Because creativity is at the heart of everything at IADT, students here have to consider AI in ways that many third level students don’t. This is because AI has a complex and difficult relationship with the creative industries. This is for two main reasons.
- Firstly, AI platforms are ‘trained’ on large datasets of text, images or music that have been accessed online (or ‘scraped’), mostly without permission or consideration for copyright infringement. (Here is a useful article about the use of copyrighted works to train AI). Many creatives are opposed to this practice and have taken legal action to challenge unpaid and unacknowledged use of their work.
- A recent controversy involved actor Scarlett Johansson, who challenged Open AI for giving their chat bot a voice that was eerily similar to hers, despite her having previously refused to provide her voice for this purpose.
- Secondly, there is a fear that creative jobs may be impacted by AI. In Ireland, it recently emerged that the GAA had used AI generated art for the programme cover on the Clare vs Tipperary Munster Hurling Minor Final (here is an article about it). This was highlighted by Barry Masterson, an Irish illustrator who specialises in sports imagery, who shared on X that “there are a ton of Irish artists who specialise in GAA illustration.”
- Additionally, everyone in the film industry was impacted by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, which finally ended when film studios and union members agreed on guidelines regarding the use of AI for writing film scripts (here is an article about it).
- By contrast, many academic institutions and those working in the creative arts industries are also currently contemplating and debating ways in which AI can be used ethically to enhance rather than replace artistic expression. Some such as the University of Plymouth are debating the question ‘Is AI-Generated Art Actually Art?’ See this discussion here which also incorporates a discussion of the pros and cons of AI generated art (scroll down to view).
