Lecturer and artist Nguyen Thu Thuy (School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University, Hanoi), who works in the field of artistic creation - painting and pottery making - and also teaches Creative & Critical Thinking, shared about the emergence of AI in her field of expertise.
DON'T WORRY ABOUT COMPETITING WITH ANYONE
How do you evaluate the increasingly deep and wide presence of AI in the field of content creation, idea generation and artistic composition at present and in the future?
- In my opinion, AI is an inevitable trend of the times, but no matter what, it is just a human tool, supporting users in the process of creating content, ideas and art, but it does not or cannot become the subject of artistic creation.
The strengths of AI, as far as I know, are automating repetitive tasks, searching and retrieving information from Big Data at high speed, and being able to optimize search content and provide diverse creative suggestions... But like that, AI is still just a good, powerful tool for users. If we, the creative subjects, know how to use AI, we will have a perfect, effective and wonderful assistant.
AI, at this point, cannot create content, ideas or real works of art - from generating ideas to completing content - without the user's thinking, expressed through questions and commands that users give to AI and let AI learn and nurture over time.
We have always known that if we know how to ask questions and ask good enough questions, it will guide and support AI to provide high-quality results that can satisfy user requirements. On that basis, users will continue to ask for AI assistance to become better and more effective.
On the other hand, the increasingly deep and widespread presence of AI will support us in our creative activities, save time and improve work efficiency, while also creating opportunities for all of us to create together, awakening the creative potential in each person.
AI’s super-fast learning capabilities and massive data sets promise to be a superpower for digital creativity. So what can we do to make AI a tool instead of a victim of being replaced in our jobs?
- I don't think we have to compete with AI. The possibility of humans being replaced by AI in the field of artistic creation is still very "fantasy". But there is a real competition, which is that we have to compete, have to race to master technology with those who know how to use AI in creation.
With commands, AI can create unique paintings, imitate the styles of famous artists or create completely new styles, or a skilled AI user can use tools like DALL-E 2 to create images from text descriptions. If we are “blind to AI”, we lose, but not to AI, but to other people.
Therefore, we must make an effort to learn and cultivate, expand and change our way of thinking, update to apply AI and learn how to master AI, use AI to increase working speed, process raw data, expand the dimension of ideas, and even participate in the refinement and completion of products - which is the strength of AI.
It is also important to note that AI's greatest strength is data and data extraction, so we should take advantage of this ability to get solutions suggested by AI, which will help us have a way of thinking from outside our own capacity to continue to dig deeper and develop.
CREATIVE CAPITAL OF THE SOCIAL VARIETIES
Artistic creation requires the creator's emotions, something that AI does not yet have. Will this still be a strength for humans to dominate? How can creators maintain their personal mark, personality, and identity?
- This is really a question for... the future. AI is developing more and more so I personally cannot answer what the limits of AI are? But one thing is for sure, AI will replace humans to carry out some activities in the creative work chain.
Creativity is diverse, there are AI creations that will be recognized, even impressive, but right now, only human creations can touch the hearts and emotions of people. Because it is the work of sentient beings, not accidentally like AI, code or chip speed.
However, to achieve that “emotional” value, it depends on the artist’s mettle, maintaining his/her steadfastness in an environment with too many influencing and attractive factors. At the same time, he/she must always train himself/herself, improve his/her expressive techniques to create his/her own writing style, creative method and style.
Your creations and compositions in painting blend many elements of graphics, design, and digital. So can AI participate in your creations or do you intend to use AI in your creation process from ideation, sketching, rough execution, and refinement?
- I am a graphic designer who has been familiar with working with design software since the 1990s. The polyart (or lowpoly) school of art that I have been pursuing since 2019 is essentially "digital art", at a simple level it can be created with the support of technology software.
However, I do not stop there, from these sketches, I continue to overlap, combine and express them again with paint on canvas. In the process of putting the sketches on canvas, I continue to develop and can further divide the polygons or combine multiple materials such as newspaper collage, acrylic to create texture...
So, technology can support artists in the creative process, but the work is still a personal touchpoint that the artist chooses. We can use technology and AI to support artists, but they can never replace artists. Creativity is something that is always new, not a loop for AI to learn and use to create.
What plans does the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences & Arts have to deal with the AI wave in content creation and artistic creation?
- Currently, the school's Visual Arts and Creative Design training program has a number of new subjects that will be deeply related to technology and AI such as: Introduction to film and video art; Graphic design and digital film/video production; Visual arts with sound; Video art and multimedia installation; Animation and multimedia installation; Realistic digital fashion; Interactive design and UI/UX experience; Motion graphic design; Website design and interaction; Game design; Virtual reality technology in interior design.
Schools cannot stand outside this wave and are ready to help students have the capacity to ride it. We should see AI as an inevitable trend, just like the Internet-connected computer has replaced a series of old-fashioned working tools. Thus, we do not fear a future where AI is present everywhere, in every field.
