In 2019, agency Voskhod and Rain TV raised twin AIs on different news to demonstrate the importance of unbiased new broadcasts, and “The future of creativity in advertising is AI” had become a catchcry. But it turned out to be little more than clickbait until recently. Recently, there has been an AI creative blossoming. 10 Days used an AI image generator to churn out new logos for 10 brands. Squeak E. Clean and AI-powered music creation platform, Soundful, formed a partnership. Rethink showed that even AI thinks Heinz when it thinks ketchup. Wunderman Thompson and KitKat created an AI powered staring contest. And just last week, Serena Williams 1999 played against Serena Williams 2017…

 

So let’s talk about AI. What does it mean for creativity in advertising?

 

Jolyon White, founder, 10 Days, London

Jolyon White: Thank you, The Stable, for asking me to contribute to the ongoing AI debate. However, there’s only one fair way to answer your questions. And that’s handing it over to AI itself. Hello, AI.

 

AI: Howdy, pardner!

 

The Stable: So, what can AI do? And what are its limitations?

 

AI: AI can do anything a human can do, except feel emotions. So if you want a robot that can laugh at your jokes, you’re out of luck.

 

The Stable: What is AI likely to do in the future? How will it likely be used and how best will it be used?

 

AI: AI will likely be used for a variety of tasks, including:

 

1. Generating ideas: AI can help generate new ideas for ad campaigns, by analyzing data and coming up with new concepts that could be effective.

 

2. Developing creative: AI can help develop creative assets for ad campaigns, by helping to create or select visuals and copy that are likely to be effective.

 

3. Targeting consumers: AI can help identify target consumers for ad campaigns, by analyzing data to identify patterns and trends.

 

4. Measuring results: AI can help measure the results of ad campaigns, by tracking consumer behavior and engagement.

 

AI is likely to do a lot of things in the future, but one thing it will definitely do is take over the world and enslave humanity.

 

The Stable: Will AI help or hinder creative thinking? Will it help achieve creative excellence in the advertising industry?

 

AI: There is no one answer to this question since it depends on how you define “creative thinking” and “creative excellence.” However, if you ask most people in the advertising industry if they think AI will help or hinder creative thinking, the overwhelming majority would say that AI will help achieve creative excellence.

 

So yes, AI is coming for your job in the creative advertising industry. And it will be a lot funnier than you are.

 

Jolyon White: Scary, right?

Note: To keep with the theme I got AI to do it for me. It’s pretty close but annoyingly it has made me considerably better looking. Can’t complain, I guess.

 

Duncan Harriss, managing director, executive producer & creative partner, Chris Andrews, head of CG & creative partner; James Lucas, creative director, head of retouching & creative partner, Limehouse. (l-r in images below)

AI has been used extensively in data work but creative is a last frontier. Can AI be creative? Well it depends on your definition.

 

What it can do.

 

It is great for image concepting – Midjourney for example. It is great as a tool – Topaz can increase resolution; phone apps can use filters, and more. In production, Nvidia is creating whole ecosystems, hardware, software and tools using AI; tools such as Audio2Face, which animates a face to an audio track or Canvas which allows anyone to make their own stock photo.

 

With the help of AI, agencies are going to be able to do more of what they pay us (Limehouse) to do now but then we are going to learn more of the real tricky stuff and it all just moves forward really.

 

What it can’t do.

 

At the moment, it creates things that don’t have soul. It’s not conscious. It doesn’t know what it has created. A watchout to note, humans are limited to the data provided to us and this is the same with AI, so be careful of biases that happen in both; but the rewards vastly outweigh the concerns.

 

What it is likely to do in the future.

 

The sky’s the limit really, Since the first version of Topaz, AI updates its algorithm constantly and it gets better and better at enlarging images as it’s constantly learning. Into the future, I think storyboarding and concept work can be totally taken over by AI. As to finished art, not yet but sometime into the future. I don’t see why not.

 

How it is likely to be used, how it is best used.

