In this episode of the Creative Work Hour podcast, airing on November 10, 2024, the hosts discuss whether true originality exists or if all creative work is just a remix of past ideas. They talk about how AI can help or replace human creativity and consider how virtual reality could improve artistic expression. With tips on using technology responsibly and ethically, this episode encourages listeners to think about how creativity is changing in the digital world.

000:00

Welcome to another Creative Work Hour podcast. Today is November the 10th, 2024, and this is day 10 of the National podcast post month. Alright, I'll get us going with a question and we'll just see where the conversation leads us. Can true originality exist or are we just remixing old ideas? Can originality, true originality exist, or are we just remixing everything? That's a difficult question.

100:30

Well, it is. I mean, I, I love the book and the idea that art is theft and that we are always creating on continuing some tradition. And so to me, ARC can very well be a unique remixing of existing themes or, you know, ideas. And we, if we, if we create any kind of fresh perspective, that's awesome. That's art, because art is so subjective. And, you know, one of my favorite books is called Just Kids by Patty Smith. And she recounted the time when she and Robert Mapplethorpe, the famous photographer, were living in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City at a time when so many other people who would become famous artists and musicians were living there. Chris Christofferson, Andy Warhol,

101:33

Such an amazing cast, its big names were just, and they were broke and they were all kids. And the part I love is that Patty describes that they would all, like, she was writing poetry at the time, and so they would all make something, whatever they did, write their song, write their poem, take their photograph, and they would run over to the other people at the Chelsea Hotel and say, is this art? Do you think this is art that I make art? Do you think I've made some art here? And they would have a conversation. And that has always been so validating to me that these, you know, some of these icons of, of artistic mastery at one point were, as the title says, just kids trying to figure out what is art and how do I make it and have I made it? Is this it or am I, do I need to keep working? And so that just reinforced me that it's subjective. It's very personal. And so, I know that gets a little bit away from your question, Greg, but I feel like if we create a novel presentation, even of existing ideas, it can be, it definitely can be art.

002:42

That's cool. No, that's not, that's bang on the money that there's a conversation starter. I like whether it is leaning, what is the book? Art is just art is theft. Did you say?

102:54

Yes, art is Theft. I do not recall the author at this moment. He's got several books out there. But yeah, it's, it, it was pretty popular when it came out.

203:04

It was, yeah, there, Quincy Jones, or, you know, when Quincy Jones passed away this past week or last week, there was an interview and I, someone was saying that, he said that all music consists of 12 notes. That's it. And all the, you know, so I found it really interesting that all the music of the entire world can just boil down to 12 notes. So when you say about art, I always think of fashion. I always think, oh, things always get recycled with a, with a twist, right? With a, with a new twist. But then that's, if you go back to music, it's the same thing. Everything is always recycled using 12 notes. So to answer your question, I, it's, I don't think so. I think it's, I think that, you know, there are things in the world and people remaster remix me based on the time that they live in.

004:00

Yeah, I like that, Bobby, that's interesting. Any thoughts on that, Lynn?

304:05

Yeah, I agree with Bobby. Absolutely. I don't think there's anything that's a hundred percent original, but what makes it uniquely you? It's when you bring in your experiences, the things that you, maybe you read somewhere, you see something interesting at a museum and you seek in, in sick inspiration. So it's really about putting things together and then it becomes original in that way. But I don't think we, at this point, I don't think there's anything that's really, really like, original on its own.

004:39

So, on that vein with originality, switchgear AI is the big thing. Everyone's ai, everything's taken over. Will AI replace human creatives? Can AI replace human creatives?

204:58

Yes.

004:58

One, yes.

205:00

Yeah. I think so. I think, you know, I don't know what to think about ai. A lot of it is so crappy, you know, when you try to do it, when you try to implement AI for business, it just, it's so off putting because, or people will just think, oh, we're gonna, you know, we can just, we don't have to have a person for this when your customers are screaming at the other end of your, of their phone trying to get an answer through aro, you know, through ai. So I think though, as, as it as AI moves forward and it's moving forward very fast, that the answer would be yes.

