Digital Content at Scale Requires Creative Direction of AI

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The metaverse is going to need so much digital content that there are simply not enough artists, hours or studios in the world to create it. Luckily there’s an AI for that.

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Recent advances in AI tools point the way forward. DALL·E 2, developed by OpenAI, is a new neural network algorithm that can create original, realistic images and art from a simple text description. Early users of it have reported staggering results.

Animation of those images is a logical step forward for DALL·E 2 but there are already tools such as Flowframes, which automate the inbetweening of keyframes. Writers can use language models like GPT3 to compose an entire article based on an outline, or point it to a source of data and ask it questions in English to generate talking points.

Such developments seem to threaten the very existence of artists, but there’s a growing feeling that this misunderstands the role AI will play.

For one thing, “the size of the market is going to be so big, I don’t think there will ever be a time where unique content, created by hand, will not be in demand,” says Adam Jackson, technical architect and manager of development at consumer experience designer The Zone.

AI will not just be capable of creating digital content at scale. Jackson is one of a number of commentators who feel that AI will enable higher levels of human artistry because it will elevate us beyond the chore of having to grind through iteration after iteration.

“An artist might need to produce a million unique characters for a game; now you can create the key components of that character, different traits and allow AI to produce the finished items based on your designs.”

Maybe you have writer’s block and need some prompting to get your ideas started? Describe what you want and receive 10 different initial starting points on which to paint over or use as inspiration, then use this as a template for scaled production, each with small unique details that are context-appropriate.

The artist David Hockney, for example, began his career using traditional methods and latterly has embraced the colors and ease of creation of painting on an iPad.

AI is an extension of this, a tool in which humans are the creative director.

Using AI as a prompt for inspiration is like “making the leap from traditional painting to photoshop, where suddenly a failed paint stroke could be undone in an instant,” Jackson says. “This should be seen as enhancing human creativity, not replacing it.”