THE GRAIN: AI vs. Creativity

Generative AI has made a lot of creatives nervous, not just about jobs, but about individual expression.Marian Bantjes isn’t new to this kind of disruption. As an artist, illustrator, designer, and writer, her work has always pushed against polish, taste, and convention. If you know her book I Wonder, you know her voice is unmistakable.What interested me most is that Marian began experimenting with generative AI early, back in 2023, before it became slick or predictable. Instead of being overtaken by the tool, she treated it the way she treats any material: critically, pl...

The photo industry has been running on gut feelings for years. Heather Morton and Rob Haggart brought receipts.They’re the team behind the new State of the Photo Industry Survey, a rare, data-driven look at how photographers are actually making a living, right now.Heather is a professor in the Honours Bachelor of Photography program at Sheridan College, mentoring students entering an industry flirting with existential crisis. Rob is a former magazine photo editor and the founder of the APhotoEditor and Photo Folio, long-running platforms focused on the business of photography. If you’ve work...

Ian Krietzberg is one of the clearest, most grounded voices covering AI today.As the AI correspondent at Puck, and former editor-in-chief of The Deep View, Ian approaches artificial intelligence the way a great reporter approaches any powerful system: by following the money, interrogating the incentives, and keeping the human impact front and centre.At a moment when AI is framed as an inevitable technological destiny or a geopolitical arms race, Ian’s work brings the conversation back to something essential: curiosity, freedom of information, and the people behind the machines. He also ex...

Sarah Thompson is one of the sharpest strategists working in Canadian communications today.The executive managing director at Glassroom started her career wanting to be a journalist, spent years in and around newsrooms, and now works at the intersection of advertising, media investment and strategy for some of the biggest brands in the country.She’s also part of Canadian Media Means Business, an industry-wide push to rethink how media is funded and valued here at home.Sarah led a groundbreaking new study called “The Economics of Media and Advertising in Canada,” which finall...

Season 3 of THE GRAIN Podcast kicks off with world-renowned AI researcher and generative AI pioneer Dr. Maya Ackerman. She is the CEO and co-founder of WaveAI, the company behind LyricStudio and MelodyStudio, two groundbreaking tools that use AI to support human creativity, rather than replace it. Dr. Ackerman is also a computer science professor and a leading voice in the global conversation on how humans and machines make art together.Her new book, Creative Machines: AI, Art & Us, coming out October 14, (available for pre-order) is a must-read for any creator curious about how AI collides with creativity...

Watch full video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_4lleJyYiag?si=fef5DN-gmDX9l5D-Prefer to listen? You’re already in the right place.The fast fashion industry runs on excess. Too many trends, too much waste, too little accountability.Sajna Massey is trying to change that—with artificial intelligence.She’s the founder of Couth Studios, an AI-driven fashion company rethinking how clothes get made, and more importantly, why.In our conversation, we talk about the pressure to be visible as a founder, the tension between style and sustainability, and how AI...

Watch full video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_4lleJyYiag?si=fef5DN-gmDX9l5D-Prefer to listen? You’re already in the right place.The fast fashion industry runs on excess. Too many trends, too much waste, too little accountability.Sajna Massey is trying to change that—with artificial intelligence.She’s the founder of Couth Studios, an AI-driven fashion company rethinking how clothes get made, and more importantly, why.In our conversation, we talk about the pressure to be visible as a founder, the tension between style and sustainability, and how AI...

So much of what’s happening around AI feels like performance. People saying they’ve got it all figured out. Creatives pretending they’re not anxious. But when I saw Lee Towndrow’s post on LinkedIn, where he just came out and said “I’m scared,” it stopped me in my tracks. Lee didn’t pretend. He did the cringe. And it resonated.He’s a Creative Director and VFX artist I’ve always admired for his polished but quintessentially human aesthetic. It’s a powerful combination that elevates and honours humanity. In reflecting on AI and a...

Happy Canada Day! Please enjoy this special video episode of THE GRAIN Podcast, featuring my grains of thought about how Ottawa can build a new creative economy now that Evan Solomon has taken the office of Minister of AI and Digital Innovation. Plus, I introduce THE MEMORY MACHINE, my new AI art exhibition and speaker series.Links to the articles I mention…* Canada’s AI Opportunity with Minister of Artificial Intelligence Evan Solomon [RBC Disruptors podcast]* Liberals won’t reintroduce old AI law but will address copyright issues [The Logic]* Kate Armstr...

Dr. Avriel Epps studies the impact of artificial intelligence on identity, culture, and mental health. An incoming professor at Rutgers University, she has a PhD in Human Development and Education from Harvard. She also wants to help families understand how the systems work through the recent publication of A Kids Book About AI Bias.Prior to her academic career, Avriel Epps was a child actor, a model, a genre-bending musician—and a Black woman who often felt asked to fit into roles she didn’t choose.Our conversation is about AI, but it’s also about...

