By Joe Arney
Apple has never been afraid to 鈥渢hink different,鈥� as its long-standing ad campaign has urged users. But different isn鈥檛 always better, as the tech giant found out when it infuriated the creative community with an advertisement for its latest iPad Pro model in late spring.
鈥淚n the current climate鈥濃�攐ne in which artists face an uncertain future alongside generative artificial intelligence鈥斺�渢his was a bad idea, and super tone deaf,鈥� said Steven Frost, an assistant professor of media studies at CMCI. And just weeks after the ad came out, Apple formally announced the integration of ChatGPT into iOS, compounding the misstep of an ordinarily savvy company.
鈥淓verything exists in a context, and in the context of a place where A.I. is literally replacing creatives, this was not the moment for this ad,鈥� Frost said.
The 鈥淐rush!鈥� ad is 68 seconds of watching symbols of humanity鈥檚 creative achievements鈥攕culpture, paint, music, film, video games, novels, photography鈥攄estroyed in an industrial compactor, which then opens to reveal the does-it-all iPad.
As a creator鈥擣rost works both in digital media and as a听 textile artist鈥攖hey understand the backlash the ad inspired, especially since Apple spent so many resources cultivating those creators as customers. But while they acknowledge the ad鈥檚 poor timing, Frost said it puts into stark relief the new reality artists must accept鈥攅ither change the way they work, or risk obsolescence.
鈥淭here are definitely reasons to be suspicious of generative A.I.,鈥� Frost said. 鈥淚n order to stay relevant, we all need to evolve. Otherwise, what happens to artists when we can just ask a machine to make a postcard, a poster? Those people are going to have to learn new skills and learn how to be part of a collaborative process with those machines.鈥�
Frost would know: They were doing art with algorithms a decade ago, manually feeding works by Gertrude Stein, RuPaul, Ta-Nehisi Coates and others into chatbots that mimicked the way those celebrities talked. So while they鈥檙e not afraid to tinker with these technologies, they do think companies that build in the A.I. space should disclose how those models were raised and their expected effect on creators.
It is, they said, the difference between imagining a future with collaborative technology, like The Jetsons, or a dystopian Black Mirror. And the companies creating these technologies need to be more collaborative, as well鈥攏ot only in how we use these tools, but how and where we train them.
That lack of collaborative sentiment is what makes the Apple ad so chilling鈥攅ven as it tries to evoke another commercial that seized the public imagination 40 years ago.
鈥淭he 鈥�1984鈥� ad was a breakthrough in that it reimagined what computers could be used for,听and a literal breakthrough in that there鈥檚 violence and destruction at the center of it,鈥� Frost said. 鈥淭his ad is clearly referencing 鈥�1984.鈥� In a sense, they鈥檙e showing how far they鈥檝e come and that they do all these things right, but the tone couldn鈥檛 be further from the young, upstart artist protagonist in the original ad."