Blog
For an awfully long time, Artificial Intelligence in my mind at least, was represented by the
2001 Kubrick/Spielberg movie, or by Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek The Next Generation barking
at a computer for a ‘cup of tea, Earl Grey, hot’… The former was essentially about whether technology could do the ‘feels’ of human beings, and the latter about whether it could do the
‘tasks’…
Here in 2025, when the mention of AI is barely absent from our social media feeds for a couple
of posts or off the broadcast airwaves for an hour, it now feels like we’re definitely not in 2001 anymore (nor in Kansas, Toto!) and that AI has well and truly arrived. And it’s impact upon us is being felt faster than Picard drank his cuppa.
Wow, this is bloody handy…
My initial first-hand experience of AI was with ChatGPT. The ability to give a computer an outline of something and within seconds you had 300 words was astounding. And extremely useful! Especially for those of us who aren’t strictly speaking ‘writers’. Did I spare a thought
for professional scribes in that moment, pondering how this may affect their craft, their living, their job satisfaction… well yes of course I did. I’m not an android. But only briefly! After all I had the content of a brand new client mail drop to wrangle and design into an e-newsletter, I had
better things to do…
My second experience was Midjourney – essentially ChatGPT with pictures. Again; astounded, this’ll help, great news, brilliant. But perhaps my post-astoundment reflective pause was a bit
longer in this instance. Especially because, as a designer this particular innovation was treading
a bit more on my toes than the words stuff did.
So, how do I genuinely feel about it, how is it a professional positive for me and what concerns
me…
“Computer: design me an award-winning advert”
Just as the calculator, the microwave or the synthesiser haven’t kept accountants, chefs or
musicians’ awake at night, fearful that their time has come, creatives equally shouldn’t be
afraid of a little AI competition/assistance. Indeed even in recent memory, the arrival of dtp for example, impacted many valued skills, typesetters for one, when introduced. The typsetters for the most part evolved and thrived.
Undoubtedly there will be and is an impact on some creative areas. The art of pure retouching,
especially in it’s more technical aspect as opposed to the visualisation side of that craft, has in my view already been obliterated by AI. After all, if a computer can do what your colleague does, and do it in a fraction of the time, who needs the retoucher any more?
However more broadly, the nub of it I believe is that as things stand, for AI to ‘be creative’
it still needs us. It needs the prompt, the spark, the germ to get it going. Then it utilises
everything thats ever been to provide the solution. It can’t generate a truly original idea, but it can regurgitate existing ideas into something new and original with our support. Perhaps it’s
actually us in fact who are the clever ones.
Basically, AI can do the leg work, the labourious aspects of the job. It can do the time saving
elements. In short it can do some of ‘the tasks’ but it can’t yet do ‘the feels’.
And yes, the hot tea and computer image above, is AI’s response to the blog title. Clever robot
eh? Well, kind of.
Newsflash from 1440: Arrival of the printing press destroys the market in pens and notepads!
As with all new technological advancements throughout history, there are immediate winners
and losers, there are things that will never be the same, and there are those that will crave
the good old days. That last point is very human feeling indeed. After all whenever a new tech
appears in our lives — especially one potentially so disruptive — we worry about what how our
lives will change for the worse. But progress, innovation and invention have always happened.
And will always happen. Forever. Go with it, take the advantages. Adapt. Embrace. Enjoy.
I’ll have to leave it there, the laptop’s playing up… all I want is for it make me a cup of Earl Grey.
Maybe I’ll try a restart.
Damian Smith,
Creative Director