Dr. Avriel Epps studies the impact of artificial intelligence on identity, culture, and mental health. An incoming professor at Rutgers University, she has a PhD in Human Development and Education from Harvard. She also wants to help families understand how the systems work through the recent publication of A Kids Book About AI Bias.Prior to her academic career, Avriel Epps was a child actor, a model, a genre-bending musician—and a Black woman who often felt asked to fit into roles she didn’t choose.Our conversation is about AI, but it’s also about...

Megan McKellar and Isabella Liu, both of whom are certified Apple Distinguished Educators and Google Certified Innovators, visited me at Made Human Studios to talk about implementing AI in education. They outline the benefits and pitfalls of this experience, and explain to THE GRAIN why critical thinking is so… critical to their work.Megan and Isabella are preparing kids for a future none of us can actually predict. But they’re doing it with care, openness and a willingness to develop that future with their students, not just for them—and they’re inviting parents to be part of...

“BBL Drizzy” started off as an insult—but it ended up making music history instead. A year ago, when Kendrick Lamar and Drake spurred one of the most high-profile rap beefs of our time, comedian and screenwriter Willonius Hatcher saw an opportunity. He wrote some lyrics, fired up an AI music tool, and created a soul-infused anthem that caught fire. As a result, “BBL Drizzy” went viral, hip-hop producer Metro Boomin amplified it even further, and in a wild twist, Drake’s own team licensed the track, making it the first AI-generated work to be officially sampled by a major a...

In this episode of THE GRAIN Podcast, I sit down with photographer, retoucher and artist Ishmil Waterman to talk about why he welcomes AI, and the value of staying open to change. We explore what it means to let go of ego, how a “tsunami” of individualism is quietly building to break industry norms, and why embracing uncertainty is one of the most powerful tools a creative can have right now.For anyone feeling overwhelmed—or just curious—about the role of AI in the creative process, this episode offers clarity, inspiration, and a few necessary provocations.</p...

Creativity has always been a through line in my life and career. For my specialized honours thesis in university, I studied the psychology of creativity—how and why artists are compelled to create.What I found is that creatives are problem-solvers. They seek conflict that they can process and address, using their creativity as a tool for resolution. Over time, they begin to embody and repeat the way they solve these problems—whether by mastering a specific medium or honing a distinctive style. Their method of problem-solving becomes their identity, something they craft and refine throughout their care...

 Many creatives feel AI models are built on the theft of their work, scraping the internet—using their images, words, and music without consent, credit, or compensation. To them, AI is a runaway train, with tech companies moving fast and breaking things, ignoring laws, governance, and ethics in the process.But is that really the whole picture? In this episode of THE GRAIN Podcast, I sit down with AI ethicist Cindy Pham, someone who's been working on AI governance long before it entered the public consciousness. She challenges the notion that AI operates in a lawl...

Listen now to THE GRAIN with Ronit Novak, as I launch Season 2 of my podcast probes into the pleasure and peril of AI and the future of creativity—recorded at Made Human Studios in the Little Jamaica neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada.Links to some stuff we talk about…* n-v-r: The Department of Never Been Done Before* Dré Labre’s portfolio website* Design Fiction Daily: Dré Labre newsletter on Substack* The Artifact Scanner: a handheld tool designed to unlock new possibilities* Voidz: This is Where Reality Ends—an AI artist...

The past year brought a wave of AI news that had major impact on the creative industry. In this roundup episode, it’s me on the mic, giving you my roundup of the biggest news events of 2024 and how they impacted our creative world. Plus, my grains of thought on how these topics will evolve. For more info on the stories in this episode...AI vs. News and Media* Who's suing AI and who's signing: Publisher deals vs. lawsuits with generative AI companies [Press Gazette]* The new Person of the Year ch...

Click here to catch up on Part 1 of my conversation with Stephen Marche.Listen now to THE GRAIN with Ronit Novak, as I continue my series of podcast probes into the pleasure and peril of AI and the future of creativity—recorded at Made Human Studios in the Little Jamaica neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada.Part 2 of my conversation with Stephen Marche delves deeper into the mysteries unknown potential of AI and what that means for creativity. Our conversation expanded my mind, and I think it will for you too. Here are links for further research in...

Listen now to THE GRAIN with Ronit Novak, as I continue my series of podcast probes into the pleasure and peril of AI and the future of creativity—recorded at Made Human Studios in the Little Jamaica neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada.Links to some stuff we talk about…* Death of an Author. Stephen Marche’s AI generated novella [Pushkin]Using ChatGPT and Cohere’s LLM models, this provocative literary work blends human creativity with AI-generated prose.* We’re Witnessing the Birth of a New Artistic Medium [The Atlantic]While experimenting with negative weighted prompts, S...