While some believe artificial intelligence could end up replacing artists entirely, others believe that it can instead be used as a tool to assist artists in creating their work.
Four people from four different industries were asked about how AI may affect their respective fields and their own views on it.
Liz Viall is an associate professor for communication arts at Wayne State College who teaches news writing and advises The Wayne Stater, the on-campus student-run newspaper.
“I suppose it might be able to write a story if someone is inputting information,” she said.
Viall generally doesn’t believe AI is unable to write a story or have the journalistic qualities needed to write one, such as in-person investigative journalism or judge what are good news values. She also expressed worries that AI could generate fake sources, like how AI could create fake court cases.
One such example was in 2023 when two lawyers for a New York-based lawsuit submitted a legal brief co-written with ChatGPT which included numerous fake court cases, and as a result the two lawyers were sanctioned.
Contrary to the views of Viall, some companies have chosen to start utilizing AI for certain writing purposes. One example is in 2023, it was revealed that Sports Illustrated had been publishing AI-generated articles under fake names which resulted in the CEO being fired according to a 2024 interview from NPR.
This proves that while it may be incredibly easy to replace writers in some facets of journalism in others, especially those that require you to get up and leave your computer, it may be a while before AI replaces them.
Music is perhaps the industry least thought of to be threatened by AI. The most likely way is through DJing and radio stations, which we are already seeing, as Australian radio station CADA was reported to be using an AI-generated voice and likeness of a real person for one of its morning shows
Another way DJs are being threatened are through streaming services, most notably Spotify’s AI DJ feature which was launched last year.
”AI isn’t gonna die, it’s just gonna burn out,” Sean Ahern, a communication arts professor at WSC and advisor of the on-campus radio station KWSC-FM, said.
He doesn’t believe AI will affect music much but will still give way to more niche aspects of music. He believes that since AI can’t entirely replace creating music due to a lack of soul or heart, it instead be used to flood streaming services.
Ahern also expressed his belief that due to a mix of issues such as AI-generated music flooding streaming services and underpaid artists, things like college-ran radio stations will increase in popularity and gain a level of niche like that of vinyl or other forms of physical media.
“We don’t want to use it for screenwriting because it takes the human element out of it,” Mike White, a communication arts professor that oversees Hot Attic Productions, said.
He sees AI as a tool that could assist in parts like color and cleaning sound or film, not one that could replace directors, actors or writers. Despite the concerns of White, AI has already made quite a big mark on film, as two of the nominees for best picture at this year’s Academy Awards utilized AI to modify the voices of certain actors.
While this may end up proving to be a major decision in film history, it could also be a major disaster as audiences could reject the growing use of AI in film.
Art is likely the focus when it comes to industries AI threatens, and perhaps the only industry some even think about.
“Sometimes people panic over a new technology or invention before they understand its limitations,” Sarah Lemmon, an art professor and chair of the Art and Design department at WSC, said. “The danger really lies in the misuse and misunderstanding of AI systems.”
She generally has little to no worries about the threat AI poses to art and sees more good in it than bad, believing that AI can be used for such applications as allowing students to mockup ideas before bringing them to life. Her main fear does lie in companies entirely replacing artists with AI, which she believes could go nowhere, as AI could just end up with designs and logos that either look like another companies designs or just be plain bad.
The consensus among artists is that AI won’t have much to replace except for the manual labor that not many want to do, which heavily contrasts what journalists and others have written about AI and its threat to the arts and creative industries.