Generative AI – The Biggest Shift in Creative History
When Matt Silverman, Executive Creative Director at iBeleiveInSwordfish, talks about the future of creativity, his eyes light up. For decades, his San Francisco Bay Area studio has partnered with Silicon Valley giants like Adobe and Zillow to create stunning motion design. But according to Matt, everything is changing — faster than ever before.
“Yeah, the biggest thing right now in tech by far is AI, artificial intelligence. And in our world, really generative AI is where it’s happening.”
Generative AI is more than just another Silicon Valley buzzword. It represents a fundamental shift in how things get built. Instead of humans writing code line by line, machines are now teaching themselves by analyzing vast amounts of information. The result? Computers that don’t just compute — they create. Words, images, video, music, even human voices are now emerging from algorithms that learn patterns and generate entirely new material.
Matt describes it as the jump from software 1.0 to software 2.0:
“It’s using tons of computers, millions of computers, working together to essentially code on their own. That’s what generative AI is doing. So instead of everybody writing software code one line at a time, which would have been really software 1.0, they then moved into software 2.0.”
And the impact is staggering.
“This AI revolution could be the biggest revolution in human history. Bigger than the Industrial Revolution. And it’s all happening in a five to ten year period.”
From TikTok to Hollywood
The revolution is already spilling into every corner of culture. In the past decade, brands poured money into influencer marketing, paying TikTok and Instagram stars to represent their products. But Matt has seen AI upend even that:
“They’re making up fake kids. And those fake kids are now convincing… They look 100% real, and they don’t even have to pay those kids now.”
Tools like Lucent Video allow companies to text-prompt fully artificial personalities that can stand in for human influencers. What once required years of cultivating an audience can now be generated on demand.
And for film, the shift is even more radical. Shots that once cost half a million dollars to produce can now be prototyped in minutes. A photorealistic cat that once looked smudgy and abstract three years ago can today be rendered in motion — whiskers twitching, paws padding across a floor — with cinematic realism.
“Today, AI is the worst we’re ever going to see it. And it’s only getting better.”
Creativity on Fast-Forward
For Matt, AI is both a tool and a teacher. He compares it to the invention of the digital video camera. At first, those cameras were dismissed as “previsualization tools” — good enough for storyboards, not final production. But within a decade, even Steven Spielberg had left behind 35mm film for digital.
“Eventually, the quality got so good that even Spielberg, who said ‘I’ll never shoot anything outside of film,’ was shooting on digital video because the quality was better, it was more efficient. There would be no reason to shoot it on 35mm film. With AI, we’re going to be in a similar boat.”
This doesn’t mean the end of live-action. Documentaries, sports, or interviews with CEOs will still demand real humans. But even there, Matt sees hybrid workflows — like supplementing a human rights documentary with AI visuals to keep audiences engaged when real footage is sparse.
Learning to Speak AI
One of Matt’s most striking points is that working with AI requires a new kind of literacy. Filmmakers need to know how to “talk” to the models, much like a director needs to communicate with their artists.
“When I come back to the office, I need to get sparks onto paper and communicate to an artist who will create the final animations. That communication is essentially the same as what I have to give to the bots in order to make generative AI.”
Prompting, in his view, is the new cinematography. Understanding vocabulary — framing, style, lighting, pacing — is just as crucial whether you’re shooting on film, digital, or AI.
Why Students Need to Start Now
For educators and young creatives, Matt offers both a warning and an opportunity:
“It’s really important to know that AI is happening now. This isn’t something that might happen. It’s happening right now. We’re using it daily in our production work. And what I’ve learned over the last three years using generative AI is the more that you use it, the more you find uses for it.”
He believes middle schoolers and high schoolers who start experimenting with AI today will graduate into the workforce with a skill set that outpaces many professionals currently working in creative industries.
The bottom line? AI is not a passing trend. It’s the new foundation. And the sooner you learn to use it, the sooner you can help shape what creativity looks like in the next decade.
“This isn’t just another tool. This is a complete reinvention of how we create. If you’re a creative professional, you can either resist it — or you can learn it now, and be part of shaping what comes next.”
Supporting Sources
The Creative Revolution & Democratization of Art
Generative AI is being hailed as “the most dramatic shift in creative accessibility since the printing press.” It’s less about replacing human creativity and more about becoming a “collaborative partner,” accelerating ideation and content creation.
Source: Dancing with digital partners: the creative revolution of generative AI UX CollectiveAI-Generated Influencers: Real, Fake, and Ethical
Brands are turning to AI-generated personalities—like virtual singers with millions of streams—to cut costs and gain control. Still, there’s backlash around perfect AI personas and audience trust.
Source: Influencers have defences against an AI onslaught Reuters
