While there’s a lot of talk about AI replacing creative workers in the future, there’s not enough conversation about the creative tools that AI already replaces. Instagram influencers used to brainstorm post ideas by jotting them down on notes apps, crumpled papers,and post-it notes, but the role of AI in idea generation has significantly changed the creative process. AI applications save creators from staring at a blank page and allow them to focus on implementing new ideas.
Generative AI like ChatGPT and Midjourney has changed the way the creator economy operates. This AI, which produces content, has the potential to revolutionize the industry and its creators. At the moment, generative AI is mainly used for creative ideation. For example, Luca Schaefer-Charlton, a Canadian TikToker with 6.7 million followers, Johnny Valentine, an American TikToker with 7.3 million followers, and Essex-born reality TV star Chloe Veitch collaborated at an event in London. All three influencers benefited from each other’s online following, but they did not know what kind of content to make. Their manager suggested building content together in a WhatsApp chat and gave ChatGPT some context on all three creators and requested AI to suggest ideas for the three creators to make, focusing on bridging followers from one creator to the next and creating viral strategies that would have the most chances of getting views.
Creators and their teams use generative AI tools predominantly for creative ideation. However, there are two main types of generative AI used online: text-focused and visual-focused. With image generators, creators can use Midjourney and other visual-focused generative AI tools to help them create ideas from images they cannot create themselves. Creators can also use generative AI tools like Opus to take longer videos and turn them into shorter clips for platforms like TikTok or Instagram Reels.
Using generative AI saves time and widens creators’ range of ideas and approaches. ChatGPT offers creators a unique way to think creatively and make themselves more effective in their pursuits. Dave Wiskus, founder and CEO of Nebula, believes that generative AI has the potential to make content creation more accessible. Beyond idea creation, generative AI is seen as a set of creative starter tools that set creators up for success if they have raw talent that may not have been put to use previously.
At the same time, new technology has its set of limitations, and generative AI is still pretty stupid. Currently, it’s not great at producing complex videos, writing anything well initially, streamlining the creator identification process, or even coming up with completely original ideas. There are also concerns about copyright issues and the fear that so many creators are using AI tools that they end up having the same creative concepts.
More importantly, there is a risk that relying too much on AI will erode human creativity. While generative AI is an “amazing tool” for creators, Rem Darbinyan, who works in both the AI and influencer marketing world as the CEO of SmartClick, an AI and machine learning solutions provider and Viral Mango, a micro-and nano-influencer marketing platform, believes that over time, creators who use AI excessively might rely too much on tools like ChatGPT and lose their creativity instead of exercising it.
There is, however, the possibility that rather than destroying creativity, AI might change the way that humans express creativity. AI isn’t a substitute for anything significant yet, but since the technology is so new, there’s a lot of unexplored potential. Jordan Harrod, a research scientist and creator, who runs a popular YouTube channel about artificial intelligence, and other creators are playing around with generative AI tools to see the many different things they can create.
Generative AI is still quite new, and it’s unclear if, in the future, its impact will grow stronger or remain static. Chat
