When you think of artificial intelligence, it’s definitely possible that you think uniquely of robots and big machines taking control of the world. While that’s probably the effects of popular culture infiltrating your opinion of AI, it doesn’t paint an accurate picture of what AI really is. And as we continue to discover the wide range of abilities that AI tools have, we’ve been truly shocked by one in particular: its creativity.
Even the most innovative and out-of-the-box thinker can struggle to come up with ideas sometimes, due to a number of barriers: tiredness, fear, stress, lack of inspiration, and a fixed mindset. And artificial intelligence plays an incredible role here–these tools suffer from none of the above and are consistently ready to suggest new, innovative ideas that can completely transform your next project.
In this article, we’ll dive into the magic of artificial intelligence when it comes to creativity and the potential it’s displaying, highlighting how professionals in all fields can harness its power and come up with increasingly innovative and captivating designs.
Ready? Let’s dive right in.
What Makes Artificial Intelligence Creative?
You might think of machines shooting out black and white papers or large numbers when you think of AI outputs and we get it: after all, how can a machine be creative?! It doesn’t have a brain or the experiences that humans do to draw from, so where does it pull ideas from? And how does it decide what ideas are best for the specific purpose?
Well, AI uses the following techniques to suggest the next best creative idea:
Inspiration from data: just like AI uses large amounts of data to make suggestions, creative AI tools can analyze an artist or writer’s previous work and current trends, as well as practical limitations, to produce innovative creations.
A basis to go off of: we’re not saying that AI tools will give you the absolute best design that needs no edits; in fact, creative AI tools can help spark inspiration and give you a draft to work off of, inspiring your next best creation.
Accurate training: if you’ve ever tried to work with an AI tool and realized that it’s lacking a lot of context and important details, this point is for you: creative AI tools that are effective are trained by AI professionals and are fed prompts that are the most likely to deliver the best results.
In addition, AI-generated creative content brings the following benefits:
Speed: creative AI tools can churn out tons of images in a matter of seconds, in addition to editing or making changes with just a simple request.
Constant access: AI tools don’t need to eat, sleep, or rest, meaning that they’re always ready to provide ideas or designs.
Unlimited creativity: AI tools don’t have societal restrictions or limited memories to draw ideas from; as long as they can access large amounts of data, their range of creativity is practically limitless.
Accessibility: the vast majority of AI tools don’t require a deep or intense knowledge of design tools to use, meaning it’s accessible to the general population and not just those with the money or education needed to properly use fancy tools.
Concerns with using AI in creativity
Although the benefits seem pretty awesome, there are some concerns, ethical and otherwise, that come into play when you choose to use AI tools for creativity. If you’re gearing up to use an AI tool for your next project, consider the following before diving right in:
Bias: as you’ve learned, creative AI tools don’t just come with ideas on their own; they use their databases to suggest creations and this means that, just like with all AI tools, the risk of bias does exist. In addition, receiving culturally insensitive or inappropriate content as an output can happen.
Legal concerns: as you’re probably well aware, intellectual property is legally protected and artists, writers, and other creatives are strictly bound to respecting other people’s work. When you use AI to create designs, videos, text, or images, ensuring you don’t use something that’s highly linked to someone else’s work is crucial.
Ownership: piggybacking off of the above point, the question of who owns the intellectual property of AI-created work is highly contested and will continue to be debated over time, resulting in lots of doubt when it comes to using AI for original work.
Using Artificial Intelligence as a Creative
With both the concerns and benefits understood, it’s time to dive into how to actually use AI to help your work advance both more successfully and quickly. As you start using artificial intelligence tools to enhance your creative workflow, however, it’s important to try a few different methods and ideas to see which best fits your needs.
Below we’ve listed some interesting and useful ways to make the most of AI tools; have some fun with them and transform what you’re able to do.
AI-generated ideas for brainstorming
It can sometimes be hard to communicate your thoughts or ideas, especially in the design sphere, and the last thing you want is for your ideas to be misconstrued or developed too deeply to then be edited or changed if there are any issues. In this case, quickly using an AI image generator tool to provide a sample of what you’re thinking can make sure everyone is on the same page without making your designers create tons of different rough drafts that might be rejected later on.
In addition, because AI tools can quickly generate so many options, you can quickly sift through different options and ideas without wasting too much energy or time on creating designs that may not even be used.
AI-generated ideas for when you’re experiencing writer’s block
Even the best writers don’t always have ideas or the perfect sentences coming out of them and because AI can quickly suggest ideas or even prompts, it’s an incredible resource for writers– especially those that are expected to churn out so much content in a short period of time.
Sometimes a new idea or even inspiration is all that’s needed to get those creative juices running and AI tools are full of ideas and suggestions that can help writers and creatives get back to work.
AI-generated ideas based on data
We know that the best decisions are backed by data and that’s exactly why AI-generated ideas can be so valuable–AI tools are capable of reviewing tons of data and seeing what worked, what didn’t, what the target audience is looking for, and making suggestions on what would be the next best idea.
With the help of not only innovative but also data-backed suggestions, these ideas will help propel your projects and campaigns further.
It’s clear–the potential of artificial intelligence in the creative sphere, no matter if you’re a graphic designer, writer, or video producer, is unmatched and in the future, more and more teams will begin to adopt AI tools to help them produce more original, innovative, and better-performing content.
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