Cebu artists urged to compete with AI through human experience

Artists should not try to match generative AI on speed or price, copywriter and teacher Carla Adlawan told an audience at TOPS ArtFest in Cebu City. Instead, she argued, they can make their work distinctive through lived experience, cultural context, personal perspective, taste and judgment, and intention.

Adlawan delivered “How to Differentiate Your Art in the AI Era?” on Oct. 23 at the festival’s third edition, held in the highlands of Busay. She is a copywriter and an advertising instructor at the University of San Carlos’ College of Fine Arts.

Generative AI has lowered the threshold for producing graphic design, writing, business plans and poetry, she said, while tools can create outputs in seconds. That efficiency could lead clients and customers to question why they should pay creative professionals for work they can generate themselves.

The answer, Adlawan argued, lies in providing more than a finished output. Creative direction, original concepts and the decisions that give an idea purpose can distinguish human work from AI-assisted production, according to BusinessMirror’s account of the session.

She maintained that generative AI draws on material already available online and therefore cannot produce something new or unique in the same way as a person. Technical execution alone does not make an artwork distinctive, she said; judgment, perspective and intention also matter.

Lived experience can supply original material from the places an artist has lived, people encountered and events that have shaped their understanding of the world. Artists addressing the same subject may consequently arrive at different interpretations, while familiar scenes and shared humor can make work both personal and relatable.

Cultural symbols, traditions, histories and everyday practices can similarly bring context beyond visual execution. Personal perspective shapes the subjects an artist chooses and the angles from which familiar themes are approached, while taste, formed through books, music, clothing, people and visual art, informs choices of style, technique and reference.

Adlawan also stressed intention: art can be expression, investigation, documentation or protest, and the artist determines what is being communicated, why a subject matters and what an audience should take from it. AI can generate images from prompts, she said, but human judgment remains central to the decisions that give a work its character.

At a separate Rolling Stone Philippines discussion, David Guerrero warned that broad use could homogenize output, while Dindin Araneta urged creative workers to engage with digital tools “critically and confidently.”

The TOPS ArtFest session was held under the theme “Building & Breaking Norms: Art Beyond the Canvas.”