005:37

Well, it's not sentient yet. Right. Or, you know, not supposed to be sentiment yet, but I think maybe the art will won't necessarily replace humans, but maybe the definition of art may change because ai, you only get out of it what you put into it. Right. And so right now, but well, yeah, that's, that's true right now. Yeah. But perhaps a new art form will evolve to prompting it. You know, you've probably heard the term prompt engineer, that's kind of a buzzword, right? But maybe someone's gotta put that prompt in, create that prompt, tell it, this is what I want. It doesn't just say, oh, I'm gonna make this right. It has to have some input. Some,

306:22

Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I, in fact, I think recently Google just launched a course on AI prompting, which looks really interesting. It's launch, part of it as part of its certification. But I am a little, I'm more optimistic. I think of the, like, nothing can ever replace human creativity. I would like to see us as the rider managing the horse. So AI is this very powerful horse. And that ultimately we are the one who, who masters, who's the master of the horse. I think there are many things that we need to put in place to make sure that we are using it ethically. We are using it, we are teaching the next generation to use it Right. And use it well. And not just rely on AI for everything. Yeah. Ultimately, it's how we manage it.

107:14

Well, I, and I think ai, I mean, I try to put a positive spin. I have two positive examples from my own creations. One is I've always loved cartoons and the idea of cartooning, but I am a terrible artist. I am not, and I've never put any energy into improving that. But with ai, if I come up with the idea, I can describe the image and keep crafting it until I get the basic image or images that make the joke. And then I just put my text with it. And now I've created something that wouldn't have existed if I didn't have AI to draw that for me, or it would've existed in a crude form that I don't think would've spoken to anyone. And yes, you know, full credit to what I used, here's the tool I used, here's what I did. But now something's out there that wouldn't have been out there.

108:04

And that's, you know, from me. And I'm like, oh, that's cool. And similar to that, I think everyone here knows I am a songwriter. And when it's time to put those songs out there, the way things work now you have to have art. You have to have an image that represents what you've posted. And before ai, I was buying them, I was going out into the marketplace and looking for images, and I would buy something that someone else had created. Well, now I can create my own images. Now whether that image has stolen from someone else's copyrighted material, I understand that's a risk, that's a concern. It definitely has to be addressed. But for me, I created something interesting that matches my idea of my song that's suddenly out there. And I'm like, oh, I like that. That's, that's new and interesting. I would've no way of doing that before other than hiring someone with the talent and say, oh, could you tweak this a little bit? Could you change that color? Could you make it look more like this? And now it's like, all within my control. And for me, that's a positive change while trying to be mindful of the risks that it may have taken something from others that without their knowledge or consent.

009:18

Yeah. I,

209:20

I'm gonna, I'm gonna add to that because in my, because I do something different. I do more corporate work and I do communications work. So we were kind of the first, can we, especially like corporate communications, PR was really the first fall with ai, I felt, or I feel that because people don't care about the quality. They're like, they just here write me a press release about this. We launched this product and, and it's crap, quite frankly. And no one really cares. It's all about click. It's all about engagement. There's really not a lot about information. Is the information good? Is there protocols? Is there, you know, am I satisfying what I need to do with the investors? So they, they just don't care. And so I feel like that's one side to it where, you know, there's, there's gonna be a lot less. I know people that have marketing agencies that used to have 20 people and now have three, they don't need 'em.

210:15

So that, that's a big problem. I I, I look at that as a big problem. And the problem is, is the misinformation and the lack of information for people to make decisions that are right for them based on whatever they need. Now on the art front, I actually really like AI because I can go in there and not worry about for what I do, I don't have to worry about the copyrights and infringing on people. 'cause I can say, I'm looking for, you know, an image that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I can do an image that has the same theme throughout, like my platform where I can create ai, I can create it with a theme. I just put that this is AI generated and I'm good to go, and I'm not gonna get nasty letters from Getty, Getty images about how I in infringe anything. And for me now, that's, that's fantastic. So that's a, so I guess it's kind of yin and the yang.

