As AI systems advance in unstoppable motion, the creative industry faces an era of rapid change. We give pause with Light and Shade, a series interrogating the challenges and opportunities at the heart of the AI-creative conversation.

In early 2022, I saw something weird on the internet. Martin McAllister, a Cannes Grand Prix winning ECD, was using (what was then) rudimentary AI to draw other people’s “dream careers” on (what was then) Twitter. That account, thankfully, is still available to explore here. At the time, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion were in their early stages, and many generative AI platforms were still in beta. Generated drawings like this had begun cropping up online and, at the time, I could think of no better use of AI technology than Martin’s job bot. It was funny, frivolous and bizarre. AI, I thought, has been completed.