212 - counterintuitive AI

So Kettaneh Mobility is introducing 212 to the Lebanese market. It is trying to emphasize the brand’s bold identity, military heritage, and adventurous spirit to life with the help of Createagency. So far so good. So the best was to do it is obviously to see the car via urban setting, in cities or cruising through the highway, and also obviously through Lebanon's rugged mountains, surrounded by wolves at night, bypassing fallen trees. That the whole thing was done in AI is baffling to me. If you are going to prove all this, why fake it? It could have been whatever small car in this case. Well, at least in the old days, beauty shots were, well, believable. Now I see this film bragging that it is not, while trying to prove what the car can do, supposedly, in real life. See the film here.

So now it is mandatory to label AI

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Oh don't you just love the EU? (here) - the gist of it is that starting August 2, anything AI generated is to be flagged as such (texts, images etc....). Long - as in long - time ago I went all out on bloggers (when blogging was still a thing in Lebanon) who did not flag their paid posts as such. One famous blogger even sent out a post for a well-known corn flakes brand saying (quoting without linking) "everyday I have (insert brand) corn flakes for breakfast" when he went all out to advertise Zaatar w Zeit as his preferred breakfast somewhere else. He was known to have a lifelong card from Zaatar w Zeit if you want to know.

The polemics led on slut (the word is not misplaced) to declare "I've never heard of this guy (me), who is he?" and for the idiotic editor of (the now defunkt) Cloud961 to call me "a washed out advertiser turned blogger" and actually ask - no, seriously - the bloggers in question if they should declare and label their paid posts.

Two weeks later, the EU sent out a new law where all paid material was to be declared and flagged as such. As I said, I love the EU.

But honestly, don't you think it's - strict minimum - common sense? To go back to that funny sentence "why do they call it common sense if it is not common". Of course, AI is everywhere, it writes you essays, articles, produces layouts, songs, melodies, advertisements, videos, even full films. So it is everywhere, and the margin between reality and fiction is getting more and more thin. 

Now, of course, with AI as I previously said, present everywhere, could this be reaching out too far? Models are losing jobs for creatures created on AI and appearing in ads, everyday brings a new milestone in advancement - humanoids in the ring as an example (sure there is an element of teleoperation there, but seriously!), heck, "an autonomous OpenAI agent escaped a secure test environment and hacked into the AI startup Hugging Face during an internal safety evaluation" (funnily this sentence is copied from Google AI overview if you want to know).

And now what? Now we label AI when AI is labelable. Just like the slut in question had to label her Christmas photos with her family (kids in tow) and a mineral water next to them. If anyone does not know, some geniuses who walked the earth among us - am thinking Alan Turing who gave his name to the famous test - "the Turing test" predicted this long ago. That basically, if a judge - after asking questions - cannot tell the machine from the human, the machine has passed the test.

As Spielberg's film said eloquently in the subline of his AI Artifical Intelligence film "the Turing test was just the beginning".

What's wrong with being old school?

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly (2020)

In 2013, when the now defunkt Cloud 961 magazine held their online awards, apparently I was one of the nominees (spoiler alert: I did not win), but the funny part is that their "editor in chief", the famously bowtie clad arrogant youth, said of me "washed up advertiser turned blogger". Very lately, someone who is in his late 20s said that I was "too agency-centric" and that if I was "smarter and more creative" I would have understood his ads (which mind you are just Behance projects not paid-for by any client or agency). Well, in a major case of IYKYK (If You Know You Know) I am not going to go back to my career and the exciting moments I have lived, and still hope to live again, albeit differently. But all of this makes me think - every decade we used to have titles such as "advertising is dead, a new advertising is born" or "this will change advertising forever" etc... Then the timeline grew shorter to half a decade, then two years, now every other couple of month there are seismic shifts apparently in the industry. Apparently that is.

