Growing up, my parents considered me as the “creative child” — drawing, painting, and writing were my go-to hobbies. I started off strong my freshman year of college, aspiring to one day create ad campaigns for a dream company.
I’m now a senior studying Advertising and Public Relations. I am quickly nearing graduation, and I am excited to apply what I have learned to several ideal roles: Copywriting, Social Media Marketing, Public Relations, Digital Marketing, Corporate Communications, you name it. The possibilities within the Communication and Media industry are nearly endless. At least that is how it used to be.
I personally started to see artificial intelligence on social media in 2024. It was typically an eerie video of a fake actress with a severely deformed face— back when it was a work in progress— before I knew how significant it would be in the future. It progressed into a clip of a cooking video on TikTok, for example, that I did not realize was AI until I read the comments.
AI can be seen in almost every job. As I begin the nerve-racking yet exciting job search, I notice that most positions are less on the creative side and more from a logistics perspective. I am always open to any job opportunity and would love to gain experience in this area of work, but I am concerned I will not be able to express my creative outlet. AI is both creating ad ideas and producing these ideas for commercials, social media content, copy, design, marketing strategies, etc.
I first noticed that this was a severe issue when the language-learning app Duolingo announced that they were undergoing an AI-first strategy for social media and overall marketing pursuits. There was intense social media backlash after this announcement, especially since their TikTok gained millions of followers because their content was authentic and entertaining. There was an obvious decrease in quality and humor when the famous mascot owl, which was a human in a costume running around making hilarious content, was now animated.
This raises another detrimental concern, even life-threatening for some. The CEO stated this will cut the need for contractors because AI will replace their duties. Is this considered a human-last concept? People are losing their jobs because of a robot, so I would say that pretty much sums it up. These are careers that people rely on so they can put food on the table for themselves and their families.
I’m not fully anti-AI; I believe it has its benefits for companies. However, I do not believe that using it for creative development and human replacement is ethical. Although we cannot escape AI, we can still keep our heads held high and stand up for what we are passionate about.