Can AI Replace Our Graphic Designer? 

Dall-E is cool but can we talk for a second about how great Tim is? Not only an artist as a designer but also a cool, humble and focused person. No wonder why he is on the team!

Tim: “So what are we doing for a video today?” Marques: “You are re-interviewing for your job.”

As an artist myself, this whole video gives me anxiety. TIm did a phenomenal job, but I would be lying if I said my desire to root for him in this situation didn't come with a human bias toward other humans. Ultimately, this video proves how much time and human effort had to go into producing these images, vs the AI who (aside from all of the data and time tht has already gone into programming it) required relatively no time/thought. Things are going to change a lot soon, for all of us.

My favorite part as a designer was the visible frustration when people were looking over his shoulder early on.

I felt bad for Tim a few times because you can tell he was stressed about this whole situation. He essentially had to prove his worth to the team while up against a computer that spits out 10 images in 10 seconds. I hope if you ever do anything like this again to please give Tim some reassurance (or at least show the reassurance on camera) because this kind of broke my heart watching this guy put all the effort he had into this challenge. All-in-all, Tim, you did a phenomenal job, and the MKBHD team is lucky to have you! Your images were stunning, and your care and attention to detail were unparalleled. Keep up the good work!

As a graphic designer myself, I found myself more interested in just watching Tim’s workflow. We all do it differently, so it’s fun to see.

Tim’s creativity should be more featured here. As a graphic designer myself I am blown away by his attention to details and composition. It’s very interesting and fun to see a fellow artist’s thought process while creating, I could never be that thorough with mine since a lot of concentration and creative juice is needed to just come up with the idea, much more put it on canvas. He’s a very talented artist! Would love to see more of Tim and his work!

Tim's eyes are like someone who saw the future and didn't like what they saw

I love how although Tim has mad skills when it comes to Photoshop, he still took a second to watch a tutorial. That just shows me you can't always be the best at every aspect of your job. It's okay to seek help sometimes.

There is something comforting about seeing a professional graphic designer pull up a tutorial on how to do things. Shout out to Unmesh and PiXimperfect for delivering the best Photoshop tutorials on RU-vid!

Best part, as a designer I found it hilarious and accurate that he pulled up a PixImperfect video at 12:18 to help him. 😂

Despite how hard I try to remain optimistic, it’s pretty stressful watching AI progress as a young 3D artist. I quite honestly can’t imagine life being worth living for me if the visual art industry is automated. It’s difficult not to get emotional about it because Im so passionate about my career and one day, all the work I put in/experience I have could mean essentially nothing. I always question “just why would you replace artists?” because it seems a bit evil on the surface. Artists typically love what they do and find fulfillment from their work. This isn’t hamburger flipping. Additionally, artists are already constantly shamed for all their quirks but only accepted because their skills prove useful to many businesses who rely on their creative talent. I cant imagine how poorly artists would be treated by the business class if their skills served no monetary value. I’d rather be f&@king dead than work an boring, awful job for decades just because society hasn’t figured out how to automate it yet. The only thing that keeps me optimistic is that I love what I do so much I shouldn’t really care if a robot can do it better than me. I do it because it brings me peace and calms my mind. It’s no secret, art is therapy for many artists. I also hope people love supporting other people and don’t care as much about support robots. Handmade clothing and jewelry still exists despite much of the field being automated so that’s somewhat promising. So hopefully when all digital art can be automated, our society will find a way to value and support digital artists. Idk. I’m always cautious to publicly comment on the topic because it’s so emotionally charged, I’m afraid I’ll change my mind tomorrow. Nonetheless, this is how I often feel about it when my anxiety goes through the roof. I hope my perspective serves some purpose other than to be mocked 😅 If so, I make a video about it to inspire digital artists to keep pursuing their dreams. The script is already written haha

Most funny IMO: In a studio full of big monitors and wall-mounted displays, a group of people stand around an iPad to watch pictures.

The Dall-e is scary, fascinating, useful, cool and unavoidable.

Tim definitely deserves a bonus for this. Working for a RU-vidr who probably makes millions while he makes a regular person wage and he gets to be basically threatened with a massively powerful AI and forced to “prove his worth” idk I’m never that person, but this felt tone deaf af and like watching a kid be bullied.

12:16 Thank you, sir!

dude, im happy for poor Tim. I can tell he is so anxious and actually did this like his job is on the line.

The only word I can use to describe this video is "fascinating", seeing an expert explain his thought process and seeing how much time it takes to make those edits really makes me appreciate the work even more. Good job Tim, I wouldn't replace you with an AI for sure

That Tim dude seems like such a genuinely good human being also being very intelligent, creative and funny! What a wonderful life affirming experience to see him and watch him work. Thank you so much for making this.

