Ai: The Downfall of Creativity or Rise of Creative Execution?
OzzyOz Da Vyrus is battling with conventions surrounding his artwork. His work, inspired by anime characters, gaming, and additional pop culture characters, is now being re-created by Ai artists and 'scum', who are infiltrating cons with copied versions of his IP. And as artists like OzzyOz Da Vyrus are fighting to protect the soul of their creations, Ai is evolving; with its latest update blurring the lines between paying homage to creators or a straight-up hijacking.
Ai’s latest art update, from ChatGPT, now generates art that resembles Studio Ghibli’s distinctive anime art style. Since that update, memes upon memes of pop culture-related content have been ‘Ghiblized’. Everyday memes—from that famous star at Popeyes to the little girl with the house fire in the background to Young Thug and Lil Dirk staring seriously into the distance—have all been retouched, turning these common memes into anime art gold. Additionally, some of these Ghiblized features now have animation, making the skills and the hardworking abilities of those who work at Studio Ghibli feel like the last runner in a race, completely lost.
Furthermore, chatGPT’s update “aliened” the company so bad that Ghibli’s CEO, stated that it goes against their ideals as a company. In an interview, Hayao Miyazaki, CEO of Studio Ghibli, said he was disturbed when he first saw how Ai was being used in the zombie video game:
“I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my world at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
But the Ai issues don’t stop there....
As millions of users flocked to chatGPT’s homepage to create their own Ghiblized imagery (myself included), another crisis is also taking place: one that is profiting media companies....Fake Movie Trailers. As artists are using Ai to create their own interpretation of various blockbuster films, media companies are now working with YouTube to incentivize these trailers by ensuring that the ad revenue made from views flows in their direction. A form of Income for the company, not the artist.
Deadline Article by Jake Kanter
But wait, it gets worse.....
The coup de grâce, ladies and gentlemen, is that Ai is now impacting individuals within Hollywood. Just recently, in the land of dreams, creatives have banded together to fight the Ai revolution—“with more than 420 entertainment industry insiders signing an open letter urging the government to uphold copyright laws that apply to artificial intelligence.” In other words, media companies are attempting to create likenesses of actors and actresses in an effort to maintain their movie characters, the actors who play them and their IP. To make matters worse, the fight has been so severe, that California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 2 laws protecting creatives against Ai:
Cali Gov.: Gavin Newsom
Transparency in Labor Contracts: Entertainment contracts must now clearly state if an actor’s likeness will be recreated using Ai. This gives actors control and awareness of how their digital selves might be used, helping to prevent surprise or exploitation.
Protection of Deceased Performers: The second law bans the commercial use of digital replicas of deceased performers in any form of media—TV, film, video games—without explicit consent from their estates. This protects legacy and intellectual property rights even after death.
In an industry built on the magic of human connection and imagination, Ai is starting to feel less like a tool and more like a cybernetic hostile takeover. It appears, fellow humans, that Skynet has infiltrated the realm of creativity and while some creatives are pushing back, it seems we are now at war with the machines. Avengers vs. Ultron is now live action, and we’re blindly part of the battle.
As Ai becomes mainstream, whether you’re sending an email, text, driving a Tesla (if you still do) or writing on WhatsApp —the fear is understandable. They’re Here......the machines have taken over.
With the inclusion of Ai in our personal life, workforce and creative spaces, many humans (and I say HUMANS as a species) are scared of being CTRL-ALT-DEL’ed from employment. Human skills and abilities are now being reduced to algorithms, where the work of many has been reduced to a key stroke and a prompt. It's only a matter of time before the androids appear and that is already happening in some parts of the world as they work as an assistant or as a robotic companion.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the World Economic Forum with their POV; stating their concern:
“As artificial intelligence (AI) systems become increasingly advanced, many people have developed anxieties over the potential for AI to make human skills, jobs, or even the human species itself obsolete. This phenomenon has been dubbed “fear of obsolescence” or “FOBO” – the notion that we will create or evolve ourselves into irrelevance.. Or, to put it another way …
Imagine waking up one day and finding your job has been automated overnight by intelligent machines. Then you discover even the career you dreamed of pursuing next has already been mastered by AI.”
