It’s been little more than a week since David Blagojevic published his AI-generated KFC ad, and already it would be fair to say that he has released the cat amongst the creative chickens. For many in this industry, his experiment confirmed their worst fears — that AI is a stepping stone that enables plagiarists and will soon put everyone out of a job.

Before jumping into the ramifications, it’s important to state that Blagojevic’s work was a drop in the ocean. He wasn’t looking to make a profit. In his own words, he sought to “test the boundaries of current AI tools when it comes to photorealism in the food and beverage world”. The fact he invested more than 300 hours into this process is testament to his dedication to the cause.

The problems stem from his own description of the experiment’s origins. Rather than starting out with “pen and paper” as first stated, Blagojevic’s ad was built using shots from real KFC ads directed by Joris Noordenbos for Chuck Studios and various others between 2022-23. I had the opportunity to speak to Joris, who argued that “if the goal was to recreate the ad as an experiment, it would have helped to show the process and acknowledge the source upfront. If it was meant to demonstrate skill, then offering a more original final result would have made the intention clearer.”

Irrespective of the intentions, the writing was soon on the wall. As one LinkedIn commenter put it, this was “further proof that AI — for all its advancements — can’t invent, but only reproduce what real artists have already created”.

For creatives that pride themselves on being original, I’m not surprised by this type of reaction. But here’s the thing: ‘originality’ is just a made-up construct. What we consider ‘original’ should instead be labelled as ‘fresh thinking’, as John Hegarty taught me.