Sculpture, Movies, and The Inevitable Pushback on AI

“This present moment used to be the unimaginable future.” - Stewart Brand via The Clock of the Long Now

There are accepted ways of doing things.  Until there is a new way of doing things.  The friction between the two conditions creates disruption.

Artificial intelligence is undeniably a disruptive technology—and for good reason. Its use challenges traditional practices, long-standing traditions, and deeply ingrained ways of thinking, pushing and challenging people to rethink and redefine how they interact with the world and what they consider “the way.”

This divergence from the familiar and expected often brings discomfort and resistance. Yet, this "new way" is valid in its own right, often representing a leap into creative and imaginative thought and practice that can drive new ways of approaching how we create and interact with each other and the world.

Here are three examples of AI creating tension between traditional methodologies and thinking and new AI-driven ways of doing things.

Sculpture, AI, and Robo

Robotor, an Italian company specializing in robotics, has shaken up the art world by using programming, artificial intelligence, and robotics to carve sculptures out of the same marble used by Michelangelo.  The robot, called Robo, uses propriety software to do this: 

“The software takes a 3D model and automatically generates an optimised workflow and tool paths without requiring human intervention. It then simulates the process internally to identify any potential issues before sending the instructions to the robotic chisel.”  Source

Ah, the robotic chisel.  A new way of doing things.  Creating a sculpture with this technology requires understanding AI, programming, robotics, and, yes, sculpture, as projects are finished by hand.  It’s an entirely new way of creating sculptures, and the process saves time and money and potentially enables the creation of sculptures that are not possible through traditional means.

But, as you can imagine, sculpture artists are pushing back.  It’s not art but sacrilege.  It’s the destruction of the Italian art heritage (source).  Perhaps a bit hyperbolic, in my opinion.

For me, it’s simply another way to create.  It requires a skill set different from that of a sculptor.  It's a hand chisel vs a robotic chisel. Both require different skills.  Both create sculptures that can add value to the lives of humans. Both can exist at the same time.   

If you want to read an excellent perspective of AI and art, the intersection of both, and how a perspective about the use of AI can evolve, read David Morgan's interesting article, Using AI to Create Art is Cheating.

Here is a sample:

“If creativity is rooted in the mind, then physical skills are merely time-consuming constraints on creativity. AI is another tool for breaking these constraints, bringing us closer to realizing creative ideas.”

AI is Here

Here, the 2024 release, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, portrays the stories of the two that unfold over a lifetime from the point of view of a New Jersey living room. To bring this narrative to life, the characters are shown at various stages of their lives. This usually requires casting actors of different ages to represent the stars throughout the story's timeline.

Enter artificial intelligence.  The film used de-aging software developed by a company called MetaPhysics to swap faces and add aging effects.  Here is how it works:

Metaphysic developed the facial modification system by training custom machine-learning models on frames of Hanks' and Wright's previous films. This included a large dataset of facial movements, skin textures, and appearances under varied lighting conditions and camera angles. The resulting models can generate instant face transformations without the months of manual post-production work traditional CGI requires.” (source)

Unsurprisingly, the various filmmaking unions are pushing back against these advancements. Their concerns span from the potential loss of jobs to the ethical implications of using AI to recreate deceased actors for new roles. There’s still a lot to navigate, but as in many industries, AI has firmly established itself in the industry and isn’t going anywhere.

For those keeping up with AI developments in video production, it’s clear that a growing array of tools (see Sora, Kling, and Runway as examples) is bringing high-quality filmmaking capabilities directly to desktops. Although these tools are still evolving, their rapid advancement suggests that, in the coming years, film production will become more accessible, streamlined, and widespread than ever before.  Depending on your perspective, this could be a positive development (everyone creates) or a negative one (deepfakes, etc.).

In either case, the definition of filmmaking is undergoing a profound transformation, reshaping how stories are told, who gets to tell them, and what they are created for.

AI and Learning Space Design

As many of you know, my studio, David Jakes Designs LLC, creates educational learning spaces for schools.  As part of my work, I use AI to help me write, generate ideas, and develop imagery that support my design work. I employ the design process in my work, which means that  I spend a great deal of time uncovering client perspectives and needs, developing a design framework, and creating prototype designs with the architect I work with.  The strength of this process is that it is very human-centric, with time spent understanding the human side of the client’s need.

So, you can imagine my interest when I ran across ClassroomRenewal.ai.  The site introduces itself in this way:

“The world's first AI-enhanced platform to help transform, revitalize and refresh any classroom into an inspiring learning environment where every student can flourish.” (source)

The site will feature an AI app using a five-step process to support classroom design. Users upload photos of their classrooms, answer questions about layout, surroundings, lighting, and furniture, and receive AI-generated renderings of redesigned spaces. The app explains the reasoning behind the designs, offers updates, facilitates sharing and collaboration, and helps users gather funding. While the app is a work in progress, it has the potential to enhance learning space design by fostering a partnership between AI and human interaction, a concept the site acknowledges.

The bottom line?  Why not use AI to support the design process? For me, the most effective use of AI is in partnership with human thought and process.  That’s the future.

Here are three examples where AI pushes the boundaries of traditional ways people do things. In each case, AI technology supports an additional or alternative way to address a need. Whether it's designing sculptures, reimagining learning spaces, or creating movies, AI has the potential to amplify creativity, inspire innovation, and help bring ideas to life.

So that brings us to education.

So that brings us to education.

Of course, education is not immune to the disruptive influence of AI.  The real test of AI use will be at the classroom level, where the capacities of AI will challenge classroom practices, instructional design, assessment, collaboration, and how students produce products in response to class requirements.  Like the sculptors and film professionals, there will be (and there is) pushback and what appears to be a very strong desire to protect the status quo.  The real question concerns relevance - are you offering a relevant student experience if you are not applying AI to what you offer students? Educators now have the opportunity to explore how AI can enhance classroom experiences by developing human-AI partnerships. This includes everything from rethinking the writing process to how collaboration occurs, how students are supported in their learning, and what creativity means. With such powerful tools available, why not take advantage of them?

The good news? There are instances where forward-thinking educators are successfully exploring teaching and learning with AI; check out the work of Jen Roberts here and here, the work of Angela Stockman, this work by Magliozzi and Peterson, and Kassoria and Novokshanova

Educators must accept that there can be new ways of doing things, which means that, where appropriate, the affordances of AI can assist educators and students in new ways to teach and learn.

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