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By Joe Arney

As a college student 20 years ago, Steven Frost had a poster of Apple鈥檚 鈥淭hink Different鈥� campaign hanging in their Alfred University dorm room.

That campaign touted the company鈥檚 quest to be something other than a tech titan. It was about supporting creatives like Frost, who saw computers as tools to unleash their artistic potential. Advertising to support the campaign highlighted icons like Bob Dylan, Pablo Picasso and Amelia Earhart to celebrate the 鈥渃razy ones鈥� whose vision and determination set them apart from the rest.

For Frost, one of Apple鈥檚 latest ads is threatening to undo a lot of the goodwill the 鈥淭hink Different鈥� campaign created in the artistic community.

The 鈥淐rush!鈥� ad is 68 seconds of watching symbols of humanity鈥檚 creative achievements鈥攕culpture, paint, music, film, video games, novels, photography鈥攄estroyed in an industrial compactor, which then opens to reveal the company鈥檚 shiny new iPad Pro.

鈥淚 can see the logic behind the ad,鈥� said Frost, assistant professor of media studies at the College of Media, Communication and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder. It looked to them like an attempt to play off the viral videos showing everyday objects crushed under car tires鈥斺�渂ut in the current climate, this was a bad idea, and super tone deaf.鈥�

The current climate, of course, is one where artists are forced to ponder a future where generative artificial intelligence can create screenplays, images, designs and so on with just a few user prompts. In May, the company took the unusual step of apologizing for the ad and reportedly canceled plans for a national television campaign.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 interesting is, less than two months after the ad comes out, Apple announces they鈥檙e integrating ChatGPT into iOS,鈥� Frost said. 鈥淓verything exists in a context, and in the context of a place where A.I. is literally replacing creatives, this was not the moment for this ad.鈥�

Seeing the use case for A.I.

Frost is not only an expert in media studies, they also are a creator who works in both digital and physical media. They are an accomplished textile artist who brings a passion for weaving to classes as well as Slay the Runway, an annual fashion creation and exhibition event for Boulder-area LGBTQ+ teens.

But while they鈥檙e critical of the Apple ad, Frost is more upbeat on the use of generative A.I. than you might expect. In fact, they worked on a project in 2016 that put a novel twist on speed dating. the exhibit featured 12 screens that participants could cycle through, interacting with 鈥渃elebrities鈥濃�攁ctually chatbots trained on the works of Gertrude Stein, RuPaul, Ta-Nehisi Coates and others鈥攖o see what it would be like to interact with an algorithm.

Notably, exhibit creators Frost and Joel Swanson鈥攁 faculty affiliate at CMCI鈥攆ed the chatbots text, rather than engage in the wide-scale scraping OpenAI and others have used to teach their chatbots.

鈥淭here are definitely reasons to be suspicious of it,鈥� Frost said. 鈥淏ut while I know it鈥檚 a really unpopular opinion, in order to stay relevant, we all need to evolve. Otherwise, what happens to artists when we can just ask a machine to make a postcard, a poster? Those people are going to have to learn new skills, learn how to be part of a collaborative process with those machines.鈥�

Transparency on teaching models

Part of that, of course, involves those technology companies being more honest about the tools they鈥檙e creating鈥攖heir potential to displace creatives, yes, but also how they were trained. Frost envisions A.I. as a collaborative tool in line with The Jetsons or Knight Rider, as opposed to Black Mirror. It鈥檚 no surprise, then, that they want companies to be more collaborative, as well.

鈥淲hat if tech companies were transparent about how and where their chatbot was trained?鈥� they said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like if I鈥檓 buying junk food鈥攊f I see sugar free, I know it鈥檚 unhealthy, but it makes me consider that it was manufactured, that there was a process. So, for an A.I. model鈥攚hat鈥檚 in it? Is it soy? Where was it grown?鈥�

Collaboration with companies is also important, they said, because relying on regulation is not the only option.

鈥淎t this point, it鈥檚 more like thinking of different ways of approaching how those models are trained, and making sure that creatives whose works are getting pulled into these learning models get paid for the work they鈥檝e done,鈥� Frost said.

Perhaps that鈥檚 what most troubles them about that Apple ad. Because its tone reminded Frost of another commercial that seized the public imagination 40 years ago.

鈥淭he 鈥�1984鈥� ad was a breakthrough in that it reimagined what computers could be used for, and a literal breakthrough in that there鈥檚 violence and destruction at the center of it,鈥� Frost said. 鈥淭his ad is clearly referencing 鈥�1984.鈥� In a sense, they鈥檙e showing how far they鈥檝e come and that they do all these things right, but the tone couldn鈥檛 be further from the young, upstart artist protagonist in the original ad.鈥