NIFCA to develop AI policy as tech reshapes creative work

The National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) is to develop a formal policy on the use of artificial intelligence in the creative process as the technology becomes increasingly common, National Cultural Foundation Chief Cultural Officer Andrea Wells has said.

“There’s currently no hard and fast policy,” she told reporters at the media launch of the annual arts festival.

She noted that literary arts had already been given specific attention after the NCF observed an increase in entries that appeared to have been generated or heavily assisted by AI.

She said: “With literary arts, which is the area of NIFCA where we have seen the propensity over the last two years to have persons enter works that once put through the assessment programmes, leave a trail, that we did put in a clause requiring all artwork must be 100 per cent human generated.”

But she acknowledged that the rapid development and widespread use of AI meant the NCF had to continue reviewing its approach.

“We recognise that from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, the use of AI is becoming so pervasive.”

NIFCA judges would continue monitoring entries as the NCF works towards a policy that addresses the technology across the various disciplines, she said.

Wells said: “We want to encourage if persons are going to be exploring the use of technology, use the technology in service to their own innate creativity and not as a replacement to it.”

But she added that the NCF recognised that “each discipline will have its own unique challenges and the development of a policy certainly is under development and under review”.

The chief cultural officer said she remained confident that human creativity would continue to play a central role in the arts despite the growing influence of AI.

“I really do believe that creativity is part of a natural human urge,” Wells said. “I think people want to create.”

According to Wells, the increasing availability of AI should not discourage artists from developing their own ideas and finding their own creative voices: “AI is only a threat if people believe that creativity is a lazy exercise.”

Wells also questioned whether AI-generated work could ultimately replace the originality that comes from “human essence”.

“There will always be something new to say and a new way of saying it. So persons who wish to sidestep that opportunity, I think are doing themselves a great disservice. 

“Ultimately, AI creates using the creativity of human beings, meaning without human creativity, AI would have very little to offer.”

She said the human desire to create would continue to produce new ideas and new ways of expressing them, adding: “I think the work itself will speak for itself, eventually, truly creative work.”

(LE)