The creative and transformational possibilities of AI
Throughout history — driven by curiosity, creativity or necessity — humans have always pushed the boundaries of what’s possible. All eras of discovery and innovation began with someone imagining possibilities.
This is true for art as well. The status quo rarely captures our imaginations. Instead, we’re inspired by someone trying something new: a different medium, method, subject or something else altogether. And sometimes technology acts as the muse to open up untapped sources of creativity.
One helpful parallel for this moment is the history of photography. When photography first arrived, many worried it signaled the end of art because it threatened to disrupt significant areas of work, like landscape painting and portraiture. However, in many ways the opposite turned out to be true. Freed from the need to accurately reproduce reality, painters went to new places leading to the rise of impressionism, modernism, and so much more. At the same time, photography became an art form of its own, intertwined with and powered by technology.
At Google, we see the same potential for AI to help us connect, be more productive and liberate our imaginations. And we’re excited about how it will interplay with human creativity — not replacing it, but enhancing, enabling, and liberating it.