Creative Technologists Look Beyond the AI Hype Cycle

Illustration by Colin Miller

Deeplocal is a creative technology company that invents real-world interactive experiences. We blur the boundaries between marketing, art, and technology, so we asked several Deeplocal creative technologists about their impressions of AI: What are they personally excited about? What’s overhyped? And what are their predictions for the future?

John Mars, Technical Director

John holds degrees in architecture from RISD and Tangible Interaction Design from CMU. His portfolio includes experience at Disney Research, building portals to other dimensions, telling stories using motion-tracking and VR, and securing a patent for mixed-reality haptics.

First and foremost, he positions AI as a tool—one that we’re in the very early stages of using optimally: “This tooling has already started to happen. For example, GitHub Copilot—I use it every day. It’s improved my efficiency significantly, and sometimes it suggests ways to do things that I would have needed to look up.”

“Right now, even if we don’t realize it, we’re probably using AI tools as if they were small iterations of the things we were using before.”

But, he stresses, we’re missing the big picture in our current conversations around AI:

“Whenever a new technology is introduced into the world, we try to use it like the previous technologies we’re used to having. For example, when we discovered metalworking, we were still trying to use steel beams like we used stone masonry architecture. Now, we use metal as it should be used. Same thing with web technologies—we made all of these websites as if they were books or printed pages. Once we realized what the web was good at, we moved beyond what you can do on the paper page. Right now, even if we don’t realize it, we’re probably using AI tools as if they were small iterations of the things we were using before. At some point, we’ll start using them for things we’ve never thought of before. No one is talking about: what are these tools really good at? What is the natural state they want to be in?”

Brent Marshall, Creative Technology Director

Brent brings 25 years of creative technology and development experience to his role. He has worked on experiential campaigns and installations for Anheuser Busch, GM, Honda, Microsoft, Molson Canadian, Shopify, and more.

He says that over time we’ve shifted from heavily coded environments requiring lots of programming skills, to low-code, Node-base editors (ex: TouchDesigner). In line with this, his conjecture for the future is a no-code environment—so, picture using a text prompt to generate a full-blown, working application in seconds.

How would this work? “Maybe in the future, I will turn around and say: ‘Hey, I want to create a puppeteering application that uses my webcam to take my body movements and project it onto a character that looks like X.’ And then, it will spit back something executable and start to run with it.”

“We’re starting to see the building blocks of this already; we just haven’t seen the full completion. The moment we can ask an application to be created for us, it opens up: Okay how can we get creative with that? How can we change our production timeline? That’s one area that I’m really interested in.”

“Jobs aren’t going to be lost by this technology alone, but job descriptions are going to change.”

When asked if AI’s potential scares him, Brent said: “I have less of an issue with being scared of this technology, and more of an issue with the ethical use of this technology. Jobs aren’t going to be lost by this technology alone, but job descriptions are going to change.”

Brent also predicts an inflection point where some people reject AI entirely. “I almost wonder if we’re going to get back into arts and crafts more. More handbuilt, crafting stuff. Looking at the opposite trajectory is always interesting.”

Heidi He, Creative Technologist

Heidi studied Studio Art and Computer Science at Colby College and holds a master’s degree in Information Technology from Cornell. She is interested in cultural perceptions and implications of AI as they pertain to the world that we see and touch.

“In all the sci-fi movies, we no longer need screens, and info can be displayed everywhere.” But because of limitations in computing power and hardware, we’re not there yet. “Light in nature is so complicated and sophisticated…I hope one day, with the computational powers of AI, we will be able to see beyond screens.”

Heidi also sees AI’s potential with 3D printing. Historically, the first step for 3D printing is using 3D modeling software, but that may change. “Now, I can do a 3D scan of objects with my phone.” She notes that current camera scan apps aren’t accurate enough for a production environment, but that advancements will continue.

She’s also intrigued by our conceptions of AI as a culture. “Researchers asked people to draw what they think of ‘AI’—and they found that the form varies from more anthropomorphic in some peoples’ minds, to more of an ecosystem-esque vision for others. AI that has a face, and AI that doesn’t. The term AI is so broad, so how do we classify it? Just like there are so many species of butterflies, there are so many ‘species’ of AI.”

“AI is currently learning from big data—all pulled from online. If we raise AI in this poisonous internet environment, it will not be as kind as we want.”

Heidi also cautions that the world we build online is exactly what generative AI will absorb, so we have to be kind to one another. “We have to shape our own future. AI is currently learning from big data—all pulled from online. If we raise AI in this poisonous internet environment, it will not be as kind as we want. And education will be impacted immediately. If kids already have a tool that knows better than us—what will that do to us as a society? We have to be lifelong learners.”

What’s Next?

Our technologists have wide-ranging opinions about AI, but they all agree: AI will continue to revolutionize how we work, live, and play.

But what about the creatives’ outlook? Stay tuned to hear perspectives from our Executive Creative Directors for their takes on how AI will impact the work of strategists, designers, art directors, and producers. We’ll dive into what excites them, their predictions, and how the tools can be used to create experiences and spaces that, until now, they’ve only imagined.