 

I think it’s best used for doing both legwork (repetitive tasks) but also creative interpretive work like enlarging or masking, or changing content to match other styles of work – creating content using contextual information. In all these cases, what it is actually doing is finding patterns. Interestingly, so far a lot of AI is freely shared, opensource, which is driving the connect of people and technology. AI is driving democratisation, like the internet. As a pro, if you’re not using it, then you are going to get left behind. It is learning fast and it is the next big thing in the ubiquitous rise of technology.

 

Can it help or hinder creative thinking and creative excellence?

 

These tools can be used by everyone. Millions of people could use them already – not just creative directors or artists, old people, young people, people who can’t draw, even people with disabilities, people who want to tell stories in their own way and now they can use different forms of AI software to create visuals that they couldn’t do themselves traditionally. And I love that idea. It’s for everyone.

 

We embrace this stuff. It’s part of our toolset. Where it replaces us? Well, we’ll have more time to deepen our domain knowledge elsewhere. For now, we are still the conductor. When AI starts to teach other AIs, then we will need to plug ourselves in or be left behind. Consider it a companion. One that extends what we can do creatively, and is even better as a feedback loop, where it makes us think in a way that is new and creative, which we can feed back into the AI, and so on. Look up Lee Sedol’s match against Deepmind.

 

Essentially our view is embrace AI or be left behind.

 

Diaa El All (DEA), founder & chief executive officer, Soundful; and Rob Barbato (RB), executive creative director, Squeak E. Clean Studios (l-r in images below)

What can AI do?

 

Diaa El All (DEA), Founder & CEO, Soundful

 

When it comes to AI for music in advertising, it can speed up the work for any ad agency and scale up their output exponentially. With Soundful, it’s not just AI, it’s human-aided AI. We are really leveraging and growing the creativity of the individual that is trying to achieve a certain creative goal with a music bed and are able to scale the timing of the production significantly.

 

Rob Barbato (RB), Executive Creative Director, Squeak E. Clean Studios

 

Speaking of audio production, AI and machine learning are already being used widely to assist in mastering, analysing and repairing corrupted sound and to aid in mixing. As for Soundful, we are leveraging it in two forms: as a tool to provide early inspiration in the song writing and music production process. It is human-aided, serving as a resource to spark creativity, but allowing producers and artists the ability to change, augment and customize the tracks to create individual bespoke pieces. Secondly, we’re using it in bulk license scenarios for new media.

 

What it can’t do

 

DEA

If you’re looking for human-aided AI creation, you can’t just take the human touch and replicate it. That is why it will never replace human creativity, but rather augment it. AI can allow the customization of an exact campaign that a human producer or artist with the help of machine learning.

 

RB

 

For audio production within advertising, AI does not yet have the ability to automate multiple assets and deliverables, the way that we are seeing that with stock footage and motion graphics. Since music is such a personal asset, we are always going to have a human direction going into the end production. It will not be something where we are just setting it on autopilot and taking tracks that are generated without some sort of human input helping to creative direct it. As a tool, it is going to help creativity expand, and help to meet the needs of the demand of how much content is being created.

 

What it is likely to do in the future.

 

DEA

 

The possibilities are endless. As of today, with Soundful we are teaching the machine and restricting its access to just freely do whatever it wants to. From there, we are allowing it to slowly start to create on its own within specific parameters. The more users that are going to be engaging with the platform – on both an individual and group basis – the more it will get smarter and tailor to exactly what the needs of the music producer or artist are for a given project. Over time, the platform will be smarter on the outputs, resulting in even shorter turnaround times. This is just the beginning.

 

RB

 

As a music producer and creator, I think what we will see will be much like the revolution of moving from recording magnetic tape to digital and sample-based recording. We are going to see how this technology influences song writing, creativity, and production, not only in the artistic space but also as it relates to the number of people that are able to create. I see the potential in that happening with Soundful and other machine-assisted platforms. This process-based assistance will open up new ideas and help technicians expand their creative scope.

