The first day of the conference kicked off with introductory talks by Prof Chris Speed (University of Edinburgh), keynote Carly Kind (The Ada Lovelace Institute) and science and tech writer and conference host Gemma Milne. These were followed by four sessions where presenters explored the ways AI can enhance human capabilities.

The first of these four shorts was an exciting performance by ARS PRIX Electronica nominated artist and musician Harry Yeff/Reeps One/Reeps 100, who showcased his vocal artistry and discussed the role of AI and machine-learning in the field of experimental vocalism. In his talk, Parry Malm (Phrasee) explained AI-aided copywriting and highlighted the importance of language for brands’ success. CTO of ScriptBook, Michiel Ruelens discussed AI script analysis systems and the creation of DeepStory. This first part of the core conference programme concluded with Chanuki Seresinhe’s presentation of her work at the Alan Turing Institute and the intentions behind the founding of Popsa, a company that applies AI to curate visual content and produce exquisite keepsakes.

Ruelens and Seresinhe also joined Prof Dave Bull (University of Bristol) the first panel of the conference. Chaired by Prof Darren Cosker (University of Bath), this panel discussed whether contemporary AI tools are sophisticated enough to create content of any substance.

‘Imagine Me, Gentle Spectators’ was the second panel of the day and the conference. Chaired by Adam Ganz (StoryFutures), the panel included Prof Abigail Williams (University of Oxford), Guy Gadney (Charisma.AI) and Ian Hambleton (Maze Theory). Their panel explored the ways in which AI could potentially change the rules and experience of storytelling, both for narrators and audience. Drawing on their diverse backgrounds, the speakers suggests that these new tools and means of storytelling might have a place not only in entertainment but also education.

Other highlights of the first day were the talks given by artists and storytellers during the Creative Interludes. The first panel’s discussions on AI and its relationship to human creativity and the meaning of words carried through to Pip Thornton’s presentation. An artist and researcher, Thornton questioned the difference between the value and the price of words in an increasingly digital world. Artist Jake Elwes talked about the agency of the artist as opposed to AI’s ability to mimic visual tropes, and reflected on what would it mean to actually collaborate with AI in visual art production. Elwes discussed his work ‘Cusp’, which showcases the ways a photographic dataset learns from images of marsh birds and then generates images of creatures that fluctuates between the original images, and his latest work Zizi, a drag persona generated by AI datasets. The final speaker, Åste Amundsen (Computer Aided Theatre) continued the conference’s discussion of the uses of AI tools in performative modes of storytelling.

BEYOND’s second day featured two main panels. The first panel, chaired by Chanuki Seresinhe, featured Sarah Coward (The Forever Project) and Brendan Miles (The List), who discussed the role of AI in the preservation and dissemination of knowledge and culture, as well as the most significant problems that platforms of recommendation and discovery posed. Other conversation topics included curatorial practices, fed by user data, data collection, and data-driven experiences. The second panel brought together keynote Karen Palmer (Storyteller from the Future and Artist), Angus Bancroft (University of Edinburgh) and Prof Michael Rovatsos (University of Edinburgh). Chaired by Nicola Osbourne (University of Edinburgh), the panel reflected on the ethical and political challenges of data-driven economy, possibilities of AI implementation in daily life, and the realities of algorithmic bias.

Day two of BEYOND was punctuated by a series of short 5-minute talks. First of these was Lukas Dirzys (co-founder and CTO at Creative AI) whose talk introduced the audience to ways to revolutionise the systems that enable users to discover content and develop creative ideas. Vishal Kumar (Photogram.ai) introduced the company’s AI-accelerated software and hardware tools for modern photography. Ed Stack (Delic.Network) talked about the role of AI tools in the music industry and profit-for-artists platforms. Rony Seamons (AMPLYFI) discussed the future of business intelligence and the ways the company’s AI-powered tools can help business development by exposing and harvesting the information sources available on the Internet. Laura Smith (CEO and co-founder of Slanted Theory) introduced new ways of data visualisation through the incorporation of VR/AR/MR tools, disrupting traditional data representation.

The conference also included a number of fringe events that captured visitors’ attention in-between the conference proceedings. These included an Early-Career Researchers’ poster exhibition, showcasing the latest discoveries by young academics in UK Universities and a, Innovation Showcase, featuring projects creative research-led initiatives from across the country.

Photos from the conference are available to view here with session videos coming very soon. Feel free to sign up to the BEYOND newsletter to be notified when videos are added and also for the latest news on BEYOND 2020.

However, we are currently witnessing significant advances in the development of AI and machine learning, as well as their adoption in certain fields and the uses to which such innovations may be applied. Companies in sectors including tech and communications, automotive manufacturing, finance and energy are turning to AI for certain tasks such as algorithmic financial trading, predictive maintenance and patient data processing, as detailed by Priceonomics. 

Despite business’s increasing use of AI, disagreements and often negative opinions on the application of AI persist. Recently, Forbes reported on divisions over the impact of AI in the US, quoting a Blumberg Capital survey. The survey revealed that 50% of American consumers found themselves feeling ‘optimistic and informed’ about artificial intelligence, while the rest felt ‘fearful and uninformed’. At the same time, only 26% were aware that they interact with AI at least once a day while 53% think of robots and 40% think of self-driving cars when asked about AI, and ‘58% get information about AI from films and TV or social media’. 

As AI edges its way not only in the manufacturing, finance and health sectors but also in education, we cannot help but ask what AI’s impact on the creative industries will be. Recent discussions of the increasing implementation of AI in the creative industries and the arts has prompted artists, academics, and creative professionals to question to what extent creative processes could be and would be delegated to AI in the future. 

