Sublime: why technology could elevate the creative process
Rather than fear the development of technology, a new report titled Creativity + Technology: The Formula to Inspire the Future, compiled by The Drum in partnership with Sublime, suggests that it could actually act as an enabler to the creative process. But first, we must redefine what this looks like in today’s digital age.
Technology for creatives
Artificial intelligence has proved its ability to outsmart humans across many campaigns. The biggest and arguably most memorable campaign that challenged human intellect was AI company, DeepMind’s, AlphaGoZero campaign which hit the headlines in 2017. In it, a computer was programed to play the ancient Chinese game, Go, eventually even beating world champion Lee Sedol at the game. Although it scared many into thinking about the possible repercussions of this campaign, namely whether a machine could actually replace a human, others recognised that it was the perfect example of a machine needing a human in order to function. After all, the computer was programmed by a human.
The report argues that technology is unrivalled when compared with human creativity and that it should be used and considered as a tool to inform the creative process rather than act as the sole creator.
Machines have the power to relieve humans of completing boring tasks like collecting and reading data, ultimately freeing up our time so that we can focus on pushing the creative further.
But some argue that in the world of data, quantity has often come at the price of quality. Marketers regularly release campaigns that don’t relate to or engage with their audiences, so it’s no wonder that customers are becoming increasingly fed up with this persistent approach and eventually even blocking ads rather than connecting with them, let alone remembering them. To avoid this, marketers should always keep their customers in mind and think about the context within which their advertising sits. If they can remain relevant to their target audience, they’re much more likely to gain traction.
In this way, data can be a valuable asset in informing the creative process; however, the power of human emotion shouldn't be forgotten. For human emotion will always trump machine intelligence.
For more information about the report, visit Human Creativity: Is it threatened by the evolution of technology?