AI artist Varun Gupta on AI-powered creativity: can AI programmes create original work?

But how do you balance your own creative decision-making and the use of a generative AI? How does it reflect in your work with We Create Films?

AI, specifically technology, isn't a replacement for human creativity; it enhances it. I guide AI in my creative process, providing inputs and making critical decisions. While AI suggests elements, I decide if they align with the narrative and concept I want to express. The magic occurs when my creative instincts merge with AI's capabilities, resulting in truly original and unexpected pieces.

In my work with We Create Films, traditional filmmaking and AI converge. AI aids tasks like visualisation, editing, VFX, and scriptwriting, improving efficiency. However, storytelling remains a deeply human endeavour. AI can assist, but it can't replicate the emotional depth, nuances, or human connection we strive for. My aim is to harness AI's strengths—speed, precision, and complex task handling—while preserving the human touch that makes art and storytelling so potent.

See more: ChatGPT, Midjourney and Dall-E 2—What is the future of AI in education?

Do you think that there’s a danger to AI-generated art appearing too formulaic or generic? How do you prevent that sense of sameness from permeating your own work?

In any creative field, trends can become formulaic and generic, leading to creative blocks. However, this is precisely when the drive to break the cycle and innovate emerges. While trends change, the underlying ideas and evocative nature of art remain constant. As artists, we must maintain integrity while embracing evolving technologies to avoid uniformity.

With each piece, I push the boundaries of the medium and my comfort zone, ensuring uniqueness and staying true to my vision. AI art is often misunderstood as lacking human touch and emotional depth. However, as AI artists, we craft narratives, choose aesthetics, and make critical creative decisions. AI is a tool we guide, expanding our capabilities and opening new creative avenues.

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How will AI impact the value of creative work?

AI's impact across industries brings about a challenging transition, rendering some occupations obsolete while opening doors to new opportunities. In the creative field, AI serves as an assistant rather than a takeover. It frees us from mundane tasks, allowing creativity to flourish. Consumers become creators, empowered by AI to express their ideas. Small and medium businesses benefit greatly, creating high-quality content at a fraction of the cost.

However, freelancers and creative agencies face challenges as traditional roles are threatened, potentially leading to job losses. It's crucial to embrace AI, learn from it, and adapt to its evolution. By doing so, we can seize the opportunities and remain at the forefront of the creative landscape. Rather than viewing AI as a threat, creatives should see it as a stepping stone to uncharted artistic horizons. Despite the challenges, the benefits of AI in the arts far outweigh the potential drawbacks.

See also: How AI-Generated Art May Change the Way Designers and Architects Design

One of the biggest issues when it comes to AI-generated content is the risk of copyright infringement and its apparent potential for plagiarism. What are your two cents on that?

The matter of copyright in AI-generated art is complex and still largely uncharted territory. My perspective is that while an AI programme, be it Midjourney or Dall-E, learns from a multitude of sources, it does not simply reproduce content. Instead, it generates something entirely new based on the patterns and features it has learned from data being input by the user. We as AI artists provide guidelines based on our vision and a creative intuition that ultimately shape the artwork.

However, I acknowledge that the AI's learning process could potentially infringe on existing copyrights. One solution might be for companies that create these AI tools is to ensure they have proper licenses for the datasets they use to train the AI. Furthermore, any art produced by AI should clearly acknowledge its AI origins and the potential for unseen influences from the training data.

The challenge here is to find a balance that respects existing copyrights while also acknowledging the new creative processes enabled by AI. It's a conversation that needs to involve AI artists, traditional artists, legal experts, and the wider public. I am hopeful that, with time, we'll develop a fair system that can accommodate the complexities of AI-generated art within the existing intellectual property framework.

Read more: Architect turned artist Pamela Tan gets candid about her design process

What’s an AI-art project that you’re most proud of?

The CyborgBay series was one of my early attempts to integrate AI art with the concept of Indo-Futurism (a genre of science fiction set in India's rich sociocultural landscape). I envisioned a futuristic version of Indian cityscapes, blending traditional architecture with futuristic elements—a symbiosis of our rich past with a high-tech future.

Creating CyborgBay was a challenge as it required finding a delicate balance between the old and the new, the familiar and the novel. But the end result was truly rewarding. The series was well-received and inspired many artists to explore Indo-Futurism in their own unique ways. The success of the series affirmed my belief in the potential of AI art. It showed me that AI could indeed be a powerful tool for storytelling, capable of capturing the essence of a narrative and translating it into stunning visuals. 

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