Gen AI & Creativity - Part 1

Introduction

Whether you're a design leader, or junior working within a creative team and someone starts talking about how you can use generative AI in your workflow today, maybe its worth examining first, creativity itself and what it actually means to you as the starting point, at least having a stance on it.

I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about how creative teams become AI enabled. Very much in the privileged position in my career discuss it at length with friends, collaborators, colleagues, clients and everyone I come across who might be grappling with how our work and lives might be changing.

There's no doubt these changes will be absolutely transformative and it will take time to stabilise their impact, for laws to catch up, for technical issues to be solved. A good decade perhaps, while the relentless march of progress carries on exponentially across all areas. It's a really complex situation which necessitates our own north stars.

Jules Ehrhardt 's tweet above illustrates one of the more pragmatic views, even though it may seem alarmist. That change is coming and its inevitable, happening right now in front of us, so we should be prepared to take our stance.

We kind of take it for granted that being creative is a by product of being who we are, and a result of our training or experience, its hard to articulate at times, but in essence like any other discipline, it needs examination, nurturing and refining. Otherwise why are we calling ourselves creatives?

Framing any opportunity, like the use of generative AI, through the lens of the creative act itself helps us adopt a more mature stance to how we can still retain what makes our original contribution special.

We can think about creativity in terms of cognitive processes, emotional and psychological aspects, environmental factors and a swathe of other lenses. But at its core, maybe we can consider some basic principles:

To start this series, I've been reading Rick Rubin "The Creative Act" over the past few months, yes, its very wishy washy and hippie in parts, sorry Rick, but it also has some really obvious truths and incredible sensitivity to the act of being a creative. It has been a bit like a meditation, helping me center my own discussions within the broader principles and philosophy of creativity and I thought I would lean on that to make these points.

1. Embracing uncertainty: Gen-AI can helps us create novel, and unexpected outputs, that much it does well. It shows us as much as what we should be doing in as much as what we shouldn't be doing. I disagree with people who think it can't result in originality, that's patently false, yes its approximating but have you ever tried combining two concepts to get a new original!? It can do that remarkably well. If we're willing to push the boundaries of our work though sketching a nascent idea, iterating on it. Gen-AI (both LLMs and Media Synthesis) can help us accelerate this part so we can really ponder on what we're actually making and why we're making it. I see it as getting some of the obvious bits out first, until we can tease out and filter the latent and interesting ones.
2. Collaboration & co-creation: Rubin talks about the significance of collaboration and being influenced by diverse sources. Yes, I mean that's what creatives do, but we've never had an amazing resource that can help synthesise, mash up and even 'hallucinate' at our fingertips. Gen-AI can be that weird collaborative sparring partner, helping us create new ideas that and bring influences that are potentially divergent and we can't shape in the same timeframe on our own. We can become the curator or art directors.
3. Trusting the process: Rubin highlights the significance of trusting the creative process and relying on intuition. In the realm of Gen AI, this means trusting algorithms to produce intriguing results that can serve as a springboard for further creativity. By filtering AI-generated content through our human experiences and insights, we can refine and elevate these outputs. This symbiotic relationship between human intuition and Gen AI's computational outputs can lead to innovative and meaningful creations. Either way, it's possible to view it as a tool, and important that we don't defer every decision to it to establish our authorship with a good deal of certainty.
4. The role of the artist: Rubin views the artist or creator as a conduit for creative energy rather than the sole originator of ideas. Gen AI aligns with this philosophy by acting as a catalyst in the creative process. Ideas, often seen as fragile and precious, require nurturing and iteration to reach their full potential. AI can point to numerous concepts, allowing creators to filter and develop these into refined ideas. It serves as both an amplifier and a refiner, channeling the creator's vision through new lenses and enhancing the depth and breadth of creative exploration.
5. Emphasis on playfulness and curiosity: Rubin encourages a playful and curious approach to creativity. Generative AI facilitates this by enabling creators like you and me to experiment with different parameters and explore a wide range of possibilities in the shortest time. This playful experimentation can obviously lead to unexpected discoveries, some rabbit holes and maybe and innovative breakthroughs.

The integration of Gen AI into the creative workflow is one of the biggest shifts in how we approach design, and innovation if we think of design in the broadest sense. For now, for the most part, I think this transformation hinges on four key pillars: technology, people, process, and creative strategy, bug

Design leaders, you really are the ones in the lead here to help determine a few of these with confidence.

Let me know what you think. I'm looking forward to sharing more.