The power of AI was on full display at Austin’s South by Southwest festival – from robotics to transportation to healthcare, but what about the arts?
“Ultimately, I think it allows more people to be artists,” said Adam Fine, Head of Audio and Music at Fiverr (FVRR).
“Now what’s going to be really interesting is seeing people use this tool and unlock more to create more impressive things, the baseline will continue to rise. and we will see that threshold for great art, great code, great writing improve.”
“We will see how people, freelancers, professionals, experts, continue to use this tool. Ultimately, humans will be the winners and we will see humans becoming more and more creative and productive… AI can be used in music to improve production, consumption and many other things. and I think the possibilities are endless,” says Fine.
So endlessly that in just a few months, AI-generated artworks have spread across the internet like wildfire and developers have made a boatload of money for what appears to be an original idea.
“Especially in the field of art, we have brought lawsuits for representation and compensation. Artists often have their art inserted into the dataset to train these models without notification and without compensation, notification or attribution,” Signal and Cipher CEO Ian Beacraft told us.
“People put their life’s work on the internet, and now these models came along and scoured the whole internet and said, ‘We just train it for everything.'”
Intellectual property theft is hardly a modern problem, but let the free market find a modern solution. Image licensing companies like Getty (GETY) and Shutterstock (SSTK) are jumping headlong on the AI craze, leveraging their massive image databases to create AI content generators and sharing profits with contributing artists.
“The way people tell stories is evolving. At one point it was images, then it was video, and now it’s music. Content can now be generated,” said Meghan Schoen, Shutterstock’s chief product officer.
The story goes on
So what does the future of creativity look like?
Schoen says, “The way I describe it is that you’re sitting in a pitch meeting or trying to bring an idea to life, and you might have a vision of astronauts having breakfast on Mars. How did you actually describe that to a room full of creative people in the past? To help them understand and conceptualize what you are talking about? Now they can just describe it, picture it, and now they don’t start with a blank sheet of paper… and they can build stories from there.”
video transcript
BRAD SMITH: The power of artificial intelligence was showcased in Austin, Texas at South by Southwest in its entirety, from robotics to transportation to healthcare. But what about art, you ask.
ADAM FINE: Ultimately, I think it allows more people to be artists.
BRAD SMITH: Adam Fine, Fiverr’s head of audio and music, says AI will push the boundaries of artistic endeavors –
ADAM FINE: [BEATBOXING]
I don’t know. There you are.
BRAD SMITH: – like music, writing and design create new avenues for what artists can achieve.
ADAM FINE: We will see how people – freelancers, professionals, experts – continue to use this tool. And in the end, people will be the winners. And we will see people becoming more and more creative and productive.
BRAD SMITH: Being a musician myself, I was curious as to what this might mean for the next generation of music.
If we as musicians think about what the next kind of iterative phase of music is with AI layered on top of it, I mean how does that even look to you?
ADAM FINE: I think the possibilities are endless.
BRAD SMITH: So endlessly that in just a few months, AI-generated artwork has spread across the internet like wildfire. And the developers made a boatload of money…
[CASH REGISTER DINGS]
–for a seemingly original idea.
IAN BEACRAFT: In the arts in particular, we have had lawsuits for representation and compensation. Therefore, artists often have their art inserted into the dataset to train these models without notification and without compensation or notification and–or attribution. People have put their life’s work on the Internet. And now these models have come and scraped the whole internet and said yeah we just train it on everything.
BRAD SMITH: Intellectual property theft is hardly a modern problem. But leave it to the free market to come up with a modern solution. Image licensing companies like Getty and Shutterstock are jumping headlong into the AI wave, using their vast image databases to create AI content generators and sharing profits with contributing artists.
MEGHAN SCHOEN: The way people tell stories has always evolved, whether it was once pictures, then video. Now it’s music. Now it can be generative content.
BRAD SMITH: So what does the future of creativity look like?
MEGHAN SCHOEN: As I describe it, you are sitting in a pitch meeting. You are trying to bring an idea to life. And you may have a vision in your head of astronauts having breakfast on Mars. How did you describe that to a room full of creatives earlier so they could understand and visualize what you’re talking about? Now you can simply describe it, get an idea. And now they don’t start with a blank sheet of paper, but something that people can naturally relate to visually. And stories can be built on that.
