Understanding creation in the age of AI
Throughout history, the act of creating has been redefined each time a new tool entered the artistic arena. From painting to photography, and now artificial intelligence, creators have continually embraced innovation while asking the same question: what truly makes a work of art? In both fashion and the arts, AI is sparking debate. Understanding its role requires revisiting what “creation” really means.
What do we mean by “Creation”?
Creation can be described as the act of bringing into existence something that did not exist before. For art, this act is measured by originality, aesthetic value, and symbolic meaning. Fashion, by contrast, is a more complex terrain. It is not only about novelty but also about collective processes, material constraints, and the physical act of turning ideas into tangible garments. Ultimately, the importance of any creative work is defined not only by its maker but by the interpretation of its audience.
Where the controversy begins
The controversy surrounding AI lies in the way it generates content: it produces from what already exists. When someone asks a tool to “transform this photo into Ghibli style,” the system references millions of preexisting images to output something new. This process raises questions about authorship and originality. In fact, as early as 2016, Studio Ghibli’s legendary director Hayao Miyazaki openly criticized an AI-powered animation demo. He described it as humiliating, both to himself and to other animators who dedicate their lives to imbuing drawings with subtle imperfections and deep humanity. His critique has resurfaced in recent years with the popularity of Ghibli-style filters on social media.
Strengths and Limitations of AI in creation
Artificial intelligence is powerful when it comes to exploring possibilities quickly, generating variations of ideas, and helping with storytelling consistency. It can assist artists in expanding their visual language, structuring narratives, and producing assets in record time. Yet these strengths are balanced by significant limitations. AI often tends toward standardization, generating results that represent an “average” of the data it has been trained on rather than something radically new. It also struggles with contextual nuance, failing to capture subtle narrative cues. Even advanced systems can find it difficult to recreate textures or atmospheres that require a deeper cultural or emotional understanding.
Best practices for a balanced approach
Using AI consciously means assigning it a clear role. Machines can handle the heavy lifting of iteration, variation, and execution, while humans remain responsible for intention, selection, and refinement. Creatives should build their own reference inputs, feeding AI with moodboards, archives, and images that truly reflect their universe. Documenting the entire creative chain—prompts, sources, iterations—ensures transparency and even provides legal protection in case of disputes. Perhaps most importantly, creatives should embrace the unexpected. Mistakes made by AI can reveal surprising directions, provided they are reinterpreted and refined by a human eye. In the end, the artist remains in control, editing, reframing, and elevating the material produced by the machine.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence should not be seen as a replacement for human creativity but as a catalyst. It enables creators to test boundaries faster and with more breadth, while humans provide vision and meaning. In this sense, AI is not the end of originality but a new lens through which it can flourish.