011:12

I would agree with that, Bobby. But I think that's where it comes to using AI responsibly and then using it as a tool and not as a replacement and expecting to, you'll use the example of a, a press release, right? Or it could be anything. It could be a script, it could be a, a blog. But if you're just putting something in, you know, a few a sentence and saying, write this for me, and you're not proof checking it, proofreading it, making it your own. I use AI a lot. For me, it helps me gather my thoughts. I'll write the content. I'll say, this is what I'm trying to say, but I might have it outta sequence. And now I can say, make this into a logical order. Check the grammar, the sentence structure and everything else like that. But it's, you know, wholly my own, what, what I put into it. Right. Any information it does give me, I'll go out and I'll check them. Is, does, does that add up? You know, because there has been, and I know Deon, you work in law, there was a lawyer that used AI to do, I don't know if it was a defense brief or they, they I heard about that from paperwork. Yeah. And not even the fictitious cases. So it's how you use it, right? The responsibility factor

112:16

That those two sides of that coin just blow my mind. Because on one hand, I wish I had had AI back when I had an active law practice, the time that could have been saved and monotonous, brief writing. If all I'd had to do was check it, oh my gosh. If I could have just like, yep, that sounds right. Let me, let me look at these cases and make sure they've cited them correctly and that they're still good law. That would've saved me so much time. But to just hand it over and to say, okay, ai, go for it and hope nobody checks that is just terrifying to me of how reckless that that could be. Yeah,

212:53

Can let me, let me, let me just add onto that. Like, even when I do press releases now, right? It's easier. It's w it saves me a bunch of times. I know what I'm doing. I've done it for so long, right? So I can do it. I can just write it without, you know, okay. But, you know, write it out down, throw it through ai, AI will check it. I'll go back, I'll add what I need to add, right? So it's a great tool for people who know what they're doing. But when you're 22 years old and starting your first job, you don't have that, the business background to make that, you know, and, and there's, and they're getting rid of seasoned people for the 22 year olds that don't know, and then they get in trouble. Or there's a problem with the FTC with one of my old clients. It's like, well here, ask the 22-year-old that you fired the 45-year-old.

113:45

Yeah.

213:47

Yeah.

313:47

So when AI came out, and then I start to, I, I notice, I mean, I learned how much capability it can afford us, right? I'm actually happy that I'm, it's out now after I've put in the work in school. So it's like very much like what, what you mentioned, Bobby, agree.

314:04

I've been ly wrote essays, manually check them. And so when I have this, I have that appreciation that it can make things easy. But I also know I need to go back and look at it with critical lens and make sure that, you know, I'm pushing out good work. So one thing that really concerns me right now as an educator is how the younger generation will use ai, because they're also, they call it TikTok brain, right? They're also short attention span and they see everything like, oh, fast means good. But then, you know, like Bobby, you mentioned you write a lot of press release and we press release. There's also a way of writing it that conveys a story and there's an art to it. And if you know it, you can apply it over and over. But if you're just using AI to generate it, you won't appreciate that.

214:51

Yeah, I'm old. I, I did microfiche in college and all those dimes coughing, so yes. Yeah. Right. Oh my God. It's like you did the background so you can, so you can really benefit from ai.

115:04

Yeah. There's a version of this. This just sounds so familiar. Yeah, I was in tax public accounting tax for it back as software was coming online, a very different version than what we have today. But the risk was, the young people like me at the time, we are just feeding a number. Like, oh, this is easy. We just type in the numbers and then it spits out the other side. But you've gotta have the manager going, okay, tell me if this makes sense to you. Dingler, you know, the client made a hundred thousand dollars a year and they owe 250,000 in taxes. Sound right to you. Maybe you input something incorrectly or maybe you coded it wrong. So you have to have that experience. It says, yes, I have prepared a manual tax return. I know what it's supposed to look like before I get the benefits of the tool that just shoots it out the other side. So a little bit of it sounds familiar,

015:56

Great conversation. And I like that Google and other AI models are making education available, how to use their tools responsible, right? Hopefully that's the, the idea behind that. But what do you think? Do you think that true originality can exist? Or if we're just remixing old ideas, and will AI replace human creatives? Can virtual reality enhance creativity? Let us know. You can send us an email to me@creativeworkhour.com and check out the website. That's our time for today. But if you have a question or a topic that you'd like to hear the group discuss, again, it's me@creativeworkhour.com. Thanks. Join us again tomorrow. We'll be here.