Getting practical with generative AI
It does not take a genius to figure out that generative AI will continue to dominate the headlines in 2024 and be employed as the buzzword of choice for analysts and management consultants worldwide eager to share their deep insights on this “transformative technology” — for a generous fee of course. If you’re not on board the generative AI train yet, you’d better step it on immediately or you’ll… I’m sure you get my drift!
All the excitement about generative AI is not particularly surprising given the huge advances that were made in text-text, text-to-image, and latterly text-to-video applications last year. Cool Nike and Adidas ad mock-ups made by enthusiasts using Midjourney provide a tantalising glimpse of the huge potential of the technology. It will not be that long before people are making short films, TV shows, and ultimately movies without having to move from their desks. The main bottleneck will be human creativity rather than computing power.
Of course, not everyone can or should be a movie maker, but it is important for all of us to learn how to use generative AI tools to work more effectively and carry out tasks that we were unable to do before using more traditional methods.
Take this blog as a very simple example. For years, I have had to content myself with using images of Confucian and Daoist temples and historical sites to accompany my articles on the Analects and Daodejing because I have no personal design skills and the cost of hiring a designer to create them at scale was prohibitive.
Now, I only have to type a prompt into ChatGPT along the lines of “create a conceptual image illustrating the key theme of Chapter 27 of the Daodejing” and within a few seconds one appears. Of course, not every image is perfect first time, but with some additional tweaking I can quickly generate one that meets my needs and is for more effective than the photo it replaces.
I am seeing more and more instances of this in my day job as well, particularly when putting together big picture presentations and documents on market and technology trends. Instead of having to burden our overworked design team with the task of sifting through a massive stock image bank to find a photo that encapsulates a concept like digital transformation, all I need to do is type in a simple prompt and I have what I need.
These are two very simple examples of how generative AI helps me to work more effectively while reducing content production time and costs. Even if it has not enabled me to blast a home run yet, it is allowing me to start accumulating the singles and doubles that I was never able to hit before.
