‘¡AI, Caramba!’

2022 will be remembered as the year that AI came in like a wrecking ball.

I’ve been speaking on the impact of artificial intelligence since 2016, but 2022 will be remembered as the year that AI came in like a wrecking ball: provoking excitement and anger across the creative fields (depending on who you talk to and what their relationship is to the technology).

I most recently shared my thoughts on the promise and perils of AI in the “Future of Entertainment” session of my “How Hollywood Works” course at Taipei National University of the Arts (which you can also watch below), touching upon practical inevitabilities, historical precedents, creative opportunities and ethical considerations…

• 00:00 The impact of artificial intelligence
• 00:32 Artificial intelligence is less advanced but more intelligent than you think
• 07:31 Immersive, interactive environments require intelligent responsiveness
• 11:51 Artificial intelligence provides immersive, interactive access to animated characters on a personal level
• 12:59 The next generation of “AI natives”
• 13:35 Ethical considerations
• 15:54 The “anti-AI art” movement
• 16:29 Common anti-AI grievances
• 20:47 Reactionary precedents: the printing press, the computer
• 21:57 Recollections on anti-computer sentiment at Ohio State and Disney
• 24:55 The importance of creatives engaging with technology
• 27:42 The precedent of photography’s impact
• 32:40 Vastly underestimating the impact of AI on creative professions in 2019
• 33:23 Recent interviews with AI creators Steve Coulson and Michelle Robinson: “A Creator’s Midjourney” - https://www.awn.com/blog/creators-midjourney “Shift Into the Uncanny” - https://www.awn.com/blog/shift-uncanny
• 37:57 The value of experience and insight in AI image generation (Bay Raitt)
• 39:44 “Prompts” are creative directions
• 43:18 AI as the ultimate form of conceptual art (with a shout-out to Sol LeWitt)
• 44:33 The AI data scraping controversy
• 45:16 The shameless hypocrisy of my anti-AI colleagues
• 47:58 The precedent of sampling in rap & pop music
• 49:21 The reality of our complicit exploitation of others
• 51:06 Your data has been scraped and sold for decades
• 52:13 It’s better to surf a wave than be hit by it
• 52:39 Student Q&A
• 57:13 The end of content creation?
• 58:25 The inevitability of storytelling and technology
• 59:08 My application of AI, creatively and ethically