If you work in communications and other creative professions, you’ve likely been hearing many variations of the warning, “artificial intelligence is coming for your job!”
While headlines like “Your Creativity Won’t Save Your Job from AI” and “The AI Content Flood” are intended to get people’s attention, there’s no question that AI is rapidly changing the playing field. Harvard Business Review identified four categories where AI will play an increasingly big and important role:
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- Automated content generation,
- Improved content quality,
- Increased content variety, and
- Personalized content creation.
So should all creatives resign themselves to eventually being put out of work? Not if they’re smart about it, argues Zoetica Media founder Kami Huyse.
In a recent livestream, she shared her thoughts on AI, noting, “the thing to remember is that there is no turning back,” but added, “it’s important to remember that AI is a tool, and like any tool, it has the potential to enhance the work of creative professionals rather than replace them.”
That view is mirrored by IBM Fellow John R. Smith, Ph.D., who said, “it’s easy for AI to come up with something novel just randomly. But it’s very hard to come up with something that is novel and unexpected and useful.”
Kami recommends people familiarize themselves with the following tools so they can use them to enhance and ultimately perform their work better.
ChatGTP
ChatGTP, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November. It uses existing knowledge to provide answers to questions.
Kami believes that it’s only a question of time before virtually all platforms incorporate ChatGTP’s open source code into their daily operations.
To demonstrate how ChatGTP works, she used it to generate the promotional description for her livestream. First she submitted the instruction, which read:
“Please rewrite this promotional copy for a live stream video,” followed by her actual draft description:
“The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for creative projects, like writing and graphic design, is exploding. Many creative tools have already added open-source AI features.
It is understandable that many creative professionals may be concerned about the potential impact of AI on their jobs. However, it’s important to remember that AI is a tool, and like any tool, it has the potential to enhance the work of creative professionals rather than replace them.
Today we will be discussing these new tools and how you can master them in your creative process. We will also discuss the drawbacks of the tools. I will also share some of the available tools like ChatGTP, DALL-E, and MidJournal. I will also show you how tools like Canva and Searchie have already used open-source code.”
ChatGTP changed it to:
“Join us today as we explore the exciting world of AI in creative industries! We’ll discuss the latest tools and technologies, and how you can use them to enhance your work. Whether you’re a writer, designer, or artist, there’s something here for you. Plus, we’ll touch on the potential drawbacks of these tools and share some examples of how they’re being used in the real world. Tune in and discover how AI can take you creatively to the next level!”
Kami noticed that ChatGTP took out the names of the tools she mentioned in her draft and also removed the emotionalism of being afraid. “It’s not a great storyteller,” she says. “One of the things a creative professional can bring to this is storytelling.”
However, she points out that ChatGTP is beneficial in other areas. “It edits really well. It takes all of these superfluous words out of [the original text] and turns everything into active voice.”
Her recommendation to creatives: Take your original text and put it into ChatGTP, then see what it creates. Blend any improved sentence or section section with your original text to create a stronger final version.
ChatGTP is a free service, which you can sign up for here.
DALL_E 2 and Midjourney Create Novel Graphics
DALL-E 2, also created by OpenAI, is an AI system that can combine a variety of concepts, attributes, and styles to create realistic-looking images and art from descriptions entered as natural language. Users can experiment with DALL-E 2 through the 50 free credits given to use during their first month of use, and then 15 free credits per month thereafter. Users can also purchase additional credits.
Midjourney, meanwhile, is another AI tool that creates images. The open AI tool is only accessible through a Discord membership (free), which you can sign up for here. Midjourney’s Quick Start Guide explains that, “there are two ways to experience the tools: the Midjourney Bot, which you can use to generate images, and the web app at https://www.midjourney.com/home/, where you can find a gallery of your own work and other users' creations.”
While Kami acknowledges that there are legitimate concerns around the use of AI, such as privacy issues and the unauthorized use of other people’s intellectual capital, she points out that “it’s out of the gate, and so I want us as creative professionals to really understand it.” Furthermore, “as creative professionals, we owe it to ourselves and our profession…to understand what we’re dealing with here [with AI].”
Kami anticipates that we’ll soon see tools using AI being marketed as ways to save people money, with messaging along the lines of ‘you don’t have to hire a designer or writer, you can do it all yourself for less money!’
Yet because this is early days for AI, Kami believes the opportunity for creatives are strong.
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- First, AI isn’t good at storytelling. “Persuasive storytelling is what we have to be excellent at. So brush up on your storytelling, make sure you’re really good at that, because it’s one of the differentiators we can sell to a client.”
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- Second, these tools are reliant on the quality of instructions they receive. “We are great writers and conceptual thinkers, [AI needs you to] tell it exactly what you want it to do. So you can become an amazing prompt writer” and offer that as a value added skill to clients.
For more insights, watch Kami’s full video replay here.
And make sure to unlock your creative genius in the AI Revolution with our generative AI recipe and tools – download now to stay relevant and showcase your unique voice!
[…] about how artificial intelligence is being used in different ways,” says Kami. As she noted in an earlier post, “the thing to remember is that there is no turning […]