TGH Technology Research/Learning Series on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The areas of AI has been on my radar, part of my technology writing and coverage that I would like to cover more in detail. On a professional and personal note, there were many a times when I thread AI on a thin grey line. On one hand, I am excited on the prospects, capabilities and how AI technology can help us in our work and life even better and further. On the other hand, I am worried that AI can take away some of our work, careers etc.

As I progressed further into the areas of AI learning and research, I had the opportunities to chat with Temus, that led to me working on an AI coverage with them, the two major articles were the “Fireside Chat with Temus and Qlik on 8th May 2023 – Key Takeaways on AI” and “Q&A on the impacts of AI, the human side of AI and fear of AI”. 

Those two major articles on AI paved the way for the establishment of my new segment TGH Technology Research/Learning Series on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

TGH Photography Research/Learning Series on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Expanding further on my new series, I am also interested, excited and concerned on the impacts of AI on photography and creative industries. That led me to kickstart another new segment, TGH Photography Research/Learning Series on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

I have also started exploring and testing Generative AI, tried out on some AI platforms, and produced a few media works. I have seen use case scenarios and examples shared on social media by other creatives, photographers, digital imaging artists. Some works were indeed close to being the real thing, that’s how far they have improved.

There are two digital images landscape style photos inside this article, the base photographs were taken by me, produced with Generative Fill tool using Adobe Photoshop (Beta) AI.

The rest of the digital images are produced using Adobe Express (Beta) using Text to Image Generative AI tool.   

During this learning series on AI, I would be publishing more interviews with different creative artists on their thoughts and views. Meanwhile, I am still consolidating more personal in-depth thoughts and views, to be shared down the road.

Matt Johnson from Temus (A Photography Master, an AI expert that breathes/lives AI in his technology role) 

A few months back, I was having a chat with Marcus Loh from Temus, having a coffee chat on my interest areas of focus in AI technology and the impacts on different industries, I mentioned that I am also planning to focus on the impacts of AI on photography and creative industries. Marcus mentioned to me that I have to speak to Matt Johnson from Temus.

In my earlier TGH Technology Research/Learning Series of Artificial Intelligence (AI) articles, Matt shared a lot of his expert views and insights on the impacts of AI, the human side of AI and fear of AI. When I first met Matt at the Fireside Chat, and heard him speak and share about his expertise and views on AI, I was blown away, he’s an AI expert that breathes/lives AI in his technology role.

What I didn’t realise that Matt is more than just a photographer, he is at the level of a Photography Master! Do visit Matt Johnson’s photography website (https://photo.mgj.org) and check out his amazing photography works!

For this article, Matt has kindly continued with another round of interview questions, sharing his AI expertise and knowledge into the impacts of AI on photography and creative industries. 

In my personal and professional humble opinion, Matt Johnson is one of the best person to share his professional and innermost thoughts and views on the impacts of AI on photography and creative industries, from the AI expert (eats, breathes, lives AI) and a photography master himself. 

Q&A Interview with Matt Johnson

Artist/Creative/Photographer profile questions

1) Would you mind giving us a short introduction about yourself and your creative fields of expertise?

My name is Matt Johnson and I am the Managing Director for AI & Data at Temus, a digital transformation consultancy. Temus is on a mission to unlock the value of data with AI, deliver positive disruptive change, and enhance the lives of citizens.

I am also a fine arts photographer and my photographs have been published by local and international media including the International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, Asian Geographic, The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao. 

2) What are the inspirations and stories behind your creative field that you are today?

There is a common misunderstanding that technical fields such as engineering and mathematics lack creativity. While these fields can be very complex, they require amazing creativity to deliver impactful change.

As a practicing artist and engineer, I find the diversity of experience to be enormously beneficial to both disciplines. I encourage my team to follow their curiosity and seek out diversity.

3) Do you have a piece of creative artwork/photograph that means a lot to you? Would you be able to share more about this artwork?

I am particularly proud of my series, Freudian Trilogy, which was exhibited at the Waterloo Arts Centre with the support of the National Arts Council. This work involved collaborations with local dance companies to co-create a uniquely Singaporean work. 

Generative AI and its impacts on creative, photography and artist industries 

4) The current topic of intense heated discussion is Artificial Intelligence (AI), what are your personal views and thoughts on this technology? What are the potential positive and negative impacts on the creative industry?

I am truly excited by the potential of AI and the impacts it will have on our lives. As the Managing Director for AI & Data at Temus, I live and breathe this technology on a daily basis, and oversee AI events and partnerships like our fireside chat with Qlik and our recent partnership with AISG that you probably already know about. Even as I interact with it day-to-day, I am constantly amazed at the capabilities and the potential of this technology. 

We are working with several clients to use Generative AI to address their specific challenges. The breadth of use cases is truly impressive from user generated art to financial analysis. As we explore new use cases, we continue to identify new opportunities and expect this to continue for some time.

When it comes to the creative industry, we’ve seen showcases of how AI (especially generative AI) makes art and other creative outputs more accessible to non-creatives. AI can also expedite the more mundane creative/artistic processes like retouching, colour correcting, etc., and enable a higher level of efficiency for creatives whose work have been traditionally extremely labour intensive.

