Procreate criticizes generative AI, celebrates human creativity

Popular iPad design app, Procreate has criticized generative AI, insisting that it will never introduce generative AI features into its products. Procreate CEO James Cuda noted that even if this decision might make the company appear at risk of falling behind, they cannot risk adopting it.

While acknowledging the appeal of machine learning, the company believes that the current trajectory of generative AI is incompatible with its vision.

Procreate’s position on AI has earned widespread praise

Procreate’s stance on AI has attracted praise from digital artists online. Many have acknowledged that the rise of AI technology has undermined creativity and negatively impacted digital art and illustration apps.

For instance, illustration app Clip Studio Paint retracted its plans to release an image generator tool in 2022 after facing backlash from its user base.

Adobe, which arguably has the most popular suite of design tools, has released several generative AI features into its products. The firm partnered with Microsoft earlier this year to develop an AI assistant for the Adobe Experience Platform, which bundles customer analytics, CDP, and customer journey tools.

However, Adobe recently came under fire after its updated terms of service, which seemed to imply that it would train AI models on users’ content. The company later had to clarify that it doesn’t train AI models on customers’ content.

The complexities of Implementing generative AI

Aamer Baig, a senior partner at McKinsey Company, sees complexity as the key factor slowing companies down in implementing generative AI. In May, Baig said his company has also found in a recent survey that just 10% of companies are implementing generative AI projects at scale. He also reported that just 15% were seeing any positive impact on earnings. That information suggests generative AI hype might be far ahead of the reality most companies are experiencing.

At a time when digital art platforms are embracing AI at a high rate, it’s interesting to see a popular app go against the crowd. Given that Procreate’s announcement has led to significant praise from artists and designers, it will be interesting to see if other companies follow suit.

“We don’t exactly know where this story is going to go, how it ends. But, we believe that we’re on the right path, supporting human creativity.”

James Cuda