I’ll be the first to put my hand up and admit that I’m a sucker to try out new things. But even discounting for my puppy-like enthusiasm for new shiny tech baubles, it’s hard not to get excited about Microsoft’s announcement regarding Microsoft Designer:
For the first time ever, I’m excited to announce Microsoft Designer, a graphic design app in Microsoft 365 that helps you create stunning social media posts, invitations, digital postcards, graphics, and more, all in a flash.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2022/10/12/new-tools-from-microsoft-365-edge-and-bing-bridge-the-gap-between-productivity-and-creativity/
Microsoft Designer is powered by AI technology, including DALL∙E 2 by OpenAI, which means you’re able to instantly generate a variety of designs with minimal effort. Our cutting-edge AI supercharges your ideas.
With Designer, there’s no need to spend time building cards or social media posts from scratch. And you no longer need to search through thousands of pre-made templates. Designer invites you to start with an idea and let the AI do the heavy lifting. For example, with ‘start from scratch’ within Designer, you can simply describe an image you want to see, and the app does the work for you to create something totally unique. As you work in Designer, every surface of the app is powered by AI to help ensure consistent, aligned, properly scaled, and beautiful designs, even with or without any inherent design ability.
Students introduced me in the past couple of years to Canva, and I have been trying to develop some sort of a design aesthetic ever since. I can’t say I’ve become very good at it, alas, but I’m certainly better than before. Which is not saying much, but leave that be for the moment.
With Designer, I no longer have to try to be good, it would seem. Most excellent.
And please do read this blogpost by Tyler Cowen:
It almost goes without saying that the AI revolution currently underway is impressive. It is likely to have a huge impact in some parts of art world, such as the commercial sphere — consumers are generally not interested in who made any given ad or logo. It either works or it does not, and those conditions favor the machine. AI will also give the world quality (automated) personal assistants and autonomous vehicles, among many other advances.
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/10/how-much-will-ai-succeed-in-the-arts.html
AI will also give students the ability to submit excellent assignments:
There will undoubtedly be many collaborations between AI and human creators, with the humans put forward as the public face of the joint effort. Periodic scandals about authorship will surface (“did he write any of that song?”), just as allegations of cheating with AI have risen to prominence in chess. AI-generated art will attract the most interest when the aesthetic of the creation and the personality of the human accompanist appear to be in sync.
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/10/how-much-will-ai-succeed-in-the-arts.html
What a time to be alive.
EconForEverybody 