What we’re witnessing is a new reality, an Ai-driven one. While it's true that Ai is eliminating professions and reshaping the human work force, an even deeper, more troubling loss is happening beneath the surface: the erosion of human cognition.
Creativity has always relied on more than just making, it also has depended on intention; the why and the how. Why am I creating this? What is the reasoning behind it? Is it driven by emotions such as love, happiness, loss, anger, or depression?
The emotional response into a work of art is just as important as the work itself. It’s what drives the final piece, allowing people to understand the story and its inspiration behind its creation. As Rick Rubin stated in his book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, “Inspiration is the rocket fuel powering our work.” and “creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright and it’s for all of us.”
If AI can get rid of decision-making, as well as the ability to be inspired, is it possible that we are now devaluing creativity, or is its execution now evolving into something more... automatic? In chasing innovation, are we losing that “spark”—that all-natural neuronic effect that allows creativity to be a natural phenomenon or is this digital [r]evolution mutating creativity into a more calculated and algorithmic skillset?
Despite the ongoing conflicts with Ai, there is certainly one phenomenon growing and taking shape, its execution. No matter the side we are on, we are now experiencing a rise in Creative Execution.
Creative Execution is the personal act of bringing an idea to life. From transforming a concept, an idea, into a final product—whether it’s an ad, a painting, a movie, a video game, even a tweet; there has to be, a neural spark that ignites the inspiration. In simple terms, it’s that ‘Aha’ moment.
As an artist (a human one) that ‘Aha’ moment is in the camera angle, the words, the drawing when placed in a particular light, even the moment an apple falls on your head. Some human occurrence that makes you say, ‘That’s it!!!’ For example, two rappers can be inspired as they ‘spit lyrics’ over the same beat. However, one’s words could become a certified, 5 mic classic, whereas the other’s just falls on deaf ears. This, is based on the lyricists’ message, emotion, and rhyming ability.
Now, that spark has been reduced to an algorithmic code, a key stroke, and a prompt, with the user being anyone. Creative execution is now reduced to digital parameters, that can be replicated, over and over again. Ghibli Art anyone?
With the change in technology and creativity, the user no longer has to have “the eye, or some innate, or developed/developing talent,” Instead, they only need a computer, internet access and an imagination at best. After all, the barrier to enter the art x creative scene has shifted from learning a skill or set of skills to a computer interface and some programming knowledge. If your RAM is big enough, processing chip is made by Nvidia (hopefully), and you have a slight command of the English language, you’re Basquiat, Van Gough, or Akira Toriyama. Maybe not the last one, but you get the idea.
Nicholas Cage; who has voiced Spider-Noir in the Spiderverse series, Ai face-played Superman, and was a pretty decent Ghost Rider stated in his acceptance speech at the 52nd annual Saturn Awards:
“...there is another world that is also disturbing me. It’s happening right now around all of us: the new Ai world. I am a big believer in not letting robots dream for us. Robots cannot reflect the human condition for us. That is a dead end. If an actor lets one Ai robot manipulate his or her performance even a little bit, an inch will eventually become a mile and all integrity, purity, and truth of art will be replaced by financial interests only. We can’t let that happen….
The job of all art, in my view, film performance included, is to hold a mirror to the external and internal stories of the human condition through the very human, thoughtful, and emotional process of recreation. A robot can’t do that. If we let robots do that, it will lack all heart and eventually lose edge and turn to mush. There will be no human response to life as we know it. It will be life as robots tell us to know it.
I say, protect yourselves from Ai interfering with your authentic and honest expressions.”
While creative execution is the bridge between the idea and the final product, technology is moving faster than any of us ever imagined—well, everyone except the engineers at Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft. Cage’s words are a reminder and a warning: Creativity is a human act, driven by emotions, thoughtfulness, and lived experiences. If we replace the heart of the creative process, we lose its purpose. Imitation is the best form of flattery, and Ai is becoming The Talented Mr. Ripley at a vast scale.
Yet, we must also acknowledge Ai’s usefulness as a tool. When used responsibly, as an assistant, it has the potential to enhance productivity and open new creative possibilities. While Ai can streamline tasks and generate inspiration, one thing must remain—The Spark. No matter the execution, natural or technological, the spark, the meaning, must always remain human.
