Tech trends usually tend to come and go, often pretty quickly. Remember our obsession with the metaverse? Or virtual reality? At one point this was all anyone could talk about but then these topics sank without trace. It’s not that the technology itself disappeared but that the trend train moved on.

This is not the case with artificial reality. If anything, our obsession with AI grows stronger with each passing month: proof perhaps that this is the tech trend that is truly going to change our lives, in the seismic way that the internet, the television, and the printed page did before it.

So how are the creative industries coping with it all? From the beginning, AI has engendered a mix of excitement and fear, opportunity and controversy. All of these reactions are valid, all at the same time – change on this level brings uncertainty about the future, and worries about what it will look like.

For those who lived and worked through the rise of digital technology and creativity, these concerns feel rooted in who is in charge of shaping the development of AI, and whether there is a seat at the table for those who are interested in more than just making money from it. “We need more creators and artists involved with building the machines,” wrote Iain Tait, co-founder of creative agency Food for CR in March. “We need to invent new things. We have a chance to do this right. To point this amazing new wave of technology at difficult and important problems.

“How can we not fuck this up like we did the internet? You have a choice in how you engage with this stuff. You have a choice in how you influence others. Some of us have clients who we advise. It all matters.”