Futuregazing: Deeplocal Creatives on AI
Illustration by Colin Miller
Deeplocal creates human-centered experiences by blending creative technology with analog form factors. As AI dominates the news cycle, we’ve been asking our team: how do you use AI and what are the benefits and drawbacks of the technology? Have AI tools changed how you work? What are your thoughts on future applications? We sat down with four Executive Creative Directors (ECDs), who gave us their perspectives and waxed philosophical about what’s ahead. This conversation is Part Two of our original conversation with creative technologists.
Jake Marsico
Jake is a creative director and creative technologist focused on designing and developing interactive and immersive art and experiences. With a background in Tangible Interaction Design, he is especially interested in projects that embrace “calm technology,” encouraging people to be less occupied by their personal devices and more mindful of their surroundings.
Jake sees AI tools as timesavers for selling ideas before moving into the design phase. “15% of the images in a recent pitch deck were generated from Midjourney. That would’ve taken me 4-5 hours to find the correct images to get our idea across. It allows me to focus on the idea itself and not the early presentation of the idea.”
Jake has also used chatbots to gauge what’s not good enough. “We’ve all tried to get ideas out of them to see what they’re capable of. The ideas aren’t very good; they’re sophomoric. Our ideas as a company always have to be better than what ChatGPT comes up with because it’s giving you the most average answer—the result of all the other answers to the brief ever before.”
“Maybe the digital world will get so good and ubiquitous that there will be a greater value placed on physical experiences and physicality…”
In the future: “maybe the digital world will get so good and ubiquitous that there will be a greater value placed on physical experiences and physicality, period. What AI can’t do is physical things. Your AI friend is not going to make you a plate of pasta or build a real space for you.”
Alicia Barnes
Alicia is a creative director and content strategist who has worked with brands like Google, Nike, and Netflix to create experiential campaigns, interactive exhibits, and brand campaigns that lead with story to connect with audiences.
Alicia has used chatbots to brainstorm and riff on concepts, but, for her, the bulk of her job is “about the storytelling around AI and how we humanize it.” She notes that AI carries cachet—and brands want to be innovative. In response to this, she’s focused on “understanding as much as I can, so I can use those applications to help brands tell stories about themselves.”
She says the ramifications of AI are difficult to predict. “I think it’s going to drastically change the way people think, similar to the ways the internet [and social media] changed how we think and how we spend our time.”
“Fundamentally, people and artists want to create; they will find ways to do that and to keep bringing humanity back to this technology.”
Alicia referenced a recent lawsuit: Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith. The conflict was over copyright issues; Warhol created silkscreens and illustrations of Prince based on a photograph by Lynn Goldsmith without Goldsmith’s authorization. Alicia says we’re seeing the same issues with AI when it comes to creativity and artmaking. “Taking what one artist does and putting your own spin on it and changing the meaning is inherently part of creativity and making art. Fundamentally, people and artists want to create; they will find ways to do that and to keep bringing humanity back to this technology. So I feel hopeful and intrigued by that.”
Sarah Kloepfer
Sarah harmonizes strategic research, visual cues, and high-level creative concepts. She’s created work with brands and institutions including Google, Mercedes-Benz, T-Mobile, ABB, LEGO, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the German National Museum of History.
First and foremost, Sarah wonders how chatbots will change the way we think. Organizing your thoughts and articulating yourself is a skill, she stresses: “If you think back to middle school essays—those have meaning and significance on how our intellect develops.”
She finds that chatbots are “a nice way to establish tracks that I need to think within, but it can’t do the thinking for me.” On the plus side, it could be something of a visual equalizer: “Visualization has always been a barrier—maybe you weren’t trained in something or aren’t good at drawing or 3D modeling. Hopefully, it will help people bring ideas to the table in a clearer way without those challenges.”
“The value of humans and creativity is taking time to reflect and being thoughtful and not just being as efficient as possible.”
Sarah’s main concern is a cultural preoccupation with speed over quality. She’s alarmed that “everyone is championing the value of efficiency over everything. Sometimes I need a half day to simmer on something, or I need to go on a walk so I can figure something out. The value of humans and creativity is taking time to reflect and being thoughtful and not just being as efficient as possible. I don’t think that takes us to a better place.”
Nic Hannah
Nic is a creative problem solver working across the digital and physical, virtual and real. With a background in Architecture and Media Arts, he creates compelling, accessible, and intelligible experiences for clients.
Nic is optimistic about optimized user experiences with AI. He referenced a recent Jaron Lanier New Yorker article, paraphrasing that: “We’re so used to having to conform to the technology and the way that technical systems are built: press 1 for customer service, press 2 to make a reservation, press 3 for xyz. That’s not the way it should be—we should just say what we want and get what we want back. That’s the ultimate promise of LLMs.”
At work, Nic and team are committed to finding the best use cases for generative AI tools via active experimentation. “We’re creating this internal initiative called the AI Gym, which is just accepting that as a creative team, and as a company, we’re committing to ‘working out in the gym’ with AI tools and understanding: what are these things, what are they useful for, and what are their limitations? We work at the state-of-the-art edge of what’s possible, and we want to pitch the most relevant AI ideas to clients.”
“The history of humanity is a giant uncontrolled experiment…we invent things, and then they change society in completely unpredictable ways.”
Looking further out, Nic says: “people overestimate the amount of change that will happen by next year, and we underestimate how much change will happen over the course of ten years.” In other words, we can’t predict what will happen, but we can take comfort in the fact that uncertainty is par for the course. “The history of humanity is a giant uncontrolled experiment. It’s not like we think about what we want to do as a society, and then we invent it. Rather, we invent things, and then they change society in completely unpredictable ways.”
Looking Forward
We will continue to explore every new technology available—it’s built into our creative process. AI is a powerful tool in our toolbelt, but, at the end of the day, truly novel, remarkable experiential work depends on human creativity and ingenuity.