Many industries have been disrupted by technology over the last three hundred years, from agriculture and textiles through to media and entertainment. The creative industry has already been fundamentally impacted by technology in the context of gaming, digital distribution and special effects.

While generative AI will surely create further disruption, it will not reduce our need for entertainment and art. It will simply increase what is possible and give us the opportunity to create more and better content.

5) Would Generative AI help us creatives, artists, photographers more in different ways that we can’t see it due to us creatives being in a blind spot? Or the onslaught of Generative AI is going to be detrimental for the creatives? 

Generative AI and all its different models are still early in their development cycle. It would be difficult to ascertain at this point, the extent to which Generative AI will impact the creative industry, especially with image models being even younger than Large Language Models, which are only about 5 years old. 

Presently, generative AI is already helpful in automating the creative process and production of the final artwork, and is quickly becoming a key part of the entire creative timeline. Some ways it can aid the creative process would be: 

• Generate ideas, be it musical notes or different visuals
• Analyse suggestions and recommendations from feedback, allowing future work to be refined
• Creating new colours/textures – increasing the options for artists

While generative AI will reduce the need for some mundane tasks and the people that support them, it will equally empower creators to be more creative and productive.

6) Do you think AI would be better for creatives in the hardware side (e.g. AI powered camera) versus in the software e.g. photo editing software, illustration software and AI powered apps?

While the early impact is on software, with applications like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and Firefly, the impact on hardware is likely to become material over time.

Companies such as Tesla, DJI and Google are making steady and substantive progress on bringing AI to robotics in the context of self-driving cars, drones and robots. These capabilities will likely impact the creative industries too in the long run.

7) Which segments of the creative and arts industry would be most impacted by Generative AI? Artists? Photographers? Filmmakers?

AI is an awesome tool with the potential to make us superhuman. I believe that every part of the industry will be touched by the impacts of generative AI. It could supercharge the creative process, editing, rendering, graphic design, and more. However, AI development and applications of this technology is still in its infancy. It is still too premature to tell how and in what ways this technology will impact our society. 

8) Is Generative AI is going to take away the livelihood of the arts and creative industries? What are your personal thoughts and views on this point?

There will always be a certain level of fear and uncertainty when new technology is being introduced. Technological innovations are tools that disrupt the status quo, and in turn provide for higher standards and quality of life. Similarly, I believe AI will disrupt the way creatives and artists currently create and spur on more creativity in the industry. 

Innovation and technology are all about change – changing the way we work, the nature of work itself, and the way we live our lives. On this ever-evolving path of change, we need to focus on understanding the capability and changing the way we work to maximise its value.

9) What should/can creatives do to ensure that they survive and get through this generative AI technology disruption? Should we start to jump on the bandwagon and learn how to use Generative AI?

For sure! The technology is already helping many creatives do their work better from graphic designers and game artists to architects and stage designers. All the technologies are easily accessible and there are countless tutorials online. Moreover, using the technologies provides endless joy and entertainment.

Today is a great day to get started!

10) What do you envision the future for creatives in a new digital and social media world, powered by AI?

We sometimes forget how much progress we’ve made as a civilisation. Not so long ago, the creative industry was limited to chalk drawings on cave walls. We’ve come a long way since then and still have a long way to go. This Is a small but important step in our civilisation’s development.

Thank you Matt!

I would like to sincerely say a big thank you to Matt Johnson, MD, AI and Data, Temus, for taking your precious time to share your technology expertise, wisdom, insights, views and thoughts on Artificial Intelligence (AI), the impacts of AI on photography and creative industries. 

I would also like to thank Progressive Communications for the communications, liaising, support and patience (with my writing/time constraints) for my series of AI technology related articles with Temus.

What’s coming up next?

I am continuing to work on both my TGH Research/Learning series, more in-depth coverage, learning, research and insights. There are more Q&A interviews being planned and lined up, do keep a lookout! 

Rounding up some personal thoughts and views 

Rounding up some personal thoughts and views inside me, I am excited yet cautious on the impacts of AI on photography and creative industries. I am still exploring Generative AI and consolidating my personal thoughts and views. 

I am mindful of AI, I am also embracing AI technology and how I can implement them to help me better in my photography and content creation.

Where will this AI journey brings me?

The post Q&A on the impacts of AI on photography and creative industries appeared first on TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog.

Photographer/Creative profile questions

1) Can you give us a short introduction on yourself and your creative fields of expertise?

Hello, my name is Agan Harahap. Photographer and artist based in Jogja, Indonesia. My base artistic expertise is photography and digital manipulation. And recently I’m using AI for my latest artworks.

2) What is the inspiration and the stories behind your creative work?

I always get my inspiration from my timeline in social media. Mostly is about politic, religion and history. I offer some silly solution for many problems that appear in society.

3) Do you have a piece of creative artwork or photograph that means a lot to you? Can you share more about this artwork?

The artwork that means a lot for me is my series ‘Mardijker Photo Studio’. I’m talking about nation identity and cultural originality and it’s connections with our society today.

