AI vs agency creatives: unpacking the binaries

In a world where artificial intelligence (AI) can replace and automate so many of our roles, it’s worth asking what it can never do and how we should be doubling down on all the advantages of being human.

Is AI coming for our jobs? Certainly, and not just for jobs with low barriers to entry. AI is growing so quickly in power and application it will almost certainly affect skilled professions too.

I see dermatologists on TikTok watch in disbelief at how accurately ChatGPT completes a differential diagnosis in seconds; I see tools that claim to replace teachers in environments where self-study and home schooling have become normalised. This 3D artist lost everything they loved about their job because a new version of Midjourney could create, rig and animate mobile game content in two days compared with a human time of several weeks; their job is now only to ensure that the prompts (inputs) are correct.

What about agency creatives: is AI coming for us too?

Like many other disruptions in history, the answer depends on how we orient ourselves towards a changed reality. When machines replaced much of the labour force during the Industrial Revolution many feared the job losses. But in fact, job opportunities and wages increased, along with the demand for people with adaptive skills like machine operators and those in oversight roles. The same has been true of the digital revolution, the age of the internet and Web 3.0.

So, workplace disruption — even at scale — is nothing new. What is perhaps new is the hyperprogressive pace and force of that disruption: major advances in AI are no longer measured in years, but in months and weeks. The technology feels like it’s moving past us so quickly we see open calls supported by the likes of Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and Sam Altman to pause AI systems with human-competitive intelligence because they “pose profound risks to society and humanity”. These have now escalated to extinction-level fears on par with those relating to nuclear weapons. And while It’s not Judgment Day yet (though Terminator 7 is coming), it does feel like we’re on precipice of something the consequences of which we probably don’t (or can’t) appreciate.

Doing what we’re best at: the human experience

But no matter how impressive and foreboding AI is, creatives still have a trump card: the human subjective experience, and, in most cases, good judgement. AI may analyse how words  become poetry, how colours become art, how design becomes aesthetic, how notes become music. It may have access to thousands of years of human history (and mistakes). But generative AI, however advanced, has no 01110011 01101111 01110101 01101100 (that’s binary for “soul”), which means it will always be derivative. Even as it works off centuries of human history, AI cannot translate all the paradoxical, whimsical, unexpected ways we are creative into algorithms and code. AI cannot replace creativity, it can only replicate it.

Does that mean we can all relax and call ourselves irreplaceable? Quite the opposite. ChatGPT can already write perfectly cogent long- and short-term editorial content, tell stories, generate social posts based on trending data, prioritise leads and segment customer data for conversion — and do it all in ways that maximise reach and search engine visibility, if correctly prompted.

In response, we must dig deep, and actively nurture our creativity, using our empathy and experience to connect and disrupt in ways that are fresh and resonant. We must bring our full humanity and diversity to the way we craft our work and how we shift the culture around us as well as to our willingness to break the rules and make mistakes. This requires self-work, self-reflection and the bravery to try, fail and be wrong.

In a world where an algorithm can predict our next Netflix binge, it’s comforting to know how beautifully unpredictable human creativity can be. The day a computer can truly create is the day it can fail magnificently at what it does too. Until then, we’re safe.

Chris Lazley is a partner and the executive creative director at Razor PR.

The big take-out: AI cannot replace creativity, it can only replicate it.