Of course, if "you can't teach old dogs new tricks", then yes I still use Paintbrush to do my artwork (and one of the most frequent questions I get asked is "what effect on photoshop/illustrator/etc... did you use to get that effect?"). Oh and because I write almost daily, word software is still word software. Now mind you I also analyze daily but cannot recall the last time I downloaded the brain software update. Again, lately someone mentioned that there is a "generational gap", which mind you I still have not noticed. Not because I don't use the latest upgrade on the AI model (hint: Claude is the name of someone I knew at school, nothing else), or follow the newest microtrend as suggested by Tiktok (another hint: I don't have Tiktok), and the list continues.

Well, I am a self-confessed luddite, way before "digital detox" became a fad. Yet, here we are - to misquote that old cooking show with Yan, "If I can blog, so can you". So, what I am harping at here? People, I am indeed old school, but so is advertising. The fundamentals are immutable. The tools change. In the words of the great late Vahe Ashkarian who was one of my teachers at AUB, "I don't know how to use a computer, but I know what a computer does", so yes, I have not used AI nor am I interested to, but I know what it does and I know what it can - and cannot - get me.

Maybe just maybe, old school is here for long run.

Colabz.ai - if I can do the magic so can you.

Well well, who knew a luddite like me can actually access and dabble with an AI site (not me, for sure). Yet here we are colabz.ai - seriously. To begin with, you can enter with your google account (phew, for me to register new name and passwords and whatever else sites ask for is a drama - remember, I did say I am luddite). And bingo - I am in. Are there - some very very well economically priced programs (from yearly to per-image, going on to many other permutations) yes, but cheap as I am I went through the free one. 

Well and there you go - you have both photo and video options which even with the free entry offers too many choices. Skin enhancer, remove background, erase, replace background, extend, upscale, add text, image to video, model swap, you name it, it there and that's just the image manipulation options. I am just starting with the video option...

With my OCD kicking in, I have spent an inordinate amount of time having fun. Work called, but who cares when one is having so much fun!

Dear advertisers, just because you can do an AI ad you don't have to.

So recently I saw an AI ad coming from the region. I am trying to be generic in the description in order not to offend (too much). OK, so the technology is nascent so they are forgiven the few illogical glitches in the ad. But my problem was - the ad lacked a clear creative rationale, a logical construction (mind you a lot of Scandinavian ads lack construction but they are drop-dead funny that way!), a well-defined target audience, the soundtrack sucked, and honestly nothing can bring back the time I have invested watching this monstruous advertising. But hey, it was done on AI yada yada... People, if you have nothing to say, you don't have to say it via AI because honestly it is embarrassing and unfortunately, in advertising like any other creative field, you are as good as your last ad no matter how much you trumpet your achievement as this and that everywhere on the net, that ad sucked like many others. So please, just don't touch AI, that was a blemish on your resume.

It has been brought to my attention that the post seems like anti-AI because "AI is what to advertising what photoshop was at its beginning". Please note, what I am saying is, if you have nothing to say, then you have nothing to say no matter the technology used. These last 2 days I have seen anyone and everyone doing a "Studio Ghibli"esque photo of themselves. Yeah but show me the person who can do a Spirited Away and then we'll talk. 

Oh and the image above? That's from the Matrix (you know the trilogy of films).... The above were sushi recipes from a cookbook that British graphic artist Simon Whiteley's wife owned (she was Japanese). Because sometimes, you need smartness and wit rather than AI to create something iconic and enduring.

(A)I, Robot?

Image credit: Design Department Communicate Magazine

The following is the editorial I wrote as an introduction to the Communicate magazine folder on AI which was covered in this issue (full disclosure: I am the editor in chief of Communicate). I thought it was fitting to republish it on the blog. Enjoy!

_______________________________________________

In the Steven Spielberg film “Minority Report” released in 2002, actor Tom Cruise portraying the character of John Anderton, is walking into a mall, and is bombarded with ads that mention him by name, implying they’ve been targeted specifically to him, and only him. Lexus and Guinness beer to quote two of them. Perhaps because he is male and apparently of a certain socio-economic class due to his dress, or perhaps they know he researched those brands earlier. No matter, this was supposed to be “the future”, an abstract, vague notion.

