The Research
Problem Statement
Junior graphic designers often lack knowledge and training in generative artificial intelligence technology leading to fear regarding their future career prospects.
“Artists themselves have been challenging the idea of art, seeking to break the rules set upon them by preexisting establishments in order to redefine what it means to be creative.”
— Amanda Hoover
Literature Review
The literature review explored the topic of Artificial Intelligence and its relationship to creatives in order to determine what place AI would have on the creative field and how young designers should interact with this technology and if they should be concerned with its advancement into their field of work. This topic is one that is very new, which means that this information draws from both current and past trends with artificial intelligence and technology.
Important Points
The History of AI
Artificial Intelligence, though being new to the creative world, is not as new of a technology as previously believed. First developed in the 1940’s, AI has been slowly integrated into society throughout the last century. Much of society utilizes this technology daily without ever realizing it. Its prevalent in many common technologies including voice assistants, search engines, and other computational tasks. “Siri” and “Alexa” are two incredibly common AI voice assistants that are used daily by millions. Generative AI is just another form of this technology that is becoming prevalent.
Fear and Career Prospects
The fear surrounding artificial intelligence stems from several different sources. One of the more common concerns is that AI will have the capability to take over the jobs of real people. This concern has commonly been associated with many different technological movements including the Industrial Revolution, where line workers demonstrated upset over the potential for automation to take over their positions. Automated machines took over more dangerous tasks, causing the nature of linework to change. Human positions changed from heavier labor to quality checks, line mechanics, and customer service representative work. Though the jobs changed, they did not go away. The examination of the representation of AI in media also leads the viewer to be distrustful. AI is often portrayed as the evil villain in pop-culture, which causes bias in the viewer against modern AI. This fear is negatively impacting creatives by causing them to avoid emerging technology which will most likely continually affect their creative careers for their whole life. This fear is counterproductive and harmful.
Ethics in AI
The newness of this technology in society creates a gap where a solid code of ethics have not yet been formed. The subjectiveness of the moral guidelines that dictate “ethics” has caused what ethical AI looks like to be a highly debated subject. AI facial recognition software can be seen as a breach in privacy for individuals in public spaces, even though the use of it is intended for public safety. For creatives, the ethical concerns lie with the training of generative AI on databases that utilize art without the artists’ permissions in addition to allowing users to unethically pass of AI generated art as human-made work. Some programs are starting to combat these concerns with tighter terms of use and the inclusion of metadata in their imagery. As this technology develops, there will be more steps made to allow for stronger ethics and codes of conduct that will need to be followed when using this technology.
Working with AI as a Creative
Technology and creative professions have always been intertwined. Ever since the invention of the computer, designers have been working with new technology in order to create new effects, utilize new techniques, and streamline their creative process. With AI, the question emerges, “Can machines mimic human creativity?” When looking at this technology, the quick answer would be “no.” AI requires training from a preexisting dataset. It cannot create something new or set trends. It also requires human direction in order to “create” at all. In this way, artificial intelligence acts more as a creative helper than a competitor. It functions as well as any other tool and requires knowledge and practice in order to use to its highest function. Even then, without human intervention AI works fall flat and are devalued over their human counterparts on their own.
Knowledge Gaps
The potential of generative artificial intelligence is developing more quickly than what educational systems can keep up with. This causes upcoming graphic designers to be ill-prepared to handle this emerging technology. This causes these young designers to view AI as a threat rather than giving them the space and opportunities to learn what this technology is and how it can work for them. Despite its newness, AI has the potential to cause a large impact on the creative industry moving forward. It should be taught how to work with this technology in order to demonstrate that AI is a tool, not a competitor. Though it can create unique and interesting works, this technology requires a human hand to guide and shape the outcome as well as define the work to create something that is polished and ready for presentation.
Case Studies
Three case studies were examined during the research portion of this campaign. These case studies were all related to AI and creativity. The topics discussed in the studies included the value of human vs AI-generated art, how artists view generative AI programs, and new skillsets that AI can encourage.
The examination of these studies led to the conclusion that AI could be a potentially valuable tool for creatives that could greatly enhance the ideation stage of design. The art generated by AI programs does not compare to human art due to the greater value placed on human-created art over AI-generated art.
Generative AI Research
Rational
This project had required the use of a generative AI program in order to aid in the design decisions and provide a learning experience for me, the researcher, in order to be better informed about what this technology is and how I could best utilize it for this project. In order to choose which program to use, there were studies done on several different programs Craiyon, Nightcafe, Bing image Creator, and Dream Studio.
The requirements for the program selected were outlined as follows;
The program had to be deemed “ethical” with a clear moral code and be able to accurately generate good-quality images that could be used within the project.
Bing Image Creator
This program was chosen to be used in this project due to meeting all of the prior criteria. This program was able to generate high-quality images that were most-fitting to my prompts. In addition to this, they provided a clear set of morals and ethics with the intention of taking responsibility for the content produced using this program. There were also ways for artists and individuals to contact the proprietors in order to prevent Bing Image Creator from producing content that directly had the likeness of real people or their existing art. Bing Image Creator also includes metadata on every image produced in order to help provide honesty and sincerity in the content they are putting into the world.
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