AI and the Performing Arts

For various reasons, I read a fair amount about AI – both the techno-utopian and the techno-doom versions. I’ve gone through courses about how to use it as a creative professional. I did research on it for An AI of Our Own, an initiative by Living Arts International around AI and cultural heritage in the Global South. I’ve even used it to try to condense hundreds of pages of raw qualitative data in order to write a report.

Overall, I remain a skeptic, for a few reasons that I’ll go into later. But the thing that I’ve noticed about all of this is that whenever I read something about AI and how to use it or what it will replace or what have you – I consistently and constantly feel that I am not whatever audience the author is imagining. AI is, in short, “not for me,” and not just because I haven’t figure out how it actually improves my life. It’s because I am a performing artist. My work is embodied – that’s the point of it. It cannot be captured or datafied without fundamentally altering its essence (i.e., a video of a performance is a poor copy of the live experience).

Granted, I feel this way about pretty much anything I read connected to career or marketing or branding, but it’s especially acute with AI. So, I thought I’d explore the question of what AI and the performing arts really have for each other, if anything.

Okay, Gillian, you’re just being a luddite, right?

Well, maybe. I am, kind of. But here’s why I’m a skeptic:

1. AI has the potential to [insert amazing number or promise here] for productivity and efficiency. But really, these promises only actually work in the business arena if you put AI at the center of all your processes – in short, if you reorganize your whole business around AI. That’s a bit sus if you ask me – of course anything can be amazing if you build your existence around what it does well.
2. AI is fabulous in domains where you are not an expert. It is clumsy and annoying in areas where you are. Great for learning the basics of lots of stuff, but…from what I can tell, AI works best as a collaboration between a skilled human and the computer as junior assistant.
3. AI DOES NOT THINK. I’ve learned enough on how it actually works, how it’s put together, and the technology itself to know that there is nothing even close to thinking in what it does. And yet, people believe it blindly, thinking they’ve discovered new math, overturning centuries of science, an empathetic partner, etc…

There are hosts of other issues with it, but the thing that really annoys me is the whole discourse on whether AI is good or bad. AI is a tool. It is created by humans, and it is the humans that have the issues. Talking about how AI is evil and resource intensive takes the focus away from all the humans who know just how much energy it requires and how many emissions it adds, and decided that they really just don’t care. Anyway. I need to stop that rant there before I get further.

Where might AI and the performing arts overlap?

While I did take some strong stances above, I do think that there are some areas where performing artists could work with LLMs to their advantage.

1. Marketing copy. (Hey I just noticed I’m writing this list like ChatGPT – the bold short explanation followed by a much longer winded version of exactly the same thing.) I like writing, but not everyone does. AI could help performing artists write show descriptions, social posts, etc.
2. Exploring show ideas or stories. My collaborator does this a lot for his own shows as he doesn’t have as much experience in designing stories or plots. He feeds the AI with the things he wants to include, and it helps suggest an order and underlying narrative. Recently I noticed he used it to create a ‘poetic’ version of a show sketch I wrote for him, which took the story but distilled it into images. That was interesting and definitely suggested some visuals that could be cool to incorporate in the show.
3. Sourcing props or other gadgets. What is this thing, how to buy it, how does it work, why is it broken? In short, a step up from a regular old search engine.
4. Suggesting pathways to sell performances or services. Artists are not salespeople (at least I’m not), and it’s not always easy to find someone that just tells you want to do. Understanding the market, pathways to do what you want, how much it costs, how much you should ask for, etc., are all possible avenues that AI can help articulate.

Don’t give it what you love the most

Did you notice in the list above there’s very little about actually creating, and nothing about rehearsals or performance? Sure, an inexperienced director might want to learn a normal rehearsal flow or ideas on how to interpret a text. A beginner teacher might want some drama exercises. The point is, if you are working in the performing arts, it’s probably because you love it (we don’t make enough money for casual “oh well may as well do theatre” folks). And the more experienced you are, the more you can – and probably want – to do the good stuff. Whatever that is, don’t give it to AI. AI is what we decide it is: if you don’t want it to take over your work, don’t let it. Use it to do stuff you hate, and get better at it. That’s all.

And at the end of the day, we are performing artists. The ultimate goal is performance: the magical and beautiful moment of humans on stage in front of other humans. There’s another argument about the role of technology inside performances, but it’s not for today.

For today, I end with this: Performance is, must be, and always will be embodied, present, live, and ephemeral. That is its nature, and inside that moment of liveness and visceral connection, there is nothing artificial.