A Few Uses of AI for Creative Professionals

I played around with OpenAI's ChatGPT and asked it to name the most widely read crime stories of the last 50 years. Of course it came up with the usual suspects like the assassination of JFK and the OJ Simpson murders. But another story appeared on the top 10 list: The disappearance of Natalee Holloway. I didn't know this story. Natalee was a high school student who mysteriously vanished on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean. Sounds like a Netflix series waiting to happen.

You can't ignore the power of Marvel movies. So on a lark, I asked the AI bot what were the most popular Greek myths. One entry that came up was the stories of the "12 Olympians." Imagine a whole new film franchise featuring gods like Zeus, Athena and Apollo.

Here I worked the AI in two ways. First, I asked, "What are the most popular themes for fiction?" No surprise but Good versus Evil, Love and Relationships and Overcoming adversity and challenges rose to the top. I then dipped back into the crime pool and asked what were the most notorious crime stories of the last 500 years? The assassination of Henry III of France in 1589 came up as number one. I never heard this story, but digging a few clicks deeper on Wikipedia and more, I discovered a fascinating tale of palace intrigue with global implications. And plenty of other ingredients for a great historical novel.

I tried a few questions here. First I asked about popular Off-Broadway productions. Maybe an "Off-" show was due for a revival. Sure enough, The Fantasticks showed up. And since it's the story of feuding families, it might spark a good, modern re-telling that features Red State and Blue State folks.

I also played around with different topics and questions. It revealed that popular figures like Biggie Smalls and Angela Merkel might be due for Broadway shows. I can see it now, "Merkel: The Musical."

Nothing inspires more ambition and anxiety for Madison Avenue creatives than writing Super Bowl spots. I asked ChatGPT a few questions: "What are the most popular Super Bowl spots of all-time?" "What are the funniest?" "What are the most used themes?" So many of the ones we all remember came up: Apple's 1984. The Budweiser Frogs. And Old Spice's The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. On the themes, I think what's interesting here is to see which of these conventions you should embrace and accept as having a high chance of success: humor and celebrity. And which of these themes can you break out of and ignore to try to create something fresh and memorable.

Today, the AI needs human intelligence to prompt it. So our jobs are safe. For now. ;)

ps: I used Midjourney AI to create the image for this post.