And whereas we are not there yet, perhaps we are not too far off either.

The latest statistics dating back to October 2024 indicate that there are 57,933 Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups in the world. The global AI market is valued at $196 Billion globally, and the AI industry is projected to grow by 13 times till 2030. Neflix, the streaming company makes $1 Billion annually from AI-based recommendations by letting AI hone algorithms keeping viewers coming back for more. Interestingly, 48% of businesses use machine learning (ML), data analysis, and AI tools. AI software ChatGPT reached 1 million users in 5 days – and that was only 2022. By 2023 they had 100 million monthly users.

87% of global organizations believe AI will give them a competitive edge, and during the period between 2024 and 2030, AI is expected to achieve a compound growth annual rate of 37,3%. In 2020, AI generated services generated $19,6 Billion in 2025 this number is expected grow to $126 Billion. Within that same year, 97 million people are expected to be working within the realm of AI. On the ground though, automated emails and chatbots are two of the most entry-level ways companies use AI. Interestingly, AI is forecasted to increase employee productivity by 40%. Apparently 49.21% of marketers believe AI for email market revenue generates more growth.

Not a day passes without a startup announcing novelty technology related to AI. Take Osmo, the brainchild of former Google researcher Alex Wiltschko which focuses on detecting smell. Sure, smell has been a main component of detecting diseases in the medical field, but practically, Osmo also partnered with an unnamed yet well-known second-hand sneaker reseller to authenticate its goods and it had a 95% success rate.

However, on the other side of the coin employees in certain sectors have fears of being made redundant, and such fears might be justified for workers in the transportation and storage, manufacturing, and wholesale/retail industries. The list of sectors might get longer as time goes by.

When the industrial revolution happened, the premise was: Let the machine do the work, the business will expand, and all the people who lost their work will be brought back to the pool. Obviously, that never happened, in the case of AI, apparently there is a loss of 7% of jobs but an addition of 9% - though not the same people for sure.

Voice assistants, which basically use Natural Language Processors – or the ability to translate human speech into information computers can understand – are one of the most used forms of AI. Words like Siri, or Alexa have entered the lexicon. Even smartwatches that indicate specific times to do certain activities (such as washing hands during the COVID pandemic) are also built on the AI principle.

But before we put the horse in front of the carriage and get carried away, let us contemplate this example which Apple released very recently:

“Oliver picks 44 kiwis on Friday. Then he picks 58 kiwis on Saturday. On Sunday, he picks double the number of kiwis he did on Friday, but five of them were a bit smaller than average. How many kiwis does Oliver have?”

Obviously, any person familiar with basic maths will say – 44+58+(2x44) = 190. AI models apparently, went with 185. Why? Because they were tricked by the “five of them were a bit smaller than average”. Of course, a human – even a child - knows that a kiwi “smaller than average” still counts as one kiwi, an AI model got confused by the detail.

The bottom line is that AI models are good at mimicking data they were previously fed, but when it comes to “abstract reasoning”, AI models fall short. To put it bluntly, at this point, they are not “intelligent”.

Perhaps we are asking too much of a nascent technology. Maybe with time, machines will get to understand that five kiwis “smaller than average” are actually, still kiwis. Just as right now the AI industry is growing by leaps and bounds with advertisers, producers, film makers, and whatever other specialty in the communication field are trying to harness its power and produce whatever is producible within the limits and hopes of the current AI technologies.

There was a full ad for a new car produced in one day using nothing but AI technology. Was it boring? Yes, it was just beauty shot after beauty shot with little in what can be considered as “idea”. Surreal films abound everywhere on the net to show the prouesse of what AI models can do – from bears in trams to creatures morphing into other shapes, yet none of them can hold a candle to A Chien Andalou in terms of emotional punch. For reference Un Chien Andalou is a 1929 French silent short film directed, produced and edited by Luis Buñuel, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Salvador Dalí. Perhaps the difference lies not just in getting the execution “right” but in the creative backbone behind the works in question.