4) Can you share about your journey as a creative/artist? What were some of the challenges, difficulties and setbacks that you faced in your creative journey? 

Well, it’s start in early 2000s at the beginning of digital transitions from manual. When suddenly we can almost create anything with digital software. At that time I already work as a photographer in music magazine. And I always challenged my self to dig more about other possibilities with digital photography. Asking my self is photography still can believed as a medium that can represent the reality. 

5) I read that you started off as an illustrator and digital imaging artist, what are the stories behind these experiences and how did you transition to photography?

As a graphic designer student, I have also learn photography. At that time, I don’t like photography because its expensive and don’t make sense to me. Because at that time I think photography is only for the people who cannot make a proper drawing or painting to express their ideas. And photography is their solution to cover up their inability to make art. Hahaha. But I have to pass the photography test in my study. So I learn how to manipulate photo with digital software. And I pass the test with success. And after graduate, I worked as a freelance illustrator and then become a digital imaging artist in some photography company before I become photographer in Trax Magazine. A music based magazine in Jakarta from 2006 – 2012. 

Generative AI Interview Questions

6) A topic of intense discussion currently is Artificial Intelligence (AI), what are your personal views and thoughts on AI? What is the potential positive and negative impact on the creative industry?

Based on my experienced in early 2000s when digital suddenly takeover many part in creative industry, So for me this is the new era when we have to preparing our self to this new kind of technology. For me, the main impact is the people’s way of thinking and behavior about things will change. And it will become a problem for people who cannot adapt their selves to this AI. So, like it or not, after more than 2 years we stayed at home because of covid, now suddenly we have to face this kind of technology and we have to adapt and adjust our self with it.

7) Do you think Generative AI can actually help us creatives, artists and photographers in ways that we may not see due to our personal bias or blind spots? Or do you think the onslaught of Generative AI will be detrimental for creatives? 

Before AI can help us in creativity, we first have to adapt and adjust ourself. Because at first, we have to positioning ourself between this new technology and our personal and social interest. For me, it’s quite similar like digital photography at the beginning, at the first we may think ‘Oh, with this tools, we don’t need dark room process anymore and we can save more time to create photography. But in the reality, there are many other problems arise due to this digital technology. Like for example, people start to questioning the reality behind photography ect. And after social media era, there is much more problems. We can see the rapid change in many aspects of our live. And that’s exactly will going to happen in our society with this AI technology.

Generative AI will be detrimental for creatives? It’s depend on how you adapt yourself. 

8) Which segments of the creative and arts industry would be most impacted by Generative AI? Artists? Photographers? Filmmakers?

All.

9) Is Generative AI is going to take away the livelihood of the art and creative industries? What are your personal thoughts and views on this point?

At the beginning, the answer is yes. But along with that, the emergence of AI technology, it will open up many new opportunities that may have never been thought of.

10) How do you envision the future for creatives in a new digital and social media world, powered by AI?

Hahaha I can’t imagine it yet. But I believe, sooner or later this AI will change people’s mindset and behavior.

Thank you Agan!  

I would like to say a big thank you to Agan Harahap for putting aside his precious time and agreeing to be interviewed for my article! From a fellow photographer/visual storyteller myself to another fellow photographer/visual storyteller, it’s always an interesting, enriching and enlightening experience to hear about creative/artist/photographer different perspectives, ideas and views, on photography and creative industries, their stories and journeys. 

Agan’s views and perspectives on generative AI would be part of my ongoing TGH Technology AI research/learning series, with an upcoming special article coverage on the impacts of AI on photography and creative industries that would be published on my TGH Photography and Travel portal/blog. 

This special interview with Agan also marks the start of my new personal project series that I mentioned earlier in my earlier article “Reflecting H1 2023 & Q2 2023 (Photography and Travel)”, on interviewing and featuring creatives from various disciplines.

When you visit Singapore, let’s catch up and have a chat over coffee over everything and anything about photography!

Have you visit Living Pictures – Photography in Southeast Asia exhibition?

Have you visit Living Pictures – Photography in Southeast Asia exhibition? If you haven’t visit this amazing photography exhibition, you have to plan a visit to National Gallery Singapore and check out this exhibition! 

The exhibition size, magnitude, and diversity of photography works on display, some 300 of them would blow you away, ranging from colonial archival images, studio portraits, and documentary photography to photo albums, social media photos and modern photography in both offline and online formats.

Living Pictures – Photography in Southeast Asia at National Gallery Singapore

Date and Time 

• 2nd December 2022 to 20th August 2023
• 10am to 7pm daily

Location 

• City Hall Wing, Level 3, Singtel Special Exhibition Gallery 

Admission Fees: (General Admission)

• Free for Singaporeans and PRs

Standard

• $20 
• Non-Singaporeans/PRs aged 13 to 59

Concession

• $15 
• Non-Singaporeans/PRs seniors (aged 65 & above) and children (aged 7 to 12)
• Overseas students and teachers

*I would like to thank National Gallery Singapore and Ogilvy for liaising and facilitating the interview with Agan Harahap.*  

The post A Special Visual Storyteller/Creative Artist Interview with Agan Harahap appeared first on TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog.