Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significantly transformed every industry, and the field of creativity is no exception. The two words AI and creativity, when put together, are often surrounded by concerns and speculations. However, contrary to popular beliefs that AI might erase human creativity, it’s becoming increasingly evident that it can augment and enhance it rather than replace it.
AI and Creativity: A Partnership, Not a Rivalry
Is AI creative? While AI, particularly generative AI, has demonstrated its capability to create impressive outputs, it’s important to remember that these ‘creations’ stem from existing data, patterns, or commands provided by the human mind.
AI models, like GPT-3 and Stable Diffusion, learn patterns within data to fuel original content creation. They leverage varied learning styles, like unsupervised training, making vast unlabeled data sets useful for crafting foundation models. These models, acting as AI bases, enable multifunctional systems. ChatGPT, powered by GPT-3, can turn brief text prompts into full essays, while Stable Diffusion creates lifelike images from text descriptions.
Have you used Stable Diffusion or perhaps Dall-E? Check out our article on the best AI image generators and see how Stable Diffusion performs versus Dall-E and Midjourney.
According to a 2023 survey by Adobe, 75% of creative professionals believe that AI will have a significant impact on their work in the next five years, with 39% already using AI tools in their creative processes.
Generative AI in Action: A Personal Story
Or how can generative AI augment human creativity?
I will share a story about a friend we’ll call Mike to protect his identity. Mike is a creative and talented professional— an architect, photographer, and much more— who started using AI to enhance his creativity. Mike was tasked with designing patterns for 3D-printed clothing. To meet this challenge, he turned to Midjourney.
After prompting for five hours, he produced 500 distinct design ideas, ranging from mushroom-inspired patterns to lizard-like shapes. Such impressive output in a limited timeframe would have been unimaginable without AI, and is my go-to answer to the question “How does AI affect creativity?”.
This real-life example illustrates how AI plays a role in ideation, liberating the human mind to explore concepts rather than being burdened by their execution. It demonstrates that AI can give creative individuals more time and resources to truly innovate.
AI Creativity vs Human Creativity
While the story above provides a compelling case for “AI creativity,” it’s critical to understand its distinctiveness from “human creativity“. AI creativity is, in essence, an extension of human ideas, abilities, and inputs.
Can AI be creative on its own? Currently, AI can generate outputs based on the input data it has been fed. Essentially, it reflects back creative possibilities based on what it has been taught. In contrast, human creativity can draw upon personal experiences, emotions, and spontaneous inspiration to generate unique and original ideas.
It’s interesting to imagine how historical visionaries such as Leonardo da Vinci might have reacted to our contemporary technological breakthroughs. Da Vinci, renowned for his relentless curiosity and the ability to harmoniously intertwine natural and mechanical components, most likely would have loved AI.
Similar to how he constantly tested his hypotheses and pushed his limitations in a spirit of self-improvement, modern AI systems, like Google’s AlphaGo Zero, ‘learn’ by competing against their own intelligence. We can speculate that da Vinci’s passion for knowledge may have sparked a new era in human-computer collaboration via AI integration – alas we will never know.
The Future of AI and Creativity
As we continue to navigate the evolving relationship between AI and creativity, it’s safe to conclude that AI represents a potent tool for amplifying human creativity. As my personal example suggests, creative individuals who leverage AI can explore more, create more, and innovate more.
Indeed, AI is ushering in a new era of creativity—one where AI and human creative potential work together, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. AI is not about taking up creative jobs or restricting genuine creativity. It’s about augmenting our creative potential and helping us accomplish more in less time.
Ultimately, being creative is not about mastering a tool or software but generating unique and compelling ideas. AI can help enhance this very process, becoming an indispensable ally in our creative journeys. However, only by embracing this alliance between AI and human creativity can we unlock its true potential.
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Iliya Valchanov
Iliya teaches 1.4M students on the topics of AI, data science, and machine learning. He is a serial entrepreneur, who has co-founded Team-GPT, 3veta, and 365 Data Science. Iliya’s latest project, Team-GPT is helping companies like Maersk, EY, Charles Schwab, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, Columbia University adopt AI in the most private and secure way.