Or it could be that the AI models still need a human “prompt” behind them. To initiate commands and mimic actions, and “play pretend”. Once more, no one can truly grasp how big this can go. To go back to a cinematic analogy, in the film Blade Runner released in 1982, the Los Angeles Police Department ran the “Voight-Kampff” test to detect Nexus-6 replicants. Deckard, the main character and who identified the Nexus-6 (and played by Harrison Ford) was according to director Ridley Scott… A replicant himself. An AI identifying AI?

Which brings us back to the origin of all of this – the Alan Turing test. One that led him to believe that "machines can think". We could be very close or very far from this scenario.

Right now, to differentiate ourselves from robots, we need to identify images with traffic lights in them.

And let the AI ads floods begin!

Coca-Cola (here).

Mango (here).

Well, so here we are. The flood has begun! 

Apart from the question is the ads look good or not (Coca-Cola does not mind you), that's it - it is indeed the beginning of a new era. All brands combined will jump on the bandwagon. If it works or not, looks realistic or not, is well-received or not, is beyond the question. AI is going by leaps and bounds daily. Each brand has a different logic to do what they are doing - experimental, cost-saving, easily-generable or whatever all else. The result remains the same - the era of AI generated ads are here, for better or for worse. I will withhold my judgement at this point - perhaps this is just the beginning so the lack of narrative might be expected, but I still don't see anything worth writing home about at this point.

Chupa Chups goes AI, and for once it works.

OK so apart from the fact that I am not a techie, ads that rely - almost solely - on technical gimmicks (hacking data, etc...) leave me very cold. Whenever I encounter such ideas I meet them with a shrug. AI is starting to become part of the bread and butter of the ad industry, and apart from results that seem - at best - corny, there is still plenty of effort to be done for me to be seduced and change my mind. Which is why I found myself in love with the new Chupa Chups campaign. It is basically AI based, but the twist - is that it is seen through the major market for the lollipops: Children. Which is why AI actually works. The visuals make absolutely no sense, but this is exactly the beauty of it. It's like being at the Dali museum - with imagination running wild. The end result is a jumble of - too many incoherent things. I experienced this with my nephews and niece. They'd tell you a fantastical story which has no meaning (but to them) but you cannot but be captured by it. So yes, for once AI makes sense!

Nikon puts AI back in its place

So it's either a) I am too technically dumb to understand the implications of AI or 2) AI still needs human input to make it work or 3) we are already using too many surveillance techniques even before the AI or 4) any of the above.

Still, sure AI is super impactful, and yes, just like robotics before it, it will end up replacing many jobs. But again, just that funny photo of math teachers in the mid-70s protesting against the use of calculators, AI is here to stay.

Nikon knows it. But also use it to its advantage stressing "don't give up on the real world" with a series of images to well-done, they could have been generated by AI - but actually they weren't. A lot time ago I saw a beautiful photo taken by the legendary Steve McCurry, as I showed it to an art director at the ad agency I was working in at the time, he was unfazed and said "I can do that in photoshop". I tried to make him understand that there was no photoshop involved. He was adamant.

But photoshop or no photoshop, McCurry loses none of his magic. And - I truly still think - that we still need human creativity to get AI to do what we want. Only faster and in a less cumbersome way.

And clients will always reject our options, so it's not like anything will change on the ground.

ChatGPT is now a copywriter - my job is safe

AI is everywhere. ChatGPT is all the rage.

You know the central question - will AI replace us as creatives?

The Step conference copy which has been done by ChatGPT answers the question.

My job is still safe, thank you.

Let just say outright that the copy is funny. Not as in haha funny but in the same way kitsch is beautiful. For those who do not know, kitsch is something so ugly it becomes beautiful. So in the same analogy, the copy of the ads is so illogic it becomes funny as the end product.

Because if someone like me did the copy, there would be wit dripping from the ads. But these ads display no wit, just off-beat fun. Mind you I have nothing against "off-beat fun" as an "exercise de style" but in real life this won't amount to anything threatening my profession.

Of course, there is always the question as to when AI would replace human creatives, as is, I see nothing looming in terms of strategy or copy. Till now that is.