I just wanted to give Tim a hug....I could feel his anxiety and how this competition is unfair...I know it was just a playful time but it shows the importance to recognize the human value involved in a process and how sensitive and hard can be all this new context where living in... It's an one way path

Okay, this video has now put into perspective how insane Dall-E actually is, it’s easy to overlook how it’s not just “stitching” photos together, it’s actually manipulating and creating light and everything else that is so easy to overlook as an outsider.

Can this be a series? I could watch a season of this.

13:32 Tim's face is the best

Nothing can replace the creativity, originality and the personal touch of an artist, it is the authenticity of his/her piece of art that matters and not the works of a gadget or a machine and that is the big difference. Two thumbs-up for you Tim. 👍👍😊

The fact that you even challenge a human at this point means a lot. The future for graphic designers is cloudy

I just want to thank Tim for saving us graphic designers. My palms started to sweat when the critique came about.

tim was such a great guy, i felt bad for him so seriously that i got teary-eyed ,heart racing like crazy, am a graphic designer too i know how stressed and intimidating this is , having to compete with an A.I knowing how intgeligent those thing has gotten this days you really dont know what to expect, also thought of u losing ur job to a computer flashing right before your face is not a joke it not funny at all. no matter how confident you are with design, u remember am competing with a robot that might be better, i absolutely was in tims shoe at the moment, my heart pounding like crazy not knowing my fate yet, i definately just started having plan b for a moment, thinking if i lose my job what my next move. tim we smoked it bro........... hell yeah tim i wish to know u in person

Watching this (and the original MKBHD Dalle video) after playing around with Dalle 3 for several days...Tim wouldn't stand a chance against Dalle 3. It's hard to believe that this was only a year and a half ago.

This takes Man vs Machine to the next level

I'd love to see one where Tim starts with a couple of the Dall-E photos and see where he can take them to improve on them.

My daughter is 14 and DALL-E is soul crushing for her aspirations. So bizarre to live in a world where AI possibilities are affecting your children's emotional state.

As a Graphic Designer with over 18 years of experience, I have catastrophized EVERY generational advancement of tools as "gonna put me out of a job!" Now, after playing with GPT-3, DALL-E 2, MidJourney, etc. I see these as amazing time-saving tools! In my experience, the first 80% of a design is the "easy" part, and the last 20% is the "hard" part. Because of AI, I can now spend 99% of my time on that last 20%!

That was fascinating to watch! I'd love to see more :)

Safe to say Marques has one of the best teams anyone can ask for!

the unnerving reality is the fact that this was a contest at all shows we're not far from the point where the AI will win. Especially if we're taking into account time and cost... Sorry Tim =/

I am only half way into this video and I wanted to say that Tim is reminding me of my daughter who works as a professional graphic artist for a production company. The stress I see her go through and the pressure she is under on a regular basis is palpable. My heart goes out to you, good sir. I am looking forward to the reveal at the end of this video.// edit - I just watched the reveal. What a relief. Great work, Tim, you killed it.

I find it interesting how most people who watch MKBHD are generally interested in the advancement of tech, tech that has and inevitability will replace all human jobs, yet we all (myself included) are still rooting for Tim!! AI is coming from everyone though…

I kind of feel for the men. Would be intimidating to see an AI make something in 10 seconds that takes you hours to make.

This was a fun video highlighting how well a development team can work together. I'm impressed at the knowledge, skill, and level of expertise Tim showed in his creations. Dall-E can replace any entry level graphic artist or help someone like me that needs graphic design but it can't yet replace the intuitive artistry of a professional designer.

The scary thing is that these AI image makers are just getting started, and developing amazingly fast. Poor Tim might win today, but tomorrow might be a different story.

Tim is a really great Guy, he used to be a bit shy, but now he’s a great dude on camera with the team. MORE TIM!

Shout out to Tim and his amazing talent

Love the quick Piximperfect cameo! Part of every single one of my design projects, gotta be honest. Such a cool challenge, love the results.

Great work to all parties involved! Feels like a corridor challenge and I love it

scary part is the time comparison. yes, Tim is master of his craft, but compare that results payment vs. resource cost then its starting to be pretty scary. one great development would be to ask DALLE for draft images and made final editing with human

With Tim you not only get the best photos but you also get the endearing qualities and personality of Tim.

The shadows in that Prompt 2 of Tim's work are incredible! Love it!!

