How to maintain authenticity in the AI era

On February 15, Dazed celebrated the launch of the Dazed Archive – a custom AI-powered search engine built off 30 years of Dazed content in partnership with Lenovo and Intel – as part of the launch of Lenovo’s ‘Make Space’ platform. At Dazed Archive Live, Charlie Engman, Patia Borja and Paul Hill sat down to discuss the evolving role of technology in art. As creatives from the Dazed world, they spoke to the challenges of implementing technology into the creative process as well as the importance of authenticity. From early internet communities to memes and AI-generated art, there was no shortage of stories and thought-provoking answers about personal connections to technology.

For many of us, the internet has become a space that’s almost too sacred to replicate offline. Internet celebrity Patia Borja spoke about the way images serve as an archive of the status quo and how memes specifically have the ability to make people laugh in the darkest times. Entrepreneur Paul Hill similarly used the internet to carve out his own space. After founding Strada, Hill quickly noticed how art institutions seriously lacked adequate digital inventory management systems. So, he set out to accomplish this on his own and unknowingly set a new standard for the art world. 

As technology advances at alarming rates, it’s more difficult than ever to keep up. But, for photographer Charlie Engman, the implication of AI is just another reaction to our image-driven world. He doesn’t believe we should give images as much power as they have, especially with the amount we’re constantly being fed. While all three panellists represent different creative fields, they all acknowledged the ways technology can enhance artistic practices and community engagement – while somehow also maintaining the uncertainty it can bring.

Whether it’s photography, art or memes, technology is undoubtedly rewriting history as we know it. It’s easier than ever to access information or generate an image, but that doesn’t mean we’re well-equipped to navigate the new spaces we’ve created. Ahead are the key takeaways from Engman, Borja and Hill’s conversation.

REMEMBER THAT, SOMETIMES, SOCIAL MEDIA IS STRICTLY BUSINESS

Paul Hill: I started using social media as Facebook was dying off, and Instagram was picking up. But I never was super neurotic about it. The only time I started using it was when I started Strada. In that instance, I loved Instagram for the purpose of reach, relevance and opportunity.

AI SHOULDN’T REPLACE EVERYTHING

Patia Borja: I‘m fine with putting in that extra effort to figure out how to write a sentence. I think, if anything, it’s made me double down on authenticity. I push myself to not sound like whatever I’m writing or putting out is AI. I know so many people who are ChatGPT addicts, and I can catch that, but I understand some people can’t. I guess Instagram is the only platform I’m using. I think for what I do; I just choose to use my own voice 100 per cent.

...BUT IT CAN BE USEFUL

Charlie Engman: I just published a photo book that’s entirely made of generative AI, so I use it a lot in my practice, and I’m super interested in it. I find it fascinating. I think there’s a lot of really interesting opportunities and potential there on all sorts of levels. There’s a lot of discussion around how it’s democratised access to art-making tools and removed certain barriers of entry, which I think is really interesting and important.

Paul Hill: I think that AI is best used for speed and efficiency. It’s really helping people out. We use it more for admin-related responsibilities and tasks. We created our own AI, and we’re able to search just generally based on a visual or thematic search. So you can type in 90s ski photographers or photographing Black artists, and it’ll pull up every file most relevant to that concept. So that’s already speeding up the curatorial sales process from a research point of view.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO CALL SOMETHING WACK

Patia Borja: There’s always a formula that works if you want to be an influencer – and it’s just so dumb. I get it; people love money, and that’s addicting. But I just think things are wack. I think people don’t want to admit it. People always say, ‘I like everything, and I have respect for everything and everyone’s journey.’ And I’m like, you can say something’s wack. Anytime I’ve actually put out an opinion beyond just my friends, I see thousands of people be like, ‘Yeah.’ So I’m like, ‘Oh OK. I don’t feel like a hater.’ I just feel real. And I think I like to keep that going.

IT’S IMPORTANT TO GET OFFLINE

Paul Hill: The kids can’t read. It’s really bad. It’s not even a question or a theory that certain platforms such as TikTok and ChatGPT speed up receiving the answer to the problem that you‘re asking for. It slows down everybody’s thought process. It’s not really challenging anybody. A message for the kids? Read. Pick up a book. I think that’s the biggest message.

Charlie Engman: I think we have to model that ourselves, too. As adults, we should be restricting our own use of [the internet] as well and being much more intentional and specific about it. Also, we need to be aware of why we default to certain technologies. I’ve been thinking a lot about when I feel the impulse to pick up my phone: what am I actually feeling in my body? It’s important to actually have that practice with yourself so you can model it for younger people who have less of an intellectual relationship with their nervous system and their inner bodies and behaviours.