David Droga is not afraid of Generative AI, instead seeing the tool as a partner for creativity rather than a hindrance with the power to eliminate the creative industries.
At an event at the Pyrmont Theatre as part of SXSW today, advertising executive, creative entrepreneur, founder of Droga5 and CEO of Accenture Song, David Droga, took a deep dive into the future of generative AI, unpacking how it will impact the creative process moving forward.
The Q&A, hosted by Sunita Gloster, Non-Executive Director for Maurice Blackburn Lawyers and the UN Global Compact Network Australia, opened with the simple question: “Does human-powered creativity have a future?”
The answer? According to Droga, there is no question – creativity and technology need one another.
“Embrace technology and creativity together. We need each other. I don’t want people to have to choose between the march of technology and the purity of creativity, and only one of them can survive. Creativity needs technology to be real; technology needs creativity to be more relatable and human,” Droga said.
Short of being naive, Droga does not pretend that there will not be cuts to the creative industries, but he stops short of suggesting that the rise of AI is in any way the death of creativity. Instead, he proposes creativity as a shapeshifter that may not look the same in the future but will remain essential. “Creativity thrives under duress and change, and I think that this is a necessary thing for us to find the next version of creativity,” he said.
Droga believes there is no point in being retrospective when it comes to moving forward, insisting that it is essential to understand the shape of the world we are moving into and not be held back by how things have been done in the past. “When we let go of nostalgia, asking how do we use this to shapeshift and amplify what we are already doing, we will find a way, and if not, then the next group of people will”.
“Understand technology, how you can bend it, the implications of it, what good it does, what scares you about it. Whether you want to ignore it or not that’s up to you. But don’t ignore it because you don’t understand it. Stay the course, do what you want, and find the thing love and care about, but don’t do it in opposition to where the world is going. Work out where the world is going and how you can make it better and more impactful,” he said.
Despite the firm belief that technology and creativity deserve a seat at the table, Droga still firmly believes in the art of creativity, taking any opportunity to highlight the limits of relying on technology alone. “Gen AI could write the next version of Fast & Furious; you can plug that in right now, and they would give you 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14. There is a car chase; guy gets killed, girl gets the guy; done; and sold. Gen AI is not going to write Barbie because that is a different take on things that takes a type of mindset that is leaps, reverence, and quirks that makes us us,” he said. “Ai can’t capture the nuances and flaws of what makes creative people creative,” Droga said.