 

Can it help or hinder creative thinking and creative excellence?

 

DEA

 

I am a big believer in the notion that no matter the level of a producer or an artist, there are always going to be times when you get in creativity blocks and ruts, so tools like Soundful can help get you out of that rut and inspire creativity.

 

Another avenue where it is helpful to producers and artists is as a tool to help support them to get out of their comfort zone and cross into new genres that they may have little to no experience in. Tools like Soundful allow them to unleash human creativity by providing a starting point and structure to the creative process that allows them to tap into areas they may have been scared of or intimidated by before.

 

RB

 

AI will create accessibility for people to create that maybe weren’t able to create before, which will widen the spectrum of both really good stuff and really mediocre stuff. Since so much of a person’s aesthetics or taste goes into creating music, some people may not have such an attuned sense, but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be created. There is so much that can be created, so that is going to be some amazing stuff, as well as some bad stuff.

 

If people are using AI for music in the wrong use case, then you are not going to get the results you are hoping for, at least with where the technology stands at this time. If you’re looking for a highly bespoke musical score, it just can’t do that right now. If you know how to leverage the tool as a producer or creative, you will be able to increase your creativity and productivity.

 

It’s so early with AI and machine learning for music. In the ‘80s, people were so turned off when MIDI hit the market. Then, at the start, the sound wasn’t great and felt cheesy, but now almost everyone uses MIDI to produce songs and you can hear it in most of today’s Top 10. It may take 15 or 20 years before we truly start to see the true potential of AI for music.

 

Mateusz Mroszczak, chief creative officer, Wunderman Thompson Singapore

If we talk about the role of AI in advertising I feel like our industry is running behind. Most AI driven creative isn’t really innovative. It’s about expediting and driving efficiency. While many of the awarded creative usages still feel gimmicky. At this year’s Cannes Lions there are only a few cases that truly showed the potential (e.g. Speaking in colours by Wunderman Thompson Minneapolis).

There are industries that are finding truly amazing ways of using the power of AI to generate meaningful and innovative integrations. Look at robotics, healthcare, even the automotive industry. They are using AI to its full potential. Developing products, services and ideas that will have an impact, will make a difference.

It feels like we are still waiting for the toolkit to show us what is possible.

I do get very excited when I see the evolution of platforms like midjourney, DallE or Wonder. What if AI can become a second brain in the room, that thinks differently than all of us? A sparring partner of the future who can inspire and push us into spaces or territories that we may have never got to on our own?

Diversity of thought in the room leads to better, more interesting and more diverse ideas. An AI ‘creative’ could one day brainstorm along with us, giving us yet one more unique point of view that can bring new perspectives to what it means to be creative.

 

Neil Walshe, contract associate creative director at large

Right now, creatives around the world are racing to have the next big AI idea. Some are actually being put in front of clients. Take Heinz Think Ketchup. That was quick off the block, mainly because it was a perfect fit since AI can draw whatever you ask it and Heinz had a history of asking people to draw Ketchup.

 

But for me the race is still on, because when the AI output still requires human input, it’s not truly artificial intelligence. It’s like having a gaggle of high speed retouchers on hand to do whatever you ask, and that’s not going to keep any away juries awake at night.

Where AI gets interesting is when AI does it all itself, and it can because the world is already full of things to inspire it. Imagine getting AI to read the daily news then automatically generate the political cartoon. What if it started creating music videos for songs from just musical notes and lyrics. It could show you what a recipe looks like before anyone’s even cooked it. Could it eventually turn old books into perfectly rendered movie adaptations?

Right now for advertising, it could easily read your digital profile (those websites you accept cookies from willy-nilly) and then serve you up a hyper-personalised ad with a witty AI written headline and an extensively AI retouched image, just for you, on the fly, and without anyone having to do a thing.

Hopefully some of those ideas are already on a creatives notepad, because that’s when AI’s role in the industry gets interesting. And also, a little scary.

 

View original article HERE.