With each decade comes new tools that make creative expression more approachable than before. The electric piano, loaded with sounds and light up keys became the instrument and the lessons all in one. The Adobe Creative Suite digitized the entire artistic editing process – relieving the possibility for accidental error in art. The next evolution of tools for creative enhancement incorporates AI into actually helping create the art. They are AI tools.
One could argue that AI tools make the creative process too simple and therefore devalue creativity. However, I think it’ll actually create a higher standard for art because it’ll require more ingenuity in order to stand out.
What are some of the tools fueling this AI creative expression?
Creative AI Tools
GANpaint, created in unison between MIT and IBM, uses a GAN to allow a user to paint or erase specific features onto an image. The tool is limited in what it can identify and work with, however, it’s not hard (after demoing it) to imagine how this tool could dethrone some Photoshop features.
Nvidia GuaGAN has created a tool that turns sketches into photorealistic landscapes. Zao and DeepNudes were two other GANs (of the deepfake variety) that could generate images and videos from source material.
On the quick editing side of things, Remove.bg uses image recognition to quickly remove the background from any photo. And the BG App does the same thing for photos on iOS.
Then there are the selfie, photo-editing apps like Meitu and Lensa which use some facial recognition and pre-loaded “smart masks” to enhance appearance.
The TRASH App uses AI to generate video montages. Throw video clips into TRASH and they’ll use AI to instantly generate a rough cut and match it to the beat of music.
What about Adobe? Where is the front-runner of creativity tools at?
So far, Adobe’s released an AI detection feature that can spot when an image has been altered and AI-powered “one-click Subject Selection”. My guess is that they’ll roll out AI features slowly but surely, because they have a lot to lose if they mess up. Kind of like how Microsoft is updating their Office Suite with AI features.
All in all, there are many AI tools assisting in other creative mediums – from music to writing to presenting. And the incentive to create these is far stronger than the push back from the arts community. These AI tools are expanding the pool of creative professionals and won’t slow up anytime soon.