How will AI impact your career in digital media?
AI-generated content is everywhere. If you work in a creative industry like digital media, how can you adapt?
When Jamie van Leeuwen started playing around with the AI tool Midjourney a few years ago, he knew he’d found something big.
This was well before ChatGPT had swept across the world.
The photographer and former TV reporter was impressed with the way the tool could produce startlingly realistic images.
“It absolutely blew me away how realistic this AI image generator could be,” says Jamie.
“The fact that it could take stuff that was as quality as I would take—looking like a real drone shot—was staggering. I just knew there and then that it would revolutionise everything.”
- Related reading: How you should—and shouldn’t—use ChatGPT as a student
It planted a seed that would eventually lead Jamie to found Absolutely AI, a creative agency that uses AI to generate innovative work for all manner of clients.
The agency has now produced everything from Superbowl graphics for NFL teams, pre-production for a film studio, to an AI-generated beer for a brewery.
Jamie says the AI revolution is well and truly here—and it’s only going to keep exploding.
So how can those working or studying in creative industries adapt?
Is AI the enemy?
Jamie says he can understand the trepidation that many of us feel around the influx of AI—and the speed at which it is advancing.
“Within one year of AI image generators becoming mainstream… there were already more AI images generated than every photograph that has ever been taken in history—which is absolutely bonkers,” he says.
So, should we be worried?
“There will be job losses, I'm sure, but there'll be jobs created out of it too.”
- Related reading: Will AI take my job?
Jamie suggests we should look at AI as a tool, rather than something that will replace human creativity altogether.
“If you have knowledge of a particular creative industry, you can use AI to enhance that,” he says.
If totally switching to AI tools to generate work doesn’t sit well with you, Jamie suggests trying it in some parts of your workflow, to potentially save a lot of time.
“Some of the photography clubs I've been talking to don't want to generate anything [with AI] … but they would like to know how they can add de-noising to their photographs, to upscale them using AI, to sharpen them using AI,” he says.
“There are ways that you can not alter the pixels, but greatly enhance your current work using AI.”
Consider these AI innovations
Absolutely AI fully embraces the scope of what AI can do.Jamie says a recent project the agency enjoyed working on was illustrating the Eureka Stockade.
“A lot of people don't know the story of the Eureka Stockade, which is one of the most pivotal moments in Australian history—and part of the reason for that is there's no photos of it.”
Working with historians, they’ve created hyper-realistic imagery that helps bring the historic moment to life.
The agency has also worked with Modus Brewing to produce an AI-generated beer— spanning everything from the recipe to the label.
“Using ChatGPT and various other AI tools, we created a recipe and selected the ingredients; the brewing process was all done by AI. The idea was to create the perfect craft beer,” says Jamie.
“We had this surreal moment up in Newcastle where we all sat around and poured the first beer and had a taste … it shocked everyone how good it actually was.”
- Related reading: How to start a career brewing beer
The agency is also currently working with a film studio based in California, doing their pre-production using AI tools.
“We can choose a specific actor, which may fit the role of a character, and put them in a scene which they would like to be in the movie. And then they can imagine how this looks.”
Looking down the line, Jamie says AI video is set to become way more commonplace.
“I think before we know it, we will be able to create our own movies, with our own actors, that are all tailored just to us,” he says.
“I think that will happen way sooner than we realise.”
How to use AI in your digital media career
Jamie’s advice to those studying creative disciplines such as photography and filmmaking is to not abandon traditional skills.“In manually doing things, you pick up skills, and you understand the theory behind what makes a good image far more than someone who is just going to play around with Midjourney and create some images that might look nice—they're not going to have the same meaning, they're not going to have the same warmth behind them.
“Remember why you do these things. Remember why you like to be connected. There's so much more that goes into a photograph,” he says.
“I'll be honest, and say I have generated tens of thousands of pieces of AI imagery, AI, films, AI video, and I do not feel the same connection to any of them that I do to the photographs and films that I have actually shot, which just goes to show that there is more to it than meets the eye—it's about the story behind it, it's about a connection to a time and a place."
But he recommends also embracing AI to learn about its potential.
“Play with it; experiment with it,” he says. “I think it's important not to be ignorant as to what these tools can do.”
He says those who adopt the tech and work with it now can be at the forefront of technological innovation. “I think we all have the opportunity now, where everyone is in over their head, because this technology is so new and so breathtaking and so terrifying, that we can all dictate the way it goes,” says Jamie.
“It's not like this is an established media that has been around for 30 years, and you're new coming through the ranks at uni now, having to learn what people have already mastered for years and years.
“You can be the masters right now—if you get your hands dirty right now in AI—you will be the masters,” he says.
Inspired to learn more about artificial intelligence? Explore these AI courses that are available online with leading universities.
Or find a media and communications course that will teach you how to use the latest industry tools.
