What’s the vision behind the CREA-TEC project with Adobe?
In the last couple of years we have witnessed the rapid rise of a technology that is deeply impacting the way in which we create and enjoy creative content online: Generative Artificial Intelligence. Generative Artificial Intelligence, or GenAI, refers to AI systems that create new images, text, music, or even video, by learning from vast amounts of data.
Thanks to the large demand from users and their easy-to-use interfaces, GenAI is transforming the way artists create and market their work. Yet, this technological shift brings a set of ethical challenges, such as questions around creative ownership, shifts in labour models, biases in the data used to train AI, and concerns about the diminishing agency of creatives over their own work. Recent legal cases—such as lawsuits by artists against AI companies—and movements like the Hollywood writers’ strike calling for AI regulation highlight growing concerns in creative communities about job displacement and the unauthorised use of their work.
To address these challenges, the CREA-TEC project — which stands for “Cultivating Responsible Engagement with AI Technology to Empower Creatives” and is a project led by the University of Edinburgh, supported by the Bridging Responsible AI Divides programme with funds from the Arts and Humanities Research Council —aims to understand how creators’ needs can be met at each stage of their workflow in an ethical and empowering way. The partnership with Adobe, one of the world’s largest creative technology companies, ensures that our research is not confined to academic debates but has an immediate and tangible impact on the global creative community, accelerating the translation of our findings into real-world solutions, and setting a benchmark for responsible AI integration in creative practices.
How is AI transforming creative tools and workflows, and why does this matter for creatives today?
AI tools are starting to make an impact across multiple stages of the creative workflow, from early brainstorming and inspiration, to final editing and refinement. The studies that we conducted so far in the CREA-TEC project show that creatives particularly value how AI can speed up the early sketching and visualisation stages, enabling them to quickly produce high-quality mockups or prototypes. This allows them to present a clearer vision to clients and other stakeholders, giving everyone a better sense of the project’s direction and creative potential. However, for more detailed, final-stage refinements, these AI tools still lack the precision and control many creatives desire. Here, AI tools can feel limiting, as they are often not fine-tuned enough to meet the nuanced adjustments that creatives wish for delivering their vision.
There is a wide, ongoing debate around how much control AI should take over the creative process. Some worry that as AI becomes more advanced, it may take on a level of autonomy that reduces human creative agency. But it’s worth remembering that AI is ultimately designed by humans, and it is trained on the basis of human-generated content. The current limitations that these AI tools show highlight the unique and irreplaceable value of human craft and expertise. Creatives don’t have to passively accept AI’s direction; rather, they can take an active approach and use it as a tool in the stages of the process where they believe they can benefit from the support offered by AI.
Using these tools effectively does require a new set of skills, though, and formal education hasn’t yet caught up. That’s why to help bridge this gap, we’ll be hosting a series of free workshops at the Edinburgh Futures Institute in Spring 2025 to understand what are the barriers that creatives encounter at different stages of their careers in the use of these tools, and what are their needs and wishes in terms of training and education offerings. More information about these workshops will be shared with the Creative Edinburgh at the beginning of the new year, so stay tuned if you are interested in participating!
