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What if AI is just a tool to advance, not destroy, human creativity?

December 9, 2022 - 3 min read

ciaran

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Reservations around AI often focus on how it may challenge creative industries. However, speakers at Web Summit 2022 said AI may actually give us easier access to creative outlets.

Creative AI software is currently viewed in two ways. The first is a hyper-efficient machine capable of collating information and producing results far quicker than any human can (AI art generator Midjourney is capable of creating four original images within 60 seconds). The second is a meme for nonsensical storytelling (for example, when an AI programme tried to write new episodes of TV sitcom Friends).

But what if we are giving AI too much agency? What if we regarded AI as just another tool to add to the creative toolbox? As the computer replaced the typewriter and pen before, what if AI is a new step in the evolution of human creativity, rather than its end?

The science behind visual art

One of the most compelling use cases for AI in human creativity is its ability to democratise the creation process. Producing compelling digital images can be difficult for people to channel their creative ideas, with image editing software time-consuming to master. As for video, this is an unachievable medium for many more people due to the high cost.

Photo and video editing mobile apps allow more people to be creative. The most innovative programmes use creative AI to make the process even simpler. Enter Prequel. The US-based app uses an AI programme to generate sophisticated filters and effects for user footage.

The app AI can also pinpoint individual characteristics within images (such as someone’s eyes) and predict movements based on hours of footage studied through machine learning. This allows users to turn stills into videos or splice recordings. The app AI helped Prequel to top the ‘Photo & Video’ category of the US Apple App Store in early 2021.

Prequel co-founder and CEO Timur Khabirov said that the company’s AI programme is trained in the same way as a developing human brain. At Web Summit 2022, he elaborated further: “Everything we know in life is shaped by connections between characteristics and prior knowledge. So we just replicate those connections in the brain within a neural network.”

okay tell all your cosplayer friends Prequel can now turn VIDEOS to cartoons https://t.co/zVUQpDqSxI pic.twitter.com/UP9WoBS758

— Prequel (@Prequel_app) August 5, 2022

The sound of AI

Rachel Lyske, CEO of music creation platform DAACI, also said learned connections are key to building creative AIs. The CEO used the term ‘heuristics’ to describe similar music qualities, such as tone, melody and mood, with this information fed back into DAACI’s AI programme.

“DAACI works like a normal composer, but instead of presenting a chosen set of notes … We encode musical choices as a series of heuristics … That way we can present these heuristics to whatever the brief desires,” Rachel said. “With these heuristics, we can set up a production environment appropriate to the music.”

This means you can divide music production into categories such as genre (rock, rap, etc), mood (upbeat, melancholy, etc) and more. Users can then create their own music by defining these characteristics and letting the AI work. DAACI can generate original music in minutes and can be edited on the go.

At Web Summit 2022, Rachel demonstrated how the AI platform worked by generating multiple versions of an alternative opening song for hit TV show Stranger Things, starting with a brief to create something ‘mysterious’ and ‘80s themed.’ Rachel then tweaked the brief multiple times to create new versions of this original piece, showing DAACI is capable of creating what they described as “infinite versions of music based on infinite palettes.”