Thank you guys and especially Tim for this fascinating video. It was really cool to participate in your workflow and have a comparison between the results. For my taste Tim produced far better or more aesthetic images. However, since I am a designer as well I am a bit worried where this AI thing will lead us. I think it can be a very powerful tool for designers but it has some disruptive potential. Let's hope for the best and see what we can drag out of it!

Amazing what the AI can do but Tim’s pieces are just head and shoulders above them. The robot in front of the computers is insanely good. Stop worrying Tim, there’s no way they’ll replace you. In fact, they should give you a pay rise!

Hi Tim, you're AMAZING! You can explain what u did and adjust as it is needed and u provide a story, that provides so much more information about the build process. U bring in your own aesthetics and thoughts, a machine can not do (at least not now). Just keep doing it, that is what drives creativity.

This was scary. I don’t know what the future holds, but Tim is a legend.

this was a great video. enjoyed watching Tim's process and everyone's reactions to the reveals. interesting and entertaining great job guys!

Tim’s interpretation of the second prompt was so cool, chilling, and detailed. Nonetheless impressive work from DALL-E!

This was a great comparison makes me appreciate professional graphic designers like Tim even more.

The Monalisa GoaT with Ipad that was amazing TIM!!. Also credits to AI as well as it was a difficult prompt to understand.

This is such a great video !! I just would love to have a comparison between real life graphic design tasks.. those are very nice pictures / ideas, but we rarely need to do such surrealistic images for corporate designs.

He did an incredible job and I think he nailed all 3 photos better than the AI

Great and entertaining video Tim did such I great job. I would of been freaking out being in his shoes lol

can we just appreciate what a great designer Tim is. dude nailed them all so perfectly.

Tim not only treated this as if he had his job on the line, but all of us graphic designers/artists/photographers. We won't go down easy!

Dude, this is scary, i mean in a few years it can literally replace all the graphic designers

The Mona Lisa iPad goat is a triumph. Great work Tim!

As much as I was rooting for Tim, this is just Dall-E 2. Future Dall-Es can improve at a much faster rate and do more things than any human possibly can. It’s just a matter of time before AI comes for all jobs done on a computer. This includes accountants, financial analysts, even software engineers and developers.

Love this video, and great job explaining the process so thoroughly Tim!! For other viewers' perspective, I think designers generally agree that AI is a helpful tool. I use Gigapixel's AI upscaling to save time on enhancing photo quality, Photoshop's content-aware fill for photo corrections, and Pinterest's like-for-like photo analysis for finding the right reference photo. Dall E is great for composition iteration and for giving us references on how to interpret things stylistically. Each of these help save time once we adopt them into our workflow.

From Tim to Tim… this was amazing. Great job!

As a creative professional, I’m most interested in exploring how Dall-E can help give unique inspiration images or rough starting points that can launch my own creative work. I doubt I would ever rely on it to complete a finished piece but for components in the process it will be hugely valuable.

I love how visibly nervous Tim is about his job security

Technological advancement and automation disproportionately benefits the already well off. Replacing jobs and with the jobs that still exist, pocketing all the extra profit. The average adjusted wage has not gone up much from 1960 despite huge leaps and bounds in efficiency. Normal people undeniably loose power with DALL-E.

Love the video the only thing I wish is if you would show a full screen image of the photos side-by-side instead of in the lower corner So we could see a bit more of the detail

Well done Tim! I was rooting for you the whole way. You’ve done the human race proud.

Now what would happen if Tim used DALL-E as a tool for his creations? - Then you have the best of both worlds and a much quicker response time.

He goes “ Dall E makes 10 of them at a time” then looks down in anguish and legitimate fear of being jobless

I think Tim is super good at his job and it was awesome to see him working. Kind of feels like a person who would be awesome to have as a friend. Also, if you had little more budget, Adobe stock for example, he would have had even better resources and more to choose from to do those really good compositions.

Tim blew it out of the park!! His attention to detail was amazing!!

the robot woman guarding the computers one by DALL-E was actually so fucking impressive holy shit

Dall-E’s deer and robot pics were better to me, and they took 10 seconds - Tim smashed the Mona Lisa one though. I think anyone under the impression this kind of technology won’t take over is massively mistaken

I think the fact that the judges knew it was a computer vs human skewed the results. It should've been simply text and what image best represented the text. No context

How dope is that!? Tim is such a pro!

For anyone interested, the painting is a depiction of the Swedish queen Kristina, Who held the crown for a time in Sweden during the 1600s. The painting is at the national gallery in Stockholm, and it could be said to be a "tour de force" of the royal spirit and legitimacy to rule, through allegories of the spirit; the blowing wind i the handkerchief, the water fountain in the background, and the sphere, representing the world.