In the end of last year, the AI artwork Portrait of Edmund Belamy sold at auction at Christie’s for $432,500. Meanwhile, other AI artists such as Mario Klingemann, Libby Heaney, Anna Ridler, and Jake Elwes have already started experimenting with GANs and other AI algorithms in their art practices. 

Similar tests of innovative technology spread to other sectors of the creative industry. Sony has developed an artificial intelligence algorithm that produces rhythm and drums effects. Meanwhile, music artists like Taryn Southern experiment with the possibilities of AI in music production. On consumer level, AI algorithms have long defined streaming platforms that allow playlist creation or recommendation settings. 

Recently, we have also seen a darker side of AI and machine learning with the rise of deepfake videos. While these demonstrate AI’s abilities as video production tools, deepfake videos impact not just visual culture production but also the wider social context in which they are produced or published.

Nevertheless, there are numerous ways in which AI and tech allow for more originality and innovation in the creative arts. A discussion of AI’s influence on the visual arts on a recent podcast by Nesta suggests that AI’s role in visual culture production might be compared to that of a new tool alongside established media like oils in painting rather than a non-human intelligence that could completely take over visual arts creation.

In an article on the music industry’s adoption of AI, April Clare Welsh posits that perhaps AI could make the music industry and the act of music production more democratic as access to music education is becoming increasingly restricted. Therefore, the creative community has slowly started to adopt AI despite the naysayers and implemented it to produce innovative variations within established artistic disciplines. Perhaps what we are seeing is not only the development of a new tool in the creative professions but also a new set of skills to complement this new tool and the possibilities it offers. 

Some say that the increasing adoption of AI in education would mean that the development of creative skills will become increasingly important and career progression in most fields. In terms of creativity in particular, a recent Nesta report The Future of Skills Employment In 2030 predicts that by 2030 it will be one of the most sought-after skills as occupations that value other competences such as customer service skills are slowly delegated to automation. 

As AI’s role remains the subject of heated discussions, these findings and the industry’s adoption of such innovations perhaps suggest that the future for artificial intelligence and the creative occupations isn’t as gloomy as we think it might be. 

About BEYOND
The challenges and points raised in this article were addressed at the BEYOND conference in Edinburgh, November 2019. Conference themes explored the impact of AI, Machine Learning and Data on the creative industries. The two-day programme offered lively debate, keynote sessions, short-talks, panel discussions and exhibitions showcasing the UK’s excellence in research-driven creative innovation, plus networking.

The posters demonstrate projects and discoveries from a range of the UK’s leading universities including Edinburgh, York, Glasgow, Manchester, UAL, Royal Holloway, and Queen Mary, among many others. Encompassing the full range of the creative industries, the research projects showcased at BEYOND’s poster exhibition lie at the intersection of research, art practices, and education.

In convergence with BEYOND core themes on AI, machine learning, and creative-led data, the early career researchers tackle topics such as biometric data as a paradigm for interactive music composition, creative-led data’s impact on the creative industries, chatbots as ethnographic interlocutors, AI as co-producers of museums, digital interventions in poetry, bespoke game controllers, data ethics, the place of VR in cultural heritage and many more. 

The poster exhibition is a way for BEYOND to demonstrate universities’ ground-breaking research outputs in the fields of the creative industries and AI, and champion the ideas and discoveries from young up-and-coming academics. It is also an opportunity for junior researchers to introduce their discoveries to the wider academic community as well as industry and artists, thus utilizing BEYOND’s vast network of knowledge exchange. 

For the full line up of posters exhibiting along with more detail on the poster topics and the early-career researchers’ profiles, please head to the poster exhibition section of the BEYOND conference website.

Delegates attending the BEYOND conference get full access to the Poster Exhibition, Innovation Showcase and main conference, featuring an inspirational line up of speakers, plus networking. BEYOND tickets are on sale now.

© Main photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash

Last year, BEYOND reflected on the future interrelationship between the creative industries and technological innovation. The core topics of discussion included: the challenges and opportunities of narrative-building in the creative industries and the future of storytelling; the development of the UK Fashion industry; the skills necessary to build a future creative workforce that embraces innovation and digital technologies; and working on the intersection of the multiple fields that comprise the landscape of the UK’s creative industries.

The 2018 BEYOND programme also included shorter sessions focused on artist-led innovation and research, the significance of scientific discoveries for the creative sector and the impact of creativity beyond the creative industries.

This year, BEYOND returns as a two-day conference in Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms on 20-21 November. Addressing the role of AI, machine learning, and creative-led data in the creative sector, a series of panels and debates will discuss the advances, applications, capabilities, limitations, and indeed failures of such technologies.

The conference includes panels and speaker sessions that reflect on themes exploring the role of AI in the creative industries, both as a tool and assistant, and as a creator itself. It explores whether AI can produce artwork and products similar to those humans have created and continue to create? Is AI simply a handy tool for the creative industries or does it open the door to a more comprehensive understanding of our own creativity and artistic approach?

Although BEYOND considers the benefits of applying AI and machine learning in the creative industries and artistic practices, it also highlights these technologies’ limitations and potentially negative impacts on culture-production and the creative sector. The conference explores algorithms that unlock the unforeseen value of substantial data sets, the implications of curated searches, recommendations and discovery on existing digital and media platforms. The ethical and moral questions that surround the emerging data economy and its relationship to the creative industries will also be addressed.

Keep an eye on the BEYOND 2019 agenda for the latest speakers and sessions.

In addition to the full conference programme, delegates can also attend the Poster Exhibition and Innovation Showcase to experience demos and work from pioneering creative industry researchers and businesses.

There are also a number of fringe events taking place alongside the conference and open to BEYOND attendees – check the programme for details.

Funded by UK Research and Innovation as part of the Industrial Strategy, BEYOND discusses the most current concerns and issues on the interrelationship between the creative sector and the advances in AI technology – read more about the conference themes