Embracing AI Creativity: Digital Media Artists' Responses to Generative AI and Evolving Concepts of Creativity

The rise of generative AI as a tool to assist, enhance, and sometimes replace media artists in the content creation process has sparked profound questions about the nature of human creativity. This paper explores how digital media artists are responding to the increasing presence of AI in their creative practices, reshaping both their perceptions of creativity and the methods through which they produce content. Drawing on interviews with filmmakers, illustrators, and comic authors in the UK and Japan, this paper investigates the flexible approaches of digital media artists to generative AI and their evolving conceptions of artistic careers.

Firstly, this paper surveys emergent projects that highlight the integration of generative AI, examining how creators embrace these technologies while maintaining a firm belief in the indispensable role of the human creator as a storyteller grounded in lived experience. This paper introduces the concept of "meta-creativity" as a new skill set that contemporary artists are expected to master.

Secondly, the paper explores the mixed reactions among cultural producers and consumers regarding those who rely heavily on AI for content creation, often referred to as "AI artists." On the one hand, such creators are gaining visibility, with new terminologies emerging to valorise their process. On the other hand, AI artists are frequently stigmatised within professional communities, and there is growing consumer fatigue and dissatisfaction with their outputs—sentiments that are increasingly reflected in new platform policies and guidelines.

Finally, this paper examines how digital media artists’ engagement with generative AI aligns with their advocacy efforts to influence AI regulation and promotion policies in both the UK and Japan. By analysing key policy documents, this paper addresses the expectations and concerns these artists hold regarding AI-human relationships and creativity, urging governments to safeguard and support these evolving dynamics.