Generative AI: Is It Really Coming for You?

Seeing Sora in action for the first time today filled me with equal parts wonder and dread. For all the thumbs up and likes, I could feel the collective quaking in the boots of an entire industry. The rise of AI isn't news to any of us. But really, this? And so soon? It felt like a wake up call. If a machine - barely in its infancy - can produce such accurate imagery from just a few basic prompts, then what hope is there for us mere creative mortals?

I'm due to give a talk at a school in a couple of weeks, and this got me thinking. Having seen the power of generative AI for video in all its fearsome glory, what possible advice could I give a bunch of teenagers hoping to pursue a career in the creative arts?

The truth is, for all its bells and whistles, there is one essential aspect of the human condition that AI simply cannot capture. Scientists have been trying to unlock its secret for generations and are still no closer to finding an answer than they are to putting humans on Mars. And if we don't understand it, then there is no way a computer can replicate it.

That something? Consciousness. Our emotional processing centre. The brain may well be an elaborate organic machine, but consciousness cannot yet be translated into the binary language of ones and zeros. Sure, we can map the firing of neurons in grey matter (creating an algorithm that represents an emotion) but how that coalesces to form something we 'feel' remains beyond our comprehension. This is the essence of us. The ever illusive soul.

The truth is, computers cannot yet make art because art speaks to emotion, and emotion is something we feel, not something we simply think. If you haven't read any AI poetry yet then I suggest you do so immediately. If you want to feel positive about your future prospects, then it's a great place to start; suffice to say, Benjamin Zephaniah, Sylvia Plath and Lord Byron can rest easy. The same goes for AI image creation. Can it look pretty? For sure. Does it speak to the soul? Not for my money.?

Yes, in the literal sense, AI can composite pre-existing material to create something that reflects a prompt. Reshape it. Reinvent it even. But in doing so that material loses something. At least that’s how I feel when I look at the creative output of AI.?

That’s not to say it doesn’t have its place. We are seeing the rapid emergence of an incredibly powerful tool. But for now at least, it remains just that.

So what will I tell the school kids? What should they learn when so much of what we do can be replicated by machines? I will remind them that all art is storytelling. I will encourage them to explore their singular way of seeing the world, and to find ways to express that perspective by creating work that elicits emotion.?

We’ve been communicating through story since the beat of the very first drum; since our ancient ancestors first put charcoal to stone. It’s what makes us human. What separates us from the rest of nature. For good or ill. Until science discovers the secret of consciousness, that isn’t about to change.?