Visual Generative AI in Design - A Perspective
artificial intelligence, n. /ˈɑrdəˌfɪʃ(ə)l ᵻnˈtɛlədʒ(ə)ns/
The capacity of computers or other machines to exhibit or simulate intelligent behaviour; the field of study concerned with this. Abbreviated AI. [Oxford English Dictionary, 2023]
AI, an acronym you can’t escape, and probably a strong contender for the Word of the Year 2023.
The two letters have began to strike fear and/or anger in the hearts of the masses, especially creatives, some of whom have resigned themselves to loudly list possible evils and general facts on impending doom at every mention of AI in conversation.
Some are already feeling an impact, with the Writer’s Guild of America on strike partially over their desire to ban AI in practice.
As much as we need to exercise caution and balance ethics with technological advancement, this happens each time mention of AI bubbles up to the surface every few years. Shall we forget Stanley Kubrik and Steven Spielberg’s 2002 A.I. so soon? 71 Award nominations and 17 wins, including two Oscar snubs and a Venice Film Fest nabs… topical and worth a rewatch, I’d say.
At its core, though, Artificial Intelligence already surrounds us. It has, for decades, but its use has especially taken off in the past decade. Don’t say you hate AI if you do any of the following:
Social Media
Use FaceID to unlock your phone
Use Spellcheck
Use virus protection on your computer (you really should be)
Email
Text
Google
Use navigation on devices
Use voice assistants like Siri and Alexa
Bank online
Use Netflix
There are even earlier examples of AI, though, and although they were mostly used in more academic environments, they (or at least their concept) arguably date back to the 1800’s.
Recent advances in Visual Generative AI have taken the masses by storm, playing with a new toy, you could say. Some refuse to engage with the programs such as DALL-E, Nightcafe, and Midjourney, citing multiple issues with them ethically.
However, as much as digital drawing and photoshop once met resistance by conservative thinkers in the creative fields, there is no question that it’s become a standard in the world of digital work. I predict the same acceptance curve will prevail with AI.
I feel that Generative AI will create a new type of design work, especially within ideation-related tasks, but at least in the beginning, supported by image editing software. If you’ve ever tried DALL-E or Midjourney yourself, you know that they’re actually quite difficult to use. A constant issue is warped reality, some portions of the image are nonsensical or inaccurate, some even to a frightening degree. The image desired by the creator may take an entire day of trial and error to create. This is not unlike sourcing and photoshopping a few reference images together to create what you want, something anyone who’s taken a photoshop course knows something about. Finally, pieces also usually need some work after the fact to be presentable, anyways. It’s a new type of art, in my opinion, and not one I think is for everyone. Few people have the time or care enough to battle a learning curve to master a new medium.
I recently tried to use DALL-E to create a concept image of a bracelet I had an idea for, but it just wouldn’t get it right. I spent about 20 minutes before I decided it was faster to use my usual ideation methods to communicate it with a client(so far, in my learning journey, at least). I think as mind-blowing as the AI-generated content seems to others, as a creative, nothing replaces being able to create that image yourself, whether with hammer and chisel, camera, 3D sculpting software, drawing, painting, etc. At the end of the day, AI is the same as someone (or something) else’s image you’re given that you have to accept, adapt, and work off of, which is more of a task than self-generated content for me.
As the phase of public discovery of this new tool continues on, we will begin to learn more about AI, and also see how AI -and our relationship with it- evolves.
References
"artificial intelligence, n.". OED Online. March 2023. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/271625 (accessed May 19, 2023).