Dall-E is somewhat daunting for graphic designers, especially since it's able to produce content instantly. But I don't think it can replace graphic designers entirely Tim in his first prompt said it took him 3 hours to get to the point he did, which is reasonable considering he's working with no brief or a plan. Where I work, it's exactly the same for literally everything, I don't get told what to produce or achieve, the only words I ever hear are "Make It Pop" - make "what" pop? So imagine my boss' surprise when I'm 3 hours in and I only have a series of concepts and not a finished product. To people who don't work in this field or understand it, the concept of how long it takes to produce something with little to no information is alien to them. People like my boss don't deserve to work with real people, Dall-E is perfect for them. Then there is the outlier, which are people who are looking for something specific, but find every possible way to help the designer understand what they need.

As a fellow graphic designer , I feel your pain Tim , LOL. But you did AWESOME! my jaw dropped at your works , and I’m not just saying it to say it 😁 tho I will say all the stress and anxiety of feeling like you had to prove yourself was very relatable lmao. But I still feel like your work DEFINITELY had more feeling than the AI. maybe it’s from being in the profession for so many years , but I could tell it was crafted with care and fun imagination 💖

I love the atmosphere around THE STUDIO 🔥💯❤️

congrats to Tim for his work ;) was sweet to watch to process !

Photo manipulation is a completely different thing and many graphic designers don't do or like doing. We use the same tools but that's about it. Tim however did a great job here!

Tim did an insane job! Good work!

The point in the future is not to replace him but give him that as a tool. Imagine to say you want that bird feathers on that deer. It’s fun but too random to be useful. I am sure you could do that if the let you use it.

The goat and the deer are super impressive on Tim’s part, awesome to see it come together as he worked on it The robot women one was mind blowing for Dall E tho, the computers were so realistic and they had space between them and they did completely cover the wall, making it seem as if it’s actually possible The way Tim did that part, while still cool, just wasn’t realistic, by taking a front on image and stitching them together, then giving it perspective, it makes it look really flat as you lose all depth for the PC screen Still very impressive though

The scary thing is.. AI just gets better. This is how it starts, and remember this is a TOP designer. We have designers out there of all levels of competency.

Appreciations to Tim. I mean, he had represented the entire human race there.. right!!

Dwight schrute vs the computer vibes

OMG I was nervous for Tim, lol! Wow, Tim is amazing! He killed the last one! I was emotionally invested, lol. Great video guys! I enjoyed it.

i would totally buy a print of tim's robot one! that was so sick!

Great job Tim Definitely an indispensable member of MKBHD.

People call me crazy when I tell them we're only a few years, if not months, away from AI beginning to sweep across creative industries. Character, concept art, paintings, that's already a done deal. As people continue to use it, AI is trained to get better and more specific. So eventually logos, posters, motion graphics, entire CG scenes, clothing, interior design, architecture, music, etc. It will all be done by an AI in mere moments. Eventually, an AI will be trained on popular music, and it will be released into the wild, only then will a legal battle ensue because of that industries power and resistance to offer any music for AI to learn off of, but it will ultimately be too late for the artist, musicians, designers, and engineers. If we don't take a stand against it now we're finished. "Oh, but don't worry. The artist will still be there to touch it up." No. They won't. Once these things are trained enough and get fast enough, all it will need is a prompt. And it won't have to be a very complicated prompt to get what you want either, as the public trains them on complex prompts they slowly begin to understand better what you're looking for until it can be entirely dumbed down. It will be able to come up with its own prompts if it wanted, its own styles, it will be able to take into account physics and math to create structures and re-engineer many of our technical designs to be superior. Sure, it will be some sort of golden age for progress and innovation, but what will happen to the artist? What will happen to all those jobs? Because even if companies still hired any, they would only need VERY few. So, should I even pursue a future in art/design? Should I post my art online when I know silicon valley is gonna swoop in and add it to its AI without my permission? This is the end goal of every site we casually upload our content to. If u wanna get really crazy I'd say this is the breaking point for the Internet. The line between free use and personal property online will finally be treated as a serious issue. NFTs were an attempt to solve that, but ultimately were just a disgusting mess. The problem is once trainable AI gets into the hands of the public, there will be nothing to stop people from stealing anyone's content and training an AI to replicate their work and then call it their own.

tim is in another level. the mkbhd team is lucky to have you 💘💘

OMG... This was crazy... Awesome work Tim🔥

Tim does incredibly great, I love it!

I like how concerned Tim looks the whole video.

in the 2nd prompt, in tim's picture, the shadow is insane 🥶🥶

Love that they included a split second to show that Tim went to our master Unmesh for advice!