Don’t Fear New Options for Creativity

There are always new tools available for making art.

tools for creativity — *Photo by Joshua Woroniecki on Unsplash*

When I began writing at age 9, it was all by hand. My first sci-fi book is 50 pages, handwritten and illustrated. I thought, as a kid, creating my own sci-fi story and putting words and images to the page was the coolest thing ever.

A few years later, at age 13, I completed a typed story. This was a first for me. It was 36 pages of sci-fi, ever-so-slightly derivative of Tron (yes, this was 1985). Typing led to printing and being able to share my words in an easier-to-read form (confession moment – my handwriting is atrocious).

Over the next several years, I both hand-wrote and typed stories. Eventually, I had something complete that I attempted to have published via traditional publishing. For the next few years, I submitted queries to both agents and publishing houses with open calls.

The landscape changed a lot, and in time I began down the self-publishing route. This meant I could share my works via first Amazon and then other channels. Seeing my books in print became a reality, even though finding them in the library or bookstores isn’t regular.

Still, I went from merely being an author to author, publisher, marketer, and realistically entrepreneur (or rather, authorpreneur). Though I didn’t jump onto this bandwagon at the start, I climbed aboard in time to use this for sharing and selling the products of my creativity.

The options for expressing creativity since my youth have expanded exponentially. Yet, new options becoming increasingly available are causing a lot of fear.

So, let’s address the artificial elephant in the room.

The current reality of generative AI

Everywhere you look these days, the term AI (Artificial Intelligence) is being wielded like a thresher through a wheat field. Numerous tools are being developed employing AI algorithms to enhance efficiency, provide help with repetitive and simple tasks, searches, and even smart homes and such.

More provocatively, Generative AI has been gaining a presence. Unlike other helper AI tools, Generative AI is employed as a creator. These tools can make images, write copy, convert text to images and videos, and are getting increasingly more capable.

How is AI learning? Many are concerned that it’s doing so by stealing other people’s intellectual property (IP), whether that’s images, books, videos, music, or any other creative works. There are not-entirely-baseless concerns that AI will be employed by the uncreative to take away creative jobs and add competition in already difficult markets.

The reality is, while Generative AI has some promising and frightening capabilities, it’s still only as capable as the person employing it. Non-creatives using text-to-image LLMs (Large Language Models) are limited by their lack of or underdeveloped imaginations. Like any tool in the hands of the unskilled, what you create will not be broadly appealing or fully functional.

Generative AI is great as an assistant, but the creativity it’s capable of lacks if its user isn’t a creative. Images, words, videos, music, it doesn’t matter. A non-artist is as effective with Generative AI as a non-carpenter is with hammers, saws, and other tools of the trade.

Hence, rather than fear the new AI tools, creatives need to learn them so that you and I can direct what they are used for.

various tools for creativity — *Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash*

Driving new options for creativity

You can learn these new tools and employ them as a creative for creativity. Ergo, you can be one of the people driving what the tool is used for, how it’s employed, and what the algorithm learns.

The fewer diverse voices in the mix, the higher the risk of bias. Chat GPT, one of the first Generative Writing AI tools to be widely available, is arguably getting increasingly less intelligent. Why? The way the algorithm learns means unskilled input lessens its capabilities.

Open source is wonderful, but easily overwhelmed by insufficiently skilled users. I’ve employed a couple of other Generative AI tools that are akin to Chat GPT that I find do a better job with the prompts I give them.

Also, you cannot just use AI output straight. No matter how good AI is at creating from a given prompt, it still requires human input and editing to convey your message. AI writing tends to be pedantic and lacking in personality. That’s why it’s not so hard to tell unedited AI writing from other forms of writing.

However, the reality is that the new tools will be abused. That’s not the fault of the tool, but the user. A hammer driving nails is no less innocent than a hammer used to break bones. It’s the user, not the tool. The same goes for Generative AI.

Thus far, Generative AI is only as good as its users. The creative capability it represents is impressive, but still needs skilled drivers behind the wheel.

I remember when digital art became increasingly popular and available. Artists lamented that it would take jobs. Instead, it created new industries.

Tech evolves. I was taught how to edit audio by putting recordings on reel-to-reel tape, and then cutting and splicing to remove unwanted bits. The process involves specialized equipment, training, and playing with razor blades. If you messed up, you had to put back what you cut out and try again. Do that enough times and your reel was wrecked.

Now we have digital editing. You need a computer (or maybe just a tablet). Everything is digital, and you can look at a visual representation of the sine wave, select and “cut” what you care to remove. Mess it up, there’s a wonderful UNDO option that restores what you cut with no fuss or muss. This is far easier than the old cut-and-splice method.

Some, however, argue about sound quality in digital versus analog, and a lack of “pure” musicality or audio reproduction. I understand this argument but take no part in it. Can anyone do digital audio editing? Sure. However, having been trained in this skill, I’m going to be a better and more capable user of the tech than a random user would be.

Generative AI is merely a new option for creativity. If you and I, as creatives, work with it, we can be part of the guides to keep it from being too readily abused. What’s more, we can use these tools to take our creative endeavors to new places and open all sorts of as-yet-unimagined potential and possibilities.

Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: