reach another human across time and space. 

The second act of art is sharing. This is connecting.

There is nothing more human and there has never been a time when your individual, distinct, beautiful, flawed human voice must be heard.