Conor Brady: Should a Robot ever Win a Cannes Lion

Irrationality, impulsiveness and unpredictability – not qualities you’d usually attribute to a robot, but exactly the traits that humans bring to the table when being creative. They are the wellsprings of originality, which is the ad industry’s holy grail. So can artificial intelligence ever replicate those emotionally-driven traits? Conor Brady, CCO of agency Critical Mass, has his doubts and believes that AI, though set to change the world, will only be truly creative working in tandem with us quirky mortals

At Cannes Lions this year, we had an intriguing and engaging panel discussion on the topic ‘Should A Robot Ever Win A Cannes Lion?’. The conversation concerned the recent emergence of artificial intelligence in the area of marketing and experience design. It was a topic I approached with a little trepidation since, as a creative, I might find myself out of a job. I am pleased to say, however, that I am still employed, and by the end of the discussion we had more or less reached a consensus that, yes, a robot would probably win a Lion. But should it win? The answer was ‘no’.

Human foible-fuelled creative

I believe that a human being will always be an important part of the creative process if we want originality, and that will never change. As individuals, we bring a lot to the room when asked to come up with an idea – irrationality, impulsiveness, unpredictability (all of which are very human and emotionally-driven traits). When we put personalities together, we can’t predict where we will end up, and isn’t that the beauty of doing what we do? That’s why we cast and build teams so carefully, getting the right blend of people (or ‘good chemistry’). I’m not sure artificial intelligence would ever have arrived at Burger King’s Subservient Chicken without human intervention. Is it great work? That’s a matter of personal taste, but it’s certainly original work. Human input drives originality and the unexpected.

If all we needed was the same thing over and over but done better each time, I don’t doubt for a minute that AI could create a repeatable process to do it. AI is great at optimising and being fast. It can look at past behaviour and replicate it so that we can’t tell the difference between what computers make and what humans make. A great example (and the cause célèbre of the panel discussion) is the The Next Rembrandt campaign by JWT Amsterdam for ING.

The double Cannes Grand Prix-winning project involved teaching a computer to paint like Rembrandt. It then created a real painting – a Rembrandt, for all intents and purposes. Afterwards there was a lot of debate about whether or not the artwork’s creativity started with the ‘code and data’. Our panel ended in agreement: AI will never replace Rembrandt as the artist himself is really where the creativity started – but AI did a very good job of paying him a massive compliment by making an incredible copy. It was the ultimate form of digital flattery.

In my day job, I work at a digital agency where we constantly hunt for innovate ways to infuse technology into the creative process. Technology has been an indispensible enabler for me over the last 15 years. In general, I tend to look at AI in the same way: it’s going to be an incredible thing for us to work with – the next powerful tool. I would love our creative teams to have access to that kind of computing power. In a creative session, it would be wonderful to have AI be part of our conversation. For us, it represents something we can push against creatively.

AI? It’s a no-brainer

Maybe it’s not such a stretch to see a brand dispose of an agency and just rely completely on a piece of custom AI that fulfills all their marketing needs. Programmatic advertising has already taken a step in that direction. I guess it depends on the type of brand you are and what marketing needs you have. Do you need a balance of originality and efficiency? Is your brand comfortable having a robot control how you communicate with your – very human – customers? Are your customers comfortable with that? It’s going to be interesting to see how this space evolves.

I think AI is a long way from reaching full potential. We’re at the start of something that is probably beyond our imagination; something profoundly powerful – perhaps inevitable. It’s going to become an increasingly big part of our daily lives, and will no doubt change how we interact with the world and how we receive information. But I believe there are some things that humans will just be better at, and one of those is being creative. Although, I’d be happy to be proven wrong.