Top 5 Trends for AI and Creativity in 2024

AI tools are changing so quickly - new ones are constantly available, and the tools we are already using are continually being developed and updated. At Fold7 our creatives have dedicated time every week to immerse themselves in the world of AI and have spotted a few emerging trends that we expect to see more of and are set to further shake up the creative exploration process. It’s exciting to see how they tools are helping our clients better visualise the physical possibilities of our ideas and are inspiring them to be braver with their brands. 


Consistently photo-real imagery  

MidJourney is already creating photo-real images that are indistinguishable from photographic / real life. But increasing the consistent accuracy of output will be an inevitable by-product of more training*. But we believe it is likely that editability of images will evolve even more: for example, creating better representation of body types offered through standard prompts and prioritising consistent characters so you can have the same person in different images (something you can only do right now if you have the know-how and the plugins.) 


AI in Film 

Text-to-video, which works the same as MidJourney’s text-to-image, is also progressing at a super-fast rate with Runway Gen2, PikaLabs and now Sora launching in market. We will likely see more and more AI scenes edited into small parts of commercial work, especially textural and generic opening shots of environments and vistas. Kanye West has already launched his new season Yeezy SS24 teaser film entirely in AI… but then deleted it. 


Innovations in voice sampling 

ElevenLabs, now valued at $1.1billion is the go-to AI text-to-voice model, with endless possibilities for voice sampling, cloning and the ease it can translate to different languages. You will definitely have heard Adam’s voice, (one of ElevenLabs' 20 voices on their free plan) it’s the most used voice on TikTok right now. This creates massive opportunities to create compelling voice overs for moodfilms and animatics that create a close-to-final piece setting the right mood WAY more than if you’d recorded yourself on your phone in a hallway cupboard. The unintended consequences on the voice-over market are yet to be seen.  


Invasion of AI Avatars  

ChatGPT4 is getting very interesting now with the ability to create your own ‘GPTs’ meaning that creatives can evolve their own creative partner based on their own preferences, the outputs of those we admire or wish to emulate more in our style. The personalisation of AI is the next step in the scaling of these tools but obviously regulation, copyrights and compliance are key to making sure this is scaled responsibly. It would be all too easy to create a Spielberg-shaped writing partner without his permission.  


Regulation  

As AI progresses at an exponential rate, parts of the industry are reacting as fast as it can (although not fast enough to keep up) to the legal and ethical implications of using AI produced material commercially and is trying to implement standards and rules to prevent deceiving consumers. Meta has just released a document outlining how it intends to highlight to its audiences which pieces of content are ‘synthetic’ and is discussing penalties for violations on their platforms where AI images ‘lack identifiers’. We need to stay hyper informed and wary about the implications and legalities of using such tools commercially and look forward to seeing more regulation and codes of use put in place in 2024.  


To conclude, AI is giving us all the tools in voice, music, image, moving image and scriptwriting. It is conceivable that in 2024 creatives will be able to make their own artwork, generate their own pre-vis TVCs, their own animatics and mood films. However, the saying ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should' applies here. Not everything created will be good let alone excellent. These tools require precision and mastering as you would with the traditional routes of photography, directing, retouching etc. And whilst this experimentation phase is wildly exciting, we need to ensure that we are working legally, ethically and responsibly, and not getting ourselves and our clients into a legal wrangle with Spielberg. 



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*it seems that AI does move at a lightning speed. Since writing this article our first key trend about character consistency now exists in MidJourney.