KIN Center for Digital Innovation, Vrije U. Amsterdam, Netherlands
Creative workers are now using Generative AI (GenAI) technologies such as ChatGPT and Midjourney for the creation of advertisements and digital campaigns. Drawing on a 13-month ethnographic study in the advertising industry, we studied how creative workers collaborate with GenAI. We theorize on this by drawing on a metaphor as a conceptualizing device – GenAI as a ‘spirited technology’. We introduce two key findings: 1) GenAI acts like a ‘spirited horse’ that offers creatives powerful new ways of working but also is difficult to control; 2) There is a shift from traditional ‘artistic control’ to ‘generative control’, i.e. collaborative practices regarding giving the GenAI space to run free but also reining in the GenAI. These findings contribute to research on creative work and technology at work and to the theorization of the material agency of AI technologies.
